A hearty salute to Conan for introducing George Harrison Week to the people (how wasn't this a thing before?). It's basically been a whole week of musical tributes to George, in celebration of the new Apple Years box set. I can't believe that this is one of the few times I've had access to cable and I didn't watch any of these shows live. I'm awful. But...good thing for the Internet! Last night I enjoyed watching Dhani & Friends playing "Let It Down" (side note: a song originally produced by Phil Spector who is looking horrifying these days).
Watching Dhani play is like watching/hearing a modern day George!
Also, Paul Simon performed a lovely version of "Here Comes the Sun", although I'll always prefer the version he and George did together (how can you not love that 70s glow?). I'm not exaggerating when I say these are my two FAVORITE musicians singing what could quite possibly be my favorite song of all time. Epic.
As for the newly released box set, I'll have to get back to you on that. One of the big selling points for the set was that George's lesser-known albums after All Things Must Pass are finally being remastered and released, but lucky for me, I already have them on vinyl! So I might not be dropping $100 on the new box set anytime soon. But I am appreciative for the tracks I've discovered/rediscovered in the process of listening through these albums again (in fact, here's a Top 5):
Top 5 George Harrison Tracks, 1968-1975:
- Instrumental take of "The Inner Light"
- "Miss O'Dell" - George's LAUGH!
- "Be Here Now"
- "If Not For You" - sorry Bob, I like George's version better :\
- "What Is Life" - one of the very first solo George songs I heard and fell in love with