Personnel on George Harrison's sets:
George Harrison - vocals, guitar
Robben Ford - guitar
Willie Weeks - bass
Billy Preston - keyboards
Tom Scott- saxophone, flute
Chuck Findley - trumpet
Jim Horn - trumpet
Andy Newmark- drums
Emil Richards - percussion
Personnel on Ravi Shankar & Friends set:
Ravi Shankar - sitar
George Harrison - sitar, guitar, vocals
Kartick Kuma - sitar
Hariprasad Chaurasia - flute
Rijram Desad - percussion, strings
T.V.Gopalkrishnam - mridangam, vocals
Gopal Krishn - vichitra veena
Sultan Khan - sarangi
Kamalesh Maitra - percussion
Satyadev Pawa - North India violin
Alla Rakha - tabla
Harihar Rao - percussion
Lakshmi Shankar - vocals
Viji Shankar - vocals
Shivkumar Sharma - santoor
L.Subramaniam - violin
+various members of Harrison's band sitting in
With Beatlemania still very much on the minds of fans and critics alike, George Harrison embarked on an ambitious North American Tour in 1974 in support of his Living In The Material World album. Although Harrison had participated in one-off charity events and had briefly toured Europe as an unannounced guest of Delaney & Bonnie & Friends a few years prior, this was his first serious road work since the Beatles left live performing behind in 1966. For the tour Harrison assembled a stellar nine-piece band and invited sitar master, Ravi Shankar, and his orchestra along for the ride, which contained over a dozen of India's most talented virtuosos. Harrison performed his own music, sat in with Ravi Shankar's Orchestra, and served as master of ceremonies. The tour was designed as a large spiritual revue and was divided into three sections, with Harrison sharing the spotlight with everyone onstage. The concerts were loosely structured with Harrison and his band performing for 30 minutes or so, followed by a set by Ravi Shankar and Family (which had just released an album on Harrison's Dark Horse label) and concluded with another hour of material from Harrison and his band.
Due to an illness prior to the tour commencing, Harrison's voice was not in top form and it continued to deteriorate as the tour progressed. This was also the beginning of the era of concerts being held in large sporting arenas, which severely limited quality of sound and hindered any feelings of intimacy. This combined with the fact that Harrison made a point not to reflect on much of his Beatle past upset many fans that attended these concerts. Reviews and media coverage tended to fall in the range of disappointment to openly hostile. The tour began with concerts in Vancouver and Seattle, before heading into California. This Bill Graham Archive recording from the afternoon show on November 12th (the 2nd of 3 Los Angeles concerts) demonstrates that much of the criticism surrounding this tour was shortsighted as well as somewhat justified. The truth falls somewhere in between. Harrison's voice was unquestionably deteriorating by the time this show took place, but was still in relatively decent shape compared to later in the tour. The creative arrangements of his more familiar songs sound less disconcerting in retrospect and fans of Ravi Shankar's work will find his set both innovative and adventurous.
The recording begins with the instrumental "Hari's On Tour Express," serving as a showcase for Harrison's much improved slide guitar technique and as a warm-up exercise for his band. This is followed by the classic "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," which demonstrates exactly what triggered much of the negative criticism at the time. From a musical standpoint, the performance is engaging, with the three-piece horn section punctuating the familiar Beatles arrangement and Harrison and Robben Ford providing impressive dual guitar solos near the end. However, many found Harrison's lyric revisions questionable, as he changes the title line in the lyric to "While my guitar tries to smile," which failed to improve on the original lyric and if anything weakened its impact. A far more irreverent approach is featured on "Something," arguably one of Harrison's most brilliantly written songs, which he introduces as "one of my comedy numbers." Here, he rebels against the familiar lyric and arrangement, changing both considerably. Next up, Harrison turns the stage over to Billy Preston, who delivers an exuberant performance of his hit, "Will It Go Round In Circles," with Harrison and the band providing a tight funky groove throughout. This first Harrison-fronted set concludes on a sarcastic note with his homage to the financial insanity surrounding the Beatles' breakup, "Sue Me, Sue You Blues," featuring more of his trademark slide guitar. The entire ensemble is clearly having fun on this number and Harrison's sense of humor shines though his cynicism.
At this point, Harrison introduces Ravi Shankar and Family to the stage. Harrison and members of his band sit in during many of these compositions making this quite different from the traditional Indian music many are familiar with from Shankar. Several of these pieces contain distinct solo spots and incorporate modern grooves, creating an innovative fusion between traditional Indian and Western musical elements. This begins with the meditative and inspiring "Zoon, Zoon, Zoon" and "Naderdani" and continues into the hot and spicier "Cheparte." During the latter and continuing with "Anurag," reed player Tom Scott and percussionist Emil Richards join the fray and many will find these compositions more accessible. The set continues with the beautiful and contemplative "I Am Missing You," Shankar's current single at the time, which features a lead vocal by Lakshmi Shankar sung in English. This part of the concert concludes with "Dispute and Violence," a most engaging (and at times downright jazzy) section of a ballet written by Shankar. The complete piece, titled "Dream, Nightmare & Dawn" comprised side two of the album just released on Harrison's Dark Horse label. There is great diversity to Shankar's set, which includes traditional and classical Indian music with distinct pop, rock and jazz elements mixed in. Unable to finance such an entourage touring outside India, these 1974 performances are significant as being one of the few times Shankar and this unparalleled team of Indian music virtuosi were given the opportunity to perform before American audiences. Many who are unfamiliar with Indian ragas will find these performances more accessible. The diverse musical elements of "Dispute and Violence" also provide a nice transition point back into Harrison's material.
Following Shankar's set, Harrison and his band begin with one of his final Beatle-era compositions, "For You Blue." This has a more laidback, bluesy feel than the Beatles recording, with horn punctuations throughout and a melodic percussion solo by Emil Richards. The group continues with an enthusiastic reading of Harrison's current single "Give Me Love." Next up is the most controversial of all the material performed on the tour as Harrison tackles one of John Lennon's most introspective Beatle songs, "In My Life." This radically different arrangement is quite interesting, but upset many at the time, primarily because Harrison changes the lyric to "In my life, I love God more." The recording ends with Tom Scott leading the group through his bouncy signature instrumental, "Tom Cat." This cooks along nicely for a minute or so, before the tape stock ran out.
Decades later, it is now obvious that George Harrison was consciously dismantling his image and asserting his own identity on this tour, while sharing the spotlight with musicians who had a profound impact on him at this point in time, like Shankar and Preston. Fans who attended these shows expecting an abundance of Beatle-era hits were bound to be disappointed, but those who left preconceived notions behind found plenty to enjoy.
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