I have to confess that I skipped Disc 1. I’m a philistine, I know, but even with my Beatles pedigree I couldn’t even try to pretend that 70 or so minutes of Anoushka Shankar was going to please me in any way. Maybe twenty years ago when my virtually every purchase was informed by fab four mop-top shenanigans and post-fab spin-off shenanigans, but not now. Christ, I bought the ‘Concert For Bangladesh’. I even bought John and Yoko’s ‘Wedding Album’. And as embarrassed as I am to admit it, I even asked my Gran for a copy of Paul McCartneys ‘Frog Chorus’ on picture-vinyl for the Christmas of 1984. So it’s not a question of loyalty – I’ve just completed my tour of duty, thank you and I’m not about to enter the fray again. It’s just too dangerous.
Much to my pleasure though, Disc 2 is an absolute joy. You might scoff at the motley list of B-characters cropping up on the tracklisting: Jeff Lynne (not even the fifth member of the Electric Light Orchestra, never mind the fifth Beatle), Gary Brooker (appeared on a number post-Beatle oddments and a ‘star’ in his own right), Joe Brown (did a memorable road safety advert in the seventies) and Tom Petty (a Wilbury who just didn’t do us the service of travelling quite far enough) but with the exception of Petty’s fairly uninspired but characteristically adenoid performance of ‘Taxman’ and ‘I Need You’ this motley band of minstrels and cast-offs do some cracking versions of ‘George songs’ like ‘I Want To Tell You’, ‘Old Brown Shoe’, ‘Here Comes The Sun’, ‘That’s The Way It Goes’ and ‘Give Me Love’. And with Eric Clapton rolling out blistering renditions of ‘If I Needed Someone’, ‘Beware Of The Darkness’ and ‘Wah Wah’ you’d be hard pressed to find a more faithful and legitimate heir apparent.
No ‘George’ concert would be complete, though without the two stumbling geriatrics Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney popping up for the finale. ‘Photograph’ always was and still is a beautiful song and Ringo bursts his socks to do it justice. And though you might suspect that ‘Macca’ is just waiting for the right time to declare ‘Something’ a Harrison-McCartney co-write (or a McCartney-Harrison co-write, for that matter) his reworking of the song on ukulele is a genuinely touching tribute, and about as sincere as you’ll ever get from his highness.
It was perhaps fitting that this very fine album was put together by a group of people who have been happy to stay quietly in the shadows and at the margins of greatness as there was no greater and more quietly spoken talent that ‘Beatle George’.
Perhaps for Beatles completists only. But you have to admit, there’s rather a lot of them about…