Monday, February 21, 2022

The 1981 Listening Post - George Harrison - Somewhere in England

 George Harrison - Somewhere in England



#286

By Rob Slater

June 5 1981

George Harrison 

Somewhere in England

Genre: Beatleque! ;-)

Allen’s Rating: 2.5 out of 5

Rob’s Rating 4 out of 5


Highlights:

Life Itself

Teardrops


Did George Harrison not get the respect he deserved because he continued to explore and sample and try different sorts of music like The Beatles did? It's not what people necessarily expected from him. 


Side one


Blood from a Clone. Wow, listen to those keyboards! Cute and catchy sounds like it could have been a weird one off Beatles song. Not unpleasant. But it doesn't blow me away. Some nice lyrics Blood From A Clone instead of from this stone. 


Unconsciousness Rules. Kind of a mid-60s really kind of fun not quite rockabilly


Life Itself. is my favorite track on the entire album.


All Those Years Ago. or whatever the song is called is the 1981 version of when we were Fab


Requisite Cover #1 - Baltimore Orioles (Hoagy Carmichael). what the f***? I should probably read the lyrics. Kind of lounge lizardy but not unpleasant. Something I would skip, but once he start singing it gets much better.


Side Two


Teardrops. Really catchy and witty he's cried so much that he's going to take over from the rain very nice.


That B**** (Which {Thanks voice recognition.}) We Have Lost. It kind of sounds like Maxwell's Silver Hammer to me. 


Requisite Cover #1 - Hong Kong Blues (Hoagy Carmichael).

“And now he's poppin' the piano just to raise the price

Of a ticket to the land of the free

Well, he says his home's in 'Frisco where they send the rice

But it's really in Tennessee”


The Writing’s On The Wall. Kind of downbeat. Pleasant, with good lyrics but still kind of bland.


Gotta Saved The World. “Someone else might want to use it.” It's pretty classic George Harrison. Pleasant. Lightly sardonic. There's another version on the rerelease, his demo, more acoustic if you want something a little more focus.


“Make your own H-bombs with your mom.”


“all the wildlife destroyed 

to keep some millionaires employed”


All in all it’s a good album. It’s very, very similar to Cloud 9 which was a bigggg hit, but had the advantage of distance. 

https://open.spotify.com/album/574Ws1iXSN3oLjtWyfoMZH?si=aa4_hOpxT-W4uk-qbzpU8g


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