George Harrison Dark Horse Years 1976-1992 CD

"The Dark Horse Years 1976-1992" box set features six albums, originally issued on GeorgeÕs own Dark Horse label, digitally re-mastered with previously unissued BONUS TRACKS, plus an EXCLUSIVE DVD. The package includes the following Harrison albums: Thirty Three & 1/3, George Harrison Somewhere In England, Gone Troppo, Cloud Nine, Live In Japan (SACD) The Dark Horse Years exclusive DVD, available only as part of this set: "The Dark Horse Years" is packed into a special, casebound 24 page booklet featuring extensive liner notes by David Fricke, accompanied by new photographs, illustrations and press cuttings, more.

THE DARK HORSE YEARS contains: THIRTY THREE & 1/3 (1976)/GEORGE HARRISON (1979)/SOMEWHERE IN ENGLAND (1981)/GONE TROPPO (1982)/CLOUD 9 (1987)/LIVE IN JAPAN (1992).
The 2-CD LIVE IN JAPAN is a multi-channel hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players. THE DARK HORSE YEARS also includes a bonus DVD featuring song videos and concert footage from LIVE IN JAPAN.
Personnel includes: George Harrison (vocals, guitar, mandolin, marimba, synthesizer, bass, percussion); Jeff Lynne (guitar, keyboards, bass); Eric Clapton (guitar, background vocals); Jim Horn (tenor & baritone saxophones); Tom Scott (saxophone, flute, lyricon); Herbie Flowers (tuba, bass); Richard Tee (piano, Fender Rhodes piano, organ); Billy Preston (piano, organ, synthesizer); Elton John (piano); David Foster (Fender Rhodes piano, Clavinet); Steve Winwood (harmonium, Polymoog, Mini Moog, background vocals); Gary Wright (piano, Oberheim, keyboards); Emil Richards (marimba); Willie Weeks (bass); Ray Cooper (drums, percussion); Ringo Starr, Jim Keltner, Andy Newmark, Alvin Taylor (drums).
Producers include: George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Russ Titelman, Ray Cooper, Phil McDonald.
Includes liner notes by Olivia Harrison and David Fricke.
George Harrison's albums for Dark Horse drifted out of print in the late '90s as his contract with Warner Brothers expired. Over the half-decade, they fetched high prices on the collector's market, as any relatively rare Beatles-related item does, and the demand for these records -- along with the Traveling Wilburys albums, which were part of Harrison's Dark Horse/Warner contract -- never diminished. At the time of his death in November 2001, the albums were being prepared for reissue, but his passing delayed them for a few more years, and it wasn't until February 2004 that the albums -- Thirty Three & 1/3 (1976), George Harrison (1979), Somewhere In England (1981), Gone Troppo (1982), Cloud Nine (1987), and Live in Japan (1992) -- were reissued, both individually and as part of the lavish box set Dark Horse Years 1976-1992. All five of the studio albums have been remastered and are graced with a bonus track or two, while the double-live set has been reissued as a hybrid SACD with a 5.1 surround mix (a nice gesture, but it does raise the question of why wasn't the entire set released as hybrid SACD, the way the 2002 Rolling Stones and 2003 Bob Dylan reissues were). In addition, the box set contains an exclusive booklet and a DVD containing video highlights of the Dark Horse years. It seems like the box would be the definitive word on Harrison's latter-day career, and it very nearly is, but it comes short in a couple of ways. First, there is the aforementioned puzzling decision to release only one SACD in the set, which only highlights the fact that the rest of the discs are standard CDs (which do have very good remastering). Second, the bonus tracks are underwhelming. With the exception of Cloud Nine, which has two songs from the Shanghai Surprise soundtrack, there's only one bonus track per disc, and with the exception of Thirty Three & 1/3, which has the fine "Tears of the World," a demo of a song that's on the album. Harrison has a lot of unreleased material in the vault -- Somewhere In England is notorious for being reworked on Warner's request, so at the very least the excised songsUncut (4/04, p.118) - 3 stars out of 5 - "[T]he set is welcome - and strangely comforting."