And you thought the upcoming Beach Boys set was expensive..?
George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass is getting the remix and re-release palaver, and get this….the top of the pile ‘Uber’ set in a wooden crate gets you…
includes the album on 8LP and 5CD/BR housed in an artisan designed wooden crate, accompanied by two elegantly designed books paying homage to Harrison’s love for gardening and nature.
The edition contains:
Wooden Crate (approx. 12.4″ x 12.4″ x 17.5″)
Elaborate and expanded 96 page version of the scrapbook, curated by Olivia Harrison, with unseen imagery and memorabilia from the era: handwritten lyrics, diary entries, studio notes, tape box images, a comprehensive track-by-track and more.
A second 44-page book chronicling the making of “All Things Must Pass” through extensive archival interviews with notes.
Wooden bookmark made from a felled Oak tree (Quercus Robur) in George’s Friar Park.
1/6 scale replica figurines of Harrison and the gnomes featured on the iconic album cover.
Limited edition illustration by musician and artist Klaus Voorman.
A copy of Paramahansa Yogananda’s “Light from the Great Ones”
Rudraksha beads contained in individual custom-made boxes
Replica of the original album poster
Set features 70 tracks, including 47 demo recordings, session outtakes and studio jams, of which 42 are previously unreleased.
Blu-ray disc includes hi-res stereo, 5.2 surround and dolby Atmos mixes of the main album.
I think the gnomes seal the deal for me.
Just shy of $1,000
It’s a toss-up between this and the Sonia box set, to be frank.
Honestly, there’s one born every minute.
Grubby, money-grabbing exercises like this aren’t aimed at fans, they’re tailored for wealthy collectors.
Although the prices such sets fetch are indeed likely to jump exponentially in the short term, the simple act of opening and/or playing the fucking things destroys any chance of their maintaining – or appreciating in – “value” .
While all of us are getting closer and closer to “must pass” status ourselves, hope I’m here to see the rich fuckers who buy these things get their fingers burnt after the inevitable Elvis memorabilia-style market collapse.
Some witty banter below, of course – but my question would be: why do you care so much? I won’t buy it (I suspect that you won’t either) – but if someone with more money than me chooses to buy it, why would I care – it’s their money…and other cheaper versions remain available…
We don’t come here to “care”. We come here to moan. Especially at people who buy Box Sets.
And, yes, every single person on this forum has multiple box sets lying around. It just took a while (twenty years or so) to realise that you only listen once to the 29th outtake of whatever and those fascinating notes on which studio and which guitar are actually not in any way fascinating
Nope. Not a one.
Always one.
There are Box Sets and there are Box Sets.
I have a 12-CD live Magma box set bought cheap on Amazon and it’s not a play-once-and-forget purchase. I have loads of cheap-as-chips jazz box sets. A Leonard Cohen box, a Fela Kuti box (the Zombie album from this is currently in my car CD player), Klaus Schulze & Pete Namlook’s three “Dark Side Of The Moog” boxes. a 48-CD Ella Fitzgerald box that worked out at less than a quid a disc.
Those superdeluxe edition things hold no interest for me and I feel no need for Floyd boxes with sets of marbles included or any of the like.
Well, okay, I do have two but they are definitely not studio-floor-sweepings affairs. “Motown Chartbusters: 150 Hits Of Gold” and “Dance Decade 1973-1983” (a stonking disco collection ), both from the eighties, on reasonably poor vinyl.
I used to have quite few (Star Time, Songs of Freedom, The London Years, Shine On) but I got rid as I find them a pain in the arse. The only one I have left is the first Hitsville USA set. Every one a Maserati.
I have that Dance Decade one too, in similar condition to yours, but still playable. From the Streetsounds stable, it’s rather great.
I suppose it was the vehemence of the third paragraph…really??
@fitterstoke
One could equally well ask why do you care so much that I apparently care so much?
At the end of the day, it’s a music/culture blog/board/forum/chatroom/whatever. And It’d be a pretty moribund place if everyone here refrained from spicing discussions up by lobbing in the occasional grenade.
@Jaygee
Fair dinkum…probably too much caffeine…
Bit of a myth that Elvis downturn.
There are real quality Elvis releases (not like the All Things Must Pass tosh) selling very well, right now.
Thing is… it’s got to be quality… and they are not – in the ATMP scheme of things that expensive – (50s LPs on 2 CDs for about £20 – definitive versions).
Some mouth-watering photographic books on Elvis as well… more expensive (£50+) but REAL quality and, unlike the above release, not fleecing the public.
I am sure Elvis releases still sell in fairly reasonable quantities. But it is a fact that more of his fans are dying off than being newly created. Same goes for many “dinosaur” acts, but he was the first big one so his fans are older.
It’s the Elvis mirrors, posters, button badges etc that have fallen off a cliff, particularly those produced in the 20 years after his death. Crap, in other words: it used to sell, but not now.
The early records, in particular, are understandably more valuable than ever.
But there is interest in old acts among younger people. There really is. People pipe up that their kids aren’t interested as if having a couple of sprogs makes you an expert on the whole of the youth that ranges from teens to fifty, roughly.
No marbles? I’m out.
No red tights? I’m out…
@fentonsteve
Was indeed a bit of a slip up on Olivia’s and Danni’s part
I’ve ordered two. I am going to use the George figurines to replace the original androids in my game of Battling Robots.
Do any other readers have inventive uses for the extras included in this set ?
I’m going to buy eight of these and use the gnomes to play chess.
So much cynicism…at the least crate is designed by an artisan and not some design office drone…c’mon people!!
I wonder if Living In The Material World will get the same treatment..? Ah…hmmm…possibly that would be slightly counter intuitive….
The big question is, is the crate made of sustainable and/or easily replenishable wood grown and felled in each box’s country of origin so as to save on air pollution?
Don’t be daft, they’ll all be made in China.
Money? Sense? Which is greater? There’s only one way to find out – unleash the wooden-crated boxset!
Obviously ridiculous, but to be fair there appear to be loads of other versions at somewhat more respectable price points.
Having said that there will be some who will buy all versions (maybe “spares” also), these people can normally be found on the Hoffman Forum.
When I hear the word artisan I reach for my gun.
George has always marketed the expensive stuff, though…didn’t that “I Me Mine” book go for a ridiculous sum upon its release?
John Lennon’s review was scathing: “He chose to write his autobiography about somebody other than me. .. one star, wacker!”
Has Olivia burnt through all of George’s money already?
Isn’t it an Apple product? In which case it’s all of them.
There’s apples in the crate as well, why didn’t you say so
Scruffy ones.
There’s apples in the crate as well? Include me in.
It’s been nearly 20 years…
Yebbut there must be annual royalty cheques as well? Actually, I wonder if the estate was split evenly between Olivia and the boy?
The Beatles do still sell the odd record, I’m told.
George’s two biggest songs do very well these days in terms of popularity in polls, streaming etc. – often better that Ron and Dirk’s, in fact.
Perhaps we should rename the Beatles the Here Comes the Sun Hitmakers.
The Old Brown Shoe Hitmakers!
The Inner Light Hitmakers!
Of course. They are not struggling. Was just pointing out that if indeed they had got through his money it took 20 years. The fact it is so long is a bit shocking
This isn’t being put out – like the Anthology was – because anybody is skint. It’s being put out because there’s money to be made.
I hope there’s plenty of juicy outtakes and acoustic demos of “It’s Johnny’s Birthday”.
At this stage in the game, wouldn’t it be more interesting to let others outside the hallowed circle have a go at remixing or adding some new ideas? If old pop wants to persist, then perhaps new versions of old classics is the way to go. That’s the way things work in classical music.
I’d like to see Underworld have a go at this.
Or they could do All Things Must Pass – The Duets
Do not alert the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra to the existence of this record, or any others.
(Except Reek of Putrefaction by Carcass, that would be a laff)
Intrigued by how some people have so much more spare money than me! I have an ok salary but also a mortgage and children and am divorced and retirement probably won’t exist as a concept when I reach that age. So I’m on a vinly at best a month plus Spotify. I also bought this album 20 years ago on re-release and loved it and love it still. It’s also on Spotify for easy access. So I already bought and can listen on different media. And I’m very happy with what I hear still. Fair enough to the artists who do this because they *can*. But I’m amazed people *can* buy it or want to. Perhaps it’s down Bezos and Musk et al investing in their investment portfolios buying dozens at once. That’s a mortgage payment for an album which I already own! Looks nice though! I’d put those gnomes on the shelf next to my beatles playmobil.
I think I enjoy most the records that have cost me the least.
Also, I’m not sure this kind of extravagance does the “brand” too many favours in the long run.
Not going to make something I might have bought 20/30 years ago available to me?
OK… off I go! And I don’t forget. I can’t be the only one.
Remember peeps… buyers’ market.
“Buyer’s market” – spot on. No one is forced to buy a fancy box set; and cheaper options remain available…
I reckon people that can’t think of anything better to do with their surplus money than buy really expensive limited-edition box sets with gnomes or sets of marbles DESERVE to be fleeced.
They have been seen coming.
Hmmm …. the contents (and price) of this uber-box certainly aren’t Run of the Mill….
Laura Leezy ‘s got one and she’s all right.
I feel sorry for completists, who up until not long ago were able to be completists. Nowadays, unless they have the money of an ex-Beatle they have no chance. And in some cases all the money in the world won’t get you sets that are limited to a handful, if they have already been snapped up. I used to know a Beatles completist who had completed the collection (this was in the 90s), so he shoved everything in boxes in his loft and started again. He was well on his way to a second complete collection.
I was a Stephen Duffy completist, until a couple of mega rare pieces turned up on eBay. I am not spending £550 on an acetate of Kiss Me, no matter how much I want it.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/224028959536
I won’t be buying the original DAT tapes either.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=stephen+duffy&_sacat=0&_sop=16
But if you scroll down this list to the Stephen Duffy vinyl art, I wonder if they sold any more of these? The company sell artwork made out of vinyl records in the shape of the artist. All the usual suspects were there, but they also advertised that they would do custom ones for any artist. Thanks to me they now have Duffy and Sophie Ellis-Bextor in their catalogue. I always think that when people are scrolling past the Elvis, Dylan, Beatles ones and so on, they must get to Duffy and wonder why on Earth they do one of him! They are nice pieces though, so I’d recommend having a look through their catalogue.
There’s a guy on the Facebook page Nothing Is Real who buys all these mega boxes of anything fabs related, and all the bootlegs, all in every possible edition and configuration. He insists on posting pictures all the time of bits of his collection. Probably my problem rather than his, but I find it terribly annoying. I guess if you have rooms full of this stuff then you have to show it off.
Yeah he shows pictures of his bootleg CDs. Yaawn.
Get your Uber orders in! 5LP set seems like value but maybe it is 3 LPs of messing around in the studio instead of the original 1?
https://georgeharrison.tmstor.es/products/menu/ATMP%2050
https://shop.udiscovermusic.com/collections/george-harrison
I firmly believe you can have too much of a good thing – the White album is my least-played Fabs – and the 3LP ATMP rarely gets an outing. Early Takes Volume 1 is my fave George.
If they wanted to make it a really super deluxe edition, they’d chop ATMP down to one LP.
Where do I hand in my AW card?
@fentonsteve
White Album SDE was far better than the Abbey Road one, maybe the best Fans one so far. I only picked them up because they were initially on sale at extremely low prices (mistakenly) on Amazon Canada
I bought it and I tried… I’m definitely in the “it would make a great single album” camp. Best bit of the box is the Esher demos.
Decided to plump for the 3CD set at £22.99 from Badlands, which I presume will have the best of the outtakes. The 5CD + Blu Ray set is around £100, which is a bit rich.
The regular “SDE” is incredibly overpriced. In a CD sized box it seems,not a proper book and no marbles or gnomes.
I have pre-ordered the 5LP set which isn’t vastly more expensive than the 3LP one $100 CAD which is about 60 quid
Correction: Seems the SDE comes in a single sized box, about 20cmx20cm
No marbles or gnomes!
I don’t buy sets of boxes.
I do have a number of boxed sets of CDs, and some of those are really very good indeed.
I’ve got a great Adam and the Pedants one you might like…
Just read that among the outtakes is a cover version of the old country & western chestnut “Wedding Bells Are Breaking Up That Old Gang Of Mine”.
Must-Buy then. 😉
Paul sang a snatch of this song in the “Anthology” series whilst sat beside a camp fire. Must be a favourite amongst the Fabs.
Lennon refers to it, for obvious reasons, in one of his post-Fabs interviews – I think the 1971 one with David Wigg.
The only box set you actually NEED is Fuzzy Warbles
ATMP is the album that originated the ‘bonus disc of stuff you don’t need’ concept.
I’ll bet DONOVAN gave him the idea.
Which is actually the reason I didn’t buy it when it came out! It was really expensive, and I didn’t want to pay for a disc of noodling. I bought the Bangla Desh album, which had a lot of the best songs from ATMP.
It also had Billy Preston’s definitive version of That’s rhe way God planned it…
I got both a decade or so later in Kelly’s Records in Cardiff market (its still there), from memory one of the sides in the Bangladesh triple set is 8 minutes long. Shortest LP side ever?
Is that the side where Ravi Shankar does a bit of knob twiddling while warming up his sitar and is rewarded with rapturous applause from the audience?
Side 6
1. Something 3.42
2. Bangladesh 4.55
My remark was meant in jest.
Nice.