Living in the Material World is the fourth studio album by the English musician George Harrison, released in 1973 on Apple Records. As the follow-up to 1970's critically acclaimed All Things Must Pass and his pioneering charity project, the Concert for Bangladesh, it was among the most highly anticipated releases of that year. The album was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America two days after release, on its way to becoming Harrison's second number 1 album in the United States, and produced the international hit "Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth)". It also topped albums charts in Canada and Australia, and reached number 2 in Britain.
Living in the Material World is notable for the uncompromising lyrical content of its songs, reflecting Harrison's struggle for spiritual enlightenment against his status as a superstar, as well as for what many commentators consider to be the finest guitar and vocal performances of his career. In contrast with All Things Must Pass, Harrison scaled down the production for Material World, using a core group of musicians comprising Nicky Hopkins, Gary Wright, Klaus Voormann and Jim Keltner. Ringo Starr, John Barham and Indian classical musician Zakir Hussain were among the album's other contributors.
Upon release, Rolling Stone described it as a "pop classic", a work that "stands alone as an article of faith, miraculous in its radiance". Most contemporary reviewers consider Living in the Material World to be a worthy successor to All Things Must Pass, even if it inevitably falls short of Harrison's grand opus. Author Simon Leng refers to the album as a "forgotten blockbuster", representing "the close of an age, the last offering of the Beatles' London era".Leng, pp. 124, 140. EMI reissued the album in 2006, in remastered form with bonus tracks, and released a deluxe-edition CD/DVD set that included film clips of four songs. A newly remixed and expanded edition was released in 2024 to celebrate its 50th anniversary.
Background
George Harrison's 1971–72 humanitarian aid project for the new nation of Bangladesh had left him an international hero,Schaffner, pp. 147, 159.Leng, p. 121.Tillery, p. 100. but also exhausted and frustrated in his efforts to ensure that the money raised would find its way to those in need.George Harrison, p. 220.Doggett, pp. 180–81, 192. Rather than record a follow-up to his acclaimed 1970 triple album, All Things Must Pass, Harrison put his solo career on hold for over a year following the two Concert for Bangladesh shows,Lavezzoli, pp. 193–94.Liner note essay by Kevin Howlett, The Apple Years 1968–75 book (Apple Records, 2014), p. 31. held at Madison Square Garden, New York, in August 1971.Woffinden, pp. 48, 68. In an interview with Disc and Music Echo magazine in December that year, pianist Nicky Hopkins spoke of having just attended the New York sessions for John Lennon's "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" single, where Harrison had played them "about two or three hours" worth of new songs, adding: "They were really incredible."Andrew Tyler, "Nicky Hopkins", Disc and Music Echo, 4 December 1971; available at Rock's Backpages (subscription required; retrieved 30 August 2012). Hopkins suggested that work on Harrison's next solo album was to begin in January or February at his new home studio at Friar Park, but any such plan was undone by Harrison's commitment to the Bangladesh relief project.Leng, pp. 123–24. While he found time during the last few months of 1971 to produce singles for Ringo Starr and Apple Records protégés Lon & Derrek Van Eaton, and to help promote the Ravi Shankar documentary Raga,Badman, pp. 54–56.Leng, p. 123. Harrison's next project in the role of record producer was not until August 1972, when Cilla Black recorded his composition "When Every Song Is Sung".Madinger & Easter, pp. 439–40.
Throughout this period, Harrison's devotion to Hindu spirituality – particularly to Krishna consciousness via his friendship with A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami PrabhupadaAllison, pp. 45–47. – reached new heights.Leng, p. 124.Huntley, pp. 87, 89. As Harrison admitted, his adherence to his spiritual path was not necessarily consistent.George Harrison, p. 254."George Harrison – In His Own Words" , superseventies.com (retrieved 8 April 2014). His wife, Pattie Boyd, and their friend Chris O'Dell would joke that it was hard to tell whether he was dipping into his ever-present Japa Yoga prayer bag or "the coke bag".O'Dell, p. 188. This duality has been noted by Harrison biographers Simon Leng and Alan Clayson: on one hand, Harrison earned himself the nickname "His Lectureship" during his prolonged periods of fervid devotion;Clayson, p. 330. on the other, he participated in bawdy London sessions for the likes of Bobby Keys' eponymous solo album and what Leng terms Harry Nilsson's "thoroughly nasty" "You're Breakin' My Heart", both recorded in the first half of 1972.Clayson, pp. 293, 325. Similarly, Harrison's passion for high-performance cars saw him lose his driving licence for the second time in a year after crashing his Mercedes into a roundabout at 90 miles an hour, on 28 February, with Boyd in the passenger seat.Badman, pp. 67–68.Tillery, pp 118–19.
In August 1972, with the Concert for Bangladesh documentary film having finally been released worldwide, Harrison set off alone for a driving holiday in Europe, during which he chanted the Hare Krishna mantra nonstop for a whole day, he later claimed.Clayson, p. 248.Greene, p. 194. Religious academic Joshua Greene, a Hare Krishna devotee, has described this trip as Harrison's "preparation" for recording the Living in the Material World album.
Songs Rather than revisit compositions left over from the All Things Must Pass sessions, Harrison's material for Living in the Material World was drawn from the 1971–72 period,Madinger & Easter, p. 439. with the exception of "Try Some, Buy Some", which he wrote in 1970 and recorded with former Ronette Ronnie Spector in February 1971.Leng, pp. 105, 133. The songs reflected his spiritual devotionWoffinden, pp. 69–70. – in the case of "The Lord Loves the One (That Loves the Lord)", "Living in the Material World", "Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth)" and "Try Some, Buy Some"George Harrison, pp. 246, 254, 258.Tillery, pp. 111–12. – as well as his feelings before and after the Bangladesh benefit concerts, with "The Day the World Gets 'Round" (and the non-LP single B-side "Miss O'Dell").George Harrison, pp. 226, 248.
Both "The Lord Loves the One" and the album's title track were directly inspired by Prabhupada's teachings.Lavezzoli, pp. 194–95."Chapter 1 – The Hare Krsna Mantra: 'There's nothing higher …' A 1982 Interview with George Harrison" , Chant and Be Happy/harekrishna.com (retrieved 9 April 2014). Greene writes of Harrison adapting a passage from the Bhagavad Gita into his lyrics for "Living in the Material World" and adds: "Some of the songs distilled spiritual concepts into phrases so elegant they resembled Vedic sutras: short codes that contain volumes of meaning."Greene, pp. 194, 195. On "Give Me Love", Harrison blended the Hindu bhajan style (or devotional song) with Western gospel music, repeating the formula of his 1970–71 international hit "My Sweet Lord".Leng, p. 157. In his 1980 autobiography, I Me Mine, he describes the song as "a prayer and personal statement between me, the Lord, and whoever likes it".Harrison, p. 246.
Whereas Harrison's Krishna devotionals on All Things Must Pass had been uplifting celebrations of faith,Anthony DeCurtis, "George Harrison All Things Must Pass", Rolling Stone, 12 October 2000 (retrieved 7 May 2013). his latest compositions betrayed a more austere quality,Leng, p. 137. partly as a result of the Bangladesh experience.Inglis, pp. 37–38. His musical arranger, John Barham, would later suggest that a spiritual "crisis" might have been the cause; other observers have pointed to Harrison's failing marriage to Boyd.Huntley, pp. 91–92. Leng writes of his frame of mind at this time: "while George Harrison was bursting with musical confidence, Living in the Material World found him in roughly the same place that John Lennon was when he wrote 'Help!' – shocked by the rush of overwhelming success and desperately wondering where it left him."
Other song themes addressed the Beatles' legacy,Clayson, p. 322. either in direct references to the band's history – in the case of "Living in the Material World" and "Sue Me, Sue You Blues"MacDonald, p. 326.Graham Reid, "George Harrison Revisited, Part One (2014): The dark horse bolting out of the gate" , Elsewhere, 24 October 2014 (retrieved 4 December 2014). – or in Harrison's stated desire to live in the present, free of his former identity, in the case of "The Light That Has Lighted the World", "Who Can See It" and "Be Here Now".Leng, pp. 126–28, 129–30, 131, 133. The lyrics to "Who Can See It" reflect Harrison's disenchantment with his previous, junior status to former bandmates Lennon and Paul McCartney,Leng, p. 129. while "Sue Me, Sue You Blues" was his comment on McCartney's 1971 High Court action to dissolve the band as a business entity.Doggett, pp. 156, 157. In line with Prabhupada's teachings, all such pursuits of fame, wealth or position meant nothing in Harrison's 1972 world-view.Leng, p. 131. Author Gary Tillery writes of Material Worlds lyrical content: "The album expresses his impressions of the mundane and the spiritual worlds and the importance of ignoring the lures of the everyday world and remaining focused on the eternal verities."Tillery, p. 111. Even in seemingly conventional love songs such as "That Is All" and "Don't Let Me Wait Too Long",Allison, pp. 141, 157. Harrison appeared to be addressing his deity as much as any human partner.Ingham, p. 134. Musically, the latter composition reflects the influence of Brill Building songwriters of the early 1960s,Inglis, pp. 39–40. while Harrison sings of a love delivered "like it came from above".
Harrison donated his copyright for nine of the eleven songs on Living in the Material World, together with the non-album B-side "Miss O'Dell",George Harrison, p. 385. to his Material World Charitable Foundation. The latter initiative was set up in reaction to the tax issues that had hindered his relief effort for the Bangladeshi refugees,Madinger & Easter, p. 438.Clayson, p. 315. and ensured a perpetual stream of income, through ongoing publishing royalties, for dispersal to the charities of his choice."Material World Charitable Foundation" > About , georgeharrison.com (retrieved 9 April 2014).
Production
After the grand, Wall of Sound production of All Things Must Pass,Schaffner, p. 142. Harrison wanted a more understated sound this time around, to "liberate" the songs, as he later put it.Kevin Howlett, booklet accompanying Living in the Material World reissue (EMI Records, 2006; produced by Dhani & Olivia Harrison).The Editors of Rolling Stone, p. 180. He had intended to co-produce with Phil Spector as before,Badman, p. 83. although the latter's erratic behaviour and alcohol consumptionTimothy White, "George Harrison – Reconsidered", Musician, November 1987, p. 53. ensured that, once sessions were under way in October 1972, Harrison was the project's sole producer.Spizer, p. 254. Spector received a credit for "Try Some, Buy Some", however,Woffinden, p. 71. since Harrison used the same 1971 recording, featuring musicians such as Leon Russell, Jim Gordon, Pete Ham and Barham,Spizer, p. 255, 342. that they had made for Ronnie Spector's abandoned solo album.Badman, p. 25.
A release date was planned for January or February 1973, with the album title rumoured to be The Light That Has Lighted the World. Within a month, the title was announced as The Magic Is Here Again,Schaffner, p. 159.Rodriguez, p. 155. with an erroneous report in Rolling Stone magazine claiming that Eric Clapton was co-producing and that the album was set for release on 20 December 1972.
Recording