The making of Martin Scorsese’s GEORGE HARRISON: LIVING IN THE MATERIAL WORLD will likely be remembered as one of the great archaeological digs in rock and roll’s material history. Sifting through layers of rare media clips, private home videos, letters from a young Harrison to his parents, and much more, the filmmaking team dug deep over a period of years. The result was a complex picture of a remarkable artist and man. But amidst the archival treasure, nothing captured George Harrison’s human warmth, poetic grace and humor, and individual style as did the music unearthed. Some of the best of it is gathered here. It could be described in many ways – raw, unadorned, intimate. Regardless of what word one chooses to convey its magic, there’s a profound sense that a voice we know and love is coming to us from across tome… and is suddenly closer than ever before. There is a true presence to these recordings. Lovingly selected, mixed and mastered, these tracks put us in the room. Several were included in the film, some not. But through them all we get a better sense for Harrison’s true folk sensibility, for the unique vocal phrasing that marked his Beatles-era output and blossomed fully in the solo years, for the melodic guitar work that affected generations of players, for the lyrical sophistication that always managed to balance pathos and humor. Through them we get closer to Harrison’s song writing process to his gifts as a musician and arranger, to his spiritual path as it reveals itself in the music, and, finally, to the heart of the man.

Dr Warren Zanes