Dark Horse (George Harrison album)

Dark Horse is the fifth studio album by the English rock musician George Harrison. It was released on Apple Records in December 1974 as the follow-up to Living in the Material World. Although keenly anticipated on release, Dark Horse is associated with the controversial North American tour that Harrison staged with Indian classical musician Ravi Shankar in November and December that year. This was the first US tour by a member of the Beatles since 1966, and the public's nostalgia for the band, together with Harrison contracting laryngitis during rehearsals and choosing to feature Shankar so heavily in the show, resulted in scathing concert reviews from some influential music critics.

Harrison wrote and recorded Dark Horse during an extended period of upheaval in his personal life. The songs focus on Harrison's split with his first wife, Pattie Boyd, and his temporary withdrawal from the spiritual certainties of his previous work. Throughout this time, he dedicated much of his energy to setting up Dark Horse Records and working with the label's first signings, Shankar and the group Splinter, at the expense of his own music. Author Simon Leng refers to the album as "a musical soap opera, cataloguing rock-life antics, marital strife, lost friendships, and self-doubt".|source= – George Harrison, October 1974|width=25%|align=left|style=padding:8px;

George Harrison's third studio album since the Beatles' break-up came at the end of what he describes in his 1980 autobiography, I, Me, Mine, as "a bad domestic year". From the middle of 1973, with his marriage to Pattie Boyd all but over, Harrison immersed himself in his work, particularly on helping the two acts he would eventually sign to his new record label, Dark Horse Records − Ravi Shankar and a hitherto unknown group called Splinter. Business issues related to the Beatles' company Apple Corps were also coming to a head during 1973–74. Harrison, John Lennon and Ringo Starr became embroiled in litigation with former manager Allen Klein, whose removal from Apple helped to conclude the suit launched by Paul McCartney in December 1970 to dissolve the band as a legal partnership. The simultaneous winding down of Apple Corps' subsidiaries left several music and film projects in jeopardy. Having decided to form his own label, Harrison now sought a record company to distribute Shankar's Shankar Family & Friends album, most of which was recorded in California in April 1973, Another venture that was affected was the feature film Little Malcolm. As executive producer of this Apple Films project, Harrison was working to seal a distribution deal in Europe.

thumb|upright=0.9|Harrison's dedication to his Dark Horse Records act [[Splinter (band)|Splinter (pictured performing in 1977) was one of the factors that compromised his focus on Dark Horse; photo: Jean Helfer.]]

Compounding the pressure, Harrison was drinking heavily and had returned to his drug-taking ways of the 1960s. In I, Me, Mine, he refers to this as "the naughty period, 1973–74".

October 1974 in Los Angeles

thumb|upright=1.1|[[A&M Studios main gate (pictured in 1988). Harrison completed the album there while rehearsing for the 1974 tour.]]

Rehearsals for the tour began on 15 October. Using A&M Studios in Hollywood as his base, Harrison rehearsed with the tour band on a sound stage at the studio complex. Along with Scott, Preston, Weeks and Newmark, the band included L.A. Express guitarist Robben Ford, Harrison's Concert for Bangladesh horn players Jim Horn and Chuck Findley, and jazz percussionist Emil Richards. Keltner also participated, on drums, but he would not join the tour until late in November. Aside from the Harrison material, selections by Preston and Scott were rehearsed for their spots in the show, since, as at the Bangladesh benefits in 1971, Harrison was keen for other artists to have their moment centre-stage. In a fusion of musical cultures, Harrison, Scott and Richards rehearsed with Shankar's orchestra for some of the Indian-music pieces, and all the musicians, Western and Indian, came together for the Shankar Family & Friends tracks "I Am Missing You"

Harrison was already experiencing a throat condition before arriving in Los Angeles; Since industry convention dictated that an artist have new commercial product to promote when touring the US, Outside of the daytime rehearsals, Harrison finished off the songs recorded in England, and mixed the album. Horn and Findley overdubbed flutes, and Richards wobble board onto "It Is 'He. – a situation that resulted in Harrison overworking and then blowing his voice in the middle of the tour rehearsals. He was diagnosed with laryngitis.

Although he had intended to finish the version of "Dark Horse" taped at Friar Park, Harrison decided to re-record the song with the tour band, live on the sound stage at A&M Studios. The session took place on either 30 or 31 October, with Norm Kinney as engineer. Leng writes of this performance of "Dark Horse": "Anyone wondering what Harrison's voice sounded like on the Dark Horse Tour need look no further: this track was cut only days before the first date in Vancouver. Although the band sounded good, his voice was in shreds ..." MacFarlane says that the song's new arrangement incorporates folk and jazz influences, and likens this musical fusion to Joni Mitchell's work.

Harrison later admitted he was "knackered" by the time he arrived in Los Angeles, having taken on too much over the previous year. He also recalled that his business manager, Denis O'Brien, had to force him out of the studio, to ensure he caught the plane for the opening show of the tour, on 2 November.

Artwork

Cover

The LP's gatefold cover design was credited to Tom Wilkes and includes photography by Terry Doran, a long-time friend of the Beatles and Harrison's original estate manager at Friar Park. In a 1987 interview, Harrison said the concept and initial design for the front cover was his own work.

The cover shows a 1956 Liverpool Institute high-school photograph superimposed on a watercolour painting, which Wilkes created in response to Harrison's request for an Indian effect. The photo sits inside a lotus flower and is surrounded by a dream-like Himalayan landscape that extends to the horizon. At the top of the image, the Indian yogi Mahavatar Babaji floats in the sky, He wore a Babaji badge on his shirt or jacket during the 1974 tour. whereas the art teacher, who Harrison liked, received the Om symbol. Wilkes and Harrison disagreed over the inclusion of the Babaji image, which the designer disliked and reduced in size for the LP's initial pressing. The inner gatefold spread contains a tinted photo of Harrison and comedian Peter Sellers walking beside a lake

On the back cover, Harrison is pictured sitting on a garden bench, the back timbers of which appear to be carved with his name and the album title. Doran's photo, given the same orange hue as the one inside the gatefold, Along the bottom of the cover image sits an Om symbol and Harrison's usual "All glories to Sri Krishna" dedication. Along with the first Harrison-album credit for FPSHOT, leading to the incorrect assumption that they had contributed to the track. That song's title is juxtaposed with the words "Hello Los Angeles", while "OHLIVERE" was a reference to Arias. The latter is also included among the title track's musician credits – her contribution being "Trinidad Blissed Out". Under "Ding Dong", Harrison credited Wood's guest appearance to "Ron Would If You Let Him", while Sir Frank Crisp is listed as having provided "Spirit". Combined with the sequencing of "Bye Bye, Love" on side one and "Ding Dong" as the opening track on side two, this juxtaposition gave the impression that Harrison's was farewelling Boyd and ushering in Arias.

1974 North American tour

"Dark Horse" was issued as the album's lead single in the US Harrison played the title track, "Hari's on Tour" and "Māya Love" throughout the tour, but due to his delay in completing the album, the new material combined with new arrangements of his better-known songs to produce a setlist that lacked the familiarity expected of a former Beatle. The tour alienated some of rock music's most influential critics, notably Ben Fong-Torres of Rolling Stone magazine. Titled "Lumbering in the Material World", Fong-Torres' article covered the Vancouver and US West Coast stops, ending on 12 November, and was followed by Larry Sloman's reviews of some of the East Coast shows. These articles and Rolling Stones subsequent album review established what became the "given" view, according to Leng, that the Harrison–Shankar tour was a failure. The majority of critics – or those "without axes to grind", author Robert Rodriguez writes – reviewed the concerts favourably. Tom Scott felt the guitarist received a short shrift for the lack of Beatle compositions: "“I remember [Rolling Stone writer] Ben Fong Torres just pasted George because he didn’t do Beatle songs. Everyone wanted him to reform The Beatles! He [Harrison] told me: ‘I was a Beatle, but I’m not a Beatle anymore, and I’m doing what I love to do.'”

thumb|upright=1.1|[[Billy Preston, Harrison and Shankar (far right) visiting President Gerald Ford at the White House during the 1974 tour]]

The negative press Harrison received stemmed from his decision to feature Indian music so heavily in the concert programme, the tortured quality of his singing voice, The Beatles were represented in the setlist in four songs. In addition to reworking the arrangements, however, Harrison altered some of the lyrics to reference his deity or his failed marriage in the case of "Something", Harrison's most popular Beatles track. In his pre-tour press conference, Harrison had dismayed some commentators by stating that he would be happy to be in a band with Lennon but not McCartney, and that he preferred Weeks as a bass player to McCartney. When invited to visit US president Gerald Ford in Washington on 13 December, Harrison told journalists that he enjoyed playing with his tour band more than he had being a member of the Beatles.

Release

Dark Horse was released on 9 December 1974 in the United States (as Apple SMAS 3418), two-thirds of the way through the tour. In Britain, where the lead single was "Ding Dong, Ding Dong", the album's release took place on 20 December (with the Apple catalogue number PAS 10008). The UK release coincided with the final show of the tour, at Madison Square Garden in New York. It came the day after Harrison and McCartney signed legal papers known as the "Beatles Agreement", to finally dissolve the Beatles partnership, at the Plaza Hotel.

thumb|left|upright=0.7|US trade ad for the album, December 1974

In the US, Dark Horse received a gold disc from the RIAA on 16 December, The album also reached number 4 on the national charts compiled by Cash Box and Record World. In Canada, it peaked at number 42 on the RPM Top 100 in early February 1975.

The title track performed well as a single in the US, Issued as a follow-up on 23 December, "Ding Dong" peaked at number 36, which was also an achievement since the late release date meant the song was excluded from prearranged holiday-season programming.

Dark Horse peaked inside the top ten in Austria, the Netherlands and Norway, then a top 50 list. This was a poor result for a former Beatle, further to Starr's Beaucoups of Blues not charting there in 1970. It was an especially dramatic turnaround in Harrison's commercial fortunes, after his three previous solo releases (including the Concert for Bangladesh live album) had all made number 1 or 2 in the UK. Issued as a UK single on 28 February 1975, "Dark Horse" also failed to chart.

Reissue

Dark Horse was released on CD in January 1992. The album was remastered again and reissued in September 2014, as part of the Harrison box set The Apple Years 1968–75. As bonus tracks, the reissue includes a previously unreleased demo of "Dark Horse" and the long-unavailable "I Don't Care Anymore". Author Kevin Howlett supplied a liner note essay in the CD booklet, while the DVD exclusive to the box set contains Harrison's promotional video for "Ding Dong, Ding Dong" and Capitol's 1974 television ad for the album. and the worst of Harrison's career. Released amid the furor surrounding his refusal to play "Beatle George" during a tour that was a "whirlwind of pent-up Beatlemania", in Leng's words, it was as if Harrison had already committed "acts of heresy". Rather than having his new work judged on its own merits, it was "open season" on Harrison; another biographer, Elliot Huntley, has written of the "tsunami of bile" unleashed on the ex-Beatle in late 1974.

In his review subtitled "Transcendental Mediocrity", Jim Miller of Rolling Stone called Dark Horse a "disastrous album" to match the "disastrous tour", and a "shoddy piece of work". In contrast with the praise that the same publication had lavished on Harrison for Living in the Material World the year before, Miller described Dark Horse as a "chronicle of a performer out of his element, working to a deadline, enfeebling his overtaxed talents by a rush to deliver new 'LP product, and stated: "In plain point of fact, George Harrison has never been a great artist ... the question becomes whether he will ever again become a competent entertainer."

Writing in The Village Voice, Robert Christgau bemoaned the album's "transubstantiations" and particularly ridiculed the lyrics to "Māya Love", "in which 'window-pane' becomes 'window brain.' Can this mean that pain (pane, get it?) is the same as brain? For all this hoarse dork knows..." Mike Jahn provided a withering assessment in High Fidelity, saying that the US Food and Drug Administration should arrest Harrison for "selling a sleeping pill without a prescription, for a downer this definitely is". Jahn added that only "Ding Dong, Ding Dong" registered with him after three listens, but only due to his incredulity at the lyrics.

By contrast, Billboards reviewer described the album as "an excellent one" and compared it favourably with Harrison's acclaimed 1970 triple LP, All Things Must Pass. Brian Harrigan of Melody Maker credited Harrison with establishing "a new category in music – Country and Eastern" and lauded his "nifty" slide-guitar playing and "tremendous" singing. Although he found some of the tracks overlong, Harrigan concluded: "Yep, the Sacred Cowboy has produced a good one." Combined with his feature on the tour in Circus Raves, in which he questioned the accuracy of the negative reports about the Harrison–Shankar concerts and defended Harrison's desire to move on from the Beatles, Michael Gross described Dark Horse as matching All Things Must Pass in quality, and "surpassing" it at times, thanks to the new album's "clarity of production and lovely songs".

Retrospective assessments

Writing for Rolling Stone shortly after Harrison's death in November 2001, Greg Kot approved of Dark Horses "jazzier backdrops" compared with Material World, but opined that his voice turned much of the album into an "unintentionally comic exercise". In the same publication, Mikal Gilmore identified Dark Horse as "one of Harrison's most fascinating works – a record about change and loss". Writing in the 2004 edition of The Rolling Stone Album Guide, Mac Randall said that, in persevering with Dark Horse despite his laryngitis, Harrison "ruins several decent songs with croaky vocals".

Richard Ginell of AllMusic highlights "Dark Horse" and the "exquisite" "Far East Man" but rues that, in issuing an album when his voice was ravaged by laryngitis, Harrison eroded much of the prestige he had gained over his former bandmates as a solo artist. Mojos John Harris describes Dark Horse as "Not pretty... a tanking long-player", with "Far East Man" the only redeeming track. while Scott Elingburg of PopMatters opined: "What makes Dark Horse so unique is that, aside from All Things Must Pass, Dark Horse sounds and feels like Harrison is playing music like he has nothing to lose and all the world to gain." Writing for PopMatters in 2012, Pete Prown said that, as with Lennon and McCartney solo releases, the album displayed a lack of focus but it remained the target of unfair critical scorn. In Prown's view, the same quality that incensed critics originally – "its sloppy, jammy sound, which would have been heresy in the over-produced '70s" – had since been validated in a pop culture informed by post-punk and grunge, and had lent the album a redemptive "garage/DIY grit".

In his review of the Apple Years box set, for Classic Rock magazine, Paul Trynka writes that "The surprise of this set... is the albums whose quietness and introspection were out of tune with the mid-70s. Dark Horse... [is] packed with beautiful, small-scale moments." While identifying "Simply Shady" and the title track among the standouts, Trynka adds: "Only 'Ding Dong, Ding Dong' embarrasses..." AllMusic editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine describes Dark Horse as "a mess but... a fascinating one".

In his book on the Beatles' first ten years as solo artists, Robert Rodriguez rates Dark Horse a "near-great" work, like Lennon's Mind Games and Rock 'n' Roll, adding that Harrison's "hot streak" only ended with Extra Texture. Ultimate Classic Rock ranked Dark Horse 31st (out of 63) in their list of the best Beatles solo albums released up to late 2018. In a similar list, Junkee ranks it at number 5, describing the album as a "big, footstomping masterpiece" that has improved with age, and "a work of considerable beauty, held in place by the crushing, excellent titular song".

Legacy

Dave Thompson, in his 2002 article on Harrison's career for Goldmine, wrote that Dark Horse signalled the end of the artist's post-Beatles "magic" and that, rather than being listened to in its own right, the LP had since been remembered for its association with Harrison's record label and the controversial 1974 tour, and for being the first "major Beatle album" to miss the UK chart. Harrison never completely forgave Rolling Stone – which had previously championed his work since 1970 – for the treatment he received during this period. In his biography of Rolling Stone founding editor Jann Wenner, Joe Hagan cites the magazine's treatment as indicative of Wenner's willingness to create enemies. He says that Harrison's disdain for Rolling Stone "put him in good company" in the mid-1970s – namely, Lennon, Mitchell, Bob Dylan and the Eagles.

Simon Leng bemoans the state of Harrison's voice and the "sonic patchwork" nature of the set, but comments that "So Sad" and "Far East Man" were received positively when first released by Alvin Lee and Ron Wood, respectively. In the case of "So Sad", he attributes this to "the difficulty of being George Harrison in 1974", during a year when other artists, including Lennon with Walls and Bridges and Clapton with 461 Ocean Boulevard, were incorporating elements of Harrison's sound in their work and enjoying favourable reviews. The difference in winter 1974–75, Leng continues, was that, by championing Shankar's Indian music segments during the tour and neglecting his duties as an ex-Beatle in America, Harrison had "committed the cardinal counterculture sin – he had rejected 'rock 'n' roll. Cultural historian Michael Frontani recognises the reception afforded Dark Horse, particularly by Rolling Stone, and the tour as a reflection of Harrison's "growing hostility with the rock press". He finds Jim Miller's review for the magazine "relentlessly negative" and unjustified in its vitriol, given the record's musicianship and its place as Harrison's "most funky and R&B-inflected album" up to that time. Track numbers refer to CD and digital versions of the album.

George Harrison – vocals (2–9), electric and acoustic guitars (1–9), Moog synthesizer (4, 9), clavinet (3, 4, 6), organ (6), bass (4), percussion (4, 5, 6, 9), gubgubbi (9), drums (4), backing vocals (2–6, 8, 9)
Tom Scott – saxophones (1, 2, 5, 6, 8), flute (7, 9), horn arrangements (1, 2, 5, 6, 8), organ (1)
Billy Preston – electric piano (5, 7, 8), organ (9), piano (9)
Max Bennett – bass guitar (1, 2)
Willie Weeks – bass guitar (3, 5, 7–9)
Klaus Voormann – bass guitar (6)
John Guerin – drums (1, 2)
Jim Keltner – drums (3, 6, 7)
Andy Newmark – drums (5, 7–9), percussion (8)
Ringo Starr – drums (3, 6)
Robben Ford – electric guitar (1, 2), acoustic guitar (7)
Ronnie Wood – electric guitar (6)
Alvin Lee – electric guitar (6)
Jim Horn – flute (7, 9)
Chuck Findley – flute (7, 9)
Emil Richards – percussion (7, 9)
Gary Wright – piano (6)
Nicky Hopkins – piano (3)
Roger Kellaway – piano (1, 2), organ (2)
Mick Jones – acoustic guitar (6)
Lon & Derrek Van Eaton – backing vocals (7)
uncredited – female choir (6)

|47

| scope="row" align="left"|Austrian Albums Chart

|10

| scope="row" align="left"|Canadian RPM Top Albums

| scope="row" align="left"|Japanese Oricon LP Chart

|18

| scope="row" align="left"|New Zealand Albums Chart

|29

| scope="row" align="left"|Norwegian VG-lista Albums

| scope="row" align="left"|US Billboard Top LPs & Tape

| scope="row" align="left"|US Cash Box Top 100 Albums

| scope="row" align="left"|US Record World Album Chart

| scope="row" align="left"|West German Media Control Albums

|45

Shipments and sales

{| class="wikitable"

! Country

! Organisation

! Certification

! Shipments

| United States

| RIAA

| Gold

| 800,000+

| United Kingdom

| BPI

| Silver

| 85,000+

{| class="wikitable"

!Country

!Provider

!Sales

|Japan

|Oricon

| style="text-align:center;"|46,000+

Notes

References

Sources

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