Dark Horse (George Harrison album)

Dark Horse
Studio album by George Harrison
Released	9 December 1974
Recorded	September-October 1974
Genre	Rock
Length	41:19
Label	Apple
Producer	George Harrison
George Harrison chronology
Living in the Material World (1973) Dark Horse (1974) Extra Texture (Read All About It) (1975)
Singles from Dark Horse
"Ding Dong, Ding Dong" Released: 6 December 1974 "Dark Horse" Released: 28 February 1975

Dark Horse is an album by George Harrison, released as the follow-up to Living in the Material World in 1974. Dark Horse is notable for the well-attended, but ultimately infamous North American tour that supported it, which would turn out to be Harrison's only set of performances there as a solo artist.

History

1974 saw a separation from first wife Pattie Boyd, who left Harrison for friend Eric Clapton, with the situation later being uncomfortably parodied on Dark Horse with a cover of "Bye Bye Love". That year also saw Harrison planning for his future. With the end of his EMI contract in sight, he founded Dark Horse Records—to be distributed through A&M Records—and spent much of the year signing acts and guiding their development. When his EMI contract expired in January 1976, Harrison would move to the Dark Horse label himself.

With the impending tour pencilled in for the last two months of the year, Harrison was only able to start recording his own album - which he was also dubbing Dark Horse - in September, leaving him little time to complete it. Aiding Harrison were Ringo Starr, Jim Keltner, Nicky Hopkins, Billy Preston and the aforementioned Eric Clapton. The sessions, which were held at his home studio in Henley-on-Thames, compounded Harrison's unfortunate development of laryngitis. When it was time to leave for the United States in mid-October to begin rehearsing for the tour - with the album still unfinished - Harrison's voice was completely raw. Starr confirmed this with Beatlefan magazine when he stated that Harrison was hoarse before he left England to complete the album and start tour rehearsals.

After quickly recording the title track (a future US Top 20 hit), Dark Horse was quickly pressed and rushed into shops that December. Although the music was much more uplifting than Living in the Material World's and featured some excellent guitar work, critics soon began calling the album "Dark Hoarse", in reference to Harrison's suffering vocals. With no time to let his throat heal, he performed the entire tour in a sandpaper voice, much to the disapproval of reviewers and fans. The negative press Harrison received also stemmed from his unpopular decision to include an Indian music portion to the concert, as well as performing The Beatles' "In My Life" and While My Guitar Gently Weeps with lyrics modified to fit his own religious transformation. After the tour's conclusion, Harrison was so averse to touring that he would hardly ever appear live again, save for isolated concert appearances and a brief Japanese tour in 1991 at Clapton's insistence.

Dark Horse failed to chart at all in the United Kingdom, while it reached #4 in the United States during a brief chart stay, going gold.

In 1992, Dark Horse was remastered for CD release.

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	link
Rolling Stone	(not favourable) link

Track listing

All songs by George Harrison, except where noted.

1. "Hari's On Tour (Express)" – 4:43
2. "Simply Shady" – 4:38
3. "So Sad" – 5:00
   • A song originally recorded as "So Sad (No Love of His Own)" by Alvin Lee & Mylon LeFevre on their On the Road to Freedom album from 1973 - featuring George on slide guitar
   • Iain Matthews also recorded a demo version of this song in 1974, but it wasn't released until "Orphans & Outcasts, Vol. 1: Collection Of Demos, 1969-1979" album in 1993
4. "Bye Bye, Love" (Felice Bryant, Boudleaux Bryant, George Harrison) – 4:08
   • A wry cover of The Everly Brothers' 1957 hit with modified parody lyrics by Harrison, in reference to first wife Pattie Boyd's union with friend Eric Clapton. Rumours circulated that Clapton himself appeared on guitar with Boyd on backing vocals, but they were unfounded.^[1]
5. "Māya Love" – 4:24
6. "Ding Dong, Ding Dong" – 3:40
   • Harrison's New Year's song, released as a single
7. "Dark Horse" – 3:54
8. "Far East Man" (George Harrison, Ronnie Wood) – 5:52
   • Co-writer Ronnie Wood's version of "Far East Man" appears on his 1974 debut album I've Got My Own Album to Do
9. "It Is "He" (Jai Sri Krishna)" – 4:50

Personnel

• George Harrison – vocals, guitar, bass
• Mick Jones – guitar
• Billy Preston – electric piano
• Ringo Starr – drums
• Steve Winwood – synthesizer, harmonium, background vocals
• Ron Wood – guitar
• Gary Wright – piano
• Robben Ford – guitar
• Roger Kellaway – piano
• Tom Scott – flute, saxophone
• Nicky Hopkins – piano
• Alvin Lee – guitar
• Jim Keltner – drums
• Max Bennett – bass
• Eric Clapton – guitar
• Ray Cooper – percussion
• Chuck Findley – flute, horn
• John Guerin – drums
• Patti Harrison – vocals
• Neil Larsen – synthesizer
• Andy Newmark – drums
• Emil Richards – marimba
• Derrek Van Eaton – vocals
• Klaus Voormann – bass
• Willie Weeks – bass
• Gayle Levant – harp
• Dick Newman – strings

Chart positions

Chart (1974/75)	Position	Weeks
US Billboard 200 [2][3]	4	17
Norwegian VG-lista Albums Chart (top 20)[4]	7	12
Austrian Albums Chart (top 30)[5]	10	4
Japanese Oricon Weekly LP Chart (top 100)[6]	18	16
New Zealand Albums Chart (top 40)[7]	29	4

Shipments and sales

Country Organization Certification Shipments United States RIAA Gold[8] 500,000+ United Kingdom BPI Silver 60,000+

Country Provider Sales Japan Oricon 46,000+[9]

References

1. ^ Leng, Simon (2003). The Music of George Harrison: While My Guitar Gently Weeps. London: Firefly Publishing. p. 115. ISBN 0-946719-50-0. 
2. ^ "allmusic ((( Dark Horse > Charts & Awards > Billboard Albums )))". allmusic.com. http://www.allmusic.com/album/r8990/charts-awards. Retrieved 2 October 2009. 
3. ^ "George Harrison - Chart trajectories on the US Billboard 200". October 2006. http://homepage1.nifty.com/tuty/after_beatles_george_albumchartaction_usa.htm/. Retrieved 3 October 2009. 
4. ^ "norwegiancharts.com George Harrison - Extra Texture". VG-lista. http://norwegiancharts.com/showitem.asp?interpret=George+Harrison&titel=Extra+Texture&cat=a. Retrieved 2 October 2009. 
5. ^ "George Harrison - Dark Horse - austriancharts.at". http://austriancharts.at/showitem.asp?interpret=George+Harrison&titel=Dark+Horse&cat=a. Retrieved 2 October 2009. 
6. ^ a-ザ・ビートルズ "- Yamachan Land (Archives of the Japanese record charts) - Albums Chart Daijiten - The Beatles" (in Japanese). 30 December 2007. http://www7a.biglobe.ne.jp/~yamag/album/al_beatles.html a-ザ・ビートルズ. Retrieved 22 September 2009. 
7. ^ "charts.org.nz - George Harrison - Dark Horse". Recording Industry Association of New Zealand. http://charts.org.nz/showitem.asp?interpret=George+Harrison&titel=Dark+Horse&cat=a. Retrieved 2 October 2009. 
8. ^ "RIAA — Gold & Platinum — Searchable Database". Recording Industry Association of America. http://www.riaa.com/goldandplatinumdata.php?table=SEARCH_RESULTS&title=Dark%20Horse&format=ALBUM&go=Search&perPage=50. Retrieved 3 October 2009. 
9. ^ "George Harrison Japanese Album Chart trajectories". October 2006. http://homepage1.nifty.com/tuty/after_beatles_george_albumchartaction_japan.htm/. Retrieved 3 October 2009.