Somewhere in England

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Somewhere in England
Somewhere in England cover
Studio album by George Harrison
Released 5 June 1981
Recorded sporadically between
30 October 1979 -
23 September 1980 &
November 1980 -
February 1981
Genre Rock
Length 39:43
Label Dark Horse/Warner Bros. Records
Producer George Harrison
and Ray Cooper
Professional reviews
George Harrison chronology
George Harrison
(1979)		 Somewhere in England
(1981)		 Gone Troppo
(1982)

Somewhere in England is an album by George Harrison, released in 1981. Recorded as Harrison was becoming increasingly frustrated with the music industry, the album's making was a long one, and witnessed a tragic event in Harrison's life.

Content to move at his own speed, Harrison began recording Somewhere In England in the autumn of 1979 and would continue at a sporadic pace, finally delivering the album to Warner Bros. Records in September 1980. However, the powers that be at Warner Bros. rejected it, ordering Harrison to drop four of its songs ("Tears Of The World", "Sat Singing", "Lay His Head" and "Flying Hour") which they somehow found too downbeat. Harrison's original cover art, featuring his profile against a map of Great Britain would also be vetoed by Warner Bros. With Harrison already feeling unable to relate to the current post-punk and New Wave musical climate, he acceded to their requests, but knew that when his recording contract came up for renewal after his next album, he wouldn't bother re-signing. Interestingly, a survey conducted in 2006 of the top 50 most popular 'Harrisongs' on the official George Harrison.com message boards included only one song from Somewhere in England ("Life Itself," #29), yet included three of the four rejected songs ("Flying Hour" at #14, "Lay His Head" at #27, and "Sat Singing" at #41).

Picking up the project again in November, Harrison was joined in his home studio at Friar Park in Henley-on-Thames by none other than Ringo Starr, who arrived specifically to have Harrison produce some songs for him. Recorded were two Harrison originals "Wrack My Brain" and "All Those Years Ago" plus a cover of "You Belong To Me" for Starr's impending album Can't Fight Lightning which was later released as Stop and Smell the Roses. Two songs were finished but "All Those Years Ago" went unadorned. Starr later admitted that the key was too high for him to sing. During this period, Harrison had received word that John Lennon was slightly hurt over his biography I Me Mine, which, in Lennon's estimation, praised every musician Harrison had worked with except him. Unfortunately, Harrison was never able to make amends with Lennon; on 8 December 1980, Lennon was gunned down outside the The Dakota apartment building by Mark David Chapman.

After the shock and devastation of Lennon's murder, Harrison decided to utilise the unfinished recording of "All Those Years Ago". He changed the lyrics of the song to reflect the Lennon tragedy. With Starr's pre-recorded drum track in place, Harrison invited Paul and Linda McCartney, and their fellow Wings band-mate Denny Laine, to record backing vocals in early 1981. Aside "All Those Years Ago", "Blood From A Clone" (a searing indictment of the current music scene), "Teardrops" and "That Which I Have Lost" were added to replace the four discarded songs, and after a new cover was shot in the Tate Gallery in London, Somewhere In England was resubmitted and accepted.

"All Those Years Ago" was released as the lead-off single that May to, hardly surprisingly, a very strong response. Reaching #13 in the UK and #2 in the US, it was Harrison's biggest hit since "Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth)" in 1973, and Somewhere In England benefited from its placement on the album. Peaking at #13 in the UK and #11 in the US, these chart positions were, superficially, Harrison's best transatlantic album peaks in some time, yet Somewhere In England actually sold less than it would appear, since its chart life - in both countries - was brief, and it became Harrison's first proper studio album to fail to reach gold status in the US. It was generally overlooked by the public, with follow-up single "Teardrops" reaching only #101 in the US.

In 2004, Somewhere In England was remastered and reissued, both separately and as part of the deluxe box set The Dark Horse Years 1976-1992, on Dark Horse Records with new distribution by EMI, adding the bonus track demo version of "Save The World", recorded in 1980. Specially for this reissue, Harrison's originally rejected artwork was now reinstated.

Contents

[edit] Track listing

All songs by George Harrison, except where noted.

  1. "Blood from a Clone" – 4:03
  2. "Unconsciousness Rules" – 3:05
  3. "Life Itself" – 4:25
  4. "All Those Years Ago" – 3:45
  5. "Baltimore Oriole" (Hoagy Carmichael) – 3:57
  6. "Teardrops" – 4:07
  7. "That Which I Have Lost" – 3:47
  8. "Writings on the Wall" – 3:59
  9. "Hong Kong Blues" (Carmichael) – 2:55
  10. "Save the World" – 4:54
    • the track's end features a short excerpt from "Crying", originally released on Harrison's 1968 debut album Wonderwall Music

Somewhere In England was remastered and reissued in 2004 with the bonus track:

  1. "Save the World" (Acoustic Demo Version) – 4:31

The iTunes Music Store offers one of the lost tracks:

  1. "Flying Hour (Bonus Track)" – 4:35

[edit] Original (rejected) track listing

  1. "Hong Kong Blues" (Carmichael) - 2:53
  2. "Writings on the Wall" - 3:58
  3. "Flying Hour" (Harrison/Mick Ralphs) - 4:04
  4. "Lay His Head" - 3:43
  5. "Unconsciousness Rules" – 3:36
  6. "Sat Singing" - 4:28
  7. "Life Itself" - 4:24
  8. "Tears of the World" - 4:00
  9. "Baltimore Oriole" (Carmichael) - 3:57
  10. "Save the World" - 4:56

[edit] Personnel

[edit] Charts

[edit] Albums

Country Charts (1981)
Peak position Weeks
Norway 2 9
United States 11 13
United Kingdom 13 4
Sweden 13 3 [1]
Austria 15 4
Japan 31 9
Country Charts (2004 Reissue)
Peak position Weeks
Japan 294 1

[edit] Singles

Year Single US NO CH UK SE AT
1981 "All Those Years Ago" 2 2 8 13 13 14
1981 "Teardrops" 101 - - - - -

[edit] References

  1. ^ swedishcharts.com - George Harrison - Somewhere In England
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