MovieChat Forums > George Harrison: Living in the Material World (2011) Discussion > Wow is this bad. Here are two facts to p...

Wow is this bad. Here are two facts to prove it.

posted 12 years ago by Rupert__Pupkin
18 replies | jump to latest

This documentary misses the mark by so much it's not even funny. Two facts exemplify this perfectly.

Fact #1: This nearly four-hour documentary features THREE(!) songs written by George after the year 1970: "Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth)," "Dark Horse," and "Handle Me With Care" (from the Traveling Wilburys). That's it! Three songs after the year of the Beatles breakup.

Fact #2: Of George's 10 solo albums, Scorsese mentions just TWO(!) of them: All Things Must Pass and 1973's "Living in the Material World." You can barely count the latter as it was only briefly mentioned and only a snippet from one song off the album was featured ["Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth)"]. The other eight albums weren't pictured, played, or spoken of. Of those eight albums not mentioned, seven were Top 20 hits. "Gone Troppo" was his only true dud.

No mention of major hits like Blow Away, All Those Years Ago, Got My Mind Set on You; and no mention of fan favorites like Cloud 9, Crackerbox Palace, You, When We Was Fab, Here Comes the Moon, Soft-Hearted Hana, Cheer Down, Faster (seems this would've fit with the part of the documentary that focused on George's fascination with racing), Dark Sweet Lady, End of the Line, Gone Troppo, Any Road, Devil's Radio, etc. So many great songs that were not mentioned. It's interesting that the movie is called "Living in the Material World" but didn't even play the song with this title anywhere.

Also no mention of Traveling Wilburys Vol. 3, a great album that hit #11 on the charts and went platinum in the US, UK, and Canada.

How can supporters of this documentary not address these glaring omissions? Here's a documentary about a musician that doesn't talk about his music.

Other omissions I would have like to have seen:

1) George contributed a lot of great songs to Ringo and produced some of Ringo's work. He co-wrote "Photograph," "It Don't Come Easy," and others. No mention of it.

2) George had a connection with the great band Badfinger. He co-produced their most successful album "Straight Up" and he played the iconic slide guitar on their biggest hit "Day After Day." His slide work on this iconic song is beautiful and something most people don't know about. Scorsese is a Badfinger fan, so I was a little surprised to not see this featured.

3) It's been mentioned elsewhere, but where was the Cloud 9 album? This was a huge comeback album and not just because of the huge hit "Got My Mind Set on You." I was very interested in learning more about the amazing collaboration between George and Jeff Lynne. Lynne was barely in the film, and I had to go to the Bonus Features to find more (and even that was scant).

4) 20 seconds devoted to George's reaction to John's death? This is a very interesting topic for George fans, and it would've been nice to have gotten more perspective than what George provided in a sound bite for the 5 o'clock news.

5) There was barely any mention of George's anger and cynicism. Ringo made one comment, and it was never expanded on. Every George fan knows he was very angry and cynical. The persona of the quiet Beatle is of course an unfortunate myth. But so is the idea that he was a mystical guru who found peace and enlightenment at the age of 25 and never looked back. The man had demons. His marital affairs were alluded to by Paul (in a pretty obvious way) and Olivia (in a less obvious way), but there was no elaboration. I'm not some voyeur, but if we're creating a 4-hour retrospective, let's be thorough. Let's not gloss over the unpleasant truths.

6) The "My Sweet Lord" lawsuit. This was a sad story but certainly an important one in George's life. Where was it? It's again obvious that Scorsese had no interest in creating an accurate biography but rather a PR piece for the Harrison estate.

7) George's drug use. Klaus Voorman made a comment about George having a serious drug problem. And then it was never mentioned again. Most Beatles fans had no idea George used drugs in the 70s. According to George, it sounds like he stopped dropping acid in 1967 and only touched pot after that. It would've been interesting to learn more about his battles with addiction. I guess that would've been inconsistent with Scorsese's narrative that George was a spiritually-enlightened soul who had found self-actualization.

To make matters worse, Scorsese decided to waste so much time on things no one cares about. 50% of this documentary is a rehash of the Beatles Anthology. The other 50% is filled with sitar music and drivel about George's quest to live a spiritually-conscious life. I am a die-hard George fan, and I had a hard time staying awake. I couldn’t care less about George’s meditation room and his never-ending journey to find the perfect mantra. I love the music.

The story of George's life is fascinating. ANY director should have been able to make an interesting documentary on this topic. Scorsese created a boring movie about George. That's hard to do. While watching this documentary, I felt like those poor tortured George fans who went to see him live but then had to sit through Indian music for two hours. I felt cheated.

I know it's a documentary, and you can't include everything. But c'mon, do we need to know about the architect who designed George's house? Or the joke about the holy friars? Or about how George had a kitchen built in his house? Or the memories from Derek Taylor's widow? Or things George would do while puttering around in his garden? And the endless chanting...ugh. Was this a movie made for George or for his fans?

I know this is long, but I had to get it out. I feel like the real documentary on George Harrison's life has yet to be made. Scorsese blew it. And I'm a Scorsese fan, as evidenced by my username.

[–] horatiohellpop 12 years ago

Most of your points are good ones, but if Scorcese included all the items you mentioned, the film would probably have been six hours long instead of four.

[–] Rupert__Pupkin 12 years ago

I mentioned several parts of the movies he could have edited down and/or cut out entirely. I think a quality documentary on George's life could easily fit into four hours, but if not, make it six hours. It's already on two discs. There shouldn't be a problem with adding a third disc. If it's worth doing, it's worth doing right. That's my opinion.

[–] JohnQ1127 12 years ago

"Marwa Blues" and "Brainwashed" were featured in this film and they were both released in 2002. "The Light That Has Lighted Up The World" was also feature in this film and that came out in 1973.

I think one of the problems with George Harrison is that about 80% of his best songs were released on his debut album, "All Things Must Pass" in 1970.

You bring up some very good points which I agree with:

* There is absolutely no mention of any album or recordings he did from 1974-1987. One would get the impression that Harrison essentially stopped recording music during this time period and instead focused on hanging out with his friends and racing cars and hanging out with the Monty Python guys and then became a full time film producer.

He released 7 albums from '74-87 and a quite a few singles a soundtrack, also his 1973 "Living in the Material" world album is barely talked about. There's also no mention of any of the albums and recordings he did from 1990-1995, including The Wilbury's Vol. 3, "Live From Japan" in 1992, and the Beatles Anthology series.

You would get the impression watching this film that George did ONE thing in music from 1974-2001 and that was 1988's Traveling Wilbury's vol. 1. You would basically get the impression that he essentially retired from music after the 1974 tour.

*No Jeff Lynne?

*There's absolutely no mention of his Comeback "Cloud Nine" album and his collaborations with Jeff Lynne. How the hell is Jeff Lynne not featured in this film?? They show an interview with Jim Keltner and several Ray Cooper and Tom Petty clips but not one clip of Jeff Lynne. Glaring omission IMO.

*There's absolutely no mention of the "My Sweet Lord" lawsuit? WTF? Glaring omission.

*You're right, they portray Harrison as a kind of Saint on Earth type of person, he could be very cynical and rather insensitive and rather nasty some times. There's some subtle hints to George's infidelity but not much. For a spiritual guy George seemed to have had sex with a bunch of women and he really didn't care if he was married or the women were married.

*You're right other than a little remark by Klaus Voorman there's no mention of George's 70's drug problems. You can kind of see in clips from the late 70's, (look at clips of his "Blow Away" videos). The film makes it sound like he stopped doing any kind of drugs in 1967-68 and became a self-actualized drug free man the rest o his life.

*They show a bit of his horrible/disaster 1974 tour but they never really go into much detail. They also don't mention that he never toured again until 1992.

*I also remember reading that George agreed to do the Anthology series because he was having financial problems from his film company.

Part of the problems of films like these are that the Families want to present a very sanitized version of the person's life so the bad and embarrassing things are left out and in your left with a very jaundiced version of a person's life.

[–] Rupert__Pupkin 12 years ago

It sounds like we pretty much agree that Scorsese presented us with a whitewashed version of Harrison's life. I do take issue with one of your comments though. 80% of Harrison's best songs were on All Things Must Pass?!? Wow. I completely disagree. I love All Things Must Pass and would agree that it's probably his best album, but he has a ton of other great songs. Some of my favorites include Faster, Soft-Hearted Hana, Dark Sweet Lady, Here Comes the Moon, and that's only one album! Thanks for the comments!

[–] JohnQ1127 12 years ago

Scorcese was limited as to what he was allowed to produce. It's obvious that the Harrison family wanted to present a clean and neat version of George's life. It seems like Scorcese wanted to focus on Harrison as a spiritual person rather than musician, which I think was a mistake. Like we said someone could go away from this thinking George didn't record any music from 1974-1987 and that he was essentially drug-free since 1968.

Leaving out George's infidelity also leaves out some of the reason Patty left him for Eric Clapton. There was an incident in the early 1970's where George had sex with Ringo's wife Maureen which must have angered Patty.

The one thing I don't understand is the Jeff Lynne-Cloud Nine omission, that doesn't make any sense, just a edit for time I guess. Also the omission of any kind of music from 1974-1987, 1990-1995 seems like an odd choice.

I really couldn't believe they left out any mention of the "My Sweet Lord" lawsuit, that seemed very weak.

As far as "All things Must Pass", 80% is too high a number, but it's safe to say most of his best songs appeared on that album. That's not to say there weren't good songs on other albums but ATMP easily has his most well known and popular songs and was easily the best album of his career:

I'd Have You Anytime
My Sweet Lord
Wah Wah
Isn't It a Pity
Side One is basically a greatest hits side one in itself
What is Life?
If Not For You
Let It Down
Run of the Mill
Beware of Darkness
Apple Scruffs
Ballad of Sir Frankie Crisp (Let it Roll)
Awaiting on You All
All Things Must Pass
Hear Me Lord

That's 14 songs from All Things Must Pass.

That's not to say he didn't have other very good/great songs on other albums. I'm a big fan of 33 1/3 and George Harrison which I think were just sadly overlooked and forgotten albums.

Good/Very Good Songs 33 1/3:

Dear One
Beautiful Girl
This Song
See Yourself
It's What You Value
Pure Smokey
Crackerbox Palace

Good/Very Good Songs, George Harrison lp:

Love Comes to Everyone
Not Guilty
Here Comes the Moon
Blow Away
Faster
Sweet Dark Lady

[–] Rupert__Pupkin 12 years ago

Hey, why stop there?

Good/very good songs, Extra Texture LP:

You
The Answer's at the End
This Guitar (Can't Keep From Crying)
Can't Stop Thinking About Your
Tired of Midnight Blue

Good/very good songs, Somewhere in England LP:

All Those Years Ago
Life Itself
Baltimore Oriole
That Which I Have Lost
Save the World

Good/very good songs, Gone Troppo LP:

Wake Up My Love
That's the Way it Goes
Gone Troppo
Dream Away
Circles

Good/very good songs, Cloud 9 LP:

Cloud 9
Just For Today
When We Was Fab
Devil's Radio
Wreck of the Hesperus
Got My Mind Set on You

Good/very good songs, Brainwashed LP:

Any Road
P2 Vatican Blues
Pisces Fish
Rising Sun
Stuck Inside a Cloud
Brainwashed

Good/very good songs, rarities:

Cheer Down (my favorite!)
Poor Little Girl
Cockamamie Business
I Live For you (my other favorite)
Everybody, Nobody
I Don't Want to do it
Going Down to Golders Green
Deep Blue
Miss O'Dell
Mo
Sat Singing
Tears of The World

I agree that Scorsese was very limited in terms of what the family would allow. However, that being the case, he should not have compromised his integrity as a filmmaker by making an abridged PR piece.

[–] JohnQ1127 12 years ago

Well, it's just odd IMO that they would make a film about a "musician" and then omit about 97% of the music he made from 1974-2001. In my opinion he wrote a lot of better songs during this time period than Savoy Truffle, Blue Jay Way or Old Brown Shoe. George Harrison the song writer is a very small part of the Beatles story yet it gets a ton of attention in this biopic.

"Cheer Down" is a great song and kind of forgotten because it was on the Lethal Weapon 2 soundtrack.

Brainwashed was a very good/great album and you could add "Rising Sun" and "Marwa Blues" to the list of good songs on that album. Although he didn't write it, you can add "Devil and the Deep Blue Sea."

You could also add "This is Love" from Cloud Nine.

I'm kind of surprised that "Extra Texture" was never remastered and it's not available as an MP3 download. That's another good album that's completely forgotten.

I have to disagree with you on "Gone Troppo".

You could also add, "Heading for the Light" and "End of the Line" from Wilbury's vol. 1. Wilbury's vol 3. was mostly a Tom Petty vehicle.

Also no mention of "Live in Japan" in this film.

In retrospect it's kind of amazing how many good songs he recorded as a solo artist. "All Things Must Pass' is the best post-Beatles album ever released IMO. I don't think he ever received the radio support he deserved. I think some part of that was his fault because he didn't seem at all interested in promoting his material. His Extra Texture-33 1/3-George Harrison-Somewhere in England period is just as good as any of the "soft rock/adult contemporary" stuff that was coming out during the mid 70's to early 80's.

On a side note for such a creative guy he released so many boring album covers. And then he released "George Harrison" which was something like his 4th or 5th solo release? That album should have been called "Here Comes the Moon" with a cool album photo.

[–] Rupert__Pupkin 12 years ago

Hey, don't go knocking Savoy Truffle. :) I love that song! But I agree with you that several of George's Beatles songs were less than stellar: Love You To; It's Only a Northern Song; It's All Too Much; You Like Me Too Much.

I also agree that George's solo material very strong as a whole and unfairly overlookd. But as you said, this was largely George's fault. He rarely toured. He avoided the press. And he wanted no part in promotion or marketing. His music was like the rest of his life: self-indulgent.

I would suggest re-listening to Gone Troppo. It's certainly one of his worst albums, but it's no worse than the Dark Horse album and almost on par with Somewhere in England.

That's funny about his album artwork. I love the cover of ATMP, but after that they are pretty poor. I get the feeling that he just didn't care that much.

I've never heard in the "Live in Japan" album. I don't have much interest in hearing a 50-year old Harrison giving lackluster performances of Old Brown Shoe and Roll Over Beethoven.

[–] JohnQ1127 12 years ago

Yeah, I was born in '66 so I don't really have any memory of Harrison's solo work when I was kid. I remember "My Sweet Lord" and "Give Me Peace On Earth" and "All Those Years Ago". I remember seeing the video to "Crackerbox Palace" when I was young. I was a big Beatles fan as a kid but It wasn't really until "Cloud Nine" & Wilburys that I started to see Harrison and listen to some of his music. I didn't buy/listen to "All Things Must Pass" until the 30th anniversary in 2000. I was kind of floored by how good the album was.

Later on I bought, 33 1/3, Brainwashed and George Harrison. Again, I was pleasantly surprised by how good those albums were.

You're absolutely right he was never in the public eye and never really promoted any of his music until "Cloud Nine" & Wilburys. I was kind of shocked in retrospect that he released so much material because I don't remember hardly any of it when I was a kid.

"Live in Japan" is actually pretty good, there are several videos on You Tube from this tour. It was kind of big in retrospect because he didn't tour since 1974.

[–] Rupert__Pupkin 12 years ago

I was born in '78, and my first memory of George's post-Beatles work was Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1. I heard it about two years after it came out (1990ish), and I immediately bought Cloud 9 and Best of Dark Horse: 1976-1989 on cassette. I was hooked after that. I'll have to look into Live in Japan. That's the only George Harrison release I don't own. I was just on wikipedia and found that there's a page that features every song George ever released. I actually found one song of George's that I've never heard before: I Don't Care Anymore (the b-side to Ding Dong, Ding Dong). Ever heard it? Here's the link if you're interested.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_George_Harrison_songs

I've given up on George documentaries to tell me the truth about George's life. Can you recommend a book on George that gives an accurate portrayal of his life and music from start to finish?

[–] JohnQ1127 12 years ago

It's funny because when I first remember the Beatles, "1969-70, I was about 3-4 years old but I had older cousins who had Let It Be. I remember "Something" on the radio but I thought Paul sang everything. It wasn't until I actually bought Abbey Road around 1979-1980 that I realized that George actually sang the song.

Paul was just a huge star in the 1970's who was always on t.v. And it seemed like everybody had a least one McCartney/Wings record or 8 track or cassette back then. Ringo was actually pretty popular back in the 70's, I remember my older sister had a few of his 45's and he was always on t.v. Back in the late 70's I didn't even know who George and John were. I thought they were both minor parts of the Beatles and that Paul was the lead singer.

George was like a hermit back then you never saw him on t.v. and rarely heard his songs on the radio.

I got really into the Beatles right before John was killed (summer/fall 1980) and then heavily after his death. I started buying a lot of their albums and was amazed how many good/great songs they had. That's when I found out that John was a pretty big deal etc. I remember they played John Lennon songs all through 1981.

Then "All Those Years Ago" was a hit in the summer of '81 but you never saw George on t.v. I didn't even really know what he looked like. We all used to think he went kind of crazy and joined the Hari Krishnas and lived on top of mountain or something. And then I used to think all his solo albums were Sitar type records.

Then all of a sudden around 1987 Cloud Nine came out and George was on the radio all the time and doing a lot of t.v. I was in college at the time and I remember that album being played quite a bit. Then the Wilburys came out in 1988 and one of my college room-mates had the C.D. and we listened to it all the time.

Personally, I didn't really get into George's music until the anthology series and I started to really like a lot of the demos and a song I had never heard before, "All Things Must Pass". I bought the special edition of "All Things Must Pass" in 2000. And I was really floored by how good it was. I went back and bought 33 1/3 and was surprised how good it was. I bought "Let it Roll" Best of and again completely surprised how good it was especially the songs from "Brainwashed". I went back and bought Brainwashed and was SHOCKED at how good it was. I was expecting some lame post-death album. Then recently I went and bought "George Harrison", again pleasantly surprised at the quality.

I recently bought the deluxe Wilbury's release, again very good all around.

As far as books go I just read "Working Class Mystic" which was pretty good but not very long. I never read it but George's autobiography "I, Me, Mine" is supposed to be very good. As far as the Beatles goes, there's a book "Shout" that came out around 1980 that's very good.

The documentaries are what they are. There's a lot of good stuff but you're going to get a very rose colored view of his life.

check out the Japan tour on you tube.

[–] Rupert__Pupkin 12 years ago

It's always interesting to learn how people learned to love the Beatles. Thank you for sharing your story. I remember when I was about 10 years old (1988), and my parents got a copy of the double LP "Beatles Love Songs." I remember hearing it and thinking it was just terrible. Depsite my complaints, my parents (mom especially) played it over and over for at least a couple months. I started liking a couple of the songs...then a few songs...then a lot of the songs...then I liked every freaking song. Then I loved it and had to hear more. The rest is history. I'm still hungry for more, and this has lead to me discovering other great bands associated with the Beatles (e.g. Badfinger, ELO, Harry Nilsson, etc.).

The best Beatles documentary I've ever seen is "The Compleat Beatles" from 1982. It's only 2 hours long, but I find it to be much more informative, engaging, and accurate than the Anthology or other docs. If you haven't seen it, I'd highly recommend it. One of the best things about The Compleat Beatles is that none of the Beatles are in it. I know that sounds weird, but I rarely find comments from the Beatles themselves as being that insightful or interesting. In fact, I'm often surprised at how often they (Paul especially) misremember the events from the past. For example, Paul routinely says that George is 1 1/2 years younger than him, when in reality he's only 9 months younger. Similarly, they have trouble remembering names, dates, and events in detail. Sometimes they admit they can't remember. Other times, they're just wrong. In the anthology there were several moments when the three remaining Beatles all had different recollections of the same event. Many Beatles fans know more about the Beatles history than the Beatles themselves.

I've owned "I Me Mine" and "Shout" for many years but have never read them in their entirety. I read Peter Brown's "The Love You Make" years ago and thought that was great. The one story I remember from "Shout" that stands out is the one where the custodian at one of the large arenas (Washington Coliseum perhaps?) was cleaning the stadium after a Beatles show and found rows of seats soaked in urine, presumably from over-excited teenage girls.

[–] JohnQ1127 12 years ago

I always like the Beatles but my listening was limited to whatever my older sister bought and the only Beatle record she had was "Live at the Hollywood Bowl" from 1977. For some reason she had a lot of Ringo Star 45's. I remember she bought the soundtrack to the "Sgt. Peppers" movie with the Bee Gee so it's odd in that I was first introduced to a lot of those Abbey Road/Sgt. Pepper songs from that horrible movie. I didn't really start buying music myself until 1978-1980 and I pretty much bought what was popular with my friends at school, Kiss, The Charlie Daniels Band, and Lynard Skynard. It's seems strange now, but comedy records were really big back then, Steve Martin, Richard Pryor, Chech and Chong, Robin Williams, Monty Python etc.

I remember that Sgt. Peppers movie was on HBO during the summer of 1980 and I remember watching is constantly because I liked the music. I went to a flea market with my dad during that summer and saw the album "Abbey Road" on sale for about $3.00 and I thought "great this has all the songs from the Sgt. Peppers movie. I ended up listening to that album over and over all summer long and came to the conclusion that the Sgt. Pepper movie sucked.

I started high school that fall and I remember I bought the real Sgt. Peppers and the first Doors album in September of 1980. I was shocked by how good the real Sgt. Peppers album was.

Lennon was shot in December and then I really got into the Beatles and bought the Red Album, Magical Mystery Tour, Let it Be, Imagine and a bunch of singles. My Beatles' fandom would go up and down over the next few years and then it got a huge upsurge when they released all their material on C.D. in 1987. I remember I bought Hard Day's Night and again was shocked by how good it was, I bought Revolver and again shocked by how good it was. I bought the White Album again shocked by how good it was and I remember listening to the White Album basically every day during the fall of 1987.

You're absolutely right about "The Compleat Beatles", it's the best documentary about them or at least it's the most honest.

The problem with Paul is that re-interprets things to look better in hindsight. I think part of it is to avoid conflict or embarrassment which I think is in his nature. I think this was a bigger problem in the 1970's-1990's because he was trying to maintain his image somewhat. I think he's much more candid nowadays. I was actually shocked that he cursed in the George Harrison film.

Ringo was either drunk or stoned for most of the Beatles days so he doesn't remember much and he was always in the background so I don't know how much he knew anyway.

Lennon was very candid but could be a real jerk sometimes, read his playboy interviews if you get a chance they're very good. Also, Yoko was always around him during interviews during the 70's which was a pain in the ass. Lennon was made into a saint after he died which wasn't reality. Remember he was depicted as "Ron Nasty" in the film "The Rutles." I think Lennon was insecure and was jealous that McCartney was writing the bulk of the best Beatles songs from 1966-1970. I think he was also jealous that Paul had a lot of chart success in the 70's.

Harrison gave some honest points of view but he was such a hermit for so many years that there isn't much available until 1987. There's some very interviews of Harrison on Youtube from english t.v in 1987 and there's a good one from Australia in 1982.

[–] Brennan-8 12 years ago

Wow, that's news to me - not that I'm any sort of expert on him, far from it. What drugs was he using, besides pot? I've seen the "Blow Away" video, he looks fine to me - a bit puffy in the face, but that happens as you age.

Oh gosh, he was tight with money too apparently - judging by this article about his sister Louise:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1168877/My-sweet-George-The-big-sister-Beatles-legend-opens-seen-family-album.html

I still love his music. We shouldn't make someone out to be a hero just because they're very gifted in a certain area.

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[–] cbartal 11 years ago

furak, you're post is interesting and amusing. I'm not quite sure what you are getting at. Maybe I should take it at face value... maybe with a pound of salt.

In any case, a thread this long, with an initial post as long as the OP's, I usually wave the white flag two paragraphs in.

But this entire thread from start to finish, was informative, interesting, and thought provolking. What a great discussion. This is what these boards are about.

[–] the_traveller76 10 years ago

Hmmmm, I enjoyed the doco but you have brought up many interesting points that have made me think twice and can't be argued with. I must admit that I too was baffled that there was no mention of the My Sweet Lord lawsuit, and not much of a follow up to Klaus Voorman's comments on George's drug problems.