The Dark Horse Years 1976-1992

Disc 1
1	Woman Don't You Cry for Me 3:20
2	Dear One 5:07
3	Beautiful Girl 3:42
4	This Song 4:14
5	See Youself 2:51
6	It's What You Value 5:08
7	True Love 2:44
8	Pure Smokey 3:55
9	Crackerbox Palace 3:58
10	Learning How to Love You 4:14
11	Tears of the World 4:03
Disc 2
1	Love Comes to Everyone 4:36
2	Not Guilty 3:34
3	Here Comes the Moon 4:50
4	Soft-Hearted Hana 4:03
5	Blow Away 4:00
6	Faster 4:47
7	Dark Sweet Lady 3:22
8	Your Love Is Forever 3:48
9	Soft Touch 3:59
10	If You Believe 2:57
11	Here Comes the Moon Demo Version 3:38
Disc 3
1	Blood from a Clone 4:04
2	Unconsciousness Rules 3:37
3	Life Itself 4:26
4	All Those Years Ago 3:47
5	Baltimore Oriole 3:59
6	Teardrops 4:09
7	That Which I Have Lost 3:46
8	Writing's on the Wall 4:01
9	Hong Kong Blues 2:56
10	Save the World 5:00
11	Save the World Demo Version 4:31
Disc 4
1	Wake Up My Love 3:36
2	That's the Way It Goes 3:37
3	I Really Love You 2:57
4	Greece Instrumental 4:02
5	Gone Troppo 4:27
6	Mystical One 3:45
7	Unknown Delight 4:18
8	Baby Don't Run Away 4:04
9	Dream Away 4:31
10	Circles 3:47
11	Mystical One Demo Version 6:01
Disc 5
1	Want to Tell You 4:33
2	Old Brown Shoe 3:50
3	Taxman 4:15
4	Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth) 3:37
5	If I Needed Someone 3:50
6	Something 5:21
7	What Is Life 4:47
8	Dark Horse 4:20
9	Piggies 2:56
10	Got My Mind Set on You 4:56
Disc 6
1	Cloud 9 4:22
2	Here Comes the Sun 3:31
3	My Sweet Lord 5:41
4	All Those Years Ago 4:26
5	Cheer Down 3:53
6	Devil's Radio 4:24
7	Isn't It a Pity 6:32
8	While My Guitar Gently Weeps 7:08
9	Roll Over Beethoven 4:45
Disc 7
1	Cloud 9 3:16
2	That's What It Takes 4:01
3	Fish on the Sand 3:24
4	Just for Today 4:06
5	This Is Love 3:49
6	When We Was Fab 3:59
7	Devil's Radio 3:53
8	Someplace Else 3:52
9	Wreck of the Hesperus 3:33
10	Breath Away from Heaven 3:35
11	Got My Mind Set on You 3:54
12	Shanghai Surprise From Shanghai Surprise 5:09
13	Zig Zag From Shanghai Surprise 2:45
Disc 8
1	Dark Horse Feature
2	This Song Multimedia Track
3	Crackerbox Palace Multimedia Track
4	Faster Multimedia Track
5	Set on You Version 1 / Multimedia Track
6	Set on You Version 2 / Multimedia Track
7	When We Was Fab Multimedia Track
8	This Is Love Multimedia Track
9	Taxman Live
10	Cloud 9 Live
11	Devil's Radio Live
12	Cheer Down Live
13	Shanghai Surprise From Shanghai Surprise
14	Someplace Else From Shanghai Surprise
15	Hottest Gong in Town From Shanghai Surprise

Barnes & Noble

This nicely assembled box set spans more than a decade and a half in the career of the so-called Quiet Beatle, focusing on a period in which he was happy just to turn out engaging pop songs. The six albums contained here (one a double-disc offering) have all been out of print for ages, making for a good bit of warmth in reacquaintance, particularly earlier outings like Thirty Three & 1/3, best known for Harrison's sly legal-system stab "This Song" and here outfitted with a bonus track, the poignant "Tears of the World." While some of the bonus tracks appended to the various albums are demos for extant album songs -- such as the stripped-down "Here Comes the Moon," added to Harrison's self-titled '79 offering -- others are long-hidden obscurities, like the two additions to Cloud Nine, taken from the film Shanghai Surprise. The double-disc album, Live in Japan, originally released in '92, is a hybrid SACD, while the other discs were remastered for clearer sound. The set is rounded out by an otherwise unavailable 89-minute DVD that collects some of Harrison's whimsical early video clips, including the mini-films for "Crackerbox Palace" and "Faster," as well as a four-song snippet from a Japanese tour, highlighted by a sparkling version of "Taxman." The DVD is housed in a casebound, 24-page booklet featuring extensive liner notes by David Fricke; new photographs, illustrations, and press clippings; and a short history of Dark Horse Records. Additionally, each of the individual discs includes song-by-song explanations culled from Harrison's book, I Me Mine, making Dark Horse a clear winner for fans of all stripes. David Sprague

All Music Guide

George Harrison's albums for Dark Horse drifted out of print in the late '90s as his contract with Warner Brothers expired. Over the half-decade, they fetched high prices on the collector's market, as any relatively rare Beatles-related item does, and the demand for these records -- along with the Traveling Wilburys albums, which were part of Harrison's Dark Horse/Warner contract -- never diminished. At the time of his death in November 2001, the albums were being prepared for reissue, but his passing delayed them for a few more years, and it wasn't until February 2004 that the albums -- Thirty Three & 1/3 (1976), George Harrison (1979), Somewhere In England (1981), Gone Troppo (1982), Cloud Nine (1987), and Live in Japan (1992) -- were reissued, both individually and as part of the lavish box set Dark Horse Years 1976-1992. All five of the studio albums have been remastered and are graced with a bonus track or two, while the double-live set has been reissued as a hybrid SACD with a 5.1 surround mix (a nice gesture, but it does raise the question of why wasn't the entire set released as hybrid SACD, the way the 2002 Rolling Stones and 2003 Bob Dylan reissues were). In addition, the box set contains an exclusive booklet and a DVD containing video highlights of the Dark Horse years. It seems like the box would be the definitive word on Harrison's latter-day career, and it very nearly is, but it comes short in a couple of ways. First, there is the aforementioned puzzling decision to release only one SACD in the set, which only highlights the fact that the rest of the discs are standard CDs (which do have very good remastering). Second, the bonus tracks are underwhelming. With the exception of Cloud Nine, which has two songs from the Shanghai Surprise soundtrack, there's only one bonus track per disc, and with the exception of Thirty Three & 1/3, which has the fine "Tears of the World," a demo of a song that's on the album. Harrison has a lot of unreleased material in the vault -- Somewhere In England is notorious for being reworked on Warner's request, so at the very least the excised songs could have been featured on this reissue -- so it's a disappointment that there's not more bonus material here. Third, the DVD isn't nearly as complete as it should have been, containing a ten-minute "Dark Horse Feature," some selections from the Live in Japan video, and the Shanghai Surprise movie, plus seven promotional videos, all prefaced with interview excerpts from Harrison. While the featurette would have been much more interesting if it was expanded to a full documentary, the real disappointment is that this doesn't contain all of Harrison's promotional music videos, with such gems as the lovely "Blow Away" missing in action (some may also wish that the videos had been mixed for 5.1 sound as well). Considering the steep price of the box set, it's hard not to think that this DVD could have been a little bit more thorough. That said, the box set is very well made: the art direction is lovely, the sound is terrific, and the hardcover minibook is beautiful, with good notes from David Fricke. All of this makes it an essential purchase for Harrison fans, who have already accepted the uneven quality of the albums and want them in their collection anyway. Stephen Thomas Erlewine