George Harrison’s 1970 masterwork All Things Must Pass — the album Rolling Stone once called “the War And Peace of rock and roll” — is the centerpiece of a definitive, limited edition 50th-anniversary box set, available on August 6th via Capitol/UMe. The super-deluxe package, which you can pre-order here, is filled with unreleased tracks from the prolific period of the former Beatle’s career, newly mixed by Grammy Award-winning engineer Paul Hicks.
One of these gems is the whimsical “Run Of The Mill (Take 36).” According to Olivia Harrison, the song was one of their favorites. The Harrison estate released the track with a new video, set in Friar Park, which is on their property. “Mill,” along with “Isn’t It A Pity,” “Wah-Wah,” and “Beware Of Darkness,” came out of Harrison’s frustration concerning the Beatles’ breakup in April of 1970.
All Things Must Pass, produced by Harrison and Phil Spector, is an enormous, ambitious statement of Harrison’s remarkably gifted songcraft, deep spirituality, and his dedication to both his distinct style and collaboration with his fellow musicians. The album bursts with a variety of musical genres: rock and roll, country, gospel, blues, pop, folk, Indian classical music, and devotional melodies. Despite being phenomenally popular, Harrison said in the liner notes for the 30th-anniversary reissue, issued in 2001, “I still like the songs on the album and believe they can continue to outlive the style in which they were recorded,” adding, however, “it was difficult to resist re-mixing every track. All these years later I would like to liberate some of the songs from the big production that seemed appropriate at the time.”
The Super Deluxe Edition box set, presented on 8LP (180g) or 5CD + 1 Blu-ray audio disc, explores the 1970 album sessions through 47 demos and outtakes, 42 of which were previously unreleased. The Blu-ray allows fans to experience the main album in a high-res stereo, enveloping 5.1 surround sound, and Dolby Atmos mixes. The collection contains a beautiful 60-page scrapbook curated by Olivia Harrison, with unseen imagery and memorabilia from the era, handwritten lyrics, diary entries, studio notes, tape box images, a comprehensive track-by-track, and more. It also includes a replica of the original album poster.
Watch the album trailer below.