The Smiley Smile Message Board

Hey everyone
Did anyone get a copy of George Harrison's Material World DVD? I thought it was a good video biography of him except for one thing. There was much on there of his 1974 tour where his voice was horrible sounding. In 1991, he did a wonderful tour of Japan with Eric Clapton from which a live album came from. In the DVD, there is not one second of coverage of his Japan tour. Does anyone out there think this is very strange? I think it is considering it was his last tour. It is also strange that in a video compilation put out that there were 4 songs from Japan on it. His son said there hasnt been any videos of the tour because they didnt have anything. That is also very strange since they recorded several shows for the live album. Hard to believe that with the big video screens at the venues that nobody in the organization pressed record and play at the same time for films of it.  Hopefully some of you can give thoughts and insights into this. Cheers.
Joe

It was frustrating that the one time post-70's that he went on tour, it was just that one short trip to Japan. I kept waiting for word that the tour would come to America. I got the feeling that he didn't enjoy it all that much, so it was back to the mansion and the garden. Sure would like to see more footage from it, though. There were a lot of things left out in the documentary. I would've liked for there to be more about his post ATMP albums, and there were some close friends that chose not to be interviewed for the film - Bob Dylan, for example. But it's the best we're going to get about the Quiet One. Maybe someday they will release more footage from both tours.

I got it for Xmas a few years ago, and I thought, for a long documentary, that they seemed to gloss over a few things.  Like, most of his music from A Things Must Pass to his Jeff Lynne collaborations in the late 80s. 

Sadly, while shows were recorded during the Japan tour, I don't think any were filmed. 

I have the final show of the tour on dvd. The filmer filmed it off the screen so there were video screens at the shows. Easy for someone in George and Eric's camps to press record and play on a video machine. Plus 4 songs were put out in a George box set that had a bonus dvd in it. I read that George didnt want to play the USA in 1991 because he thought Americans were crazy and probably perferred to play in a place which was more subdued. But not to even mention the Japan tour on the dvd was just all to weird to me.
Joe

He hated touring, it's amazing he even did Japan. The only artist I can think of with a similar hatred for 'the road' is Gerry Rafferty. To my knowledge, Rafferty NEVER toured the US, on his own or with Stealers Wheel.