Extra Texture (Read All About It)

Untitled

Extra Texture (Read All About It) is the sixth studio album by English musician George Harrison, released in 1975. It followed his troubled North American tour at the end of the previous year and the poorly received Dark Horse album, and the melancholic mood of the recording reflects Harrison's depressed state at the harsh criticism generated by these 1974 projects. Among his solo releases, Extra Texture is notable as the only album whose lyrics are devoid of any obvious spiritual message. Uniquely also, it was recorded mostly in America rather than England, while Harrison was working in Los Angeles in his role as head of Dark Horse Records. Gary Wright, David Foster, Jim Keltner, Jesse Ed Davis, Leon Russell, Tom Scott, Billy Preston and Jim Horn were among the many contributing musicians. The album's keyboard-heavy sound incorporates elements of soul music and the influence of mellow-voiced Smokey Robinson, signalling a further departure by Harrison from the rock and folk-rock approach of his early 1970s work. Contrasting with the musical content, the album's art design adopted an upbeat theme, which included an innovative die-cut cover.

Extra Texture was Harrison's final album under his contract with Apple Records and EMI, and the last studio album issued by Apple. Despite its generally downbeat mood and an unfavourable response from music critics, the album was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America within two months of release. It produced a hit single in the song "You", originally recorded in London in 1971 with co-producer Phil Spector. The album also includes "This Guitar (Can't Keep from Crying)", which was both a sequel to Harrison's 1968 Beatles composition "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" and a rebuttal to his detractors. The album is due to be reissued in remastered form on 22 September 2014, as part of the Apple Years 1968–75 Harrison box set.

Background

In its February 1975 issue, Rolling Stone magazine derided George Harrison's tour with Ravi Shankar in November–December 1974 and the accompanying Dark Horse album as "disastrous". Previously viewed as "the surprise winner of the ex-Beatle sweepstakes", in the words of author Nicholas Schaffner – the dark horse – Harrison had suffered the ignominy of receiving perhaps the worst reviews of any of the solo Beatles' careers as well as having an album fail to chart at all in the UK. Despite his face-saving claims throughout the tour that such negative press only made him more determined, the criticism hit him hard personally. Mikal Gilmore acknowledged almost thirty years later, "the crises he faced in the mid-1970s changed him", and depression was a key factor.

During conversations with Derek Taylor in 1978–79 for his autobiography, Harrison described his mindset upon arriving back at Friar Park in January 1975: "When I got off the plane and back home, I went into the garden and I was so relieved. That was the nearest I got to a nervous breakdown. I couldn't even go into the house." The same despair was evident in the lyrics to "Grey Cloudy Lies", a track that Harrison described to Paul Gambaccini in September 1975 as "one of those depressing, 4 o'clock in the morning sort of songs".

Depression permeated many of the songs that Harrison was writing during this period, an issue that was not helped by his continued heavy drinking and cocaine use. The lyrics for "The Answer's at the End", "This Guitar (Can't Keep from Crying)", "World of Stone" and "Grey Cloudy Lies" all steer clear of his usual subject matter – Hindu spirituality – and instead appear to beg the listener for compassion. Harrison's wavering from his Krishna-conscious path was most evident In "World of Stone", writes author Gary Tillery: "'Such a long way from home,' he says, but in his autobiography he renders it, 'Such a long way from OM' – confessing inner turmoil at having strayed from his faith." Harrison wrote "Tired of Midnight Blue" in Los Angeles, where he had decamped to in the early spring on Dark Horse Records-related business. The lyrics focused on his "depressed" state following a night in an LA club with "a lot of grey-haired naughty people", he later explained; according to Tillery, with its chorus line "Made me chill right to the bone", "Tired of Midnight Blue" was Harrison reaching "rock bottom".

Other social outings in Los Angeles included Wings' party on the Queen Mary ocean liner, at Long Beach, where a "drawn"-looking Harrison was seen socialising with Paul McCartney for the first time since the Beatles' break-up. With new love Olivia Arias often in tow, Harrison also made a point of catching a few gigs by Bob Marley & the Wailers, as well as meeting up with old friends Billy Preston and Ronnie Wood backstage after one of the Rolling Stones' Forum shows, in Los Angeles. New friends such as Eric Idle entered Harrison's social scene that summer, although the Python's influence only extended to Extra Texture's quirky artwork and packaging rather than its musical content.

Recording

It was Harrison's Dark Horse label that had brought him to LA – Jiva, Stairsteps, Henry McCullough, and Jim Keltner's band Attitudes were all recent signings – and it was through one of the label's semi-established acts, Splinter, that he came to make his "contractual obligation" album there. Studio time had been booked for Splinter's second LP for late in the spring of 1975, at A&M Studios, but the Sheffield duo were unable to make the sessions. Rather than incur the cancellation costs, Harrison decided to record his final EMI/Capitol album there on La Brea Avenue, home of Dark Horse's distributor, A&M Records, at which point he would then be able to move on to the Dark Horse stable himself.

As well as recording his latest compositions, Harrison completed "You", a song he had taped in London with Ronnie Spector for her abandoned Apple solo album, in February 1971. A reprise of the song appears on Extra Texture, in the form of a brief instrumental given the logical title "A Bit More of You". A more recent unused backing track that Harrison revisited was "His Name Is Legs (Ladies and Gentlemen)", recorded at Friar Park shortly before the 1974 tour, with Tom Scott, Billy Preston, Willie Weeks and Andy Newmark. In a private joke that no one seemed to get, this last song featured vocals by "Legs" Larry Smith, formerly a member of Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band. The inclusion of these two older tracks on Extra Texture provided some upbeat material on an album filled with ballads.

Among the musicians appearing on the A&M sessions were old friends Jim Keltner, Gary Wright, Jesse Ed Davis, Klaus Voormann, Tom Scott and Jim Horn. Along with Keltner, the most regular participant on the sessions was a young David Foster, then the piano player with Attitudes, while the band's bassist, Paul Stallworth, also contributed. On what would turn out to be a noticeably keyboard-dominated sound, Leon Russell and Nicky Hopkins made guest appearances as well. Voormann, a close friend of Harrison's since 1960, found the atmosphere at the sessions unpleasant – the heavy drug use so typical of the LA music scene, in particular, but also the ex-Beatle's "frame of mind when he was doing this album". With Voormann choosing to absent himself, Harrison overdubbed some of the album's bass parts himself, using either an ARP synthesizer or his preferred Moog (just as he had done on "Bye, Bye Love" the year before).

With Norm Kinney as engineer, Harrison recorded the basic tracks for the new songs between 21 April and 7 May, beginning with "Tired of Midnight Blue" and "The Answer's at the End". After a few weeks' break, the overdubbing phase was under way on 31 May, starting with "You"'s sax solo (played by Horn), extra keyboards and second drum part. For two days from 2 June, Chuck Findley, another member of the Dark Horse tour band, joined Scott for horn overdubs on Harrison's tribute to Smokey Robinson, "Ooh Baby (You Know That I Love You)", and "His Name Is Legs", while the Foster-arranged strings for "This Guitar", "The Answer's at the End" and "Can't Stop Thinking About You" were added between 6 and 9 June.

Around this time, Preston's It's My Pleasure and Peter Skellern's Hard Times albums were released, and sessions would shortly take place for Scott's New York Connection; all of these albums include guitar cameos from Harrison yet his playing on Extra Texture was surprisingly minimal. The Harrison signature slide guitar appeared significantly on "Tired of Midnight Blue" only; and the sole guitar-spotlight track on the album, "This Guitar" (a lyrical successor to his 1968 classic "While My Guitar Gently Weeps"), included solos overdubbed by Jesse Ed Davis. Harrison's singing voice, the subject of much discussion during the 1974 tour, had recovered from the ravages of laryngitis, but his new, "close-miked" soft vocal style added to the impression of blandness, as if Extra Texture was designed to be a mainstream "soul album for lovers". In a departure from the more Dylanesque approach found on his previous solo albums, this vocal style reflected Harrison's recent immersion in the mid-1970s soul genre. During this period, he would often cite Smokey Robinson as a major influence, and Stevie Wonder and Bob Marley as other examples of his preferred listening.

Album artwork

File:"ohnothimagen", Extra Texture inside sleeve.jpg

Inner-sleeve picture of Harrison, taken by 1974 tour photographer Henry Grossman; copyright Apple Records

The album's art design was done by Grammy Award-winner Roy Kohara, who adopted a "wacky" theme throughout the packaging. The vivid orange front cover featured a die-cut design of the album title, through which an inner-sleeve, blue-tinted picture of Harrison was visible; later vinyl editions presented the "EXTRA TEXTURE" title as simple blue text on an orange background, doing away with the expensive cut-out detail. In keeping with the album's title, the thin cardboard used for the cover was similar in texture to the "animal skin used on a football", according to Beatles author Bruce Spizer. On the back cover, there was another Henry Grossman tour photo of Harrison, clearly enjoying himself on stage.

Seen as a joke referencing the impending demise of the Beatles' record label, the iconic Apple logo was presented on Extra Texture as an eaten-away apple core. In addition, the blue inner sleeve photo of Harrison – "grinning like a Monty Python choirboy", in the words of Robert Christgau – was topped with the caption "OHNOTHIMAGEN" ("Oh not him again"), Harrison's self-deprecating take on his dwindling popularity in 1974–75. The album's full title is a pun on the slogan that street-corner paperboys would yell out to sell "extra" late-breaking news editions of their newspapers: "Extra! Extra! Read all about it!"

As on Dark Horse, Harrison listed contributing musicians for each song, on the reverse side of the original inner sleeve, but this time with an additional list for those not appearing. The first of these is guitarist Danny Kortchmar, the fourth member of Attitudes; others include Derek Taylor, Eric Idle, Peter Sellers and Dark Horse Records executive Dino Airali.

Release

Unlike Harrison's previous solo albums since 1970, all of which had their original release dates moved back, Extra Texture (Read All About It) was recorded quickly and submitted on schedule – a further sign of the "expediency" that lay behind the album's creation. Preceded by the advance single, "You", the album was released on 22 September 1975 in America (as Apple SW 3420) and on 3 October in Britain (Apple PAS 10009). Extra Texture reached number 8 on the Billboard 200 on 25 October, holding the position for three weeks – his last top 10 album in the US for twelve years – and was certified gold by the RIAA on 11 November. The album marked a welcome, though brief, return for Harrison to the official UK Albums Chart (now a top 60), reaching number 16 there in late October.

In another departure from past form, Harrison undertook promotion for his new album, in Britain. One of these activities, broadcast on 6 September, was a track-by-track discussion on the BBC Radio 1 show Rockweek, with host Paul Gambaccini. The same day, Melody Maker published an interview with Harrison, the magazine's cover declaring: "George Bounces Back!" Harrison explained to Gambaccini that the album title came about during a studio discussion: just as Harrison was talking about an overdub needing something "extra", Paul Stallworth happened to say the word "texture". Although he admitted to being "in a real down place" while making the album, the Melody Maker interview found Harrison in good humour, pointing the way to a return in form the following year; "I'd rather be an ex-Beatle than an ex-Nazi!" he joked, referring to his recent uneasy experience with the musical John, Paul, George, Ringo … and Bert. Harrison's other activities in late 1975 likewise centred on comedy, beginning with his production of Monty Python's single "The Lumberjack Song", released in November, and including a humorous star turn, again with Eric Idle, on Rutland Weekend Television's Christmas special.

Extra Texture (Read All About It) was remastered for CD release in 1992. On 2 September 2014, Harrison's website announced that the album would be reissued as part of the box set The Apple Years 1968–75, due for release on 22 September.

Reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
Robert Christgau	C−
MusicHound
NME	(mixed)
Rolling Stone	(unfavourable)
The Rolling Stone Album Guide

Describing the album's reception in his 1977 book The Beatles Forever, Nicholas Schaffner wrote: "Harrison's worldly critics, who had long found his sermons insufferable, responded like bulls to a red flag to Extra Texture, which contains a number of treatises on how reviewers always 'miss the point.'" Even Harrison's loyal "disciples", Schaffner added, tended to view the album as "plodding and aimless". Rolling Stone's album reviewer, Dave Marsh, highlighted "You" as a return to All Things Must Pass-style grandeur, and "Can't Stop Thinking About You" and "Tired of Midnight Blue" as "the most effective nine minutes of music" Harrison had made since 1970. Generally, on an album that was "sketchy at best", Marsh bemoaned the over-reliance on "merely competent" keyboards and Harrison's "affectingly feeble voice". In the NME, Neil Spencer wrote that "Though 'Extra Texture' isn't the Harrison revival that many might have hopes for, it's still several leagues superior to Hari's more recent efforts; and just as 'All Things Must Pass' would have made a great single album, so 'Extra Texture' would make a more than commendable single side." Spencer described the album's content as "the customary mournful and doom-laden Harrison we've come to know and fear, only this time the rigours of love take precedence over matters spiritual", before concluding: "I've played it, I don't mind it ... Hari fans can anticipate purchase with glee. Others approach with cautious optimism."

In their book The Beatles: An Illustrated Record, Roy Carr and Tony Tyler described Extra Texture as "another lugubrious offering" and concluded: "the needle of the listener's personal Ecstatograph points sullenly towards zero throughout." Harrison's pleas for tolerance and understanding, like his self-deprecation on the album sleeve, seemed to backfire. As Harrison himself acknowledged in a January 1976 BBC Radio interview: "People who were never really keen on me just really hate my guts right now. It has become complete opposites, completely black and white."

In his book Fab Four FAQ 2.0: The Beatles' Solo Years, 1970–1980, Robert Rodriguez features Extra Texture in a chapter dedicated to the worst solo albums released by the four ex-Beatles between 1970 and 1980 – the only one of Harrison's solo albums to be included there. Rodriguez writes: "To be sure, Extra Texture boasted several fine cuts … but the remainder of the collection was almost entirely weary in tone, amounting to a prolonger buzz kill." His biographers likewise tend to hold the album in low esteem, Alan Clayson describing it as Harrison's "artistic nadir". Simon Leng writes that this post-Dark Horse "rehabilitation disc" came way too soon, resulting in an uncharacteristically passionless work, with its singer sounding "punch drunk". Aside from the uplifting "You", both authors identify "Tired of Midnight Blue" as the only saving grace on Extra Texture. Gary Tillery notes the "darkly sarcastic" album title for a collection full of such "downbeat" tracks, the darkest of which is "Grey Cloudy Lies".

The album does have its admirers, however. Writing in a Rolling Stone Press tribute book, Greg Kot labels Extra Texture as "something of a return to form for Harrison". AllMusic's Richard Ginell views "You", "The Answer's at the End" and "This Guitar (Can't Keep from Crying)" as some of Harrison's best solo compositions and identifies other "musical blossoms" on an album that stands up relatively well to the passing of time. Writing in the 2004 The Rolling Stone Album Guide, Mac Randall considered it to be an album that "starts off well, then runs out of steam midway through".

In a November 1987 interview with Musician magazine, Harrison described Extra Texture as the worst of his solo releases: "a grubby album ... The production left a lot to be desired as did my performance."

Track listing

All songs written by George Harrison.

Side one

1. "You" – 3:41
2. "The Answer's at the End" – 5:32
3. "This Guitar (Can't Keep from Crying)" – 4:11
4. "Ooh Baby (You Know That I Love You)" – 3:59
5. "World of Stone" – 4:40

Side two

6. "A Bit More of You" – 0:45
7. "Can't Stop Thinking About You" – 4:30
8. "Tired of Midnight Blue" – 4:51
9. "Grey Cloudy Lies" – 3:41
10. "His Name Is Legs (Ladies and Gentlemen)" – 5:46

Personnel

• George Harrison – vocals (1–5, 7–10), electric and acoustic guitars (1–10), ARP synthesizer (3, 9), Moog synthesizer (9), piano (10), backing vocals (1, 2, 7–10)
• David Foster – piano (2, 3, 5, 9), organ (1, 6), ARP synthesizer (1, 5, 6), electric piano (7), tack piano (10), string arrangement (2, 3, 7)
• Gary Wright – organ (2, 5), electric piano (1, 4, 6), ARP synthesizer (3, 7)
• Jim Keltner – drums (1–9), percussion (9)
• Jesse Ed Davis – electric guitar (3–5, 7, 9)
• Klaus Voormann – bass (4–5, 7)
• Paul Stallworth – bass (2, 8), background vocals (7)
• Leon Russell – piano (1, 6, 8)
• Tom Scott – saxophones (4, 10)
• Chuck Findley – trumpet (4, 10), trombone (10)
• Nicky Hopkins – piano (7)
• Jim Horn – saxophone (1, 6)
• Jim Gordon – drums (1, 6), percussion (1, 6)
• Carl Radle – bass (1, 6)
• Billy Preston – electric piano (10)
• Willie Weeks – bass (10)
• Andy Newmark – drums (10)
• Legs Larry Smith – vocal (10)
• Ronnie Spector – vocal (1)
• Norm Kinney – percussion (2)

Chart positions

Chart (1975–76)	Position
Australian Kent Music Report	36
Canadian RPM Albums Chart	63
French SNEP Albums Chart	19
Japanese Oricon LP Chart	9
Norwegian VG-Lista Albums Chart	8
UK Albums Chart	16
US Billboard 200	8

Certifications

Region	Certification	Certified units/sales
United States (RIAA)	Gold	500,000^
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

References

• Dale C. Allison Jr., The Love There That's Sleeping: The Art and Spirituality of George Harrison, Continuum (New York, NY, 2006; ISBN 978-0-8264-1917-0).
• Keith Badman, The Beatles Diary Volume 2: After the Break-Up 1970–2001, Omnibus Press (London, 2001; ISBN 0-7119-8307-0).
• Roy Carr & Tony Tyler, The Beatles: An Illustrated Record, Trewin Copplestone Publishing (London, 1978; ISBN 0-450-04170-0).
• Harry Castleman & Walter J. Podrazik, All Together Now: The First Complete Beatles Discography 1961–1975, Ballantine Books (New York, NY, 1976; ISBN 0-345-25680-8).
• Alan Clayson, George Harrison, Sanctuary (London, 2003; ISBN 1-86074-489-3).
• The Editors of Rolling Stone, Harrison, Rolling Stone Press/Simon & Schuster (New York, NY, 2002; ISBN 0-7432-3581-9).
• Gary Graff & Daniel Durcholz (eds), MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide, Visible Ink Press (Farmington Hills, MI, 1999; ISBN 1-57859-061-2).
• Joshua M. Greene, Here Comes the Sun: The Spiritual and Musical Journey of George Harrison, John Wiley & Sons (Hoboken, NJ, 2006; ISBN 978-0-470-12780-3).
• George Harrison, I Me Mine, Chronicle Books (San Francisco, CA, 2002; ISBN 0-8118-3793-9).
• Olivia Harrison, George Harrison: Living in the Material World, Abrams (New York, NY, 2011; ISBN 978-1-4197-0220-4).
• Chris Hunt (ed.), NME Originals: Beatles – The Solo Years 1970–1980, IPC Ignite! (London, 2005).
• Elliot J. Huntley, Mystical One: George Harrison – After the Break-up of the Beatles, Guernica Editions (Toronto, ON, 2006; ISBN 1-55071-197-0).
• Peter Lavezzoli, The Dawn of Indian Music in the West, Continuum (New York, NY, 2006; ISBN 0-8264-2819-3).
• Simon Leng, While My Guitar Gently Weeps: The Music of George Harrison, Hal Leonard (Milwaukee, WI, 2006; ISBN 1-4234-0609-5).
• Chip Madinger & Mark Easter, Eight Arms to Hold You: The Solo Beatles Compendium, 44.1 Productions (Chesterfield, MO, 2000; ISBN 0-615-11724-4).
• Mac Randall, Nathan Brackett & Christian Hoard (eds), The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th edn), Simon & Schuster (New York, NY, 2004; ISBN 0-7432-0169-8).
• Robert Rodriguez, Fab Four FAQ 2.0: The Beatles' Solo Years, 1970–1980, Backbeat Books (Milwaukee, WI, 2010; ISBN 978-1-4165-9093-4).
• Nicholas Schaffner, The Beatles Forever, McGraw-Hill (New York, NY, 1978; ISBN 0-07-055087-5).
• Howard Sounes, Fab: An Intimate Life of Paul McCartney, HarperCollins (London, 2010; ISBN 978-0-00-723705-0).
• Bruce Spizer, The Beatles Solo on Apple Records, 498 Productions (New Orleans, LA, 2005; ISBN 0-9662649-5-9).
• Gary Tillery, Working Class Mystic: A Spiritual Biography of George Harrison, Quest Books (Wheaton, IL, 2011; ISBN 978-0-8356-0900-5).