Unreleased George | Fab Forum | The Beatles Bible

An “expanded ‘Brainwashed‘” would be interesting, but only if they stay true to the intimate setting of George, Dhani & Jeff which gives the original so much character.  Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to see more ‘Threatles’ style tracks with Paul & Ringo playing on them, but it should be something separate from the ‘Brainwashed‘ album, in my opinion.  ‘Brainwashed‘ is George’s “swan song” to the world, crafted by him alone and finished off by Dhani & Jeff with mainly George’s instruction.  Paul & Ringo don’t appear on ‘Brainwashed‘ and Jim Keltner, I believe, plays drums for every track, there’s a cohesiveness to the project that shouldn’t be altered.

The bright side to including a ‘Threatles’ bonus track to a new re-issue of ‘Brainwashed‘, would be that significantly more people would give this definitive George Harrison solo album a listen who hadn’t had the pleasure yet.  I’d almost prefer a project that contains unreleased material by all four from their post-Beatles works.  That’d be most interesting to me, and is a more fresh approach from the usual recycling program, that way you wouldn’t have any limits on, “well, John & George aren’t here so we can’t do this” mentality, all four would be present at different moments throughout but not on every track, it would certainly be a more musically diverse venture for sure.

If this unreleased ‘Threatles’ ‘NOW’ (please, no more ‘NEW’ style graphics!) track does indeed exist, then why not build a compilation around this song with their unreleased solo material?  The formula worked for ‘Anthology’, although I certainly would’ve chosen a different track selection, and may prove to be most interesting for many of us have indulged ourselves in an imaginary solo Beatles compilation from our collections in the past, I think that there’s a market for something like this.  It may even be better received by those who rejected ‘Free As A Bird ‘ & ‘Real Love ‘ as Beatles’ tracks for they saw them as solo John Lennon songs (which in fact they were).

Although John, Paul, George & Ringo disbanded after the 60’s, they’re still Beatles in my eyes.  Once a Beatle, always a Beatle (except Pete of course), this “ex-Beatle” or “former-Beatle” talk is rubbish for they played on each others solo projects, while even inspiring each other’s work (‘How Do You Sleep?’, ‘Let Me Roll It ‘, ‘Early 1970’ etc.), I think that this would be a great way for Paul, Ringo, Olivia & Yoko to cement their renewed friendships and partnerships once and for all, give us ‘Something New’…:-)