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George Harrison added a long-available bootleg to the 30th-anniversary reissue of his 1970 album All Things Must Pass. Fans should thank producer and musician Pete Drake for the addition.

George Harrison performing in white in the 1970s.
George Harrison | Lester Cohen/WireImage

George Harrison reissued ‘All Things Must Pass’ for its 30th-anniversary

In 2001, George spoke with Billboard about the 30th-anniversary reissue of All Things Must Pass.

“You know, we talked about it ages ago, but it’s just really that you want to get the whole catalog of mine back out in the shops, because it hasn’t been there for a long time,” George said. “And it was just obvious to start with the first one, as the first one was probably my most prominent solo album, anyway.”

George added otherwise unavailable versions of some of the album’s classic tunes, including a bonus track that had been a long-available bootleg.

George included a long-available bootleg to the reissue

Before George released the 30th-anniversary reissue of All Things Must Pass, fans had access to a bootleg of “I Live For You.” George only included the bootleg because of Pete Drake.

He explained, “I suddenly realized I’d got too many tracks for an album — which actually ended up as a double, not counting the ‘[Apple] Jam’ session — and that one track sounded like we hadn’t nailed it properly, and it sounded on top of that a bit too fruity. I didn’t include it because I never finished it.

“But coming back to it, I fixed the drums up very simply. But the main thing about it for me is the Pete Drake solo on pedal steel guitar. He died [in 1988], and I often thought if his family is still around, then suddenly they’ll be hearing him playing this thing that they’ve never heard before. I really loved his pedal steel guitar — the bagpipes of country & western music.”

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‘I Live For You” isn’t the former Beatle’s only bootleg

The previously unreleased song isn’t George’s only bootleg. He allegedly has tons of bootlegs made during his time with The Beatles in his vault. In 1989, George told Mark Rowland (per George Harrison on George Harrison: Interviews and Encounters) that the BBC also had some Beatles bootlegs.

“Oh yeah, we’ve got a few things that’s going to come out anyway, but we’ve got the real versions of some of the ones that were bootlegged,” George said. “Yeah, we’ve got plans to put all that out, because now it’s not just getting the lawsuit out of the way, but it means … let’s face it, the Beatles catalogue will go on forever with Capitol and EMI.

“And there is a lot of stuff that can come, and it just means that it’s easier now to deal with that. How can you deal with the future if you haven’t tied the past up? So this really clears the way, and it’s great because all kinds of things can come out. I just realized I’ve got a really great bootleg tape of the Beatles, and it’s never been out before either. It’s just demos that we made at my house.

“It was of the ‘White Album.’ It’s ‘Back in the USSR‘ and ‘Julia’ and all them. I’ve got them on an Ampex four track. Yeah, and the BBC. They have a lot of stuff. I don’t know. There’s mainly different versions of stuff, and there’s probably a lot of stuff which is stuff that people know as bootlegs from our club days.”

Hopefully, fans will hear all of his bootlegs in the coming years. However, it’s nice that he got to release some before he died in 2001.

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