George Harrison’s Living In The Material World Gets SDE Treatment

As has been much expected on the rumour mill, the George Harrison Estate has announced a 2024 re-mix of George Harrison’s 1973 title, Living In The Material World.

It will come in a myriad of forms on November 15 – with one to suit the price bracket of just about every fan.

There’s a 2LP, 2CD, 1 Blu-ray, plus 7″ vinyl single super deluxe box set edition. Similar content is replicated across the vinyl, CD’s and Blu-ray. This set is limited to 5,000 units globally and contains 12 previously unreleased Harrison tracks – early renditions of every song on the main album, plus one previously unreleased song, ‘Sunshine Life For Me (Sail Away Raymond) which is only available in this box. This will really upset fans who can’t spring for the box, or who simply just don’t collect vinyl. ‘Sunshine Life For Me (Sail Away Raymond)’ is on CD2, the Blu-ray, and the 7” single (with an instrumental version of the song on the flip side). It features Robbie Robertson, Levon Helm, Garth Hudson, and Rick Danko from The Band alongside Ringo Starr. There’s a 60-page hardcover book in the set and a 12-page Recording Notes booklet:

There’s a 2LP version on 180g black vinyl. This includes the new mix of the album alongside 12 session outtakes housed in a gatefold sleeve with a 12-page booklet and an exclusive double-sided poster:

There are 2CD and 1CD editions. The 2CD includes the new 2024 mix of the album on one disc, along with the 12 session outtakes (but NOT including the previously unreleased ‘Sunshine Life For Me (Sail Away Raymond)’), housed in a clam shell style box with two printed wallets, a 20-page booklet, and an exclusive double-sided poster:

The standard CD edition comes in a 4-page gatefold sleeve with printed inner wallet, and a 12-page booklet. There’ll of course be a 1LP edition on black vinyl. It comes in a gatefold sleeve and includes a 4-page booklet:

Three limited edition coloured 1LP versions will be out there too. An exclusive purple vinyl from the official George Harrison store:

Orange vinyl exclusive from Barnes & Noble in the US:

And milky clear vinyl from Amazon:

So, the song ‘Sunshine Life For Me (Sail Away Raymond)’ only being exclusive to the big box will be a thorn in the side for a lot of collectors….

Also of note is that three other tracks – which were previously released on a 2006 re-mastered LP and a CD/DVD edition of Living In The Material World – are not on the new 2024 reissue. These are ‘Deep Blue’, ‘Miss O’Dell (alternative version)’, and ‘Sue Me, Sue You Blues (acoustic demo version)’ – plus some video content too that is not on the Blu-ray and could have been. And there’s another previously-released related track from George’s Early Takes Vol. 1: ‘The Light That Has Lighted The World (Demo)’.

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