Reviewing the Beatles Solo Albums in Order - part 10

Oops, I skipped over The Best of Dark Horse: 1976-1989! This is a very unusual Best of album because it contains three "new" tracks, two previously unreleased songs and one from the soundtrack to Lethal Weapon 2 (which I didn't know about, as I've never watched that movie). "Poor Little Girl" sounds very familiar, as George clearly took it apart and reassembled it as "Fish on the Sand" on the Cloud Nine album. "Cockamamie Business" and "Cheer Down" don't impress me much; "CB" is George in his "old man yelling at kids in his yard" mode that we'll hear more of on his posthumous album Brainwashed, and "Cheer Down" is a lot of harsh electric guitar without much substance.

Now I have to try the same technique with George that I did with Paul and Ringo. What would my Best of George album sound like, if it was one song out of every eight? It is SO hard to leave out any of the best from All Things Must Pass, but it would be...

Let It Down
All Things Must Pass
Isn't It a Pity (version 2)
Give Me Love
Bye Bye Love (ha, I really like the joke of putting those back-to-back!)
Dark Horse
Tired of Midnight Blue (but only to fill the slot, it isn't otherwise good enough for this dream album)

Crackerbox Palace

Blow Away

All Those Years Ago

Hong Kong Blues

Cloud Nine

When We Was Fab

Got My Mind Set On You (interesting that there are three covers on this Best of album)

That's 14 songs -- far smaller than the two-disc album I compiled for Paul's Best of dream album. But it's a good collection!

Jumping back ahead in time....Travelling Wilburys Vol. 3 is a little sad to listen to for several reasons. There was never (officially) a vol. 2 and will never be a vol. 4. We have now, since Petty passed, lost a higher percentage of Wilburys than we've lost Beatles. And this album was not as good as the first one, and probably could never have been without Roy on it. As a tribute to the camaraderie they shared with Roy (it's dedicated to "Lefty," the Wilbury "character" Roy played), it is not bad at all. There is nothing close to as good as "End of the Line" here, but there is nothing as bad as "Tweeter and the Monkey Man" here either. "She's My Baby" is a hard rocker that seems to kick off the album strongly, though the lyrics don't hold up well to repeat listening. "Inside Out" is a much more solid song. "If You Belonged to Me" is above average. "Poor House" is a delightfully retro song that feels like a cover of an oldie, but isn't. "Wilbury Twist" is the strongest song on side B, but "You Took My Breath Away" is a solid second place and "New Blue Moon" is also above average.

The video for "Wilbury Twist" is one of those fun, star-studded affairs, with the highlight of this being one of the last acting roles of John Candy, plus fun performances by Cheech Marin and George's old buddy Eric Idle - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Vs1dmoKAEc

 Next up is Paul's Unplugged: the Official Bootleg. And I vaguely recall being aware this was going to be a special on MTV at the time, but I blew it off because I wasn't a big fan of Paul's solo work yet in 1991, just as I was turning 20. Now I know this is some fabulous stuff, combining a Best of compilation of his Beatles work and solo work with some covers of oldies he's never released anywhere else before.

A while back, I had exchanged comments with a Facebook friend about what a shame it was the Beatles never did a triple album just of covers, as they clearly knew enough good material to fill one. Of course, the early Beatles album material is half covers, so we do have that, but I'm wondering now what a triple album more like John's Rock n' Roll album would have sounded like. This is a dream compilation of covers from their solo careers, plus Live at the BBC and Beatles Anthology Vol. 1. Oh man, this would have sounded so sweet...

Side 1
Love Is Strange
Kansas City
Lucille
I'm Gonna Be a Wheel Someday
That's All Right (Mama)
Just Because

Side 2
Midnight Special
Bye-Bye Love
Got My Mind Set on You
Be-Bop-a-Lula
Ain't That a Shame
Peggy Sue

Side 3
Bony Maronie
Ya Ya
Angel Baby
To Know Her Is to Love Her
Hound Dog
Young Blood

Side 4
Some Other Guy
Soldier of Love
Crying, Waiting, Hoping
Long Tall Sally
Memphis, Tennessee
Nothin' Shakin'

Side 5
The Hippy Hippy Shake
Glad All Over
I Just Don't Understand
So How Come (No One Loves Me)
Matchbox
Slow Down

Side 6
Searchin'
Three Cool Cats
The Sheik of Araby
How Do You Do It
Leave My Kitten All Alone
Shout