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''Dark Horse'' is the fifth studio album by English musician George Harrison, released on Apple Records in December 1974 as the follow-up to ''Living in the Material World''. Although keenly anticipated on release, ''Dark Horse'' is associated with the controversial North American tour that Harrison staged with co-headliner Ravi Shankar in November and December that year. This was the first US tour by a member of the Beatles since 1966, and the public's nostalgia for the band, together with Harrison contracting laryngitis during rehearsals and choosing to feature Shankar so heavily in the program, resulted in scathing concert reviews from some influential music critics. The ''Dark Horse'' album was written and recorded during an extended period of upheaval in Harrison's personal life, when he dedicated much of his energies to business issues such as setting up Dark Horse Records. Author Simon Leng refers to the album as "a musical soap opera, cataloguing rock-life antics, marital strife, lost friendships, and self-doubt",〔 due to its focus on Harrison's split with first wife Pattie Boyd and his temporary withdrawal from the spiritual certainties of his previous work. The album features an array of guest musicians – including Tom Scott, Billy Preston, Willie Weeks, Andy Newmark, Jim Keltner, Ringo Starr, Gary Wright and Ron Wood – and produced two hit singles, "Dark Horse" and "Ding Dong, Ding Dong". It showed Harrison moving towards the funk and soul musical genres. The album was not well received by the majority of critics at the time. ''Dark Horse'' was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America within days of release, but it became Harrison's first solo album not to chart in Britain. The cover was designed by Tom Wilkes and consists of a school photograph from Harrison's time at the Liverpool Institute superimposed onto a Himalayan landscape. The album was reissued in remastered form on 22 September 2014, as part of the ''Apple Years 1968–75'' Harrison box set. ==Background and content== George Harrison's third studio album since the Beatles' break-up came at the end of "a bad domestic year", as he describes it in his 1980 autobiography.〔George Harrison, p. 69.〕 From the middle of 1973, with his marriage to Pattie Boyd all but over, Harrison had immersed himself in his work,〔Leng, p. 148.〕 particularly on developing the acts he would eventually sign to his new record label, Dark Horse Records − Ravi Shankar and a hitherto unknown group called Splinter.〔Olivia Harrison, p. 312.〕 Business issues related to the Beatles' company Apple Corps were also coming to a head during 1973–74,〔Rodriguez, p. 60.〕 as Harrison, John Lennon and Ringo Starr launched legal proceedings against Allen Klein,〔Badman, p. 111.〕 their former manager and ally against Paul McCartney (who had served the original lawsuit in December 1970 seeking to dissolve the band's partnership).〔Woffinden, p. 75.〕〔Clayson, pp. 332–33, 335.〕 The simultaneous winding down of Apple Corps' subsidiaries left a number of music and film projects in jeopardy,〔Woffinden, p. 74.〕 which resulted in Harrison having to make regular trips to Los Angeles in order to find a distributor for the ''Shankar Family & Friends'' album, most of which was recorded in California in April 1973,〔Badman, pp. 94, 98.〕〔 and Splinter's debut, ''The Place I Love''.〔Clayson, p. 346.〕 Another venture that was affected was the movie ''Little Malcolm'',〔Badman, p. 150.〕 an Apple Films project for which Harrison was executive producer and working to seal a distribution deal in Europe.〔Michael Simmons, "Cry for a Shadow", ''Mojo'', November 2011, p. 85.〕 Compounding the pressure further, during what Harrison himself would refer to as "the naughty period, 1973–74",〔George Harrison, p. 274.〕 he was drinking heavily and had returned to his drug-taking ways of the 1960s.〔〔Rodriguez, p. 58.〕 Some of Harrison's biographers suggest that this abandoning of the "semi-ascetic" path〔Stephen Holden, ("George Harrison ''Living in the Material World'' album review" ), ''Rolling Stone'', 19 July 1973 (retrieved 31 March 2012).〕 espoused on his 1973 album ''Living in the Material World'' was Harrison's reaction to the media's sniping, particularly in Britain,〔Clayson, p. 324.〕 at the pious content of that album, as well as a reflection of Harrison's despondency over the failure of his first marriage.〔Inglis, p. 43.〕〔Tillery, p. 116.〕 These two issues informed the lyrics to a new Harrison song, "Dark Horse".〔Allison, p. 139.〕〔Inglis, pp. 43, 47.〕 Friend and confidant Klaus Voormann has described this time as an obvious "step back" on Harrison's spiritual journey,〔Klaus Voormann interview, in ''George Harrison: Living in the Material World''.〕 while Boyd would later write: "That whole period was insane. Friar Park was a madhouse. Our lives were fuelled by alcohol and cocaine, and so it was with everyone who came into our sphere ... George used cocaine excessively and I think it changed him."〔Pattie Boyd, ("Pattie Boyd: 'My hellish love triangle with George and Eric' – Part Two" ), ''Daily Mail'', 4 August 2007 (retrieved 4 May 2012).〕 Harrison addressed this behaviour in "Simply Shady"〔Leng, pp. 150–51, 165.〕 and laid out his feelings on the couple's inevitable split in "So Sad".〔Inglis, p. 45.〕〔George Harrison, pp. 240, 282.〕 Wounded by Harrison's frequent infidelities, Boyd left him for Eric Clapton in July 1974,〔 having previously had an affair with another of her husband's guitar-playing friends, Ron Wood of the Faces.〔〔Wood, p. 147.〕 Both of these dalliances would also receive attention on the ''Dark Horse'' album, which Harrison's musical biographer, Simon Leng, has described as "a musical soap opera, cataloguing rock-life antics, marital strife, lost friendships, and self-doubt".〔Leng, p. 159.〕 In his rewrite of the Everly Brothers' "Bye Bye, Love", Harrison declared: "''There goes our lady, with a-you-know-who / I hope she's happy, old Clapper too"'';〔Clayson, p. 343.〕 while his handwritten liner notes listed one of the guest musicians on "Ding Dong, Ding Dong" as "Ron Would If You Let Him".〔Spizer, pp. 264, 265, 267.〕 For his part, Harrison had taken up with Starr's wife, Maureen Starkey,〔Badman, p. 135.〕 and the UK tabloids soon reported him as being romantically involved with model Kathy Simmons (ex-girlfriend of Rod Stewart)〔Rodriguez, p. 423.〕 as well as Krissy Wood (wife of the Faces guitar player).〔Clayson, p. 329.〕 Shortly before ''Dark Horses release, Harrison would dodge reporters' questions regarding his private life with a suggestion that people wait for the new album, saying, "It's like ''Peyton Place''."〔Badman, p. 136.〕〔Anne Moore, "George Harrison on Tour – Press Conference Q&A", ''Valley Advocate'', 13 November 1974; available at (Rock's Backpages ) (''subscription required''; retrieved 15 July 2012).〕 Adultery was the subject matter of Harrison's non-album B-side from this period, "I Don't Care Anymore",〔Allison, p. 145.〕〔 and his musical association with Ron Wood led to the song "Far East Man".〔Clayson, pp. 343, 344.〕 This co-composition was first recorded for Wood's debut solo album, ''I've Got My Own Album to Do'',〔Badman, p. 109.〕 and when released on ''Dark Horse'', it marked the first foray into soul music within Harrison's solo work.〔Leng, p. 156.〕〔Rodriguez, pp. 234–35.〕 Of more profound consequence, and the inspiration behind the Hindu ''bhajan'' "It Is 'He' (Jai Sri Krishna)",〔Rodriguez, p. 384.〕 was his trip to India, in January and February 1974.〔Leng, p. 157.〕〔Clayson, p. 330.〕 In Benares, Harrison forged a plan with longtime mentor Shankar to sponsor an Indian classical-music concert tour later in the year,〔 featuring as many as eighteen musicians and an unprecedented (in the West) range of traditional Indian instruments.〔Olivia Harrison, p. 302.〕 An album would be recorded just beforehand,〔Lavezzoli, p. 195.〕 at Harrison's home studio at Friar Park, in Oxfordshire.〔 Ravi Shankar's Music Festival from India was the realisation of a long-held dream for the ex-Beatle,〔 but, as with his dedication to Splinter's ''The Place I Love'', the project would impact on the quality of his own album.〔Clayson, p. 335.〕〔Huntley, pp. 107, 108.〕 By May, Harrison had agreed distribution terms with A&M Records and was therefore able to formally launch Dark Horse Records,〔Badman, p. 125.〕 although he would remain contracted to Apple as a solo artist, like the other Beatles, until January 1976.〔Schaffner, pp. 176, 188.〕〔Woffinden, p. 85.〕 After announcing the staging of the Music Festival from India in September 1974,〔Badman, p. 131.〕 Harrison also confirmed that he planned to tour North America, together with Ravi Shankar's ensemble, during November and December.〔 Despite his stated aversion to performing live,〔〔Leng, p. 165.〕 Harrison would be the first of his former band-mates to undertake a tour of Beatle-hungry America;〔Schaffner, p. 176.〕 the expectations that this created, together with his role as a hands-on record company boss,〔Woffinden, pp. 83, 85.〕 meant that the pressure on Harrison was immense.〔Leng, pp. 165–66.〕〔The Editors of ''Rolling Stone'', p. 44.〕〔Rodriguez, p. 199.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Dark Horse (George Harrison album)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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