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''Living in the Material World'' is the fourth studio album by English musician George Harrison, released in 1973 on Apple Records. As the follow-up to 1970's critically acclaimed ''All Things Must Pass'' and his pioneering charity project, the Concert for Bangladesh, it was among the most highly anticipated releases of that year. The album was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America two days after release, on its way to becoming Harrison's second number 1 album in the United States, and produced the international hit "Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth)". It also topped albums charts in Canada and Australia, and reached number 2 in Britain. ''Living in the Material World'' is notable for the uncompromising lyrical content of its songs, reflecting Harrison's struggle for spiritual enlightenment against his status as a superstar, as well as for what many commentators consider to be the finest guitar and vocal performances of his career. In contrast with ''All Things Must Pass'', Harrison scaled down the production for ''Material World'', using a core group of musicians comprising Nicky Hopkins, Gary Wright, Klaus Voormann and Jim Keltner. Ringo Starr, John Barham and Indian musician Zakir Hussain were among the album's other contributors. Upon release, ''Rolling Stone'' described it as a "pop classic", a work that "stands alone as an article of faith, miraculous in its radiance".〔 Most contemporary reviewers consider ''Living in the Material World'' to be a worthy successor to ''All Things Must Pass'', even if it inevitably falls short of Harrison's grand opus. Author Simon Leng refers to the album as a "forgotten blockbuster", representing "the close of an age, the last offering of the Beatles' London era".〔Leng, pp. 124, 140.〕 EMI reissued the album in 2006, in remastered form with bonus tracks, and released a deluxe-edition CD/DVD set that included film clips of four songs. ==Background== George Harrison's 1971–72 humanitarian aid project for the new nation of Bangladesh had left him an international hero,〔Schaffner, pp. 147, 159.〕〔Leng, p. 121.〕〔Tillery, p. 100.〕 but also exhausted and frustrated in his efforts to ensure that the money raised would find its way to those in need.〔George Harrison, p. 220.〕〔Doggett, pp. 180–81, 192.〕 Rather than record a follow-up to his acclaimed 1970 triple album, ''All Things Must Pass'', Harrison put his solo career on hold for over a year following the two Concert for Bangladesh shows,〔Lavezzoli, pp. 193–94.〕〔Liner note essay by Kevin Howlett, ''The Apple Years 1968–75'' book (Apple Records, 2014), p. 31.〕 held at Madison Square Garden, New York, in August 1971.〔Woffinden, pp. 48, 68.〕 In an interview with ''Disc and Music Echo'' magazine in December that year, pianist Nicky Hopkins spoke of having just attended the New York sessions for John Lennon's "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" single, where Harrison had played them "about two or three hours" worth of new songs, adding: "They were really incredible."〔Andrew Tyler, "Nicky Hopkins", ''Disc and Music Echo'', 4 December 1971; available at (Rock's Backpages ) (''subscription required''; retrieved 30 August 2012).〕 Hopkins suggested that work on Harrison's next solo album was to begin in January or February at his new home studio at Friar Park,〔 but any such plan was undone by Harrison's commitment to the Bangladesh relief project.〔Leng, pp. 123–24.〕 While he found time during the last few months of 1971 to produce singles for Ringo Starr and Apple Records protégés Lon & Derrek Van Eaton, and to help promote the Ravi Shankar documentary ''Raga'',〔Badman, pp. 54–56.〕〔Leng, p. 123.〕 Harrison's next project in the role of music producer was not until August 1972, when Cilla Black recorded his composition "When Every Song Is Sung".〔Madinger & Easter, pp. 439–40.〕 Throughout this period, Harrison's devotion to Hindu spirituality – particularly to Krishna consciousness via his friendship with A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada〔Allison, pp. 45–47.〕 – reached new heights.〔Leng, p. 124.〕〔Huntley, pp. 87, 89.〕 As Harrison admitted, his adherence to his spiritual path was not necessarily consistent.〔George Harrison, p. 254.〕〔("George Harrison – In His Own Words" ), superseventies.com (retrieved 8 April 2014).〕 His wife, Pattie Boyd, and their friend Chris O'Dell would joke that it was hard to tell whether he was dipping into his ever-present Japa Yoga prayer bag or "the coke bag".〔O'Dell, p. 188.〕 This duality has been noted by Harrison biographers Simon Leng and Alan Clayson: on one hand, Harrison earned himself the nickname "His Lectureship" during his prolonged periods of fervid devotion;〔Clayson, p. 330.〕 on the other, he participated in bawdy London sessions for the likes of Bobby Keys' eponymous solo album and what Leng terms Harry Nilsson's "thoroughly nasty" "You're Breakin' My Heart", both recorded in the first half of 1972.〔〔Clayson, pp. 293, 325.〕 Similarly, Harrison's passion for high-performance cars saw him lose his driver's licence for the second time in a year after crashing his Mercedes into a roundabout at 90 miles an hour, on 28 February, with Boyd in the passenger seat.〔Badman, pp. 67–68.〕〔Tillery, pp 118–19.〕 In August 1972, with the ''Concert for Bangladesh'' documentary film having finally been released worldwide, Harrison set off alone for a driving holiday in Europe,〔 during which he chanted the Hare Krishna mantra nonstop for a whole day, he later claimed.〔Clayson, p. 248.〕〔Greene, p. 194.〕 Religious academic Joshua Greene, a Hare Krishna devotee, has described this trip as Harrison's "preparation" for recording the ''Living in the Material World'' album.〔 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「Living in the Material World」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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