That Which I Have Lost | Somewhere in England Resequenced

In the Resequenced / Alternate Album series, I take a preexisting album (usually by Paul McCartney, but this time by George Harrison) and create a new track listing. This is done by adding tracks that could’ve made the cut from the same time period, removing tracks, and shuffling tracks around into an order that I feel flows better.

The explanation for the track listing for this particular album is in the comments.

This is not intended to be “superior” to the original album, but just something I did for my own personal enjoyment. Think of it as a “what-if?”

[moondog]

George Harrison’s Somewhere in England had a tumultuous production. Warner Bros. executives rejected the album at first, feeling it was too laidback and not commercial enough. The album art was also vetoed (in favor of a much blander cover in my opinion). Reportedly, Warner Bros. had heard John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s Double Fantasy the same day and this affected their judgment of Somewhere in England, though why they were worried about its content when it was hardly a break from George’s preceding album I’m not sure.

George removed four of what are considered by most to be some of the strongest tracks from the album — Flying Hour, Lay His Head, Sat Singing, and Tears Of The World. These tracks were then trickled out over the years, but the original album as intended, was never released. Four new tracks were recorded to take their place — Blood From A Clone (which mocked the music scene of the time), All Those Years Ago (written posthumously after John’s death), Teardrops (George’s attempt at a commercial hit), and That Which I Have Lost (a spiritual song with a sort of country flair). I believe that this version of the album was approved primarily because of All Those Years Ago and the atmosphere of the moment. All things considered, the album’s sequencing is not significantly less laidback or more commercial than the original.

For this resequencing, I tried to find a happy medium between the original and the released version. I retained all of the tracks from the original, while shuffling some tracks around to keep the tone from being overly dreary. I kept two of the new songs from the released version, Teardrops and That Which I Have Lost. In this alternate reality, the album comes out before John’s death and so All Those Years Ago is released at a later date, while Blood From A Clone ends up as a B-side to the album’s single, whatever that may be.

Hong Kong Blues remains the opener, as it was on the original album. I’ve made it into a sort of medley with Teardrops. I feel the songs work together given their subject matter. Both focus on the struggles of an individual and bookend the album nicely — the penultimate track focuses on the struggles of the world. I also think that the gong is a great atmospheric tool with which to open the album. For the most part, deciding which track comes after another was based on tone. I didn’t want a song to sound immediately similar to the one it followed. My goal was to make Somewhere in England have a more optimistic and less morose energy than it has in its current form, and I think this resequencing succeeds on that front.