Cloud Nine (George Harrison album)

• 1. Introduction

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  Cloud Nine is the eleventh studio album by the English rock musician George Harrison, released in 1987. One critic at the Houston Chronicle opened his review with an instruction to readers: "Forget the 'former Beatle' stuff". His point was that the record deserved a listen on its own terms, whoever had made it. That advice raises a handful of questions. Why had Harrison gone quiet in the first place? Who did he call when he wanted to return? What does a battered black guitar have to do with the cover? And did the people paid to judge the music agree that it stood up?

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• 2. Years of Silence

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  In the early 1980s, George Harrison grew frustrated with the changing musical climate and suspended his recording career. He poured his energy into other interests, including film production through his own company, Handmade Films.

  Music did not vanish from his life completely. An occasional soundtrack contribution or charity song would turn up. Apart from those, the period was a musically silent one for him.

  By late 1986, after a substantial break, the urge to make music came back. Harrison reached out to Jeff Lynne, the former leader of Electric Light Orchestra, known as ELO. Lynne was a fellow musician, and Harrison asked him to co-produce a new album.

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• 3. Sessions at Friar Park

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  On the 5th of January 1987, Harrison entered Friar Park, his home studio in Henley-on-Thames, to begin recording. It was his first new commercial album in five years. Before the sessions he had written a round of new songs, including those he had already contributed to the 1986 film Shanghai Surprise.

  Between January and March, the sessions produced backing tracks for seventeen songs. Harrison finished the overdubs in August 1987.

  Lynne did far more than sit behind the mixing desk. He played bass, acoustic and electric guitars, keyboards and synthesizer, and sang backing vocals. Harrison himself covered lead vocals, electric and acoustic guitars, keyboards, synthesizer, autoharp and sitar, along with backing vocals.

  Jim Keltner and Ringo Starr both played drums, and Ray Cooper added drums and percussion. Eric Clapton played electric guitar on four tracks: "Cloud 9", "That's What It Takes", "Devil's Radio" and "Wreck of the Hesperus".

  Elton John was recovering from vocal surgery at the time. He still played Fender Rhodes on "Cloud 9" and piano on "Devil's Radio" and "Wreck of the Hesperus". Gary Wright played piano on "Just for Today" and "When We Was Fab".

  Jim Horn supplied baritone and tenor saxophones on three songs, and Bobby Kok played cello. Starr also sang backing vocals on "When We Was Fab".

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• 4. The Black Gretsch

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  In Liverpool in 1961, Harrison bought a 1957 Gretsch 6128 Duo Jet. It was his first American-made guitar, and he came to call it his "old black Gretsch".

  He later gave the instrument to his longtime friend Klaus Voormann. Voormann kept it for 20 years before Harrison asked to have it back.

  Harrison had the guitar restored. He then used it for the photo shoot that produced the cover of Cloud Nine, where he is pictured holding it.

  Inside that sleeve, the writing credits were largely Harrison's own.

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• 5. The Songs

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  Seven of the eleven songs on the original release carry Harrison's name alone. They are "Cloud 9", "Fish on the Sand", "Just for Today", "Devil's Radio", "Someplace Else", "Wreck of the Hesperus" and "Breath Away from Heaven".

  Jeff Lynne shared credit on "This Is Love" and "When We Was Fab". Gary Wright joined Harrison and Lynne as a third author of "That's What It Takes".

  The title track opens side one and runs 3 minutes and 15 seconds. Side two closes with the only song written by someone else, Rudy Clark's "Got My Mind Set on You", which lasts 3 minutes and 52 seconds.

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• 6. Chart Run

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  Rudy Clark's "Got My Mind Set on You" was a little-known song when Harrison covered it. His version quickly reached number 1 in the United States and number 2 in the United Kingdom. It was his first US chart-topper since "Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth)" in 1973.

  A few weeks later, Cloud Nine arrived to high anticipation. It reached number 10 in the UK and number 8 on the Billboard 200 in the US. On the Cash Box Top 200 it climbed to number 4, and it earned platinum status.

  Cash Box later ranked it number 1 on its Top 40 Compact Discs chart. Abroad, it reached number 4 in Australia, number 5 in Canada and Sweden, and number 8 in Norway.

  The single and its video re-introduced Harrison to the mainstream. "When We Was Fab" followed and reached the top 25 in both the UK and US. The third single, "This Is Love", was a minor hit in the UK. Harrison threw himself into promoting the record with new-found enthusiasm.

  Decades later, in 2024, the album reached number 5 on the Argentine albums chart compiled by CAPIF.

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• 7. Critics Divided

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  David Wild of Rolling Stone called Cloud Nine "an expertly crafted, endlessly infectious record that constitutes Harrison's best album since 1970s inspired All Things Must Pass". He also credited Lynne's work as co-producer. He named "When We Was Fab", "Cloud 9", "That's What It Takes" and "Wreck of the Hesperus" as "sublime pop".

  Stephen Holden of The New York Times called the release "crucial" to Harrison's career. He described a "pleasingly tuneful album" whose "sound is deliberately quaint". Bill Holdship of Creem regretted ballads such as "Breath Away from Heaven" but concluded that "a good album's a good album, and Cloud Nine is plenty good".

  Daniel Brogan of the Chicago Tribune was far harsher. "Cloud Nine plods hopelessly," he wrote, blaming Harrison and also finding Lynne's influence "far too prevalent". He allowed that the guitar interplay between Harrison and Eric Clapton, and the single "Got My Mind Set on You", redeemed the record in places.

  J.D. Considine of the Houston Chronicle gave it five stars. He praised the "stellar" backing musicians, but wrote that "it's the writing that deserves credit for this album's luster".

  In 2001, Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic also gave five stars. He called it "one of his very best albums". In Goldmine in 2002, Dave Thompson described the record as "littered with highlights" and called "This Is Love" "a jewel".

  When the album was reissued in 2004, Uncut found it "endowed with undeniable charm", and Rolling Stone called it a "late-career masterwork". John Harris, writing in Mojo in 2011, thought the production sounded dated. He still praised the songs and judged the record a "deserved global hit".

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• 8. The Wilburys and Beyond

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  In the spring of 1988, Harrison and Jeff Lynne began phoning friends. They called Bob Dylan, Tom Petty and Roy Orbison. Those calls started a project that was ultimately realised as the Traveling Wilburys.

  The success of Cloud Nine was not enough to persuade Harrison to tour. It did inspire him to keep making music.

  In 2004, Dark Horse Records remastered and reissued the album, with new distribution by EMI. It appeared on its own and as part of the deluxe box set The Dark Horse Years 1976-1992. The reissue added two bonus tracks from Shanghai Surprise: the title song at 5 minutes and 9 seconds, and "Zig Zag" at 2 minutes and 45 seconds. "Zig Zag" had earlier been the B-side of the "When We Was Fab" single. The iTunes Store offered an extended version of "Got My Mind Set on You" lasting 5 minutes and 17 seconds.

  Cloud Nine proved to be the last solo studio album Harrison released in his lifetime. His next, Brainwashed, appeared in 2002, almost a year after his death.

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