Written by: Bob Dylan
Recorded: 1980s
Producer: George Harrison
Released: 1 May 2012 (US)
Available on:
Early Takes Volume 1
Personnel
George Harrison: vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, keyboards
A demo of Bob Dylan’s ‘Mama You’ve Been On My Mind’ appears on the posthumous George Harrison album Early Takes Volume 1.
Dylan wrote the song in 1964 and first recorded it in June that year, during a session for his fourth album Another Side Of Bob Dylan. However, it remained unreleased until the 1991 box set The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961–1991.
Harrison performed a solo acoustic version of the song on 9 January 1969, during The Beatles’ Get Back/Let It Be sessions. The performance appeared in part one of the 2021 documentary Get Back.
His Early Takes version was recorded at Friar Park in the 1980s, although the precise date is unknown. Giles Martin, who compiled the album, mixed out the drum machine and most of the keyboards, bringing Harrison’s vocals and acoustic guitar to the fore.
I first heard “Mama, You’ve Been On My Mind” after acquiring the “Black Album”, a 3-lp…or was it 4?… bootleg of the Get Back/Let it Be film outtakes from which, presumably, Peter Jackson built his recent and amazing Get Back miniseries. (My best friend was/is a Dylan fan and he quickly let me know it was penned by Dylan and Rod Stewart covered it.) I got the bootleg around 1982.
At any rate, I immediately fell in love with George’s take on the song, especially since I was already a huge GH fan, with favorites being “Long, Long, Long” and “Isn’t it a Pity”, so he took a more emotional aspect of it.
This was the version I learned to play.
When I heard this version of it, I was immediately floored: he still had the Feel of his “Get Back version”.
Beautiful recording of a beautiful man singing a beautiful song. And Giles did the best thing with it.