That said, whatever organizational issues Let It Roll has, it mostly gets by purely on the strength of its songs.
If one supergroup can be included, why not the other? Let It Roll should really also have considered making space for Harrison’s career in the Travelling Wilburys, given that it dominates most of the late part of his recording life.
Unfortunately, these pale in comparison to their transcendent originals. from the Beatles’ albums they originally appeared on - have been substituted for live renditions from Madison Square Garden during the Concert for Bangladesh.
Plus, the original recordings of these three songs - i.e. Yes, those three cuts are probably the most well-known songs he penned whilst with the Mop-Tops, but the disc spends so little time on that period, that it seems like an afterthought. In a way, it’s unfortunate that Let It Roll tries to have it all as a compilation, because narrowing Harrison’s Beatles tracks down to just three songs (out of 23 released with the group) appears ruthlessly reductive. Picking up from late-period Beatles onwards, there are three of Harrison’s Fab Four tracks here - “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”, “Something” and “Here Comes the Sun” - and 16 further solo numbers, spanning from 1970’s sprawlingly dogged All Things Must Pass to 2002’s posthumous Brainwashed. Let It Roll aims to rectify where the last two George Harrison compilations have gone wrong - attempting to bridge both his songwriting tenure as the ‘Quiet Beatle’ with the ups and downs of a three-decade solo recording career that produced ten studio albums. Recent years have witnessed a reconsideration of his work, most prominently through Martin Scorsese’s upcoming film on his life, but also with a dedication on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and the arrival of the long-overdue Let It Roll: Songs by George Harrison, his first career-spanning compilation. John Lennon made the strongest post-Beatles music, Paul McCartney was the most successful, and Ringo… well, Ringo is as genially reliable as ever, but George Harrison’s solo career was the most interesting of any ex-Beatle. Olivia Harrison, Let It Roll promotional video “He didn’t really write music, ever, for a commercial market.”
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