View source for Gone Troppo

{{Use British English|date=September 2012}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2021}}
{{Infobox album
| name       = Gone Troppo
| type       = studio
| artist     = [[George Harrison]]
| cover      = GoneTroppo.jpg
| alt        =
| released   = {{start date|1982|11|5|df=yes}}
| recorded   = 5 May–27 August 1982
| venue      =
| studio     = [[FPSHOT]] (Oxfordshire)
| genre      = 
*[[Pop rock]]
*[[New wave music|new wave]]
*[[synth-pop]]
| length     = {{duration|m=39|s=07}}
| label      = [[Dark Horse Records|Dark Horse]]
| producer   = 
*[[George Harrison]]
*[[Ray Cooper]]
*[[Phil McDonald]]
| prev_title = [[Somewhere in England]]
| prev_year  = 1981
| next_title = [[Cloud Nine (George Harrison album)|Cloud Nine]]
| next_year  = 1987
| misc       = {{Singles
 | name        = Gone Troppo
 | type        = studio
 | single1     = [[Wake Up My Love]]
 | single1date = 8 November 1982
 | single2     = [[I Really Love You]]
 | single2date = 9 February 1983 (US)
 | single3     = [[Dream Away (George Harrison song)|Dream Away]]
 | single3date = February 1983 (Japan only)
}}}}
'''''Gone Troppo''''' is the tenth studio album by the English rock musician [[George Harrison]], released on 5 November 1982 by [[Dark Horse Records]]. It includes "[[Wake Up My Love]]", issued as a single, and "[[Dream Away (George Harrison song)|Dream Away]]", which was the theme song for the 1981 [[HandMade Films]] production ''[[Time Bandits]]''. Harrison produced the album with [[Ray Cooper]] and former [[The Beatles|Beatles]] engineer [[Phil McDonald]].

With Harrison uninterested in the contemporary music scene and unwilling to promote the release, ''Gone Troppo'' failed to chart in the United Kingdom, and it was his only post-Beatles studio album not to chart inside the top 20 in the United States.<ref>Simon Leng, ''While My Guitar Gently Weeps: The Music of George Harrison'', Hal Leonard (Milwaukee, WI, 2006; {{ISBN|1-4234-0609-5}}), p. 321fn.</ref> For the next five years, he largely took an extended hiatus from his music career, with only the occasional soundtrack recording surfacing.

==Background==
By the early 1980s, Harrison had been finding the current musical climate alienating. His previous studio album ''[[Somewhere in England]]'' (1981) had sold fairly well, aided by the [[John Lennon]] tribute hit, "[[All Those Years Ago]]", but in the United States it was Harrison's first album since the Beatles' break-up that failed to receive gold certification from the [[Recording Industry Association of America]] (RIAA). With one album left on his current recording contract,<ref>Chip Madinger & Mark Easter, ''Eight Arms to Hold You: The Solo Beatles Compendium'', 44.1 Productions (Chesterfield, MO, 2000; {{ISBN|0-615-11724-4}}), p. 463.</ref> Harrison recorded ''Gone Troppo'' in 1982 but refused to promote it or make [[music video]]s for the two singles. The title is an Australian slang expression meaning "gone mad or crazy due to tropical heat" or just "gone mad".

==Artwork==
The album's artwork was credited to [[Larry Smith (musician)|"Legs" Larry Smith]], formerly of the [[Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band]].

==Release==
''Gone Troppo'' was issued on [[Dark Horse Records]] in November 1982. [[Warner Records|Warner Bros. Records]], which distributed Harrison's Dark Horse label, were at a loss as to how to market the album and matched the artist's indifference by failing to promote the release. The album peaked at number 108 in the United States and failed to chart at all in the United Kingdom.

"Wake Up My Love" and "[[That's the Way It Goes (George Harrison song)|That's the Way It Goes]]" were included on Harrison's compilation album ''[[Best of Dark Horse 1976–1989]]'', and the title track also appeared on the compact disc version of that album. No tracks from ''Gone Troppo'' were included on the 2009 career-spanning collection ''[[Let It Roll: Songs by George Harrison|Let It Roll]]''. "That's the Way It Goes" was covered by [[Joe Brown (singer)|Joe Brown]] and other musicians at the [[Concert for George]] in November 2002.

In 2004, ''Gone Troppo'' was remastered and reissued, both separately from and as part of the deluxe box set ''[[The Dark Horse Years 1976–1992]]''. The reissue added a [[Demo (music)|demo]] version of "Mystical One" as its sole bonus track.

==Critical reception==
{{Album ratings
| rev1       = [[AllMusic]]
| rev1Score  = {{Rating|2|5}}<ref name="AllMusic">{{cite web |last=Ruhlmann |first=William |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/gone-troppo-mw0000268053 |title=Gone Troppo – George Harrison: Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards |publisher=AllMusic |access-date=10 March 2013 |archive-date=13 March 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130313041527/http://www.allmusic.com/album/gone-troppo-mw0000268053 |url-status=live }}</ref>
| rev3       = ''[[The Encyclopedia of Popular Music]]''
| rev3Score  = {{Rating|1|5}}<ref>Colin Larkin, ''The Encyclopedia of Popular Music'' (4th edn), ''Volume 4'', Oxford University Press (New York, NY, 2006; {{ISBN|0-19-531373-9}}), p. 158.</ref>
| rev5       = ''[[Mojo (magazine)|Mojo]]''
| rev5Score  = {{Rating|2|5}}<ref name="Harris/Mojo">John Harris, "Beware of Darkness", ''[[Mojo (magazine)|Mojo]]'', November 2011, p. 83.</ref>
| rev6       = ''The Music Box''
| rev6Score  = {{Rating|2|5}}<ref name="John Metzger/MB">John Metzger, [http://www.musicbox-online.com/gh-gone.html#axzz3AMts81es "George Harrison ''The Dark Horse Years'' (Part Four: ''Gone Troppo'')"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140814173225/http://www.musicbox-online.com/gh-gone.html#axzz3AMts81es |date=14 August 2014 }}, ''The Music Box'', vol. 11 (5), May 2004 (retrieved 14 August 2014).</ref>
| rev8       = ''[[Rolling Stone]]'' (1983)
| rev8Score  = {{Rating|2|5}}<ref name="Pond/RS">{{cite magazine |last=Pond |first=Steve |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/gone-troppo-19830217 |title=Gone Troppo &#124; Album Reviews |magazine=[[Rolling Stone]] |date=17 February 1983 |access-date=10 March 2013 |archive-date=24 March 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140324140000/http://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/gone-troppo-19830217 |url-status=live }}</ref>
| rev9       = ''[[Rolling Stone]]'' (2004)
| rev9Score  = {{Rating|3|5}}<ref name="Muze">[http://www.cduniverse.com/productinfo.asp?pid=6666785&style=music&fulldesc=T "George Harrison – Gone Troppo CD Album" > "Product Description"], [[CD Universe]]/[[Muze]] (retrieved 21 December 2014).</ref>
| rev10      = ''[[Uncut (magazine)|Uncut]]''
| rev10Score = {{Rating|3|5}}<ref name="Aiken/Uncut">Kit Aiken, "All Those Years Ago: George Harrison ''The Dark Horse Years 1976–1992''", ''[[Uncut (magazine)|Uncut]]'', April 2004, p. 118.</ref>
}}<!-- Automatically generated by DASHBot-->
Among contemporary reviews, ''[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]]'' said of ''Gone Troppo'': "Harrison's sunny lyricism shines brightest when least encumbered by self-consciousness, and here that equation yields a breezy, deceptively eclectic charmer."<ref name="BB review">[https://books.google.com/books?id=BSQEAAAAMBAJ&q=lyricism&pg=PT21 "Top Album Picks"], ''[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]]'', 20 November 1982, p. 64 (retrieved 15 July 2015).</ref>
''[[People (magazine)|People]]'' magazine's reviewer wrote: "Because of his forays into the mystical, Harrison's penchant for whimsy often gets overlooked. But here the zany side gets no short shrift." The reviewer admired "lovelies" such as "[[Wake Up My Love]]" and "[[Dream Away (George Harrison song)|Dream Away]]", and described ''Gone Troppo'' as a "vinyl postcard" offering "flashes of brilliance".<ref name="People review">{{cite magazine|url=http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20084106,00.html|magazine=People|title=Picks and Pans Review: ''Gone Troppo''|date=24 January 1983|access-date=18 December 2013|archive-date=27 December 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131227052941/http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20084106,00.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Less impressed, Steve Pond of ''[[Rolling Stone]]'' said that, of late, Harrison had "made a much better movie financier than musician", and he found the album "So offhand and breezy as to be utterly insubstantial", with "Wake Up My Love" the only song of note.<ref name="Pond/RS" /> Writing for ''[[Musician (magazine)|Musician]]'', Roy Trakin considered that, in the wake of Lennon's assassination two years before, Harrison's "tortured honesty … dooms this record's attempt to heal those psychic wounds with calm, offhanded music". Trakin admired some of the guitar playing on the album but concluded: "It's too bad the public won't forget George Harrison was a Beatle. His musical output will undoubtedly suffer by comparison until we do."<ref>Roy Trakin, "George Harrison: ''Gone Troppo''", ''[[Musician (magazine)|Musician]]'', January 1983; available at [http://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/george-harrison-igone-troppoi Rock's Backpages] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150720211116/http://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/george-harrison-igone-troppoi |date=20 July 2015 }} (subscription required).</ref>

Reviewing more recently for [[AllMusic]], critic William Ruhlmann writes of ''Gone Troppo'': "Clearly, Harrison could no longer treat his musical career as a part-time stepchild to his interests in car racing and movie producing if he wanted to maintain it. As it turned out, he didn't; this was his last album for five years."<ref name="AllMusic" /> Writing in the 2004 edition of ''[[The Rolling Stone Album Guide]]'', Mac Randall opined: "The dynamic, synth-driven 'Wake Up My Love' opens ''Gone Troppo'' and the spooky 'Circles' (yet another lost Beatles song) closes it, but there ain't much in between."<ref>Nathan Brackett & Christian Hoard (eds), ''The New Rolling Stone Album Guide'' (4th edn), Simon & Schuster (New York, NY, 2004; {{ISBN|0-7432-0169-8}}), p. 368.</ref>

[[John Harris (critic)|John Harris]] of ''[[Mojo (magazine)|Mojo]]'' likens ''Gone Troppo'' to Harrison's final album for [[EMI]]/[[Capitol Records|Capitol]], ''[[Extra Texture]]'' (1975), and dismisses it as "Another contract-finisher, this time with Warner Brothers, recorded super-quick, and issued with barely any promotion."<ref name="Harris/Mojo" /> ''Music Box'' editor John Metzger also holds it in low regard, writing: "''Gone Troppo'' was undoubtedly the worst of George Harrison's solo albums … A few tunes, such as That's the Way It Goes and Unknown Delight, might have worked better if given different arrangements, but as a whole, ''Gone Troppo'' was a largely forgettable and sometimes embarrassing affair that appealed only to complete-ists and fanatics."<ref name="John Metzger/MB" />

More impressed, [[Dave Thompson (author)|Dave Thompson]] wrote in ''[[Goldmine (magazine)|Goldmine]]'' magazine of its standing as the release that preceded Harrison's temporary retirement from music: "to accuse the album itself of hastening that demise is grossly unfair." While conceding that it was a far from essential Harrison album, Thompson considered it to be "no worse than much of [[Paul McCartney|[Paul] McCartney]]'s period output" and opined that "Dream Away" and "Circles" "stand alongside any number of Harrison's minor classics".<ref name="Thompson/Goldmine">Dave Thompson, "The Music of George Harrison: An album-by-album guide", ''[[Goldmine (magazine)|Goldmine]]'', 25 January 2002, p. 53.</ref>

Kit Aiken of ''[[Uncut (magazine)|Uncut]]'' describes ''Gone Troppo'' as "a return to form of sorts" after ''Somewhere in England'' and a collection of "amiable, light-hearted music made by a bunch of mates with nothing to prove".<ref name="Aiken/Uncut" /> In another favourable 2004 assessment, for ''[[Rolling Stone]]'', Parke Puterbaugh wrote: "''Gone Troppo'' might just be Harrison's most underrated album … [It] captures Harrison at his most relaxed and playful on songs such as the title track."<ref>Parke Puterbaugh, "By George", ''[[Rolling Stone]]'', 3 April 2004, p. 68.</ref>

==Track listing==
All songs written and composed by [[George Harrison]], except where noted.

'''Side one'''
# "[[Wake Up My Love]]" – 3:34
# "[[That's the Way It Goes (George Harrison song)|That's the Way It Goes]]" – 3:34
# "[[I Really Love You]]" (Leroy Swearingen) – 2:54
# "Greece" – 3:58
# "Gone Troppo" – 4:25

'''Side two'''
# <li value="1">"Mystical One" – 3:42
# "Unknown Delight" – 4:16
# "Baby Don't Run Away" – 4:01
# "[[Dream Away (George Harrison song)|Dream Away]]" – 4:29
# "[[Circles (George Harrison song)|Circles]]" – 3:46

'''Bonus track'''
''Gone Troppo'' was remastered and reissued in 2004 with the bonus track:
# <li value="11"> "Mystical One" (demo version) – 6:02

==Personnel==
{{div col}}
* [[George Harrison]]&nbsp;– vocals, electric and acoustic guitar, [[Synthesizer|synthesiser]], bass, [[mandolin]], [[marimba]], [[jal tarang]], backing vocals, production
* [[Ray Cooper]]&nbsp;– percussion, marimba, [[glockenspiel]], [[Rhodes piano|electric piano]], [[sound effect]]s, production
* [[Michael Moran (music producer)|Mike Moran]]&nbsp;– [[Keyboard instrument|keyboards]], synthesiser, piano, synthesiser bass
* [[Henry Spinetti]]&nbsp;– drums (1–6, 10)
* [[Herbie Flowers]]&nbsp;– bass guitar
* [[Billy Preston]]&nbsp;– [[Organ (music)|organ]], piano, keyboards, synthesizer, backing vocals
* [[Jim Keltner]]&nbsp;– [[Percussion instrument|percussion]], drums
* [[Joe Brown (singer)|Joe Brown]]&nbsp;– mandolin, backing vocals (6)
* [[Dave Mattacks]]&nbsp;– drums (9)
* Alan Jones&nbsp;– bass guitar (9)
* Russell Powell - acoustic guitar
* [[Neil Larsen]]&nbsp;– piano (7)
* [[Gary Brooker]]&nbsp;– synthesizer (7)
* [[Willie Weeks]]&nbsp;– bass guitar (7)
* [[Jon Lord]]&nbsp;– synthesizer (10)
* Willie Greene&nbsp;– backing vocals, bass voice
* [[Bobby King]]&nbsp;– backing vocals
* [[Vicki Brown]]&nbsp;– backing vocals
* Pico Pena&nbsp;– backing vocals
* [[Syreeta Wright|Syreeta]]&nbsp;– backing vocals
* Sarah Ricor&nbsp;– backing vocals
* Rodina Sloan&nbsp;– backing vocals
* [[Phil McDonald]] – production
* [[Larry Smith (musician)|"Legs" Larry Smith]]&nbsp;– art direction, design
{{div col end}}

==Chart positions==
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center;"
|-
! scope="col"| Chart
! scope="col"| Peak<br />position
|-
! scope="row"| [[RPM (magazine)|Canadian ''RPM'' Albums Chart]]<ref>{{cite magazine|url=http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/rpm/028020-119.01-e.php?&file_num=nlc008388.6165b&type=1&interval=20&PHPSESSID=c6btf3r8hs459qqt5ln3o3dcv5|title=Top Albums/CDs – Volume 37, No. 17|magazine=[[RPM (magazine)|RPM]]|format=PHP|date=11 December 1982|access-date=18 December 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131226234259/http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/rpm/028020-119.01-e.php?&file_num=nlc008388.6165b&type=1&interval=20&PHPSESSID=c6btf3r8hs459qqt5ln3o3dcv5|archive-date=26 December 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref>
| 98
|-
! scope="row"| [[VG-lista|Norwegian VG-lista Albums Chart]]<ref name="norcharts">{{cite web|title=norwegiancharts.com George Harrison – ''Gone Troppo''|url=http://norwegiancharts.com/showitem.asp?interpret=George+Harrison&titel=Gone+Troppo&cat=a|format=ASP|access-date=18 December 2013|archive-date=4 November 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111104223819/http://norwegiancharts.com/showitem.asp?interpret=George+Harrison&titel=Gone+Troppo&cat=a|url-status=live}}</ref>
| 31
|-
! scope="row"| US [[Billboard 200|''Billboard'' 200]]<ref name="USchart">{{cite magazine|url=https://www.billboard.com/artist/george-harrison/chart-history/tlp/|title=George Harrison Chart History: ''Billboard'' 200|magazine=[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]]|access-date=20 November 2024}}</ref>
| 108
|}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* {{discogs master|74973}}
* {{MBrgID}}

{{George Harrison}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gone Troppo}}
[[Category:1982 albums]]
[[Category:George Harrison albums]]
[[Category:Albums produced by George Harrison]]
[[Category:Dark Horse Records albums]]
[[Category:Albums recorded at FPSHOT]]