[13] By March 1975, still "reeling" from the "barbarous reaction" to both his 1974 tour with Shankar and the Dark Horse album, according to musical biographer Simon Leng, Harrison was back in Los Angeles, this time as the head of his own independent record label.
[14] Dark Horse Records had recently signed a handful of new acts in Jiva, Stairsteps and Attitudes, all of whom were American-based,[15] a reality that meant Harrison was domiciled in California with girlfriend Olivia Arias all through the summer.
[18] Over a "smoky, bluesy" musical backing,[19] the song's first verse and chorus outline his thoughts upon returning home to his lover after the night in question, as a new day is just beginning: The sun came into view As I sat with the tears in my eyes The sun came up on you And as you smiled, the tear-drop it dried.I don't know where I had been But I know what I had seen Made me chill right to the bone Made me wish that I'd stayed home – along with you Tired of midnight blue.Musically, over the "along with you / Tired of midnight blue" lines of the choruses, the song drops from what author Alan Clayson terms its "'Badge'-style rhythmic lope",[20] propelled by Harrison's strong seventh chords on soul-inflected rhythm guitar and Jim Keltner's drums and cowbell, to reveal sweeping "tumbleweed" piano from Leon Russell[21] and a rare Extra Texture slide-guitar commentary from Harrison.
While discussing the song with BBC Radio 1's Paul Gambaccini that September,[23] Harrison praised Russell's "fantastic" piano contribution[24] after introducing the track with a laconic "You know those nights you go out and wish you hadn't?
"[22] While viewing Extra Texture as predominantly "mournful and doom-laden", the NME's Neil Spencer wrote: "'Tired of Midnight Blue' makes more constructive use of Hari finding his heart in his boots.
[1] Although he sees it as one of a number of tunes on Extra Texture that are "almost watered-down flashbacks to The Beatles", Alan Clayson opines: "In its contradiction of enjoyable depression, only 'Tired of Midnight Blue' passed muster.
"[31] On an album containing songs that he views as either "threadbare" or "medium-grade self-pastiche", author Chris Ingham writes that "[t]hings look up during Tired of Midnight Blue, a sassy soft-shoe shuffle ... [and] on His Name Is Legs (Ladies and Gentlemen).