George Harrison
L'Angelo Misterioso
BORN: February 25, 1943, Liverpool, England
DIED: November 29, 2001, Los Angeles, CA
As lead guitarist for the Beatles, George Harrison provided the band with
a lyrical style of playing in which every note mattered.Harrison was one
of millions of young Britons inspired to take up the guitar by British skiffle
king Lonnie Donegan's recording of "Rock Island Line." But he had more dedication
than most, and with the encouragement of a slightly older school friend --
Paul McCartney -- he advanced quickly in his technique and command of the
instrument. Harrison developed his style and technique slowly and painstakingly
over the several years, learning everything he could from the records of
Carl Perkins, Duane Eddy, Chet Atkins, Buddy Holly, and Eddie Cochran. By
age 15, he was allowed to sit in with the Quarry Men, the Liverpool group
founded by John Lennon, of which McCartney was a member; by 16 he was a full-fledged
member of the group.
The Beatles finally coalesced around Lennon, McCartney, Harrison, and drummer
Ringo Starr in 1962, with Harrison established on lead guitar. The Beatlemania
years, from 1963 through 1966, were a mixed blessing for Harrison. The Beatles'
studio sound was generally characterized by very prominent rhythm guitar
parts, and on many of the Beatles' early songs, Harrison's lead guitar was
buried beneath the chiming chords of Lennon's instrument. Additionally, he
was thwarted as a songwriter by the presence of Lennon and McCartney -- the
quality and prolificacy of their output left very little room on the group's
albums for songs by anyone else. Despite these problems, Harrison grew markedly
as a musician between 1963 and 1966, writing a handful of good songs and
one classic ("If I Needed Someone"), and also making his first acquaintance
of the sitar, an Indian instrument whose sound fascinated him.
In 1966, Harrison finally seemed to find his voice, with two of his songs
on the Revolver album, "Taxman" and "Love You Too." In the wake of the group's
decision to stop touring, Harrison's playing and songwriting grew exponentially.
The period from 1968 onward was Harrison's richest with the Beatles. He displayed
a smooth, elegant slide guitar technique that showed up on their last three
albums, and contributed two classic songs, "While My Guitar Gently Weeps"
and "Here Comes the Sun," along with "Something," which became the first
Harrison song on the A-side of a Beatles single.
Although never known as a strong singer, Harrison's vocals were always distinctive,
especially when placed in the right setting -- for his first solo record
following the group's 1970 breakup, All Things Must Pass, Harrison collaborated
with producer Phil Spector, whose so-called "wall of sound" technique adapted
well to Harrison's voice. All Things Must Pass and the accompanying single
"My Sweet Lord" had the distinction of being the first solo recordings by
any of the Beatles to top the charts following their breakup. Unfortunately,
Harrison was later successfully sued by the publisher of the 1962 Chiffons
hit "He's So Fine," which bore a striking resemblance to "My Sweet Lord."
Harrison followed All Things Must Pass with rock's first major charity event,
The Concert for Bangladesh, which was staged as two shows at New York's Madison
Square Garden in 1971 to help raise money for aid to that famine-ravaged
nation. The second of the two all-star shows was released as a movie and
a live triple album. Harrison's next studio album, Living in the Material
World, initially sold well, but its leaner, less opulent production lacked
the majestic force of All Things Must Pass, and it lacked the earlier album's
mass appeal. Subsequent Harrison albums from the 1970s into the '80s always
had an audience, but except for Somewhere in England (1981), released in
the wake of the murder of John Lennon with the memorial song "All Those Years
Ago," none seemed terribly well-crafted or executed. During this same period,
Harrison embarked on a successful career as a movie producer with the founding
of Handmade Films.
In 1987, Harrison made a return to the top of the charts with his album Cloud
Nine, which featured his most inspired work in years, most notably a cover
of an old Rudy Clark gospel number called "Got My Mind Set on You," which
reached number one on the charts. In 1988, Harrison, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty,
Jeff Lynne, and Roy Orbison formed the Traveling Wilburys, who released two
very successful albums. It was also around this time that Harrison appeared
with his former bandmate Ringo Starr, and Dave Edmunds, Roseanne Cash, and
the Stray Cats' Lee Rocker (who was born the year the Beatles made their
first recordings) in a superb live-in-front-of-the-cameras rockabilly performance
accompanying his one-time idol Carl Perkins, which was subsequently released
on videocassette and laserdisc. All of this success heralded a short-lived
re-emergence for the musician out of private life, resulting in a 1991 tour
of Japan that yielded a live album (Live in Japan). Harrison had hated concertizing
since the harrowing days of the Beatles' international career, and had done
one poorly-received concert tour in the mid-'70s -- he seemed more comfortable
in 1991, and the album performed moderately well, driven by the presence
of his then-recent hits.
He withdrew into private life after that, devoting himself to his life with
his second wife and their son, and only re-emerged before the public when
necessary, such as defending the Beatles' copyrights in court cases. In 1999,
Harrison was assaulted in his home and seriously injured by a deranged fan,
but he recovered and in 2000 he began work on remastering and expanding his
classic All Things Must Pass album. The reissue of that album at the outset
of 2001 heralded an unusually public publicity campaign by Harrison, who
accompanied its re-release with an interview record that anticipated the
eventual reissue of the rest of his catalog. Harrison had been treated for
throat cancer in the late '90s, but in 2001 it was revealed that he was suffering
from an inoperable form of brain cancer. At the time of his death on November
29, 2001, The Concert for Bangladesh album had been announced for upgraded
reissue in January of 2002, and a DVD of the film was in release internationally.
~ Bruce Eder, All Music Guide
Liverpudlian George Harrison, lead guitarist of the Beatles, was the youngest
and, for many years, least appreciated of the Fab Four. Often labelled the
"quiet Beatle" in the early 1960s, Harrison seemed so retiring and self-deprecating
that the makers of the first Beatles flick A Hard Day's Night took pity on
him and wrote him his own individual sequence. The result was the hilarious
"shirt scene," wherein Harrison finds himself auditioning for a specious
teen-oriented TV show (asked his opinion on some wretched "mod" clothing,
Harrison replies "They're grotty.") For the next Beatles film Help (65),
Harrison broke the Lennon-McCartney stranglehold on the musical score by
writing the song "I Need You" -- a fact that we hear proclaimed over and
over during the film's closing credits. While overwhelmed in the public eye
by the charisma of his fellow Beatles, Harrison was the first to assert himself
as an individual musical artist, recording the 1968 solo album Wonderwall
Music while still a member of the group. After the breakup of the Beatles
in 1970, Harrison was also the first of the four to make the charts with
a hit song; on a more negative note, he was also the first to be involved
in a serious lawsuit -- the plagiarism battle over "He's So Fine," which
he eventually lost. Not having appeared in a film since 1974's Concert for
Bangladesh, Harrison re-entered the movie business in the late 1970s as a
producer, backing such films as Monty Python's Life of Brian (79), Time Bandits
(82) and Brazil (84). He also occasionally played small, uncredited roles
in such films as Shanghai Surprise (86) (for which he also contributed several
songs). One of George Harrison's most ingratiating post-Beatles appearance
was as a BBC announcer on the parody TV documentary The Rutles -- a merciless
lampoon of a certain mop-topped foursome of the 1960s. ~ Hal Erickson, All
Movie Guide