| Img alt | Black-and-white shot of a mustachioed man in his early thirties with long, dark hair. |
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| Background | solo_singer |
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| Alias | Carl HarrisonL'Angelo MisteriosoHari GeorgesonNelson/Spike WilburyGeorge HarrysongGeorge O'Hara-Smith |
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| Born | February 25, 1943Liverpool, England, |
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| Died | November 29, 2001Los Angeles, California, |
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| Instrument | Guitar, vocals, bass, keyboards, ukulele, mandolin, sitar, tambura, sarod, swarmandal |
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| Genre | Rock, pop, psychedelic rock, experimental, world |
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| Occupation | Musician, singer-songwriter, actor, record and film producer |
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| Years active | 1958–2001 |
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| Label | Parlophone, Capitol, Swan, Apple, Vee-Jay, EMI, Dark Horse |
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| Associated acts | The Quarrymen, The Beatles, Traveling Wilburys, Dhani Harrison, Ravi Shankar |
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| Url | GeorgeHarrison.com |
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| Notable instruments | Gretsch Country Gentleman"Rocky""Lucy"Rosewood Telecaster |
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George Harrison,
MBE (25 February 1943 – 29 November 2001) was an English rock guitarist, singer-songwriter, actor and film producer who achieved international fame as
lead guitarist of
The Beatles. Often referred to as "the quiet Beatle", Following the band's break-up, he had a successful career as a solo artist and later as part of the
Traveling Wilburys, and also as a film and record producer. Harrison is listed at number 21 in
Rolling Stone magazine's list of "
100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".
Although most of The Beatles' songs were written by Lennon and McCartney, Harrison, also a songwriter, generally contributed 1-2 songs per record from With The Beatles onwards. His later compositions with The Beatles include "Here Comes the Sun", "Something" and "While My Guitar Gently Weeps". By the time of the band's break-up, Harrison had accumulated a backlog of material, which he then released as the acclaimed and successful triple album All Things Must Pass in 1970, from which came two singles: a double A-side single, "My Sweet Lord" backed with "Isn't It a Pity", and "What Is Life". In addition to his solo work, Harrison co-wrote two hits for Ringo Starr, another former Beatle, as well as songs for the Traveling Wilburys—the supergroup he formed in 1988 with Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne, and Roy Orbison.
Harrison embraced Indian culture and Hinduism in the mid 1960s, and helped expand Western awareness of sitar music and of the Hare Krishna movement. With Ravi Shankar he organised a major charity concert with the 1971 Concert for Bangladesh.
Besides being a musician, he was also a record producer and co-founder of the production company HandMade Films. In his work as a film producer, he collaborated with people as diverse as the members of Monty Python and Madonna. He was married twice, to the model Pattie Boyd in 1966, and to the record company secretary Olivia Trinidad Arias in 1978, with whom he had one son, Dhani Harrison. He was a close friend of Eric Clapton. He is the only Beatle to have published an autobiography, with I Me Mine in 1980. Harrison died of lung cancer in 2001.
Early years: 1943–1959
Harrison was born in
Liverpool, England, on 25 February 1943, the last of four children to Harold Hargreaves Harrison and his wife Louise, née French.
He had one sister, Louise, born 16 August 1931, and two brothers, Harry, born 1934, and Peter, born 20 July 1940. His mother was a Liverpool shop assistant, and his father was a bus conductor who had worked as a ship's steward on the
White Star Line. The family was Roman Catholic; his maternal grandfather, John French, was born in
County Wexford, Ireland, emigrating to Liverpool where he married a local girl, Louise Woollam.
Harrison was born in the house where he lived for his first six years: 12 Arnold Grove, Wavertree, Liverpool, which was a small 2 up, 2 down terraced house in a cul-de-sac, with an alley to the rear. The only heating was a single coal fire, and the toilet was outside. In 1950 the family was offered a council house, and moved to 25 Upton Green, Speke.
His first school was Dovedale Primary School, very close to Penny Lane, the same school as John Lennon who was a couple of years ahead of him. He passed his 11-plus examination and achieved a place at the Liverpool Institute for Boys (in the building that now houses the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts), which he attended from 1954 to 1959. George said that, when he was 12 or 13, he had an "epiphany" of sorts - riding a bike around his neighbourhood, he heard Elvis Presley's "Heartbreak Hotel" playing from a nearby house and was hooked. Even though he had done well enough on his 11-plus examination to get into the city's best high school, from that point on, the former good student lost interest in school. While at the Liverpool Institute, Harrison formed a skiffle group called the Rebels with his brother Peter and a friend, Arthur Kelly. At this school he met Paul McCartney, who was one year older. McCartney later became a member of John Lennon's band called The Quarrymen, which Harrison joined in 1958.
The Beatles: 1960–1970
and Harrison (right) in Hamburg]]
Harrison became part of The Beatles when they were still a
skiffle group called
The Quarrymen. McCartney told Lennon about his friend George Harrison, who could play "
Raunchy" on his guitar. Although Lennon considered him too young to join the band, Harrison hung out with them and filled in as needed. Since Harrison was the youngest member of the group, he was looked upon as a kid by the others for another few years.
Harrison left school at 16 and worked as an apprentice electrician at local department store Blacklers for a while. When The Beatles were offered work in Hamburg in 1960, the musical apprenticeship that Harrison received playing long hours at the Kaiserkeller with the rest of the group, including guitar lessons from Tony Sheridan, laid the foundations of The Beatles' sound, and of Harrison's quiet, professional role within the group; this role would contribute to his reputation as "the quiet Beatle". The first trip to Hamburg was shortened when Harrison was deported for being underage.
When Brian Epstein became The Beatles' manager in December 1961 after seeing them perform at The Cavern Club in November, he changed their image from that of leather-jacketed rock-and-rollers to a more polished look, and secured them a recording contract with EMI. The first single, "Love Me Do", with Harrison playing a Gibson J-160E, reached number 17 in the UK chart in October 1962, and by the time their debut album, Please Please Me, was released in early 1963, The Beatles had become famous and Beatlemania had arrived.
in America in 1964]]
After he revealed in an interview that he liked jelly babies, British fans inundated Harrison and the rest of the band with boxes of the sweets as gifts. A few months later, American audiences showered the band with the much harder jelly beans instead. In a letter to a fan, Harrison mentioned jelly babies, insisting that no one in the band actually liked them and that the press must have made it up.
The popularity of The Beatles led to a successful tour of America, the making of a film, A Hard Day's Night (during which Harrison met his future wife Pattie Boyd), and in the 1965 Queen's Birthday Honours, all four Beatles were appointed Members of the Order of the British Empire (MBE). Harrison, whose role within the group was that of the careful musician who checked that the instruments were tuned, by 1965 and the Rubber Soul album, was developing into a musical director as he led the others into folk-rock, via his interest in The Byrds and Bob Dylan, and into Indian music with his exploration of the sitar. Harrison's musical involvement and cohesion with the group reached its peak on Revolver in 1966 with his contribution of three songs and new musical ideas. By 1967, Harrison's interests appeared to be moving outside the Beatles, and his involvement in Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band consists mainly of his one song, "Within You Without You", on which no other Beatle plays, and which stands out for its difference from the rest of the album.
During the recording of The Beatles in 1968, tensions were present in the band; these surfaced again during the filming of rehearsal sessions at Twickenham Studios for the album Let It Be in early 1969. Frustrated by ongoing slights, the poor working conditions in the cold and sterile film studio, and Lennon's creative disengagement from the group, Harrison quit the band on 10 January. He returned on 22 January after negotiations with the other Beatles at two business meetings.
Relations among The Beatles were more cordial (though still strained) during recordings for the album Abbey Road. The album included "Here Comes the Sun" and "Something", "Something" was later recorded by Frank Sinatra, who considered it "one of the greatest songs of the last twenty years". Harrison's increasing productivity, coupled with his difficulties in getting The Beatles to record his music, meant that by the end of the group's career he had amassed a considerable stockpile of unreleased material.
Relationships with the Beatles
For the most part of The Beatles career, the relationships in the group were extremely close and intimate. According to Hunter Davis, "The Beatles spent their lives not living a communal life, but communally living the same life. They were each other's greatest friends." Harrison's wife
Pattie Boyd described how The Beatles "all belonged to each other" and admitted, "George has a lot with the others that I can never know about. Nobody, not even the wives, can break through or even comprehend it."
Ringo Starr also stated, "We really looked out for each other and we had so many laughs together. In the old days we'd have the biggest hotel suites, the whole floor of the hotel, and the four of us would end up in the bathroom, just to be with each other." and added "There were some really loving, caring moments between four people: a hotel room here and there - a really amazing closeness. Just four guys who loved each other. It was pretty sensational."
John Lennon stated that his relationship with George was "one of young follower and older guy." and admitted that "[George] was like a disciple of mine when we started." The two would often go on holiday together throughout the 60s. Their relationship took a severe turn for the worse after George published his autobiography, I Me Mine. Lennon felt insulted and hurt that George mentioned him only in passing. Lennon claimed he was hurt by the book and also that he did more for George than any of the other Beatles. As a result, George and John were not on good terms during the last years of Lennon's life. After Lennon's murder, George paid tribute to Lennon with his song "All Those Years Ago" which was released in 1981, six months after Lennon's murder.
Paul McCartney has often referred to Harrison as his "baby brother", and he did the honours as best man at George's wedding in 1966. The two were the first of The Beatles to meet, having shared a school bus, and would often learn and rehearse new guitar chords together. McCartney stated that he and George usually shared a bedroom while touring.
Guitar work
Harrison's guitar work with The Beatles was varied, flexible and innovative; although not fast or flashy, his guitar playing was solid and typified the more subdued lead guitar style of the early 1960s. The influence of the
plucking guitar style of
Chet Atkins and
Carl Perkins on Harrison gave a
country music feel to The Beatles' early recordings. Harrison explored several guitar instruments, the
twelve-string, the
sitar and the
slide guitar, and developed his playing from tight eight- and twelve-bar solos in such songs as "
A Hard Day's Night" and "
Can't Buy Me Love", first recorded during an early session of "
If Not for You" for Dylan's
New Morning in 1970. The earliest example of notable guitar work from Harrison was the extended acoustic guitar solo of "
Till There Was You", for which Harrison purchased a
José Ramírez nylon-stringed classical guitar to produce the sensitivity needed.
Harrison's first electric guitar was a Czech built Futurama/Grazioso, which was a popular guitar among British guitarists in the early 1960s., The guitars Harrison used on early recordings were mainly Gretsch played through a Vox amp. including a Gretsch Duo Jet - his first Gretsch, which he bought in 1961 second hand off a sailor in Liverpool; and his (first out of two) Gretsch Country Gentleman, bought new for £234 in April 1963 at the Sound City store in London, which he used on "She Loves You", and on The Beatles' 1964 appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show.
, 1967]]
During The Beatles' February 1964 trip to the US, Harrison acquired a Rickenbacker 360/12 guitar. He had tried out the 12-string electric guitar during an interview with a Minneapolis radio station, and was given the guitar either by the Rickenbacker company or the radio station. The 360/12 was an experimental 12-string guitar with the strings reversed so that the lower pitched string was struck first, and with an unusual headstock design that made tuning easier. Harrison used the guitar extensively during the recording of A Hard Day's Night, and the jangly sound became so popular that the Melody Maker termed it "the beat boys' secret weapon". Roger McGuinn liked the effect Harrison achieved so much that it became his signature guitar sound with the Byrds.
He obtained his first Fender Stratocaster in 1965 and used it for the recording of the Rubber Soul album, most notably on the "Nowhere Man" track, where he played in unison with Lennon who also had a Stratocaster. Lennon and Harrison both had Sonic Blue Stratocasters, which were bought second hand by roadie Mal Evans. Harrison painted his Stratocaster in a psychedelic design that included the word "Bebopalula" painted above the pickguard and the guitar's nickname, "Rocky", painted on the headstock. He played this guitar in the Magical Mystery Tour film and throughout his solo career.
After David Crosby of the Byrds introduced him to the work of sitar master Ravi Shankar in 1965, Harrison---whose interest in Indian music was stirred during the filming of Help!, which used Indian music as part of its soundtrack---played a sitar on the Rubber Soul track "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)", expanding the already nascent Western interest in Indian music. Harrison listed his early influences as Carl Perkins, Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry and the Everly Brothers.
Song writing and singing
Harrison wrote his first song published with the Beatles, "
Don't Bother Me", while sick in a hotel bed in Bournemouth during August 1963, as an exercise "to see if I could write a song", as he remembered. "Don't Bother Me" appeared on the second Beatles album (
With the Beatles) later that year, then on
Meet the Beatles! in the US in early 1964, and also briefly in the film
A Hard Day's Night. The group did not record another Harrison composition until 1965, when he contributed "
I Need You" and "
You Like Me Too Much" to the album
Help!.
Harrison's songwriting improved greatly through the years, but his material did not earn respect from his fellow Beatles until near the group's break-up. McCartney told Lennon in 1969: "Until this year, our songs have been better than George's. Now this year his songs are at least as good as ours". Harrison had difficulty getting the band to record his songs. The group's incorporation of Harrison's material reached a peak of three songs on the 1966 Revolver album and four songs on the 1968 double The Beatles''.
Harrison performed the lead vocal on all Beatles songs that he wrote by himself. He also sang lead vocal on other songs, including "Chains" and "Do You Want to Know a Secret" on Please Please Me, "Roll Over Beethoven" and "Devil in Her Heart" on With The Beatles, "I'm Happy Just to Dance with You" on A Hard Day's Night, and "Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby" on Beatles for Sale.
Solo work: 1968–1987
Before The Beatles split up in 1970, Harrison had already recorded and released two solo albums,
Wonderwall Music and
Electronic Sound. These albums were mainly instrumental.
Wonderwall Music was a soundtrack to the
Wonderwall film in which Harrison blended Indian and Western sounds; while
Electronic Sound was an experiment in using a
Moog synthesiser. It was only when Harrison was free from The Beatles that he released what is regarded as his first "real" solo album, the commercially successful and critically acclaimed
All Things Must Pass.
All Things Must Pass (1970)
After years of being restricted in his song-writing contributions to the Beatles,
All Things Must Pass contained such a large outpouring of Harrison's songs that it was released as a
triple album, it was a critical and commercial success, topping the charts on both sides of the Atlantic, and producing the number-one
hit single "
My Sweet Lord" as well as the top-10 single "
What Is Life". The album was co-produced by
Phil Spector using his "
Wall of Sound" approach, and the musicians included
Eric Clapton,
Dave Mason,
Billy Preston, and
Ringo Starr. The dispute over damages became complicated when Harrison's manager
Allen Klein changed sides by buying Bright Tunes and then continuing the suit against Harrison. In 1981, a district judge decided that Klein had acted improperly, and it was agreed that Harrison should pay Klein $587,000, the amount Klein had paid for Bright Tunes - so he would gain nothing from the deal, and that Harrison would take over ownership of Bright Tunes, making him the owner of the rights to both "My Sweet Lord" and "He's So Fine" and thus ending the copyright infringement claim. Though the dispute dragged on into the 1990s, the district judge's decision was upheld.
The Concert for Bangladesh (1971)
Harrison organised a major charity concert,
The Concert for Bangladesh, with
Ravi Shankar on 1 August 1971, drawing over 40,000 people to two shows in New York's
Madison Square Garden. The aim of the event was to raise money to aid the starving refugees during the
Bangladesh Liberation War. Ravi Shankar opened the proceedings, which included other popular musicians such as
Bob Dylan (who rarely appeared live in the early 1970s),
Eric Clapton, who made his first public appearance in months (due to a heroin addiction which began when
Derek and the Dominos broke up),
Leon Russell,
Badfinger,
Billy Preston and fellow Beatle
Ringo Starr. Tax troubles and questionable expenses tied up many of the concert's proceeds. The one fully secular song, "Sue Me, Sue You Blues", expressed Harrison's disgust with the endless legal squabbling that had overtaken all of the former Beatles. as did the accompanying tour of North America. Harrison was criticised for poor songwriting and poor vocals on the album, and for over-indulging his love for Indian music during the tour. The album and single "
Dark Horse" did briefly make an appearance near the top of the US charts, but both failed to chart in the UK.
His final studio album for EMI (and Apple Records) was Extra Texture (Read All About It), featuring a diecut cover. The album spawned two singles, "You" which reached the Billboard top 20 and "This Guitar (Can't Keep From Crying)", which became Apple's final original single release in December 1975. Following the former Beatle's departure from Capitol, the record company was in a position to licence releases featuring Beatles and post-Beatles work on the same album, using Harrison for this experiment. The Best of George Harrison (1976) combined his Beatles songs with a selection of his solo Apple work.
Thirty Three & 1/3 his first Dark Horse release, was his most successful late-1970s album, reaching number 11 on the US charts in 1976, and producing the singles "This Song" (a satire of the "My Sweet Lord"-"He's So Fine" court case ruling) and "Crackerbox Palace", both of which reached the top 25 in the US. With an emphasis on melody, musicianship, and subtler subject matter rather than the heavy orchestration and didactic messaging of earlier works, he received his best critical notices since All Things Must Pass. With its surreal humour, "Crackerbox Palace" also reflected Harrison's association with Monty Python's Eric Idle, who directed a comic music video for the song. Harrison played electric, slide and dobro guitars on five songs on John Lennon's 1971 Imagine album ("How Do You Sleep?", "Oh My Love", "I Don't Want to Be a Soldier", "Crippled Inside" and "Gimme Some Truth"), with his stinging slide guitar work on the first of these indicating that he took John's side of the intense Lennon-McCartney feud of the time. Lennon later said of Harrison's work on the album, "That's the best he's ever fucking played in his life!"
During the decade, Harrison also worked with Harry Nilsson ("You're Breakin' My Heart", 1972), as well as Billy Preston ("That's the Way God Planned It", 1969 and "It's My Pleasure", 1975) and Cheech & Chong ("Basketball Jones", 1973). He also appeared with Paul Simon to perform two acoustic songs on Saturday Night Live.
Somewhere in England to Cloud Nine (1980–1987)
Harrison was deeply shocked by the 8 December 1980
murder of John Lennon. The crime reinforced his decades-long worries about safety from
stalkers. It was also a deep personal loss, although unlike former bandmates McCartney and Starr, Harrison had little contact with Lennon in the years before the murder. Their estrangement had been marked by Harrison's longstanding dislike of Yoko Ono, his refusal to allow her participation in the
Concert for Bangladesh, and his omission of any mention of Lennon in his autobiography,
I Me Mine, published the year of Lennon's murder. The omission had upset Lennon greatly, which Harrison had regretted, leading him to leave a telephone message for Lennon, but Lennon had declined to return the call and they had not spoken again. All three surviving ex-Beatles performed on it, although it was expressly a Harrison single. "Teardrops" was issued as a follow-up single, but was not nearly as successful. Both singles came from the album
Somewhere in England, released in 1981. Originally slated for release in late 1980,
Warner Bros. rejected the album, ordering Harrison to replace several tracks, and to change the album cover as well. The original album cover that Harrison wanted was used in the 2004 reissue of the album. In 1981, Harrison played guitar on one track of
Mick Fleetwood's record
The Visitor and
Lindsey Buckingham's song "Walk a Thin Line".
Aside from a song on the Porky's Revenge soundtrack in 1984 (his version of a little-known Bob Dylan song "I Don't Want To Do It"), Harrison released no new records for five years after 1982's Gone Troppo received apparent indifference. In 1985, Harrison made a rare public appearance on the Showtime special Carl Perkins and Friends along with Starr and Clapton among others. He only agreed to appear because he was a close admirer of Perkins.
In 1987, Harrison returned with the critically acclaimed platinum album Cloud Nine, co-produced with Jeff Lynne of Electric Light Orchestra, and enjoyed a hit (number one in the US; number two in the UK) when his rendition of James Ray's early 1960s number "Got My Mind Set on You" was released as a single; another single, "When We Was Fab", a retrospective of The Beatles' days complete with musical flavours for each bandmate, was also a minor hit. MTV regularly played the two videos, and elevated Harrison's public profile with another generation of music listeners. The album reached number eight and number ten on the US and UK charts, respectively. In the US, several tracks also enjoyed high placement on Billboard's Album Rock chart - "Devil's Radio", "This Is Love" and "Cloud 9" in addition to the aforementioned singles.
Live performances (1971–1992)
charity, 1987 playing "
Here Comes the Sun",
Wembley Arena]]
On 23 November 1971, Harrison appeared on an episode of The Dick Cavett Show in a band called Wonder Wheel performing a song written by Gary Wright called "Two Faced Man". George Harrison played slide guitar in this band as a favour since Wright had played piano on Harrison's album All Things Must Pass. The episode can be viewed on DVD "The Dick Cavett Show: Rock Icons: Disc 3".
Harrison launched a major tour of the United States in 1974. Critical and fan reaction panned the tour for its long mid-concert act of Pandit Ravi Shankar & Friends and for Harrison's hoarse voice.
Harrison had hired filmmaker David Acomba to accompany the tour and gather footage for a documentary. Due to Harrison's hoarse voice throughout most of this tour, the film was not released, but in 2007 Acomba placed a newly revised director's cut in the Harrison archive. It was the last time he toured in the United States.
In 1986, Harrison made a surprise performance at the Birmingham Heart Beat Charity Concert 1986 a concert event to raise money for the Birmingham Children's Hospital. Harrison played and sang the finale "Johnny B. Goode" along with Robert Plant, The Moody Blues, and Electric Light Orchestra, among others. The following year, Harrison appeared at The Prince's Trust concert in Wembley Arena, performing "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" and "Here Comes the Sun" with Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton, and others.
In 1991, Harrison staged a tour of Japan along with Eric Clapton. It was his first tour since the 1974 US tour, but no other tours followed. The Live in Japan recording came from these shows.
On 6 April 1992, Harrison held a benefit concert for the Natural Law Party at Royal Albert Hall, his first London performance in 23 years and his last full concert. In October 1992, Harrison performed three songs ("If Not for You", "Absolutely Sweet Marie", and "My Back Pages") at a Bob Dylan tribute concert at Madison Square Garden in New York City. This was released on the album The 30th Anniversary Concert Celebration in August 1993.
Later life: 1988–2001
Early in 1989, Harrison, Lynne and Ringo Starr all appeared in the music video for
Tom Petty's "I Won't Back Down", although Starr did not actually play on the track; Harrison played acoustic guitar. The same year also saw the release of
Best of Dark Horse 1976–1989, a compilation drawn from his later solo work. This album also included two new songs, "Poor Little Girl", and "Cockamamie Business" (which saw him once again looking wryly upon his Beatle past), as well as "
Cheer Down", which had first been released earlier in the year on the soundtrack to the film
Lethal Weapon 2, which starred
Mel Gibson and
Danny Glover. Unlike his previous greatest hits package, Harrison made sure to oversee this compilation. In 1989 Harrison played slide guitar on the "
Leave a Light On" and "Deep Deep Ocean" songs from
Belinda Carlisle's third album "
Runaway Horses". "Leave a Light On" was successful worldwide.
In 1996, Harrison recorded, produced and played on "Distance Makes No Difference With Love" with Carl Perkins for his Go-Cat-Go record.
Harrison's final television appearance was not intended as such; in fact, he was not the featured artist, and the appearance had been intended to promote Chants of India, another collaboration with Ravi Shankar released in 1997, at the height of interest in chant music. John Fugelsang, then of VH1, conducted the interview, and at one point an acoustic guitar was produced and handed to Harrison. When an audience member asked to hear "a Beatles song", Harrison pulled a sheepish look and answered, "I don't think I know any!" Harrison then played "All Things Must Pass" and revealed for the first time "Any Road," which subsequently appeared on the 2002 Brainwashed album.
In January 1998, Harrison attended the funeral of his boyhood idol, Carl Perkins, in Jackson, Tennessee. Harrison played an impromptu version of Perkins' song "Your True Love" during the service. That same year he attended the public memorial service for Linda McCartney. Also that same year, he appeared on Ringo Starr's Vertical Man, where he played both electric and slide guitars on two tracks.
In 2001, Harrison performed as a guest musician on the Electric Light Orchestra album Zoom. He played slide guitar on the song "Love Letters" for Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings, and remastered and restored unreleased tracks from the Traveling Wilburys. He also co-wrote a new song with his son Dhani, "Horse to the Water". The latter song ended up as Harrison's final recording session, on 2 October. It appeared on Jools Holland's album Small World, Big Band.
Harrison's final album, Brainwashed, was completed by Dhani Harrison and Jeff Lynne and released on 18 November 2002. It received generally positive reviews in the United States, and peaked at number 18 on the Billboard charts. A media-only single, "Stuck Inside a Cloud", was heavily played on UK and US radio to promote the album (number 27 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart), while the official single "Any Road", released in May 2003, reached number 37 on the British chart. The instrumental track, "Marwa Blues" went on to receive the 2004 Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance, while the single "Any Road" was nominated for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance.
The Traveling Wilburys: 1988–1990
In 1988, Harrison played an instrumental role in forming the Traveling Wilburys with
Jeff Lynne,
Roy Orbison,
Bob Dylan, and
Tom Petty when they gathered in Dylan's garage to quickly record an additional track for a projected Harrison European single release. The record company realised the track ("
Handle With Care") was too good for its original purpose as a B-side and asked for a full, separate album. This had to be completed within two weeks, as Dylan was scheduled to start a tour. The album,
Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1, was released in October 1988 and recorded under pseudonyms as half-brothers (supposed sons of Charles Truscott Wilbury, Sr.). Harrison's pseudonym on the first album was "Nelson Wilbury"; he would use the name "Spike Wilbury" for the Traveling Wilburys' second album.
After the death of Roy Orbison in late 1988 the group recorded as a four-piece. Though Traveling Wilburys Vol. 3 was their second release, the album was mischievously titled Vol. 3 by Harrison. According to Lynne, "That was George's idea. He said, 'Let's confuse the buggers.'" It was not as well received as the previous album, but did reach number 14 in the UK and number 11 in the US where it went platinum, while the singles "She's My Baby", "Inside Out", and "Wilbury Twist" got decent air play.
The Beatles Anthology: 1994–1996
In 1994–1996, Harrison reunited with the surviving former Beatles, and Traveling Wilburys producer Jeff Lynne for
The Beatles Anthology project, which included the recording of two new Beatles songs built around solo vocal and piano tapes recorded by John Lennon in the late 1970s, as well as the lengthy interviews on The Beatles' history. The single "
Free as a Bird", was the first Beatles single since "
The Long and Winding Road" in 1970.
HandMade Films: 1978–1994
HandMade Films was a British film production and distribution company that Harrison formed in 1978 with his business partner,
Denis O'Brien. It was created to help out his
Monty Python friends by raising £2 million to finish their film
Life of Brian after
EMI Films, the original financiers, pulled out due to the film's satirical content.
The first film started under the company was Time Bandits, equipped with a soundtrack by Harrison, in 1981, a solo project by Python Terry Gilliam for whom HandMade originally also was to finance The Adventures of Baron Munchausen before several funding parties including HandMade dropped out of the project. Harrison produced twenty three films with HandMade, including Mona Lisa, Shanghai Surprise, and Withnail and I. He made several cameo appearances in these movies, including appearing as a nightclub singer in Shanghai Surprise and as Mr Papadopolous in Life of Brian. Handmade Films became a rarity in the British film industry, a production company that was both consistently successful and internationally known.
Harrison was involved in some creative decisions, approving projects such as Withnail and I and visiting sets as executive producer to sort out creative problems. On the whole, though, he preferred to stay out of the way: "[As a musician] I've been the person who's said of the people with the money, 'What do they know?' and now I'm that person. But I know that unless you give an artist as much freedom as possible, there's no point in using that artist." and Harrison sold the company in 1994.
Interest in Indian culture
Sitar and Indian music
During The Beatles' American tour in August 1965, Harrison's friend
David Crosby of
the Byrds introduced him to
Indian classical music and the work of
sitar player
Ravi Shankar.
Buying his own first sitar from a London shop called India Craft later that year (as he recalled during interviews for "The Beatles Anthology"), he played one on the Rubber Soul track "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)", which was influential in the decision to have Ravi Shankar included on the bill at the Monterey Pop Festival in June 1967.
Hinduism
in front of
Jiva Goswami Samādhi in
Vrindavan, India, 1996.]]
During the filming of the movie
Help!, on location in the
Bahamas, a
Hindu devotee presented each Beatle with a book about
reincarnation. Harrison's interest in Indian culture expanded to Hinduism. During a pilgrimage to
Bombay with his wife, Harrison studied sitar, met several
gurus and visited various holy places, filling the months between the end of the final Beatles tour in 1966 and the commencement of the
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band recording sessions. In 1968, Harrison travelled to
Rishikesh in northern India with the other Beatles to study meditation with the
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.
In the summer of 1969, he produced the single "Hare Krishna Mantra", performed by the devotees of the London Radha Krishna Temple. That same year, he and fellow Beatle John Lennon met A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, founder - acharya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON). Soon after, Harrison embraced the Hare Krishna tradition (particularly japa-yoga chanting with beads), became a lifelong devotee, being associated with it until his death.
Harrison was a vegetarian from 1968 until his death.
While during his lifetime, Harrison bequeathed to ISKCON his Letchmore Heath mansion (renamed Bhaktivedanta Manor) north of London, some sources indicate he left nothing to the organisation, others report he did leave a sum of 20 million pounds.
Personal life
Family and friends
Harrison married model
Pattie Boyd on 21 January 1966, at the then
Epsom Register Office, Upper High Street, Epsom, with McCartney as
best man. They had met during the filming for
A Hard Day's Night, in which the 19-year-old Boyd was cast as a schoolgirl fan. After Harrison and Boyd split up in 1974, she moved in with
Eric Clapton and they subsequently married.
Harrison married for a second time, to Dark Horse Records secretary Olivia Trinidad Arias on 2 September 1978. They had met at the Dark Horse offices in Los Angeles in 1974. They had one son, Dhani Harrison. After the 1999 stabbing incident in which Olivia subdued Harrison's assailant nearly single-handedly, Harrison received a fax from his close friend Tom Petty that read: "Aren't you glad you married a Mexican girl?"
in Surrey, that he shared with Pattie Boyd]]
Harrison formed a close friendship with Clapton in the late 1960s, and they co-wrote the song "Badge", which was released on Cream's Goodbye album in 1969. Harrison also played rhythm guitar on the song. For contractual reasons, Harrison was required to use the pseudonym "L'Angelo Misterioso", meaning "The Mysterious Angel" in Italian. Harrison wrote one of his compositions for The Beatles' Abbey Road album, "Here Comes the Sun", in Clapton's back garden. Clapton also guested on the Harrison-penned Beatles track "While My Guitar Gently Weeps". Through Clapton, Harrison met Delaney Bramlett, who introduced Harrison to slide guitar. They remained close friends after Pattie Boyd split from Harrison and married Clapton, referring to each other as "husbands-in-law".
Through his appreciation of Monty Python, he met Eric Idle. The two became close friends, with Harrison appearing on Idle's Rutland Weekend Television series and in his Beatles spoof, The Rutles' All You Need Is Cash. Idle also performed at the Concert for George, held to commemorate Harrison.
Interests
An accomplished gardener, Harrison restored the English manor house and grounds of
Friar Park, his home in
Henley-on-Thames. The house once belonged to Victorian eccentric Sir
Frank Crisp. Purchased in 1970, it is the basis for the song "Ballad of Sir Frankie Crisp (Let It Roll)". Several Harrison videos were also filmed on the grounds, including "
Crackerbox Palace"; in addition, the grounds served as the background for the cover of
All Things Must Pass. He employed a staff of ten workers to maintain the garden, and both of his older brothers worked on
Friar Park as well. Harrison took great solace working in the garden and grew to consider himself more a gardener than a musician;
That autobiography, I Me Mine, published in 1980, is the only full autobiography by an ex-Beatle. Former Beatles' publicist Derek Taylor helped with the book, which was initially released in a high-priced limited edition by Genesis Publications.
Harrison had an interest in sports cars and motor racing; he was one of the 100 people who purchased the McLaren F1 road car, and would often attend Formula One races. He had collected photos of racing drivers and their cars since he was young; when he was 12 he attended his first race, the 1955 British Grand Prix at Aintree, in which Stirling Moss won his first Grand Prix. He wrote "Faster" as a tribute to the Formula One racing drivers Jackie Stewart and Ronnie Peterson. Proceeds from its release went to the Gunnar Nilsson cancer charity, set up following the Swedish driver's death from the disease in 1978. Harrison's first "important" car was recently sold at auction in Battersea Park, London. The 1964 Aston Martin DB5 was bought new and delivered to Harrison personally in 1965 at his Kinfauns estate in Esher, Surrey, England.
Knife attack
In late 1999, Harrison survived a knife attack by an intruder in his home.
At 3:30 am on 30 December 1999 36-year-old Michael Abram broke into the Harrisons' Friar Park home and began loudly calling to Harrison. Harrison left the bedroom to investigate while his wife, Olivia, phoned the police. Abram attacked Harrison with a kitchen knife, inflicting seven stab wounds, puncturing a lung and causing head injuries before Olivia Harrison incapacitated the assailant by striking him repeatedly with a
fireplace poker. The attack lasted approximately fifteen minutes.
Abram, who believed he was possessed by Harrison and was on a "mission from God" to kill him, was later acquitted of attempted murder on grounds of insanity, but was detained for treatment in a secure hospital. He was released in 2002 after 19 months' detention. Since John Lennon's assassination in 1980 Harrison had rarely made public appearances, except at tightly controlled settings such as
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductions.
Death
Cancer diagnosis
Harrison developed
throat cancer, which was discovered in 1997 after a lump on his neck was analysed. He attributed it to his smoking habit he had from the 1960s well into the 1980s. He was successfully treated with radiotherapy. Early in May 2001, it was revealed that he had undergone an operation at the
Mayo Clinic to remove a cancerous growth from one of his lungs. In July of that year, it was reported that he was being treated at a clinic in
Switzerland and that the cancer had spread to his brain.
Lederman affair
In November 2001, Harrison began radiotherapy at
Staten Island University Hospital in New York City for
lung cancer which had
metastasised to his brain. In a complaint later brought on behalf of Harrison's estate, it was alleged that while under the care of the hospital, Dr. Gilbert Lederman, a radiation oncologist, repeatedly revealed Harrison's confidential medical information during television interviews and forced him to autograph a guitar. The complaint alleges that Dr. Lederman and his family came to visit Harrison and began singing, and that, in laboured breaths, Harrison said, "Please stop talking." Later, Dr. Lederman allegedly had his son play the guitar for George. The complaint alleges that after the performance, Dr. Lederman asked Harrison for an autograph on the guitar, and that Harrison responded, "I do not even know if I know how to sign my name any more." Dr. Lederman then allegedly took Harrison's hand and guided his hand along to spell his name while encouraging him by saying, "Come on, George. You can do this. G-E-O...".
The suit was ultimately settled out of court under the condition that the guitar be "disposed of".
Decline and death
Despite the treatments and operations, Harrison died on 29 November 2001 at a
Hollywood Hills mansion that was once leased by McCartney and was previously owned by
Courtney Love. The cause of death was listed on his Los Angeles County death certificate as "
metastatic non-small cell lung cancer". He was
cremated at
Hollywood Forever Cemetery and his ashes were scattered in the
Ganges River by his close family in a private ceremony according to Hindu tradition. He left almost £100 million in his will.
In 2002, on the first anniversary of Harrison's death, the Concert for George was held at the Royal Albert Hall; it was organised by Eric Clapton and included performances by many of Harrison's musical friends, including Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr. The profits from the concert went to Harrison's charity, the Material World Charitable Foundation.
==Honours==
Harrison's first official honour was when The Beatles were appointed Members of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 1965, and received their insignia from the Queen at an investiture at Buckingham Palace on 26 October. Another award with The Beatles came in 1970 when they won an Academy Award for the best Original Song Score for Let It Be.
A significant music award as a solo artist was in December 1992, when he became the first recipient of the Billboard Century Award - presented to music artists for significant bodies of work. The minor planet 4149, discovered on 9 March 1984 by B. A. Skiff at the Anderson Mesa Station of the Lowell Observatory, was named after Harrison. Harrison is listed at number 21 in Rolling Stone magazine's list of "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".
Harrison featured twice on the cover of Time magazine, initially with The Beatles in 1967, then on his own, shortly after his death in 2001. In June 2007, portraits of Harrison and John Lennon were unveiled at The Mirage Hotel on the Las Vegas Strip, where they will be on permanent display. In September 2007, Variety announced that Martin Scorsese would make a film about Harrison's life.
On 14 April 2009, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce awarded Harrison a star on the Walk of Fame in front of the Capitol Records Building. (The Beatles also have a group star on the Walk of Fame.) Musicians Paul McCartney, Jeff Lynne and Tom Petty were among those in attendance when the star was unveiled. Harrison's widow Olivia, actor Tom Hanks and comedian Eric Idle made speeches at the ceremony; Harrison's son Dhani uttered the Hare Krishna mantra. After the ceremony, Capitol/EMI Records announced that a new career-spanning CD entitled would be released in mid-June 2009.
American film director Martin Scorsese has announced that he is making a George Harrison documentary titled .
Solo discography
Notes
References
External links
GeorgeHarrison.com — Official Site
Rolling Stone - George's Greatest Musical Moments
George Harrison - Daily Telegraph obituary
Genesis Publications - Concert for George: A Celebration of the Life of George Harrison
Interview with Paul Cashmere
BBC news article on Harrison's death
BBC news George Harrison: Life in pictures
George and other Beatles at Tittenhurst Hare Krishna temple
BBC news UK version with different pictures
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