George Harrison Biography

[Guest guest]

Guitarist George Harrison was born on February 25, 1943 to a close-

knit working-class family in Liverpool, England. As a teenager

Harrison took up guitar, and in 1958 joined an established local

skiffle band called the Quarrymen, which included his older

schoolmate Paul McCartney. By 1961, the Quarrymen had become the

Beatles, with Harrison on lead guitar. Though McCartney and John

Lennon initially wrote nearly all of the Beatles' material, by 1966

Harrison was contributing a song or two per album, including hits

like "Taxman,While My Guitar Gently Weeps" and "Here Comes the

Sun." Harrison also became fascinated with sitar music (inspired by

his interest in Hinduism), and later received instruction from

acclaimed sitar composer Ravi Shankar, whose music he helped to

popularize in the West. Harrison contributed some sitar-based songs

to the 1968 film soundtrack Wonderwall Music, the first solo outing

by a Beatles member.

 

By the time the Beatles recorded The Beatles (aka The White Album) in

1968, Harrison was often at odds with McCartney and Lennon over whose

songs would be developed and recorded by the band. The guitarist's

personal life was also troubled: he and close friend Eric Clapton

both loved the same woman, Patti Boyd, who was married to Harrison

yet spent much of her time with Clapton. Boyd later switched

husbands, but the three remained eerily close. Following the release

of Abbey Road in the fall of 1969, Harrison traveled to Europe to

perform with Delaney and Bonnie and Friends,a group which included

his old friend, keyboardist Billy Preston. Within months the Beatles

were no more.

 

Harrison's first post-Beatles album was All Things Must Pass,

released in late1970. Recorded with Phil Spector and featuring

appearances by old friends Eric Clapton, Klaus Voormann and Ringo

Starr, the triple album became a No. 1 hit, spawning the No. 1

single "My Sweet Lord." Unfortunately for Harrison, "My Sweet Lord"

bore a strong resemblance to the Chiffons 1962 hit "He's So Fine,"

and the Chiffons' publishing company filed suit seeking damages for

the alleged plagiarism. After protracted negotiations failed, a court

finally heard the case in 1976, and quickly ruled that Harrison

had "subconsciously" borrowed from "He's So Fine" and owed $1.6

million in damages. Due to complicated business and legal issues

involving Apple Music (the Beatles' label, which also released

Harrison's early solo albums), the Chiffons' publisher, and former

Beatles manager Allen Klein, the case was not settled until the 1990s.

 

Harrison took a break from recording in 1971, producing an album for

Badfinger (the first band signed to Apple Records), contributing to

John Lennon's Imagine, and performing at a landmark 1971 benefit for

the troubled Asian nation of Bangladesh (later commemorated in a

triple live album). Harrison returned to solo work with his 1973

album Living in the Material World, featuring the No. 1 hit "Give Me

Love (Give Me Peace on Earth)." The hastily recorded 1974 album Dark

Horse was followed by Harrison's first North American solo tour, yet

his following was already beginning to diminish. 1975's Extra Texture

was a flop, and ended his career with EMI, the Beatles' old label.

Harrison rebounded by forming Dark Horse Records, his own imprint,

which was affiliated with A&M Records. He released 33 & 1/3, his most

praised album since All Things Must Pass. Unfortunately this comeback

was short-lived: his 1979 eponymous album was another artistic

disaster. Harrison's next album, Somewhere In England, was rejected

by Warner Bros. (Dark Horse's new distributor), but following John

Lennon's 1980 assassination, the album was reworked to capitalize on

a resurgence of Beatles nostalgia. The new Somewhere in England

contained the hit song "All Those Years Ago," featuring Paul

McCartney and Ringo Starr, and quickly rose in the charts.

 

Though Harrison's solo albums were often of disputed artistic

quality, throughout the 1970s they sold acceptably. This came to an

end in 1982 with Gone Troppo, a complete commercial failure. Harrison

wisely decided to take time off from his musical career to

concentrate on producing movies and racing his large collection of

sports cars. He founded HandMade Films in 1978, and used the company

to produce such classics as Monty Python's Life of Brian and the 1980

adventure Time Bandits.Though he contributed a few songs to the 1985

Porky's Revenge soundtrack, Harrison's serious return to music was

1987's Cloud Nine, the biggest selling album of his solo career.

Produced by former ELO frontman Jeff Lynne, Cloud Nine was Harrison's

most slick, pop-oriented album yet; its cover of the Rudy Clark

song "I Got My Mind Set On You" became a No. 1 radio hit. The

following year, along with Lynne, Harrison formed the Traveling

Wilburys with rock star pals Tom Petty, Bob Dylan and Roy Orbison.

The supergroup released two platinum-selling albums, 1988's Traveling

Wilburys and 1990's Traveling Wilburys, Vol. 3 [sic] before going on

hiatus.

 

Harrison returned to solo touring in 1991, accompanied by his old

friend Eric Clapton; the world tour was commemorated in the 1992

album Live in Japan. Returning to England, Harrison quickly signed on

to a planned BBC Beatles documentary, which eventually led to

two "new" Beatles songs ("Free as a Bird" and "Real Love") created by

matching new music performed by Harrison, McCartney and Starr to

late '70s Lennon home demos.

 

Harrison remained strangely silent following the massive commercial

success of the 1995-6 Beatles Anthology series. Three years later, he

was again in the news under unfortunate circumstances when a man

broke into his mansion outside of London and attacked him and his

wife. Harrison was stabbed several times, though he made a full

recovery. The intruder was later found not guilty by reason of

insanity.

 

In 2000, Harrison began work on a new album, slated for release in

2001. The same year, Capitol released a 30th anniversary edition of

the landmark All Things Must Pass, which included a re-recorded

version of the hit "My Sweet Lord."

 

Harrison died at the age of 58 on Nov. 30, 2001, following a long

battle with cancer. He is survived by his wife, Olivia Arias

Harrison, and his son Dhani.

 

Seth Hindin

____________________

 

 

>From Rolling Stone magazine seems the pivotal point in his life was

his friendship with Paul Mcartney. My take on his chart is the

combination of all Beatles karma together produced their phenomenal

success so I would make a humble suggestion to jyotish gurus/students

to see the charts of John, Paul, George & Ringo

 

Vik