GEORGE HARRISON
Nov. 29 marked the 10th anniversary of the death of George Harrison, who rose to fame as guitarist for the Beatles.
Every time I hear “ Here Comes the Sun” on the radio, I’m still amazed at its brilliant simplicity as an ode to the coming of springtime. It’s a lovely song that brings a smile to my face and that always lingers in my mind long after I’ve heard it. And every time I hear it, I also wish that Harrison was still here to share his gifts with the rest of us.
As was the case with the earlier death of Harrison’s former bandmate John Lennon, many fans still find it difficult to believe that it has been a decade since Harrison passed away.
For me, remembrances of George Harrison usually find the distant and dreamy strains of “Here Comes the Sun” and “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” drifting through my mind softly. They bring back faded images of long ago and far away, and they are a key that unlocks the door to a magical time when four young boys from Liverpool, England, took the world by storm.
Those dreamy days are now dimmed a bit with the passing of the years, but they shine a light on a moment in time when the creative brilliance of the Beatles transformed rock ’ n’ roll from what many saw as little more than loud noise into an art form.
Their musical style was as fresh and pristine as a carpet of freshly fallen snow on a cold winter morning, and we may never again see musical talent on the grand scale of the Beatles. At the core of that worldwide phenomenon was George Harrison. One only need listen to any Beatles song to quickly appreciate what a masterful lead guitar player he was.
Harrison was the youngest Beatle, and the one for whom the harsh and constant glare of the public spotlight always seemed to affect most harshly. The legendary rock star was fierce in guarding his privacy, and he spent his post-Beatle years as a recluse living in the splendid seclusion of Friar Park, his massive Victorian mansion nestled in the idyllic countryside of southern England. There, he pursued his passion for gardening and the study of Eastern religion.
During the Beatles heyday, Harrison always took a back seat to Lennon and Paul McCartney. To tabloids, he was the “quiet” Beatle, but retrospective accounts of the band’s creative process credit Harrison with pushing the band to expand beyond the simple, accessible pop tunes that launched the Fab Four onto the global stage, to write and play more music that challenged the band and its listeners.
Harrison spent much of his Beatle years living in the long creative shadow cast by Lennon and McCartney, and throughout the 1960s, that dynamic duo’s songs clearly took precedence over those Harrison wrote, as he was always limited to having a precious few songs recorded for Beatles albums.
That all changed with Harrison’s release, as a solo artist, of his classic “All Things Must Pass” triple album in 1970. This innovative collection of songs proved to be his defining musical moment and high water mark as a solo artist. With “All Things Must Pass,” Harrison produced a musical vehicle that unleashed all of his pent- up frustrations at being viewed as an apprentice of sorts to Lennon and McCartney.
With the release of “All Things Must Pass,” Harrison established himself as a major solo artist. He had crafted a masterpiece in which his lyrics had the power to stand alone without the aid of musical backing to prop them up.
Today, more than four decades after its release, the songs from “All Things Must Pass” still sound as fresh and vital as they did when Harrison introduced them.
Part of Harrison’s enduring legacy is found in the fact that he was a rock superstar who never got caught up in his fame. His music and rare public appearances revealed him as a person who had the compassion and empathy to step inside the lives of people who were far less fortunate than he was.
He was a passionate philanthropist in the causes that he supported, and he was definitely at the vanguard of assembling huge rock concerts whose goal was to raise the level of public awareness about people who were suffering and in need of help.
Assisting his longtime friend and sitar instructor, Ravi Shankar, in bringing awareness to the plight of displaced refugees in cycloneravaged West Bengal, in 1971 he staged rock music’s first philanthropic extravaganza: “ The Concert For Bangladesh” at Madison Square Garden.
This humanitarian concert was the forerunner of, and set the standard for, later efforts such as “Live Aid” and “The Concert For 9/11”
Harrison brought together a collection of rock superstars (close friends), including Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr and Leon Russell for the benefit concert.
A heavy smoker for many years, Harrison was diagnosed with throat cancer in 1997. The disease spread to his lungs and brain. Despite the best efforts of some of the world’s most renowned cancer specialists in Switzerland and the United States, the disease finally took his life on Nov. 29, 2001, in Los Angeles.
When George Harrison died, a light went out all over the world, and his passing served to mark the end of an era for millions of people who grew up and came of age with the Beatles. Harrison’s death seemed to have been a catalyst that spurred an entire generation to consider its mortality.
A firm believer in reincarnation, Harrison taught the generation that followed his journey from the back alleys of Liverpool to the top of the charts and beyond a lesson in how to live purposefully and to die with dignity.
PAUL COLLINS is a freelance writer from Southboro, Mass.
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