Somewhere in England is an album mostly remembered for Harrison’s loving tribute to John Lennon: “All Those Years Ago.” But mortality was also on his mind on this track written before Lennon’s death. Lucky for us we finally got to hear it, as it combines some slinky horns and sharp guitar with some of Harrison’s most incisive lyrics, detailing not just the bad actions of politicians and businessmen but also the people who sit back and do nothing about it. (He had some fun at the record executives’ expense with the withering “Blood from a Clone” from that album.) The song wasn’t released until a reissue of 1976’s Thirty Three & 1/3 in 2004. Harrison recorded this song for Somewhere in England, but it was rejected by Warner Bros. The string arrangement plays well off Harrison’s acoustic strumming, and the lyrics are malleable enough to resemble not just an auto racer but also any iconoclast who captures the public’s imagination and becomes personally isolated because of it.
His love of Formula One racing inspired this sprightly character sketch from his self-titled 1979 album. Harrison was a man of many interests, which is part of the reason his sometimes long hiatuses from the music business never bothered him. Whether or not you think Harrison had rabbit ears in his dealings with the fourth estate, it’s hard to deny that he sounds focused and energized on the track, which makes it stand out from much of his mid-70’s work. Of course he’s referencing his classic Beatles song “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” as his instrument of choice once again becomes personified to suffer the slings and arrows of the press. Harrison was stung by bad reviews and used his bully pulpit to respond on this Extra Texture (Read All About It) track. “This Guitar (Can’t Keep From Crying)” (1975) Harrison’s personal life was spiraling a bit out of control at this time this song doesn’t shy away from the “shady” behavior or its consequences.Ĥ. He recounts a particularly rough experience with his patented mix of mystic musing and searing honesty. But this song is a winner, as country-sounding as you’ll ever hear Harrison get. The song, with its spare guitar, eerie sitar drone, and Nicky Hopkins’ ethereal piano, calls to mind the Rolling Stones evocative Sticky Fingers track “Moonlight Mile,” and the yearning melody is simply beautiful.ĭark Horse was an album that certainly dropped off in terms of quality from its predecessors, and its title gave music critics everywhere a layup as they punned off George’s hoarse vocals. This lovely acoustic track, which later lent its title to an Oasis album, is one of the highlights. Living in the Material World suffered at the time of its release in comparison to the magnificence of All Things Must Pass, but it holds up extremely well today.
It’s one of the first songs on which Harrison addressed his Beatle past, and one of the best. The lyrics get accusatory at times, but the music, with a funky time signature and somber horns provided by Bobby Keys and Jim Price, a duo that adorned so many classic Rolling Stones tracks, takes the sting out of it and launches it into more melancholy territory. There is a clearly a post-breakup hangover looming within this song from All Things Must Pass, but Harrison was discussing the breakup of a band and not a romance. You know the hits now get to know some of the finest songs recorded by George Harrison that may have slipped beneath the radar. Yet his last two albums, even though they were separated by 15 years, included some of his finest work. Following that landmark release ( All Things Must Pass), Harrison’s solo output was spotty at times, which was perhaps a reflection of his ambivalence about the record industry and his own desire for privacy. He was so overflowing with songs that he made his first post-Beatles affair a triple album. He was known as The Quiet Beatle, but after the Fab Four split, George Harrison certainly opened up.
0 kommentar(er)
