(person) by Segnbora-t Sat Nov 13 1999 at 9:06:53

Born in 1943 in Liverpool, England, George Harrison played lead guitar for The Beatles and also influenced the sound of some of their songs by dabbling in Indian music and learning to play the sitar. He was, unfortunately, forced to take a back seat as a songwriter to the Lennon/McCartney pair and had to fight to get his songs on albums, but was able to get such works as "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" and "Something" onto Beatles albums. (The latter was called his "favorite Lennon/McCartney tune" by Frank Sinatra -- just an inkling of George's being overlooked by the world.)

After the Beatles broke up, he had a varied solo career with several hits. He was sued by the publisher of the song "He's So Fine" because his "My Sweet Lord" sounded so much like it, and was convicted of "unconscious plagiarism".

In the 1980s he had solo hits with a cover of "Got My Mind Set On You" and his own take on Beatlemania, "When We Was Fab," and also played with The Traveling Wilburys.

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(person) by Harrysong Sat Jul 21 2001 at 21:13:13

George Harold Harrison was born on February 25, 1943 in Liverpool, Merseyside, England. His parents were Louise Harrison, a housewife, and Harold, a bus driver.

When he was 16, George joined Paul McCartney, John Lennon , and Pete Best(who was later replaced by Ringo Starr, the Beatles. Harrison, in my opinion was the most talented Beatle, Writing songs like "Something", "Old Brown Shoe", "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", and "I Need You"

George married model Pattie Boyd in 1966 An extra in the movie A Hard Day's Night, her only line was "Prisoners!?" She later left him for his friend, Eric Clapton. note: she was the inspiration for the Clapton song "Layla", if you already DID NOT KNOW....thank you mom...

After the Beatles broke up, Harrison released All Things Must Pass, his first solo album, which contained classic songs like "All Things Must Pass", "My Sweet Lord", "[I'd Have You Anytime", "Let it Down", and "Wah-Wah" (a "piss off!" song to John and Paul). The Album was re-released in 2000 as a double-CD, with additional tracks and never-heard songs.

George joined Bob Dylan, Tom Petty and others to form the Travelling Wilburys in 1988. They have since released 2 sucsessful albums.

George re-married in 1978, to Olivia Harrison. They have one son, Dhani, born on August 1, 1978. He attends Brown University in Rhode Island. is mine. mine mine mine. you can't have him!

George underwent surgery to remove a cancerous growth from one of his lungs in May 2001. He assured his fans later in the summer after completing a course of radiotherapy treatments that he is feeling fine.

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(person) by Rancid_Pickle Fri Nov 30 2001 at 16:20:10
George Harrison, also known as the "Quiet Beatle", was always overlooked. He was an accomplished lead guitarist (which surprises a lot of folks, who thought that John Lennon was lead - he was the rhythm guitarist), yet his songwriting abilities were overlooked because of the long shadow cast by his band-mates, Paul and John. It was always a struggle to get his tunes on the albums, and it helped lead to the breakup of the Beatles.

Additionally, George introduced much of the West to Eastern culture, including the music and spiritualism. He played the Sitar, and it can be heard on several of the last Beatles songs.

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(person) by Walter Sat Dec 01 2001 at 5:44:14

Miles Davis once said that the hardest thing for a musician is to sound like yourself while playing within a group. George struggled with this as a vocalist and a soloist, but mostly as a songwriter. Here's a complete list of the Beatles songs he wrote:

George, whose voice is perhaps the most imitable of the four Beatles, sang lead on some of the covers in the band's oeuvre, including Devil in Her Heart by the Donays and Roll Over Beethoven by Chuck Berry, and Everybody's Trying to Be my Baby by Carl Perkins. He reliably sang a second harmony part on many Lennon/McCartney tunes, though never the highest.

As noted above, George was responsible for introducing Indian instruments such as the sitar and tabla into the Beatles' western song structures, and thus to the entire pop music audience of the western world. This happened even before the heavy Indian textures of Love You To, on a Lennon/McCartney composition called Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown). Impressed by the music of Ravi Shankar, George had bought a sitar and taught himself to play, and he used it to give an ethereal tone to the song's melody.

Long after he'd made sure that all his Beatles compositions had a unique feel--say, 1966 or so--he still loved to express himself in old-school rhythm and blues terms, and no one could doubt that he had the best chops of the three axe wielders. Listen closely to The End at 0:53. That's Paul, George, and John, in that order, trading four-bar solos. Note how George mostly sticks to the upper register and demonstrates his note-bending skills, while Paul can't not be melodic and John just wants to make a lot of chunky noise.

George made a cameo appearance in The Rutles, Eric Idle's 1978 TV film that parodied The Beatles, and the two became friends. When financial backers pulled out of Monty Python's Life of Brian due to controversial "blasphemous" material, George stepped in and contributed millions in completion funds through his production banner, Handmade Films, which he formed for just that purpose. He claimed to have an interest only in seeing the finished picture, as he was a big Python fan, but the film was enormously successful and Handmade went on to produce 23 other British films in the 80's, including Nuns on the Run and Time Bandits, which launched Terry Gilliam's non-Python career. So, if not for George's help, there would probably be no Brazil or Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Just another indication of the karma he taught us all about. We'll miss him.

I like it! 5 C!s
(thing) by LaylaLeigh Sat Dec 01 2001 at 23:35:24

This is the complete discography of George Harrison, although since 1992 he has made music, such as his last recording, "Horse to Water", which he co-wrote with his son Dhani and recorded on October 1, 2001. Many other recordings exsist, they just aren't released. George was sort of a private guy, obviously. Anyway, here it is, in chronological order:

1968
Wonderwall Music
1969
Electronic Sound
1970
All Things Must Pass
1971
The Concert for Bangla Desh
1973
Living in the Material World
1974
Dark Horse
1975
EXTRA TEXTURE: Read All About It
1976
The Best of George Harrison
1976
33 and 1/3
1979
George Harrison
1981
Somewhere in England
1982
Gone Troppo
1987
Cloud Nine
1989
Best of Dark Horse 1976-1989
1992
Live In Japan
2002
Brainwashed

George Harrison was always my favourite because he was like me. Quiet. Allthough that's hard to believe, I am. He wasn't always wanting the attention, and at most times, dreaded it.

He was a wonderful guitarist, and The Beatles didn't showcase half his talent. What would Beatles songs be without the guitar solos? George inspired the next generation's ambitions as guitarists, and will keep on inspiting budding guitarists everywhere. I know that however old I get, whether I grow up or not, I'll always have a special place in my heart for the Beatles, especially George. And I'll always always miss him, but, the only thing anyone can do is listen to his music. You can't let his music die, because as long as we listen to it, he'll still be alive.

But what can you do, right? Eventually, my mother's generation is going to die, and I will too. The only thing you can hope is that my children's generation will recognise the brilliant music that came out of my mother and father's time. It's not like freaking Bach or anything, but it's pretty damn close.

In a million years, it won't matter. Or it might, who knows? After all, The Beatles had the #1 Record of 2001...32 years after they broke up. It's just something about their 7 years of music that make people keep coming back. I don't know what it is, maybe one day I will.

Anyway, I've loved George since I was 10, almost 8 years now. I know, you can't love someone you never met, but it almost seems that, listening to his music, everyone is the same, and everyone's connected. I think that's the whole point.

and more: 4 October, 2002.

It's been almost a year since George died, and a lot has happened since then. The Ox has joined him in rock and roll heaven, Paul's begun a new tour, I've come out of school. Not a lot of people really understand why I still think of George, still care. Yeah, I have moved on with my life, I never knew the man...but I did. I probably think and talk about this way too much, but, you know, I don't care. Music, I believe, is what connects us to a greater being, and to each other. And so, in relation, the music I love is like right up there next to God. It's in the air I breathe. Why is music called the divine art, while all other arts are not so called? We may certainly see God in all arts and in all sciences, but in music alone we see God free from all forms and thoughts.

I miss him.

November 29, 2002:
It has been a year since George passed away. I still haven't cried yet...and I don't really plan to, but you know, you can't just set those things. Of all things George has taught me, one of the best has been: "beware of sadness." All things must pass, and yes, even Beatles die. We're not immortal, and it happens to all of us, and so there is no use in crying. I never knew him and he never knew me, which makes it even more ridiculous to cry.

But, I feel, he does now. And, in a way, I do too. I believe that when you die, you either go on to another body or you become a part of a bigger entity, living in bliss eternally. Whatever happened to George is unbeknownst to me, but maybe he's a nice little tree in India, providing shade to some monks or something. But whatever happened, no one can deny the impact he had with the Beatles on popular music. And that, Mr. George Harrison, is what I thank you for the most. Your music.

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(person) by Chras4 Sun Dec 02 2001 at 18:34:21
I opened the paper today to find the headlines:

George Harrison : 1943-2001
Memories of the "Quiet Beatle"

It took me aback. It was unexpected. It left me quiet for a while as I read what the paper had to say. Then I sat and wrote out my reactions. I didn't cry though there was something pushing inside, kind of like a lump deep down but not quite.

George died at age 58, two years younger than my own father. Those of his generation must surely be feeling their own mortality at this point. It's making me aware of my parents'.

I was born into Beatle Mania- two weeks before the fab four took America by storm on the Ed Sullivan show. There is no doubt in my mind that if I was not sleeping in my cradle at the time, I probably watched it on my father's lap. He, then 23, was a fan. Probably long before they hit the American scene. He had followed his parents to America when they were transferred from the German Consulate in England to Boston. My British mother followed shortly there after. And then I came along, smack in the middle of America welcoming the Beatles. My father bought all of their records. Yes, those 45 rpm black frisbee looking things that go on a turntable. I do not recall a time in my life when I did NOT hear their music.

When I was 8, I got my first record player for my birthday. One of those cheap little plastic things, white on top and peasoup green for the base. To me it was golden. I claimed all of my father's 45's as my own and lovingly stacked them on their edges on my bookshelves next to my favorite books. I would play them over and over, spinning and dancing in my room to the lively tunes and singing along with the slower tunes. I would pause periodically to deck my brothers for daring to open my door,hands over ears, begging me to stop torturing them.

As I moved into adolescence, I developed my first idol crush on George. There was something about that man that drew me in. He was always my favorite. Right from the start. I never got that whole shrieking, tear my shirt, passing out thing that most teenage girls did in all those old black and white news shots I saw. Maybe it was because he wasn't my generation, though he was no father figure to me. Maybe it was because I was not prone to shrieking, heart palpitations, or passing out over the sight of a teen idol. Or, maybe it was because I didn't wish to draw attention to myself much like George himself.

It's the quiet ones that are generally more introspective, more deep, more thoughtful, more interesting to me. I saw him and thought "Ah yes, there is more to this one. He's a treasure waiting to be discovered. Not all flash like mica, but something to be valued hidden amongst the glitter of stardom"

I identified with him the most. From my young perspective, it appeared to me that he did not crave the spotlight, yet he contributed richly to the group. Yes he was quiet. Yes he was understated. Most say overshadowed, but in my mind, he preferred it that way. Some have said he was the background but to me he was the backbone of the group. His interests and views greatly influenced the group's later music, lacing itself in pieces such as Norwegian Wood and Within You Without You, and Something, one of my favorite love songs. Here comes the sun spoke to me then, speaks to me still. Dark days and stress overwhelming him. He walks out into a garden and *poof*, he let's it go and a song spills out of him. His attitude about life drew me as well. His passion for his music. His intensity and his modesty.

In my opinion, he's one of the best guitarists. Those guitar segments stood out in the songs. Not glaringly HEY!LOOK AT ME I'M THE GUITAR PLAYER!, but graciously. I hear those parts and smile. "Here's George quietly coming front and center" and then he would gracefully back away to the more powerful personalities of Lennon and McCartney. True- I have heard at times he was frustrated with them taking center stage, but I feel if he truly wanted to be there, he would have/could have. He let his skill speak for itself. That was what I saw.

The adolescent crush passed away as all crushes do, but respect and admiration for the man remained. He will always be my favorite. I no longer have those old records. When we moved cross country, I gave them back to my father. I think he's the only one left with a working turntable in the family. I have a strong desire to hear those songs replete with the scratches and skips, so I can twirl and sing, go back in time for a bit and perhaps torture my kids.

I like it! 3 C!s

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