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ARTS
MONDAY
DECEMBER 3, 2001
5A
GEORGE HARRISON
1943
-2001
Harrison will live on
'through back catalog
Gone
:0
And then
there were two ...
By Andy Tayloi-Fabe
Daily Film Editor
Ask anyone to describe George Harrison, and you
will most often get an answer like "the quiet Beat-
le." He didn't have the onstage presence of John, he
wasn't as cute as Paul and he wasn't as goofy as
Ringo. Although he was a major contributor to the
Beatles' music and their unique sound, he often fell
into the background, penning one or two songs per
album. However, some of his songs are considered
to be among the Beatles' best. After the band's
breakup, Harrison jumped right into a successful
solo career, truly exploring his talent and showing
his musical range. The following is a list of some of
George Harrison's greatest songs, both with and
without the Beatles.
Don't Bother Me - Harrison's first recorded
song was featured on With the Beatles, has a fore-
boding tone and minor key melody. It shows the
unpredictability of Harrison's writing, he took a pop
melody and twisted it into something darker and
more raw.
I'm Happy Just to Dance with You - This
song from A Hard Day's Night was written by
Lennon and McCartney but has Harrison on lead
vocals, showcasing his superb voice and also his
modest stage presence.
Think for Yourself - This Rubber Soul track
distinguishes itself from the rest of the album with
distorted fuzz bass, chunky guitar riffs and sarcastic
lyrics. The song stands out as one of the best songs
on the album.
If I Needed Someone - Harrison's other Rub-
ber Soul song, with Byrd-ish melodies and sharp
guitar work, is on the opposite end Harrison's writ-
ing spectrum. This song showcases his pop sensibil-
ities.
Taxman - Revolver is considered to be the tran-
sition album for the Beatles, moving away from the
love songs and toward more political and psychedel-
ic dreamlike songs. Harrison's contribution to this
album is full of cynicism and dark criticism, with
lines like "I'll tax the pennies on your eyes."
While My Guitar Gently Weeps - Arguably
one of the best Beatles songs ever recorded, this
song from The Beatles (The White Album) features a
mysterious combination of piano and Eric Clapton
on guitar. With heart-wrenching guitar leads and
evocative lyrics, this song is pure Harrison. At a
point where the songs had ceased to be Beatles
songs and had become John, Paul, George and
Ringo songs, this song further established George's
on-album personality.
Something - You know it's an amazing song
when you can use the word "lover" without initiat-
ing a gag reflex in your listeners. This relatively
slow song fits perfectly into the rising tempo of
ere will come a time when the
Beatles will be no more. When
of the four, zero will remain.
How will the world cope when the
greatest band it has ever known is com-
pletely gone? Will the first generation
that never lived with a Beatle appreciate
them? .
AP Photo
Abbey Road, which can be listened to as one big,
meandering track.
Harrison's solo career was prolific, with songs
like "Cheer Down" and "Give me love (Give me
peace on earth)," but his most remembered and cel-
ebrated album is still the triple LP All Things Must
Pass, which features amazing compositions like
"What is Life" (later used on the "Goodfellas"
soundtrack) and "Beware of Darkness," a bitter-
sweet song that lets us inside Harrison's head. All of
his efforts, both with the
Fab Four and by him
self, show his unique ?
style and atmos-
phere that he was
able to inject into
his work.;
George Harri-
son's death Thurs-
day afternoon was
so much more
than the passing of
a legend, more
than the passing of
the "quiet Beatle,"
the "spiritual Beat-
le," it was the
passing of a man.
A man, who more
than a legend, was
a Beatle, father
and husband.
Harrison died at
1:30 p.m. in a
friend's Los Ange-
les home. His wife+
Luke
Smith
Less Than
Olivia and 23-year-
"None of life's
strings can
last/So, I must be
on my way/And
face another day."
- From "All Things Must Pass"
All Things Must Pass
' e S
I '*s$2$kiis
2 2.
Courtesy of Capitol Records
"I've been a cool
jerk/Looking for
the source/I'm a
dark horse."
- From "Dark Horse"
Dark Horse .
old son Dhani were both present for his
death. The Harrison s held a private cer-
emony and there is no official word
whether or not a public funeral will
occur.
Harrison 's
death reminds the
world that leg-
ends have ends.
Legends don't live
forever, despite the fact
that they may be deified by the
masses - gods they are not. Paul
McCartney and Ringo Starr, are
the last living links to the Beat--
les now.
Eventually, they will die.
Eventually we will be living in a
Beatle-less world. And I look for-
ward to it. I look forward to a
world where an aging singer doesn't
release a single based on a national
tragedy. Or a world where a slightly
above average drummer tarries around
the country every summer with a band
called the "All-Starrs." A world where
only a legacy lives, and the creators of
that legacy do not.
That is not in any way to undermine
the life of George Harrison, or eulogize
him in death. Harrison's passing is
undoubtedly a tragedy, the death of an
icon always is, moreover, the death of a
person always is.
Unlike the other living ex-Beatles,
Harrison was flying under pop culture's
radar. In December of 1999, that
changed when an intruder broke into
his home on London's outskirts and
stabbed him four times. Musically, Har-
rison had faded out in the late-'80s with
Shine. He respectfully stepped out of
the limelight and made way for the
youngsters. His ability to step aside was
always one of his finer traits.
He never overplayed and never
underplayed, Harrison always knew the
right notes to play and more important-
ly when not to play. That, more than
anything else, is what distinguishes him
from Paul and Ringo, who despite their
aging musicianship, continue to tour
and release music.
Harrison's death silences optimists
who have hoped for the chance to see a
"quasi-Beatles reunion" with Julian
Lennon stepping in for his father. It
wouldn't have been the same. It
would've been little more than a feeble
attempt to grope at nostalgia, if only for
an escaping moment. The whispers of
reunion fell silent with Harrison's
death.
And I breathe a heavy sigh of relief.
The Beatles (and their legacy) don't
deserve to be cheapened by imitation or
mimicry. They should stand alone on
their shelf overlooking music and what
they did to it.
There is a conflict manifesting itself
as we look ahead towards a Beatle-less
world. It involves getting to a world
where the Beatles don't live in any form
but through their music. When the only
time Paul can touch us is through the
car speakers, and the only time we can
hear a message from John is in our
headphones. The conflict here is death,
the death of legends, the death of a
band and the death of fathers, sons and
husbands. Death is inherently tragic,
inherently upsetting and inherently
inevitable.
Will the day when the final Beatle
heart beats its last be sadder than when
John Lennon was cruelly stolen from
the world in the streets of Manhattan?
I don't know, I was in diapers when
Lennon was murdered and although I
can't recall Lennon's death, part of me
is pained by it. The part of me that
thinks about family, Lennon's children
and his wife, is frustrated by Lennon's
death. That same part of me breaks for
Harrison's wife Olivia and his son
Dhani.
That part of me is different than the
part of me waiting for a Beatle-less
world. The "Beatle-less" part of me is
sure that when that world is finally
upon us, the world will truly take note
of the Beatles' importance. It is an
importance that cannot be summed up
in a series of VH1 specials. The world
can finally mourn and appreciate each
Beatle in his own respect, treating them
as both men and members, and finally,
mourn the death of the Beatles as a
whole.
The Beatles didn't die when Lennon
was killed.
Paul and Ringo are all the public can
touch of the Beatles, fortunately, the
Beatles can still touch us. Tunes like "A
Hard Day's Night" and "When I'm
Sixty-Four" will long outlive the tears
we shed for the men who made up the
greatest rock 'n' roll band history will
ever know.
-Luke Smith can be reached at
lukems@umich.edu.
Courtesy of EMI
Daily Arts recalls memories of Harrison
As great as the songs that George
penned in the Beatles are, it is one of
his b-sides from the All Things Must
Pass sessions that struck a note with
me. "I Live for You" was unearthed
when Capitol records reissued All
Things Must Pass as a double CD
earlier this year. The track features a
slide guitar that cries as simply as
Harrison's voice coos "Yes, its true/I
live for you." Immediately after this
somewhat simple lyrical couplet,
Harrison's guitar slides through a
series of country-fried licks. "I Live
For You" takes what Harrison per-
fected on All Things Must Pass (sim-
ple, candid honest pop-songs) and
infuses his mastery of the instrument
as an expressionist piece. It's the
most moving piece of music he's
recorded.
- Luke Smith, Daily Music Editor
As a child my parents constantly
played Indian pop and traditional
music on long driving trips. After
coming to college I wasn't around it
as much until I noticed the warm,
familiar sound of the sitar and
tabla in "Within
Y o u _
Without You" on Sgt. Pepper's Lone-
ly Hearts Club Band. Harrison rein-
troduced me to Indian music and a
part of my childhood.
- Kiran Divvela, Daily Arts Writer
"A Hard Day's Night," 1964. After
the second chorus, Ringo rumbles
out a staccato fill, John Lennon
throws his head back and howls joy-
ously and Harrison plucks out a
melifluous trilling solo on his new
Rickenbacker 360 12-string guitar. In
these 13 seconds, Harrison almost
singlehandedly invents "jangle" rock
'n' roll. We'll hear this ringing,
reverb-rich sound again, of course,
not only in the haunting syncopated
echoes of the opening riff to "Ticket
To Ride," but later, too, in the Byrds's
cascading arrangements, Tom Petty's
pithy harmonies, R.E.M.'s early
hybrid of new wave-folk rock and
even as recently as the memorable
lead-in to "Airbag," on Radiohead's
OK Computer. Harrison's sound
takes the groan
and anarchic gri-
mace out of lead
guitar, turns it
into something
' quieter,
Y".r.. :: ;; .. ing.
. i t.-
- Nicholas
Harp, Daily
Arts Writer
If I had to
- ' choose a favorite
} Harrison song during
' his stint with the
Beatles it would have
to be "Think For
Yourself" off of Rub-
00 her Soul. The band
began maturing at this point in their
career and George expressed it per-
fectly in the song. While most people
raved about "Nowhere Man" and
"Norwegian Wood," Harrison's
catchy "think For Yourself" was for
me the hidden jewel of the album.
Growing up I was obsessed with
the children's fantasy film "Time
Bandits." George Harrison was the
executive producer and anyone who
can convince a studio to make a
movie about time traveling British
midgets is a legend in my book. On
top of that he provided the blissful
song "Dream Away" for the closing
credits. I remember fast-forwarding
to the end just to listen to it when I
was little.
- Jeff Dickerson TV/New Media
Editor
He was called the quiet Beatle, but
when he wasn't fusing Indian sitars
with Western music in "Norwegian
Wood," he was continually expand-
ing his horizons and making people
laugh. Many people may not know,
but it was his studio that produced
"Monty Python and the Life of
Brian. He was a talent on par with
John, Paul and Ringo; solo or with
the Fab Four.
- Ryan Blay, Daily Arts Writer
"Something," off of Abbey Road.
This song was George's baby and
you can hear it in every carefully
crafted note and nuance. The change
in the bridge catches the casual lis-
tener napping, because after being
sweetly lulled and wooed, Harrison
suddenly comes on strong - he
comes off as a sap with backbone.
But then he slides off the bridge
going casually back into the relaxed
comfort of the verses' languid love
and one of the best solos of his
career.
"Savoy Truffle," off the The Beat-
les (The White Album). "Lyrics? We
don't need no stinking lyrics!" Yes,
the words to this song are basically
either Harrison reading a candy box
top or bitching about stuff, but the
keyboard intro is pretty sexy. George
will have the bitter chocolate cordial,
thank you.
- Keith N. Dusenberry, Daily Arts
Writer
AP Photo
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