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Author Topic: George - His Excellent Solo Career ?  (Read 22341 times)

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I_Will

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Re: George - His Excellent Solo Career ?
« Reply #40 on: February 08, 2010, 05:17:58 PM »

I think that's where it divides people into genre/style preferences, rather than which Beatle you like the most.

This is totally true I think. However, it really just so happens that I tend to listen to music more similar to Paul's solo work haha. I really like most of John's solo stuff too, and some of George's. To be honest though, I haven't listened to most of it, but with the great reviews here I'll definitely have to give a listen!

(and as far as Ringo goes, I'm sorry, but I just don't really like him much as a lead vocalist)
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Re: George - His Excellent Solo Career ?
« Reply #41 on: February 09, 2010, 11:22:50 AM »

That's why I'm not sure about getting into Ringo and Paul as solo artists.  I'm not sure Ringo's songs will resonate with me, not because of his singing, I don't know.  I saw "Y Not" in HMV yesterday and it made me laugh, and then I felt bad.  :P
And I'm guessing Paul's music is quite pop orientated?  I do prefer something a bit different.  I keep getting tempted to buy his latest DVD though.  I'm sure it follows me every time I go in HMV  ;D

xxx
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I_Will

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Re: George - His Excellent Solo Career ?
« Reply #42 on: February 09, 2010, 02:21:52 PM »

^^A lot of Paul's music (much like his music with The Beatles) actually spans a bunch of different genres. There are actually a lot of rock numbers and some poppier ones, and other random sorts as well.

I also can't listen to Ringo's because I'm sorry, but his lyrics are so cheesy.
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Re: George - His Excellent Solo Career ?
« Reply #43 on: February 09, 2010, 03:12:27 PM »

Bless Ringo  :D
That's cool about Paul.  I might check out some Wings when I don't already have a massive pile of CDs to listen to.  :P
I'd advise you to check out George's stuff though, some of it's just fantastic.  I'm so glad I took the chance  :)

xxx
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dbone828

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Re: George - His Excellent Solo Career ?
« Reply #44 on: June 22, 2010, 01:14:32 AM »

George is easily my favourite Beatle, which is a combination of elements:

He is easily overlooked by Lennon and McCartney, so he is somewhat of a hidden gem. You can argue all you want about who has the best solo career (he would be my pick), but it's hard to argue that he doesn't have the most interesting solo career. He's the underdog. I love rooting for the underdog. And he has an underdog story.

Known as the "Quiet Beatle," living in the shadows of the great Lennon and McCartney, being limited to 2 songs per album (thus building up a stockpile of songs to be used for a later date). Although he was behind Lennon & McCartney at the beginning of their songwriting career, he catches up to them, and passes them by having the best songs from The White Album and Abbey Road, and finally, is allowed to have one of his compositions released as a single (but not without a Lennon composition to be its double A-side), all the while composing the soundtrack for a movie (and becoming the first Beatle to put out a solo album).

Once the Beatles break up, he uses his stockpiled songs and puts out a TRIPLE album of material, All Things Must Pass, containing the first #1 single by a solo Beatle ("My Sweet Lord"), and becoming the first to be nominated for Album of the Year at the Grammys, with what remains to this day the biggest-selling solo album of any of the Beatles.

Along with a little help from some of his friends (including Ringo, but no John or Paul), he brought life to the concept of an all-star benefit concert with the legendary Concert for Bangladesh, winning the Grammy for Album of the Year (also the first ex-Beatle to do so).

With his follow-up studio album Living in the Material World, George topped both the album charts, and the singles charts with his lead "Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth)" (knocking Paul McCartney's "My Love" off the top).

Perhaps at this point, George no longer seemed to be the "overlooked" or "breakout" Beatle, put instead the "lucky" one, as critics began to dismiss his musical output.  This didn't stop fans from buying his records (or radio stations from playing his tunes), and by the end of the '70s, had produced eight Gold records, and ten Top 40 hits, all the while producing and writing songs for other artists, such as Cream, Ringo Starr, Billy Preston, Joe Cocker, Badfinger, Cilla Black, Jackie Lomax, the Radha Krishna Temple, Lou & Derek Van Eaton, the Shankar family, Splinter, the Remo Four, and Monty Python.

His success may seemed to have slowed a bit in the '80s, yet looking back, one can see a still successful artist at the time. Although his next two albums became his first and second studio albums to go without a Gold record, they still produced a #2 hit ("All Those Years Ago," his tribute to his late ex-bandmate John Lennon), and two more singles that charted, but failed to make the Top 40. He also contributed again to a lot to soundtracks, such as Time Bandits, Shanghai Surprise, as well as sequels to Porky's and later, Lethal Weapon.

In 1987, after a brief hiatus, George released Cloud Nine, his first Platinum album which contained a handful of hits: "When We Was Fab," "This Is Love," "Devil's Radio," "Cloud 9," and his version of "Got My Mind Set on You," which became the last hit single by any of the Beatles to make #1.  The album was a huge success, both commercially and critically, being regarded easily as his best output since All Things Must Pass.  Sadly, the album was Harrison's last solo record of new material released during his lifetime.

While recording a B-side to "This Is Love" in 1988 with guest musicians Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, Roy Orbison, and Jeff Lynne, Harrison ended up forming a supergroup known as the Traveling Wilburys, and put out two albums, selling 4 million copies, gathering hit singles and multiple Grammy award nominations along the way.

Before his death in 2001 at age 58, Harrison had been recording material for a new album, which would be released under the title Brainwashed nearly a year later. It earned several Grammy nominations, and even gave Harrison a posthumous win (for the instrumental "Marwa Blues").

Well, by the time I had finished writing, I realized it was too much. Oh well. Here's to George!
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dbone828

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Re: George - His Excellent Solo Career ?
« Reply #45 on: June 22, 2010, 01:19:24 AM »

Bless Ringo  :D
That's cool about Paul.  I might check out some Wings when I don't already have a massive pile of CDs to listen to.  :P
I'd advise you to check out George's stuff though, some of it's just fantastic.  I'm so glad I took the chance  :)

xxx
His Wingspan: Hits and History is an excellent starting point, containing not only his mega hits, but also a great sampling of his lesser-known gems from his early solo career. But if you're not into greatest hits compilations, check out Band on the Run. A brilliant album which showcases some more of his experimental (yet successful) material.

His recent music is also quite good too (Flaming Pie, Driving Rain, Chaos and Creation in the Backyard, Flaming Pie), but I wouldn't recommend starting there (although by brother-in-law started there, and absolutely loves it)
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tkitna

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Re: George - His Excellent Solo Career ?
« Reply #46 on: June 22, 2010, 01:45:59 AM »

RAM is where one should start with Paul. Besides 'ATMP' this is the best solo album.

Kevin

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Re: George - His Excellent Solo Career ?
« Reply #47 on: June 22, 2010, 08:36:40 AM »

George is easily my favourite Beatle...........
 ........ it's hard to argue that he doesn't have the most interesting solo career.

Sorry, but no it's not.
I find Lennons bizarre lifestyle with Yoko, the move to America, his political activities, the "lost weekend", reconciliation, retirement and murder far more interesting than boring old George. That's not to say you have to though.
I like the way you cherry pick your evidence of Georgwe's "greatness." No mention of being found guilty of plagirism with his only #1 hit. No mention of the disastrous tour or ten years of albums and singles that barely dented the top 50.
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dbone828

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Re: George - His Excellent Solo Career ?
« Reply #48 on: June 23, 2010, 03:27:06 AM »

Sorry, but no it's not.
I find Lennons bizarre lifestyle with Yoko, the move to America, his political activities, the "lost weekend", reconciliation, retirement and murder far more interesting than boring old George. That's not to say you have to though.
I like the way you cherry pick your evidence of Georgwe's "greatness." No mention of being found guilty of plagirism with his only #1 hit. No mention of the disastrous tour or ten years of albums and singles that barely dented the top 50.
You make a good point. Perhaps my article was a bit lop-sided.

Although, it isn't just his ups that make George Harrison's solo career interesting for me (although they do outweigh his weaknesses for me).  No, he is not a perfect recording artist, but no recording artist is. They all have found points where they weren't selling as much as they used to, had something that didn't even break even in returns, had creative droughts, or embarrassing legal matters.  All of the Beatles went through these troubles.

Mind you, when I am trying to sell an artist to someone, I'm going to tell of their successes, or what makes them an incredible artist. I'm not going to say: "Oh, you know that funky Indian song that was the least-catchy bit on Sgt. Pepper? Oh and that Indian song from Revolver? Yeah, George Harrison wrote those. His first album was even more Indian music! And his second one was just him practicing using some weird instrument called a Moog or Boog or something. Anoooyyying. Don't bother listening to anything he put out after All Things Must Pass--which would be a good album except it has that awful disc full of jam sessions--oh, and that was his best album, so yeah, don't bother listening to anything that he put out after that. Oh, and he doesn't really write his own music. He steals it. All of it. Well, at least the one and only song that ever sold anything....nothing else he put out that he actually wrote himself was any good. Also, one of his albums was so terrible his producers made him replace almost half of the songs...and it still flopped! And then he put out Gone Troppo, which is the worst album any of the Beatles ever released, even worse than those experimental naked albums John put out with Yoko. There was even a time frame when George didn't have a top 40 hit! But that's okay, because it probably would have hogged radio airtime from Paul McCartney's frog song. What a classic! The only reason Cloud Nine sold anything is because of Jeff Lynne's production and Elton John played the piano. Oh, I almost forgot, you know those sweet guitar solos on "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" and "My Sweet Lord"? Eric Clapton had to play those for him, cause George Harrison is one of the worst guitarists, and by far the least talented Beatle! And his mustache is ugly."

I have learned over the years to market the stronger points of something to get people interested, because even if you have something amazing, if all you point out are the flaws, disregarding its strengths, nobody will have any interest in checking it out.  This is the reason they put out "Best Of" albums, not "Worst Of" albums, or "The Average Of" albums, or even "The Best & Worst of" albums.

I will agree with you though that depending on their perspective, one could make a strong argument that any one of the Beatles has the most interesting career.
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Kevin

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Re: George - His Excellent Solo Career ?
« Reply #49 on: June 23, 2010, 08:07:59 AM »

^ Hi dbone828. Excellent post, and points well made. I'm liking you a lot.
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tkitna

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Re: George - His Excellent Solo Career ?
« Reply #50 on: June 23, 2010, 08:21:29 AM »

^ Hi dbone828. Excellent post, and points well made. I'm liking you a lot.

Yeah, some decent swagger in that post. I'll give it an 8.5. Would have scored higher, but there wasnt any name calling or swearing.

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Re: George - His Excellent Solo Career ?
« Reply #51 on: June 23, 2010, 08:27:37 AM »

Oh, one other thing to mention. Being that this is a Beatle board, you dont really need to sell George. He's been sold to death around here (as have the others). They've all been sold so often that sometimes a reality check is in need. Negative remarks can confuse people though (members, fans). Thats alright. They werent perfect and its ok to say so every now and then. I know I do.

dbone828

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Re: George - His Excellent Solo Career ?
« Reply #52 on: June 23, 2010, 07:35:59 PM »

^ Hi dbone828. Excellent post, and points well made. I'm liking you a lot.
ha2ha You're a good sport :)
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dbone828

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Re: George - His Excellent Solo Career ?
« Reply #53 on: June 23, 2010, 07:40:42 PM »

Yeah, some decent swagger in that post. I'll give it an 8.5. Would have scored higher, but there wasnt any name calling or swearing.
Nah, you don't have to worry about that from me ;)
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dbone828

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Re: George - His Excellent Solo Career ?
« Reply #54 on: June 23, 2010, 08:06:46 PM »

Oh, one other thing to mention. Being that this is a Beatle board, you dont really need to sell George. He's been sold to death around here (as have the others). They've all been sold so often that sometimes a reality check is in need. Negative remarks can confuse people though (members, fans). Thats alright. They werent perfect and its ok to say so every now and then. I know I do.
I'll keep that in mind! ;D
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glass onion

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Re: George - His Excellent Solo Career ?
« Reply #55 on: November 01, 2010, 10:09:19 AM »

i like george,we all do here-all things must pass is in the top 2 or 3 beatle solo albums-without doubt.i have never been so inspired musically than when i sat and listened to atmp.a real gem of an album.however...........even on 'living in the material world'george did start to show the signs that would kind of dog the rest of his solo career-basically,some pretty mediocre boring songs.now that is not to say i don't like georges' solo stuff,far from it.i love atmp-material world-george harrison-all good albums.

the thing with george really is that a mediocre song sang with an average voice is gonna get you found out in the end-even the most ardent beatle fan must surely find 'dark horse' hard work?he had been ill there,granted.but even though......

he still came good at times,the wilburys stuff is o.k,not sure about gone troppo,brainwashed is an o.k album.george was both lucky and unlucky in the fact that during the beatle days his work was overshadowed so much until the latter days.all the quality material he had for atmp was maybe a 'george harrison quality song overload' and he could have kept some stuff aside for an equally fantastic follow up album and kept atmp as a single album?this is digressing,and you cannot take anything away from the double set.
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Kevin

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Re: George - His Excellent Solo Career ?
« Reply #56 on: November 01, 2010, 10:45:48 AM »

.all the quality material he had for atmp was maybe a 'george harrison quality song overload' and he could have kept some stuff aside for an equally fantastic follow up album and kept atmp as a single album?this is digressing,and you cannot take anything away from the double set.


Yep - the oft quoted Third Album Syndrome. The first album is all the good stuff saved up over the years. The second album is all the leftovers, never quite as good as the first, but generally well recieved. Then The Dreaded Third - all new material and a new direction required. You can't get away with it sounding "just like the other one" anymore.  Tis the fence most horses fall at, even Dark ones.
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glass onion

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Re: George - His Excellent Solo Career ?
« Reply #57 on: November 01, 2010, 07:45:23 PM »

the other thing i read about george somewhere was a real good point about the religious songs he wrote,and the fact that he could appear to be preaching-something he also did in interviews,he would just go off onto one of his 'krishna passages' and really lay it on thick-sometimes to people who were interviewing him who would not have a clue at the point he would be making.and i find that, with some of georges' songs about god-i am not knocking religion(somebody famous once said that),but i am not interested.so when you have an average tune sang in an average voice about a subject you aren't interested in......it can be a turn-off point.some of his songs on this subject are nice tunes,some others not so good.it is something he became well known for,but maybe it hindered some of georges' creativity and he was almost blinded.
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Jema

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Re: George - His Excellent Solo Career ?
« Reply #58 on: February 20, 2011, 01:56:04 AM »

I really love George's solo work,I also love everything he did while he was a Beatle.I think his voice is beautiful and he's my second favorite solo Beatle,my first is John.I only have two albums of George though,I really want to get more.The two I have are All Things Must Pass and Brainwashed.The next one I want to get is Living In The Material World.Oh,and by the way I just want to say right now I'm listening to "Deep Blue" by George :D
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dbone828

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Re: George - His Excellent Solo Career ?
« Reply #59 on: March 30, 2011, 06:52:23 AM »

I really love George's solo work,I also love everything he did while he was a Beatle.I think his voice is beautiful and he's my second favorite solo Beatle,my first is John.I only have two albums of George though,I really want to get more.The two I have are All Things Must Pass and Brainwashed.The next one I want to get is Living In The Material World.Oh,and by the way I just want to say right now I'm listening to "Deep Blue" by George :D
Excellent choices. Have you heard any of his other albums? If not, I would recommend checking out (in the following order): George Harrison, Cloud Nine, then Thirty-Three & 1/3. To me, those (along with the three you mentioned) are his essential studio albums that I enjoy most of, if not all of the songs from. After that, I feel the rest of his studio albums contain some gems, but there are a lot of clunkers as well. My preferred listening order tends to be Extra Texture (I enjoy 7/10 songs), then Gone Troppo (6/10), then Somewhere in England (6/10), followed lastly by Dark Horse (5/9)
« Last Edit: March 30, 2011, 06:05:11 PM by dbone828 »
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