George is far from forgotten. As a matter of fact, lately he's more favored than Paul and quite equal with John from fans and casual fans alike. Don't forget, John had a lot more controversy in his life. He was outspoken and did a lot of things that were unconventional. George was a less dramatic person. There's not a whole lot to sensationalize there. Which is what the media likes to do. Plus, Lennon was sort of the leader of the Beatles. I mean, that's how it's looked upon because he started the band. That and he and McCartney are the dominant forces for sure. George had some great songs with them, but no where near the amount. And that's what people are fascinated with: The Beatles. Not so much the solo years. And of course the tragic death of Lennon and the fact that he was so young and there's always the question of what would have been. It's easier to accept George's death because he was older, (although not that old) and died of something a lot of us die of. But I don't think Paul will even get as much attention as Lennon. But it will be close. When anyone dies so viciously, it sticks with you. Especially to those who remember.
It's a ridiculous notion that George would ever be forgotten, all the members were distinct and unique, and there shouldn't be any death popularity contests. John will always be at the forefront, but look who he has as a PR whore. Yoko will do anything to gild the self-made lily. Olivia seems to be a real person-not willing to cheapen her husband's legacy. Hell, half of the Dark Horse stuff still needs to be remastered, but what has been done or released since George passed has had alot of thought put into it and seems to be done with tender loving care as opposed to Ms. Ono Lennon who will release any product, a greatest hits/compilation package every 2 weeks, etc.
Be yourself, no matter what they say. Administrator
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I tell you what guys. I thought I saw George Harrison at a wedding I was at today.
I wish I could have taken a picture. This guy was the spitting image. ( I nearly broke off into an instant rendition of 'Something.' lol)
If I get any copies of the wedding pics I will post him up for sure.
Back to the point........he ain't gonna be forgotten with us kind of desciples around. I agree with JR on the way Harrison has been handled with great thought by his family. Very respectfully done.
Let's see this November (5th anniversary) ... George's family is not Yoko (thanks, God .. or whatever) but I hope there will be another album of George's stuff in near future ... it's up to Olivia and Dhani.
"There are several new George Harrison reissues in the works this year. Beatlefan magazine reported that Harrison's son Dhani said that among the projects on the front burner is a box set featuring remastered versions of Harrison's Apple records from 1968 to 1975, a new career-spanning greatest hits collection, a CD and DVD of Harrison's only solo U.S. tour from 1974, as well as reissues of all the albums from the artists on Harrison's Dark Horse record label from the mid-'70s. Harrison's widow Olivia added that Harrison was working on his own Anthology video project at the time of his death in 2001 that she'd like to see finished. No word on when that or the proposed box set of solo outtakes and demos will see the light of day. Earlier this month, the first book to fully chronicle Harrison's religious and spiritual life, titled Here Comes The Sun: The Spiritual And Musical Journey Of George Harrison, was published. Author Joshua Greene, who recorded with Harrison in 1970 while a part of the Radha Krishna Temple -- a Krishna sect -- recalled to us that he was amazed at how down to earth Harrison was in the recording studio: We came in, he said hello to his friends, slapped a few old buddies on the back. Then he started laughing and yukking it up about people's reactions to a rock group with shaved heads -- because he was putting out these albums of Sanskrit mantras. Then he looked at his watch and said 'Y'know, we better get started, this studio is costing us 40 pounds-an-hour.'That was impressive. He might've been a Beatle, he might've been one of the richest, most successful guys around -- but he was very practical."
Among the albums set to released as part of the upcoming George Harrison "Apple Years" box set will be 1968's Wonderwall, 1969's Electronic Sound, 1973's Living In The Material World, 1974's Dark Horse, and 1975's Extra Texture (Read All About It).
Harrison's All Things Must Pass and The Concert For Bangladesh albums from 1970 and 1971, respectively, have already been reissued in expanded and remastered versions, as have all the albums in his 1976-1992 catalogue."
I know this will probably make guys like Martin Lewis -- a well known and respected Beatle "insider" expert -- blow a 50-amp fuse, but I actually think that Marc Shapiro's "Behind Sad Eyes: The Life of George Harrison" (or click here to order the British editon) is a somewhat valuable addition to the magical mystery tour, AKA the never ending Beatle saga.
Of course, the 231 page hardcover, released only months after Harrison's death from cancer in November 2001, is chock full of the kind of dumb factual errors -- the first Plastic Ono Band album is called "The Primal Scream Therapy Album" -- and slightly irregular timelines that could tend to invalidate the whole work. But I think not because this is not a book about facts, but rather one of impressions and analysis of feelings and reactions and scrutinized intent. Sort of like a lay man's PSYCH 101 de-construction of one of the most famous "quiet" men to have walked the earth.
So it should come as no surprise, therefore, that Shapiro finds a deeply flawed and damaged ex-Beatle and solo performer, who had a downright pathological personality that confounded and confused friend and foe alike.
Shapiro writes that George was actually complicit in the messy late 60s love triangle between Eric Clapton and George's wife Pattie. "While George seemed to take the high road, there was much in his actions that, perhaps deliberately, was destined to cause his wife and best friend the maximum amount of pain and discomfort -- revenge, if you will -- in a way that only a quiet man like George Harrison could inflict."
And while clearly this is only Shapiro's opinion based on the observed situation from afar, it would appear to jibe with Harrison's famous "I don't care anymore," mind-set when it came to anything that fundamentally frustrated and stalled him.
To me, this look into George's "inner light" is what Shapiro's book is best at. Which is to say that regardless of whether everything in the tome is "true," -- in whatever definition you choose to give to "truth," in the Beatle world -- it still creates a debate on what made Mr. Harrison tick. And it would appear George ticked very eccentrically, to be kind.
I think that Shapiro has a solid argument when, upon examination of Harrison's career, George is shown to be somewhat of a slacker when it comes to making good at how good musically he thought himself to be.
Shapiro says that after the monster -- and totally un-expected -- smash success of "All Things Must Pass," George grew more withdrawn and bitter about the music business after Harrison was sued for copyright infringement on "My Sweet Lord."
Then, when his follow-up to ATMP, "Living In The Material World," was pretty much dissed by the major rock press, yet still sold well, George basically smoked a lot of dope and stopped giving a mess what anyone thought, leading to a long period of personal and professional decline that was to last well into the 80s.
Yet Harrison WAS extremely talented when he chose and many fans and critics alike consider ATMP to be the "best" solo Beatle release by a long shot. So why couldn't he do it again?
It would appear that Shapiro has deduced that, notwithstanding substance abuse, George was basically a petulant, immature and hypocritical albeit quiet "star" who simply refused to apply himself.
When Harrison dabbled in films with his own Hand Made Films, an ill-fated team-up with Sean Penn and Madonna turned him off film making. When he got pissed off at A&M Records when they first rejected his late 70s album, "Somewhere In England," he sort of said "screw the whole thing" and the album came out and went nowhere in the world. Then George has substantial hit with "All Those Years Ago" in 1981, a tribute to John Lennon, but followed it up with perhaps the worst piece of tripe ever released by an ex-Beatle, the universally panned, "Gone Troppo." It would not be until 1987's "Cloud Nine," "Traveling Willburys" and a well-received tour of Japan that George would awaken.
And Shapiro says that while George was preaching Krishna consciousness throughout the '60s and '70s and even '80s, he was also getting loaded a lot and chasing women, two very un-Krishna-like hobbies. Although I think this would tend to indicate that George was only human, rather than theological shyster.
But by the early 90s, Shapiro paints a picture of a man who has been so psychically damaged by the rigors of fame that he would rather garden than rock. Shapiro then says that George's wife, Olivia, held Harrison together and that George appeared to be really happy for the first time in his life.
George had survived a first cancer scare in 1988 and then contributed well to the Threatles reunion on the Anthology Series in 1995.
But by by 1997, the cancer had returned and George would be dead within 4 years, despite a spirited fight against the disease.
It appears to me that Shapiro has had a go at George absent malice, or otherwise known in Beatle circles as absent Goldman, the late author Albert, that is, who ripped the Lennon legend to tatters in the mid 80s. I can read no mean and nasty in this book but rather an interesting thesis on why George Harrison was such a "sad" fellow, who perhaps under achieved as an artist after such a great uni start in 1970.
Perhaps, Shapiro's short mention of the Rutles parody of the Beatles deserved more examination. Of course, George always loved a chance to skewer the Fabs, especially Paul McCartney, and Harrison readily endorsed Eric Idle's vision of him as "Stig," the quiet Beatle "who had not said anything since 1963."
George even had a cameo in the film playing an interviewer who asks, "Who hurt Stig?"
Stig is played by one time Beach Boy Ricky Fattar with such a dopey, deadpan, "quietness," that maybe this WAS the real George Harrison. Could Stig, who was described in the film as a "school leaver" and depicted as being punched out by a 12-year old girl, be the real alter ego of George Harrison?
In other words was George really just having us on all these years ago? Sort of a within-and-without and up-and-around you?
I'd say read this book and then give it some serious thought. You may find in Harrison's "sadness," there was gladness disguised as gorm from a real rebel with no cause.
A letter from Louise Harrison, George's sister ...
A retrospective on the past 58 years With love to George, and my Global Family of Beatle People /12.08.01 By Louise Harrison George Harrison's sister, Louise Harrison (Photo by Alan Levenson.)
Dec. 8, 2001 Some fifty eight years ago when I was eleven, my Mom let me hold my new eight hour old, baby brother in my arms. I love all three brothers very much, but I suppose because I had now reached the mature age of eleven, I felt a greater sense of protectiveness toward George.
The four of us grew up in a strong and secure, good natured family atmosphere. Mum and Dad nurtured us in a way that helped us grow into self-confident individuals with a great compassion for our fellow Earthlings. Although we were not financially rich, we never felt deprived in any way. Due to WW2 even the really rich didn't have much of anything anyway!
George and I shared many experiences, including the excitement and fun of the early Beatle years, the search for a better understanding of our Creator, why are we here on Earth? and do we have any real purpose? George's search led him, amongst other things, to a book called "Autobiography of a Yogi" by Paramahansa Yogananda. In about 1969, George sent me a copy of the book and soon thereafter I joined the Self-Realization Fellowship which Yogananda founded in 1925 in California.
George was delighted when I showed him my membership card and with a mischievous grin said to me (knowing some of the goof-ups I had made in my life), "Maybe now you will become my divine sister!" With an equally mischievous grin I replied, "I'd like to try, but it won't come easy." His reply: "Nothing worthwhile ever does!"
During the Bangla Desh era, we spent much time together and both learned you cannot perform a spontaneous good deed, you have to have a (501) C-3 first!
Another significant experience we shared was the deaths about seven years apart, of both of our loving, strong and good-humored parents.
During the early Beatle days, Mum and Dad had eagerly embraced their growing global family of Beatle people, replying to thousands of letters, making personal appearances at many charitable events, often to raise money for orphans. They encouraged me to reach out also, noting it was logistically impossible for the Boys themselves to greet their fans individually, but that we, as 'the non famous" Harrison's could much more easily greet people acknowledge their support and return their love. Once Mum and Dad passed, having inherited their love for people, I became the unofficial Mum to the family of Beatle People. I have always seen this role as 1) a great responsibility, and 2) a great privilege. Not many people get the opportunity to foster love where ever they go!
Many of the Beatle People I met and hugged, throughout the years, are now my real and loving friends. (Thanks for your love and support at this time.)
I learned from SRF, if you truly believe the Creator is within you: a) You are connected with love to all who also contain that spirit. b) You can never think any thought, or perform any act 'behind God's back' and c) Your spirit cannot be adversely affected by the happenings in this finite and imperfect world. Living with those credos one can only think and act with total purity of purpose. In late 1992, I formed a non-profit environmental organization, called Drop-In! It was a continuation of the spirit of many of the "messages" embodied in the Beatle phenomenon. We also included some of the things I had learned from the SRF.
Initially I explained the general ideas of Drop-In to George and invited him to be on the Board, but he said to me, "No Lou, this is your mission or dharma. This is the task you have to do. Besides, it seems you have tapped into a "Power" greater than any help I can give. "
Although he did not join the Board, he DID offer to let me use his song "Save the World" as a musical backdrop to the 170 public service announcements called Good EarthKeeping Tips, which I researched, wrote and broadcast on 9,200 radio stations during 1993 and 1994.
An event occurred in the mid 90's which at first, though it was being touted as 'historical' I found, with Monty Python humor, to be rather "hysterical." The house, which George visited in 1963 -- the first visit of a Beatle to the United States -- was to be torn down to make a parking lot. Many people wanted to save the house. In answer to much prodding I agreed to help. To cut a long story short, the house was saved, a group of neighbors bought the house, then, owning a house they didn't need, wondered what to do with it! The solution was to make it into a Bed & Breakfast.
A historical marker will be issued in 2013, 50 years after George's visit. Many historical markers seem to commemorate a situation where "one bunch of humans slaughtered another bunch of humans." I, with a touch of whimsy, thought, "Maybe we are evolving to a higher state of consciousness if, instead of death and destruction, we now think it worth while to commemorate a kind and decent young man who gave only love, wonderful music and kindness to the world."
I expected George might be a bit embarrassed by all this, but knowing him to be the man who made such efforts for the people of Bangla Desh, I didn't think he would be too upset if the little, four bedroom B & B with the "slight Beatle connection" helped, in a tiny way, the nice friendly people he had known in 1963 . They are so proud of him and the area is not as thriving as it was in 1963, because most of coal mines are now closed. I tried to help the owners a bit, (they have done such a wonderful job) by getting involved in some publicity to promote the B & B.
A few weeks ago I was in Toronto on business when I learned that my brother was in Staten Island. I decided to take the long way home to Illinois via New York and stop to see him. We had a lovely visit, sharing a few old family jokes and were able to look into each other's eyes with love, just as we had 58 years ago when first we met. He will, of course, live happily ever after, with his Sweet Lord.
I still have to accomplish my mission here on Earth.
Foot-Note, or should I say Leg-End? (That's just an album plug) Four days after my brother's passing, I was informed that a minor segment of the press was involved in some Lou-bashing. This was NOT the best time to hear such news, but I know for sure, this now 70-year-old, single lady has not been involved in any scandal, so I am not concerned. The many thousands of people who know me will ignore any negativity, and as George once sang "Gossip, gossip, the Devil's radio!' Having now seen the reports, all I can say is this: The house which supposedly caused a 40- or 11-year rift, depending on which report you read, only became a B & B in 1996! I personally do not, and never have, owned such a venture. Case closed.
So: Let it be, and as George said, All things must pass, even Gossip!
(Boy, those Beatles knew how to come up with great song titles, didn't they!)
Till next time, Cheerio! P.S., I love you. Please plant a tree!
Louise Harrison Southern Illinois, USA December 9th 2001.
all my friends forget george... when i talk about the beatles people 30+ say "yeah, john, paul, ringo and.... and.... and... harri... harrisomething..." people 20+ know john paul and ringo... "yeah, i know there was another one... but i can not remember his name..." and people who are even younger hardly know more than john and/or paul. i don't know why but he's really always the one the people can not remember... poor georgie, he's my favourite
george george whoops george whoops george george george
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