Artist: Harrison, George
Label: Apple Records
Release: 2009
Running time: 77:33
Rating: 5/5
In recent decades, the so-called quiet Beatle, George Harrison, has earned a reputation as one of the most creative and enigmatic figures in rock. The world, which couldn’t come to terms with the breakup of the Liverpool foursome, wasn’t exactly welcoming to the solo projects of the individual members at first, but the 1970 album All things must pass showed that Harrison was a musician with a story of his own. It wasn’t his first solo outing (even before the split he’d made two mostly instrumental records, Wonderwall music and Electronic sound), but it was the one where George finally stepped out of Lennon and McCartney’s shadow for good and showed off all his creative power. The album, with guest appearances by Eric Clapton, Billy Preston and Ringo Starr, is still considered his best work today, and the hits My sweet lord and What is life (whose chorus Sweet borrowed four years later for their song Fox on the run) quickly conquered the charts on both sides of the Atlantic. The record was also deeply shaped by Harrison’s friendship with Ravi Shankar, who taught him to play the sitar, and by his interest in Indian music and culture. It was exactly this deep spirituality and a sound that often feels like a prayer that set George apart from the other great musical creators of his time. Perhaps the finest example of that serenity and intimate meditation is the song Give me love (Give me peace on earth) from his next solo album, Living in the material world.
Between those two studio projects, George, with Shankar’s help, organized a benefit concert at Madison square garden for refugees of the war in Bangladesh, which was also the first mass event of its kind in the history of popular music (40,000 people attended). The concert, which took place fourteen years before the famous Live aid, was released as an album titled The concert for Bangladesh and won the Grammy for Album of the Year in 1973. On this compilation it’s represented by Harrison’s songs from his Beatles days – While my guitar gently weeps ( The white album) Something in Here comes the sun (both from Abbey road). George Harrison wrapped up the second half of the seventies, marked by the somewhat less well-received Dark horse and the records Extra texture (his last album for EMI-Apple) and Thirty three & 1/3, with the self-titled album and the minimalist masterpiece Blow away.
Although he’d had less contact with Lennon after the Beatles’ breakup than Paul and Ringo did, Lennon’s death on December 8, 1980 hit him hard, deepening his anguish and his long-standing fear of stalkers. That fear proved justified in ’99, when Harrison barely survived an attack at his home by a madman with a knife who, much like Mark David Chapman, claimed he was acting on orders from a higher power. After that incident, George rarely showed himself in public. The result of that anxiety was the song All those years ago, on which he joined forces once more with McCartney and Starr in Lennon’s memory. George had originally written the track for Ringo’s album, but after John’s tragic death he changed the lyrics, and with a tribute to one of the most original musicians of the twentieth century he boldly set the tone for the album Somewhere in England.
After a five-year musical break , which followed the period between 1970 and 1982 in which Harrison recorded no fewer than nine albums, came the hugely successful record Cloud nine. Harrison shines here above all as a vocalist, while the rhythm parts and solos, seasoned with slide guitar, a staple of most of his recordings, take on a whole new sonic dimension. The 1987 album is perhaps even better known for the MTV hit Got my mind set on you than for the collaboration with Jeff Lynne (Electric light orchestra), who helped George with the production. The song was written back in 1962 by Rudy Clark for James Ray. The other hit, When we was fab, which looks back wistfully at the golden sixties when Beatlemania was at its peak, also got a big boost from its video, in which Ringo Starr appears alongside George, who’s decked out in the obligatory Sgt. Pepper costume. Cloud nine, which marked the high point of Harrison’s late period, was also the last studio release from this refined and deeply spiritual artist. The closing chapter, titled Brainwashed, a record he was still working on in the final weeks before his death, was completed with help from his son and Jeff Lynne, following his instructions. On that album we’ll find the song Any road and the mystical instrumental Marwa blues, one of the last melodies to come from his pen.
Let it roll is thus not just a collection of George Harrison’s best-known songs, but above all a moving and instructive personal ID of a man who loved his music. It’s the first compilation to span his entire body of work, meaning songs from every period of his solo career. Besides the lovely melodies, singable choruses and everything else that made the foursome from Liverpool famous, we’ll also find something far more precious here – music that’s not just pleasant and catchy, but has the power to change the world. And that’s probably the most important legacy of a great artist who left far too early and withdrew for good into Clapton’s blooming, morning-sun-drenched garden, where many years ago he wrote the song Here comes the sun.
Production
Dave Edmunds, Dhani Harrison, George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, George Martin, Phil Spector, Russ Titelman
Track list
1. Got my mind set on you
2. Give me love (give me peace on earth)
3. Ballad of sir Frankie Crisp (let it roll)
4. My sweet lord
5. While my guitar gently weeps (live)
6. All things must pass
7. Any road
8. This is love
9. All those years ago
10. Marwa blues
11. What is life
12. Rising sun
13. When we was fab
14. Something (live)
15. Blow away
16. Cheer down
17. Here comes the sun (live)
18. I don’t want to do it
19. Isn’t it a pity
