Beatle George Harrison was born this day in 1943- 70 years ago.

Ten Notes On George Harrison.

1. George Harrison was the lead guitarist for The Beatles. He also wrote and sang some of The Beatles songs but always took a back seat to John Lennon and Paul McCartney in the number of songs written/sang. George was the youngest Beatle and compared to John and Paul a late bloomer. By the last year or two of The Beatles, George was holding his own and was writing songs that equaled what John and Paul were turning out. It’s hard to believe but George had just turned 27 years old when The Beatles broke up. All The Beatles were under 30 when they broke up.

2. George was known as the ‘Quiet Beatle” the “Spiritual Beatle.” In watching the recent Martin Scorsese documentary on George called “Living In The Material World” I think George may have lived the most interesting life of any of The Beatles. From watching that documentary it seemed like he led a private life but had a lot of interesting friends and had a lot of fun. In all I’ve read, the interviews, documentaries etc that I’ve seen over the years I always had the impression that John and George were the most brutally honest of The Beatles. The difference between them- I think John sometimes was also on the cruel side. George was just being honest. If you asked George something he’d tell you the truth. Where as Paul just comes across and always has as someone who wants to please. I took a Beatles Tour of Liverpool a decade ago and the tour guide who took us around the city said that the people he has talked with who knew them when they were just four guys in Liverpool said that John was known as being angry and cruel at times. Paul was thought of as someone who went a little too far in wanting to please everyone. George was quiet and Ringo didn’t make much of an impression on anyone.

3. By the end of The Beatles George who had started out kind of slow in the writing songs department was overflowing with songs. John and Paul were giving him 2 songs an album at the end but that clearly wasn’t enough. The last album that The Beatles recorded was “Abbey Road” in 1969. My two favourite songs on that outstanding, iconic album were written and sung by George Harrison- “Here Comes The Sun” and “Something.” The Beatles break up and George had so many songs he had a double album released “All Things Must Pass”-which included a number of songs that he had written in the last year or two with The Beatles but were not released. He was a “Dark Horse” but as I said earlier I think by the end he came into his own. The Beatles breaking up surely made sense for George’s growth as an artist.

4. George Harrison’s “Concert For Bangladesh” in 1971 started the concerts for different causes idea. Two concerts were held on August 1st, 1971 the concerts were organized by George and his friend the legendary Indian musician Ravi Shankar. The idea was to raise awareness for the refugees of the cyclone and civil war going on in Bangladesh. The concerts were held at Madison Square Garden in New York City.  George got Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr, Badfinger, Billy Preston and ‘a friend of us all Mister Bob Dylan” to play at the concert. Over 40,000 in total attended. The concert raised a quarter of a million dollars.

5. George met his first wife Pattie Boyd on the set of “A Hard Day’s Night.” I do not know of any woman who inspired two greatest songs than she did. George wrote “Something” about her on the “Abbey Road” album, one of his finest moments with The Beatles. The key to that song is he didn’t give too many details. Francis Albert Sinatra called it one of the great love songs of the 20th Century.  George would lose Pattie to one of his best friends Eric Clapton in the early 1970’s. Pattie inspired Eric to write the best work of his life, the blistering “Layla.” Eventually Eric and Pattie split too. She wrote a book a few years ago. I haven’t read it. George seemed to handle the whole “Eric stealing Pattie away thing” pretty well. Initially he was angry but it wasn’t long before he gave his blessing. I think George was much happier with wife #2 Olivia. George was the only Beatle who didn’t marry someone who was well known before they got married.

6. George’s solo albums are like the John, Paul and Ringo’s were- spotty. I think his two best were “All Things Must Pass” his first proper solo album and a double album at that. He had stockpiled a bunch of songs at the end of The Beatles. He let them go with “All Things Must Pass” and I would say other great album was the one released after his passing “Brainwashed.” George only released one album after 1982 while he was living. On every George Harrison album you would find some good tunes and a few preachy long winded songs but there were some good songs on every album.

7. George is underrated as a guitarist. He was no Hendrix or Clapton but he was a great guitarist for The Beatles. They didn’t need a Hendrix. By the time of their third album “A Hard Day’s Night” George was finding himself as a guitarist. The songwriting would come a little slower. If I were going to make a Mount Rushmore of George Harrison Beatles songs I’d go with these four “Taxman”, “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”, “Something”, and my personal favourite George song and one of my Mount Rushmore Beatles songs “Here Comes The Sun.”

8. One thing that impressed me from Marty Scorsese’s documentary “Living In The Material World” is how much his friends loved him. Famed auto racer Jackie Stewart said that as a race driver he had been close to death his entire adult life, that drivers had died with him right there with him but that years later he still hadn’t gotten over George’s death. George had a wide variety of friends. He was a Formula 1 racing fanatic. Was friends with Stewart and others. He was great friends with the Monty Python boys, with a number of musicians. They all spoke in the film about his humor. Back when The Beatles first broke John was the smart, witty one. I think George was funnier.  A key moment in the early days of The Beatles involved George’s humor. They were recording for the first time with George Martin. They didn’t know how things were going to go. After recording a few tunes that didn’t seem to be going anywhere George Martin called them in and talked to them. He told the boys to tell him if there was something they didn’t like. George looked at him replied “Yes, I don’t like your tie.” The other Beatles thought George had blown it. Actually George Martin found it very funny [he had worked on comedy albums before The Beatles came along} and that was a key moment in the studio in the early going. George Martin said he knew he liked those boys after that moment. George also seemed to be the only ex-Beatle to have a sense of humor about the subject of The Beatles.

9. I think even after the Beatles were all over John and Paul always looked at George like a little brother. He was the youngest. John always said that it was his idea to work with only two people in his life- Paul and Yoko. John brought Paul into the group. Paul brought in George when they were looking for a guitarist. Early on John and Paul would write a song [usually something that was grade b material not one of their great songs} and give to George to sing. Even at the end when he was writing great songs he was still the little brother getting two songs an album no matter how good his songs were.

10. George Harrison died on November 29th, 2001 after a long battle with  metastatic non-small cell lung cancer, he was only 58 years old. He was cremated and his ashes were scattered at Varanasi, India in the Ganges, Saraswati and Yamura Rivers. He left about $155 million in his will.