The Music of George Harrison

Thomas MacFarlane

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• eBook ISBN: 9780429941481
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Music

George Harrison was one of the most prolific popular music composers of the late 20th century. During his tenure with the Beatles, he caught the wave of 1960s pop culture and began channeling its pervasive influence through his music. Often described as "The Invisible Singer, " his solo recordings reveal him to be an elusive, yet essential, element in the Beatles' sound. The discussion of George Harrison's Beatle tracks featured in the text employs a Songscape approach that blends accessible music analysis with an exploration of the virtual space created on the sound recording. This approach is then used to explore Harrison's extensive catalog of solo works, which, due to their varied cultural sources, seem increasingly like early examples of Global Pop. In that sense, the music of George Harrison may ultimately be viewed as an important locus for pan-cultural influence in the 20th century, making this book essential reading for those interested in the history of songwriting and recording as well as the cultural study of popular music.

Part I

With the Beatles

1 Gentleman George

George Harrison was born, three weeks overdue, to Harry and Louise Harrison (née French) in Liverpool, England on February 25th, 1943. It was Harry Harrison who chose the name George for his youngest son. When his wife asked why, he replied, “If it’s good enough for the King [George VI] it should be good enough for him.”¹ As the youngest of five siblings in the Harrison clan, George was destined to become the family favorite. In British parlance, he would always be regarded as “Our Kid.”

During George Harrison’s childhood, it seemed evident that the United Kingdom had seen better days. In the harsh realities of the post-war world, it was clear that the nation’s former imperial glory could not be sustained. In those days, northern cities like Liverpool seemed to get the worst of it. As described in the documentary, The Compleat Beatles (1982): “The city droned on wearily in post-war Britain, a nation nostalgic for its triumphant past … For a boy growing up in Liverpool, the future was no brighter than that which his father faced, or his father’s father.”²

In addition to the economic realities of life in post-war Britain, the lethal properties of that experience were still very much in evidence. Neil Aspinall, lifelong friend and confidant of the Beatles, described the experience in this way: “Post-war, our playgrounds were bomb sites, which could be pretty dangerous. You got streets that just went off into nothing. We were very aware of the war … There would always be a few kids who didn’t have a father.”³

The drab and somber quality of post-war Liverpool permeated the Beatles’ early years. And yet, as compared with the experiences of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and Ringo Starr, George Harrison’s upbringing seems to have been happy. There were no serious traumas, and while the family was not wealthy, Harry Harrison’s steady job as a bus driver allowed for a certain amount of comfort and security. Music, of course, was an ever-present element in the Harrison home, and family life tended to center around the radio, as George himself describes: “We’d listen to anything that was played on the radio: Irish tenors like Josef Locke, dance-band music, Bing Crosby, people like that.”⁴ There was also a prophetic interest in American country and folk styles due primarily to Harry Harrison’s early experiences at sea:

My Dad had bought a wind-up gramophone in New York when he was a seaman and had brought it back on the ship … He’d also brought some records from America, including one by Jimmie Rodgers, “the Singing Brakeman.” He [Rodgers] was Hank Williams’s favourite singer and the first country singer that I ever heard. He had a lot of tunes such as “Waiting for a Train,” “Blue Yodel 94,” and “Blue Yodel 13.” The one that my Dad had was “Waiting for a Train”; that led me to guitar.⁵

George subsequently purchased a guitar of his own for £3 10s from a schoolmate named Raymond Hughes. However, he accidentally disassembled it by removing a bolt on the neck, and then placed it on the shelf for about a year. Eventually, his brother reassembled the guitar for him, and his musical journey began. His father had a friend named Len Houghton who played guitar, so he asked him if he wouldn’t mind teaching young George how to play. Houghton agreed, and every week, the boy would meet with him to learn a variety of tunes, many of which became mainstays in his own personal repertoire for years to come.⁶

At the Liverpool Institute High School for Boys, he soon met Paul McCartney a fellow music enthusiast.⁷ The two became fast friends despite their slight age difference. As George later pointed out, “He was always nine months older than me. Even now, after all these years, he is still nine months older!”⁸ They shared a passionate interest in rock ’n’ roll and soon began trading riffs and comparing notes on records by their favorite artists. At this point, George had already briefly formed an impromptu band of his own called The Rebels.⁹ Later, when Paul joined up with John Lennon in a skiffle group called The Quarrymen, he urged George to join as well.¹⁰ The Quarrymen later evolved into The Beatles.

Mission to Hamburg

The formative years of the Beatles have been well documented. As is the case for most musical groups, it was an ongoing struggle to find the right personal chemistry and to develop a repertoire that was accessible, yet unique. An important turning point came when they got the opportunity to play professionally in Europe, specifically in Hamburg, Germany. By that time, the band consisted of John Lennon (rhythm guitar and vocals), Paul McCartney (rhythm guitar, vocals), George Harrison (lead guitar, vocals), and Pete Best (drums). They also had Stuart Sutcliffe, Lennon’s friend from Art College, completing the ensemble on bass guitar.¹¹

In Hamburg, the Beatles were being asked to play long nights, which taxed their existing repertoire to its limits. They quickly realized that they had to get better fast or chuck the lot. In Outliers: The Story of Success (2011), author Malcolm Gladwell stressed the importance of the Hamburg experience in the development of the band:

The Beatles ended up traveling to Hamburg five times between 1960 and the end of 1962 … All told, they performed for 270 nights in just over a year and a half. By the time they had their first burst of success in 1964, in fact, they had performed live an estimated twelve hundred times. Do you know how extraordinary that is? Most bands today don’t perform twelve hundred times in their entire careers. The Hamburg crucible is one of the things that set the Beatles apart.¹²

Another important aspect of this experience concerned the Beatles’ exposure to new people with new ideas about art. In Hamburg, they met Klaus Voormann and Astrid Kirchherr, two existential artists who took an abiding interest in the Beatles for the next few years. As a result, they had an ideal opportunity to observe the development of the group first hand. In 2011, Astrid Kirchherr described their first meeting:

John did his, you know, “I’m a man, I’m a man” thing. And Paul was doing his, “I’m a good boy, good education” bit, you know. Said hello and shook my hand. And George was just … he was ever so sweet.¹³

By this time, Paul McCartney and John Lennon had formed a bond seemingly based on their respective personal traumas. Mary McCartney had succumbed to cancer when her son was just fourteen years old.¹⁴ Lennon’s mother, Julia, was killed in an auto accident when John was seventeen.¹⁵ In comparison, George Harrison’s upbringing didn’t seem to feature any specific personal trauma to overcome; he simply grew up.

I had two brothers and one sister. My sister was 12 when I was born. My father was driving a bus at the time. He used to be a seaman … My mother was from an Irish family called French, and she had lots of brothers and sisters. My grandmother used to live in Albert Grove, which was next to Arnold Grove, so when I was small I could go out the back door and around the back entries … and into my grandmother’s house. So, they were my earliest recollections.¹⁶

The security that he’d felt from his parents and elder siblings meant that, within the fragile emotional structure of the Beatles, he could provide a certain amount of stability. As Klaus Voormann pointed out:

George was only seventeen years of age, but he was calm … He was funny, and he was a catalyst in the band. You see, Paul and John were so different, and George was bringing a certain peace into this setup.¹⁷

Becoming the Beatles

Singer/guitarist Tony Sheridan (1940–2013) was one of the Beatles’ colleagues on the Hamburg scene. Hailing from Norwich, England, he travelled to Germany in 1960 and often performed with the group at the Top Ten Club.¹⁸ In 1961, he managed to secure a recording contract with German composer/conductor Bert Kaempfert, and kindly recommended the Beatles as his backing band for the sessions. Renamed by Kaempfert as “The Beat Brothers,” the lineup for the first session on 22 June 1961 consisted of George Harrison on lead guitar, John Lennon on rhythm guitar, Paul Mc...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• List of Examples
• Acknowledgments
• Timeline
• Preface: Songscapes
• PART I: With the Beatles
• 1. Gentleman George
• 2. Far East man
• 3. Guitar George
• PART II: The Material World
• 4. Beware of Maya
• 5. Dark horse
• 6. Writings on the wall
• PART III: Coming home
• 7. Cloud Nine
• 8. Any road will take you there
• 9. Now and then
• Bibliography
• Index