George Harrison - The History of Rock Music

George Harrison

George Harrison was the youngest member of The Beatles and although this sometimes meant he was looked down up by the rest of the band, his talent more than made up for it and he was recognized as an integral part of the group. Eventually becoming noted as a strong song writer in his own right, no mean feat considering he was in a band alongside John Lennon and Paul McCartney, Harrison was the man who seemed to drive the group's spiritual moving and even after the band broke up, went onto have a solo career with many highlights.

Born in Liverpool in February 1943, Harrison had a sister and two brothers and had a fairly typical childhood in Liverpool. Around the teenage years, Harrison very quickly became recognized as a talented guitarist and was one of the many youngster of that era to join a skiffle group. Harrison would eventually come to the attention of John Lennon and Paul McCartney, themselves in a band called The Quarrymen who, after offering him an audition on the upper deck of a double decker bus, decided his age was no barrier and that he should join them in their band. Harrison quickly agreed and he was part of the group when they first went to Hamburg. Sadly for Harrison, he was reported for being underage, till being 16 at the time, and was deported back to Britain but the initial period of playing lengthy sets in Hamburg was to tighten the band together and improve their playing skills. By the time The Beatles had returned to Liverpool and started playing gigs in the local scene again, their set had improved dramatically and it was no surprise that their fan base grew and that potential managers were keen to sign the band up.

Like all of the group, Harrison was a favorite for many girl and a comment in an interview made by Harrison led to some trouble for the band. Harrison said that his favorite confectionery was jelly babies, a soft sweet and when the band performed, girls were quite often found throwing jelly babies onto the stage. When the band found success in America, the American girls followed suit but they were unable to find to jelly babies and so pelted the band with the much harder jelly beans instead, which was not welcomed by the act.

The success of the band grew very quickly, leading to the band making movies as well as records. It was on the set of the 'A Hard Days Night' film that Harrison was to meet Patti Boyd, who would later become his wife and the inspiration for the song 'Something'. Although still finding his song writing opportunities limited by the prolific output of his band mates, Harrison was getting the odd song on an album but found that he was a key factor in driving the bands sound and spiritual outlook. Harrison was the person who was most influenced by Indian cultural and spirituality and it was him who encouraged the band to follow this path. This was shown in Harrison's songs at the time which regularly featured the sitar or other Indian influenced sounds.

The band were starting to near their natural conclusion and Harrison, ever more incensed at the lack of respect he felt he and his songs were being offered by his band mates, left the group during the 'Let It Be' recording session. He was encouraged to return shortly afterwards as the band hastily finished that project and worked together one final time on the 'Abbey Road' album. The songs written by Harrison on the final Beatles albums stood up well in comparison to anything else and there was a definite consensus that 'Something' was one of the best tracks in the bands output.

As the band members went their separate ways, the general public were waiting to see what the individual members would come up with and Harrison had a healthy stock pile of material that had been overlooked by the band in the past few years. This meant that Harrison was able to complete a triple album and 'All Things Must Pass' , released in 1970, quickly gave him a solo number one single and some other hits. If there was ever any doubt that Harrison was a talented guitarist and song writer, it was completely blown away by this release.

Harrison's next project was to organize the Concert For Bangladesh event, which attempted to raise money to fund the starving victim of the Bangladesh Civil War. The concert sold extremely well and a stellar line-up was organized but tax and other financial problems prevented as much money going to the charity as Harrison would have liked. The following years saw a downturn for Harrison with his following albums not being as well received as his debut solo album and 1974 saw Harrison break up with Boyd and suffer laryngitis problems which further negatively impacted on his material.

Harrison was soon to remarry and he had his first son when Dhanni Harrison was born in 1979 and the guitarist became known for supplying guitar music to his friends, most notably on John Lennon's 'Imagine' album where Harrison appeared on five tracks and Lennon was highly impressed with Harrison input. Like the entire world, Harrison was shocked in 1980 when John Lennon was shot dead and the majority of the 1980s passed by without Harrison bothering the charts or being noteworthy.

This changed in 1988 when a new album, produced by Jeff Lynne, of ELO and later of The Beatles Anthology project, worked on 'Cloud 9', an album heavily influenced by The Beatles pop sound and Harrison was back at the top of the charts. Harrison also worked alongside Lynne on the Travelling Wilburys project and this, as well as The Beatles Anthology, kept Harrison involved in the music industry for much of the 1990s.

Harrison was the victim of a knife attack by an intruder in his own home in 1999 but it was on 29th of November 2001 that Harrison passed away after a bout of lung cancer, and his ashes were scattered into the Ganges River. Harrison left behind a full legacy and although he may have been recognized as the quiet Beatle, there is no doubt his music and talent was loved by many.

The History of George Harrison

The Beatles Release “Abbey Road”

The Beatles released “Abbey Road” on October 1st, 1969 in the USA and September 26th, 1969 in the UK. “Let It Be” was the final album released by The Beatles although it was actually recorded before “Abbey Road“, making the “Abbey Road” sessions the final sessions The Beatles worked on together as a band.
The fact that The Beatles managed to reconvene after the disastrous “Abbey Road” sessions was deemed to be miraculous. What may have been the saving grace was the decision to get George Martin back in to produce the “Abbey Road” sessions. He managed to broker an uneasy peace between the warring Paul McCartney and John Lennon and helped negotiate a path through the debris to pick out the gems, and unbelievably delivered the most coherent record The Beatles ever produced.

Police raid Keith Richard’s “Redlands” home in Sussex for drugs

Around 5:30pm on February 12th, 1967, around 20 police descended on Keith Richards‘ Sussex home, “Redlands”. Both Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were arrested and sentenced to jail for drug offenses. Amid much public outcry The Rolling Stones found an unlikely ally in the shape of the conservative editor of The Times, William Rees-Mogg.
The Time’s editorial piece, “Who breaks a butterfly on a wheel?” is considered to be a key factor in Keith Richards acquittal and Mick Jagger’s conditional discharge. It also signified a major shift in public opinion in the UK.

Paul McCartney Meets John Lennon of The Quarry Men

It was Saturday, July 6th, 1956 and John Lennon’s skiffle group, The Quarry Men, were playing Woolton Village Church Garden Fete. In the audience, lured along by his friend at the promise of lots of pretty girls to chat up, was a 15 year old Paul McCartney.

15 year old Paul McCartney obviously impressed John Lennon when they were introduced and he was soon asked to join, later joined by his friend George Harrison. It was the start of something very special.