Musicianship
Songwriting
Main article: List of songs recorded by George Harrison
Harrison wrote his first song, "Don't Bother Me", while sick in a hotel bed in Bournemouth during August 1963, as "an exercise to see if I could write a song", as he remembered.[179] "Don't Bother Me" appeared on the band's second album, With the Beatles, later that year, then on Meet the Beatles! in the US in early 1964.[180] In 1965, he contributed "I Need You" and "You Like Me Too Much" to the album Help!.[181][182]
Harrison's songwriting ability improved through the years, but his material did not earn full respect from his fellow Beatles until near the group's break-up. In 1969, McCartney told Lennon: "Until this year, our songs have been better than George's. Now this year his songs are at least as good as ours".[183] Harrison often had difficulty getting the band to record his songs.[184][57] Most Beatles albums contain at least two Harrison compositions, and there are three of his songs on the 1966 Revolver LP, "the album on which Harrison came of age as a songwriter", wrote Inglis.[185]
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Of the 1967 Harrison song "Within You Without You", author Gerry Farrell claimed that Harrison had created a "new form", calling the composition: "a quintessential fusion of pop and Indian music."[186] Lennon called the song one of Harrison's best: "His mind and his music are clear. There is his innate talent, he brought that sound together."[187] Beatles biographer Bob Spitz described "Something" as a masterpiece: "an intensely stirring romantic ballad that would challenge 'Yesterday' and 'Michelle' as one of the most recognizable songs they ever produced."[188] According to Kenneth Womack, 'Harrison comes into his own on Abbey Road ... "Here Comes the Sun" is matched—indeed, surpassed—only by "Something", his crowning achievement'.[189] Inglis considered Abbey Road a turning point in Harrison's development as a songwriter and musician. He described Harrison's contributions to the LP as "exquisite", declaring them equal to any previous Beatles songs. During the album's recording, Harrison asserted more creative control than before, proactively rejecting suggestions for changes to his music or lyrics, particularly from McCartney.[190]
His interest in Indian music proved a strong influence on his songwriting and contributed to his innovation within the Beatles. According to Rolling Stone, "Harrison's openness to new sounds and textures cleared new paths for his rock and roll compositions. His use of dissonance on ... 'Taxman' and 'I Want to Tell You' was revolutionary in popular music – and perhaps more originally creative than the avant-garde mannerisms that Lennon and McCartney borrowed from the music of Karlheinz Stockhausen, Luciano Berio, Edgard Varèse and Igor Stravinsky".[191] In 1997, author Gerry Farrell commented: "It is a mark of Harrison's sincere involvement ... that, nearly thirty years on, the Beatles' 'Indian' songs remain the most imaginative and successful examples of this type of fusion."[192]
Guitar work
"He was clearly an innovator: George, to me, was taking certain elements of R&B and rock and rockabilly and creating something unique."[193]
—Eric Clapton
Rolling Stone founder Jann Wenner described Harrison as "a guitarist who was never showy but who had an innate, eloquent melodic sense. He played exquisitely in the service of the song".[194] Harrison's friend and former bandmate Tom Petty agreed: "He just had a way of getting right to the business, of finding the right thing to play."[195]The guitar picking style of Chet Atkins and Carl Perkins influenced Harrison, giving a country music feel to many of the Beatles' recordings.[196] He identified Chuck Berry as an early influence and Ry Cooder as an important later influence.[197]
In 1961 the Beatles recorded "Cry for a Shadow", a blues-inspired instrumental co-written by Lennon and Harrison, who is credited with composing the song's lead guitar part, building on unusual chord voicings and imitating the style of other English groups such as the Shadows.[198] The musicologist Walter Everett noted that while early Beatles compositions typically held close to the conventional patterns in rock music at the time, he also identified significant variations in their rhythm and tonal direction.[199] Harrison's liberal use of the diatonic scale in his guitar playing reveals the influence of Buddy Holly, and his interest in Berry inspired him to compose songs based on the blues scale while incorporating a rockabilly feel in the style of Perkins.[200] Within this framework he often utilized syncopation, as during his guitar solos for the Beatles' covers of Berry's "Roll Over Beethoven" and "Too Much Monkey Business".[201] Another of Harrison's musical techniques was the use of guitar lines written inoctaves, as on "I'll Be on My Way".[202] He was the first person to own a Rickenbacker 360/12, a guitar that featured twelve strings in 6 pairs, the low eight of which are tuned in pairs, one octave apart; the higher 4 being pairs tuned in unison. The Rickenbacker is unique among twelve string guitars in having the lower octave string of each of the first four pairs placed above the higher tuned string. This, and the naturally rich harmonics produced by a twelve string guitar providing the distinctive overtones found on many of the Beatles recordings.[202] His use of this guitar during the recording of A Hard Day's Night helped to popularize the model, and the jangly sound became so prominent that Melody Maker termed it the Beatles' "secret weapon".[203][nb 17]
Harrison wrote the chord progression of his first published song, "Don't Bother Me" (1963), almost exclusively in the Dorian mode, demonstrating an interest in exotic tones that eventually culminated in his embrace of Indian music. The dark timbre of his guitar playing on the track was accentuated by his use of uncomplicated yet effective C+9 chord voicings and a solo in the minor pentatonic scale.[205] By 1964 he had begun to develop a distinctive personal style as a guitarist, writing parts that featured the use of nonresolving tones, as with the ending chord arpeggios on "A Hard Day's Night".[200] In 1965 he used an expression pedal to control his guitar's volume on "I Need You", creating a syncopated flautando effect with the melody resolving its dissonance through tonal displacements.[206] He used the same volume-swell technique on "Yes It Is", applying what Everett described as "ghostly articulation" to the song's natural harmonics.[200]
Of Rubber Soul's "If I Needed Someone", Harrison said: "it's like a million other songs written around the D chord. If you move your fingers about, you get various little melodies ... it amazes me that people still find new permutations of the same notes."[207] His other contribution to the album, "Think for Yourself", features what Everett described as "ambiguous tonal coloring", utilizing chromaticism in G major with a "strange" mixture of the Dorian mode and the minor pentatonic; he called it a "tour de force of altered scale degrees".[208] In 1966 Harrison contributed innovative musical ideas to Revolver. He played backwards guitar on Lennon's composition "I'm Only Sleeping" and a guitar counter-melody on "And Your Bird Can Sing" that moved in parallel octaves above McCartney's bass downbeats.[209] His guitar playing on "I Want to Tell You" exemplified the pairing of altered chordal colours with descending chromatic lines and his guitar part for Sgt Pepper's "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" mirrors Lennon's vocal line in much the same way that a sarangi player accompanies a khyal singer in a Hindudevotional song.[210]
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An excerpt from Harrison's slide guitar solo from Lennon's "How Do You Sleep?", 1971
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Everett described Harrison's guitar solo from "Old Brown Shoe" as "stinging [and] highly Claptonesque".[211] He identified two of the composition's significantmotifs: a bluesy trichord and a diminished triad with roots in A and E.[212] Huntley called the song "a sizzling rocker with a ferocious ... solo."[213] In Greene's opinion, Harrison's demo for the song contains "one of the most complex lead guitar solos on any Beatles song."[214]
Harrison's playing on Abbey Road, and in particular on "Something", marked a significant moment in his development as a guitarist. The song's guitar solo shows a varied range of influences, incorporating the blues guitar style of Clapton and the styles of Indian gamakas.[215] According to author and musicologist Kenneth Womack: "'Something' meanders toward the most unforgettable of Harrison's guitar solos ... A masterpiece in simplicity, [it] reaches toward the sublime".[189]Harrison received an Ivor Novello award in July 1970 for "Something", as "The Best Song Musically and Lyrically of the Year".[216]
After Delaney Bramlett inspired him to learn slide guitar, Harrison began to incorporate it into his solo work, which allowed him to mimic many traditional Indian instruments, including the sarangi and the dilruba.[217] Leng described Harrison's slide guitar solo on Lennon's "How Do You Sleep?" as a departure for "the sweet soloist of 'Something'", calling his playing "rightly famed ... one of Harrison's greatest guitar statements."[218] Lennon commented: "That's the best he's ever fucking played in his life."[218]
A Hawaiian influence is notable in much of Harrison's music, ranging from his slide guitar work on Gone Troppo (1982) to his televised performance of the Cab Calloway standard "Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea" on ukulele in 1992.[219] Lavezzoli described Harrison's slide playing on the Grammy-winning instrumental "Marwa Blues" (2002) as demonstrating Hawaiian influences while comparing the melody to an Indian sarod or veena, calling it "yet another demonstration of Harrison's unique slide approach".[220] Harrison was an admirer of George Formby and a member of the Ukulele Society of Great Britain, and played a ukulele solo in the style of Formby at the end of "Free as a Bird".[221] He performed at a Formby convention in 1991, and served as the honorary president of the George Formby Appreciation Society.[222] Harrison played bass guitar on numerous tracks, including the Beatles' songs "Drive My Car", "She Said She Said", "Golden Slumbers", "Birthday" and "Honey Pie".[223] He also played bass on several solo recordings, including "Faster", "Wake Up My Love" and "Bye Bye Love".[224]
Guitars
When Harrison joined the Quarrymen in 1958 his main guitar was a Höfner President Acoustic, which he soon traded for a Höfner Club 40 model.[225] His first solid-body electric guitar was a Czech-built JolanaFuturama/Grazioso.[226] The guitars he used on early recordings were mainly Gretsch models, played through a Vox amplifier, including a Gretsch Duo Jet that he bought secondhand in 1961, and posed with on the album cover for Cloud Nine (1987).[227] He also bought a Gretsch Tennessean and a Gretsch Country Gentleman, which he played on "She Loves You", and during the Beatles' 1964 appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show.[228][229] In 1963 he bought a Rickenbacker 425 Fireglo, and in 1964 he acquired a Rickenbacker 360/12 guitar, which was the second of its kind to be manufactured.[230] Harrison obtained his first Fender Stratocaster in 1965 and used it in recording Rubber Soul, notably on the song "Nowhere Man".[231]
In early 1966 Harrison, Lennon, and McCartney each purchased Epiphone Casinos, which they used on Revolver.[232] Harrison also used a Gibson J-160E and a Gibson SG Standard while recording the album.[233] He later painted his Stratocaster in a psychedelic design that included the word "Bebopalula" above the pickguard and the guitar's nickname, "Rocky", on the headstock.[234] He played this guitar in the Magical Mystery Tour film and throughout his solo career.[235] In mid-1968 he acquired a Gibson Les Paul that he nicknamed "Lucy".[236] Around this time, he obtained a Gibson Jumbo J-200, which he used for early demos of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps".[237] In late 1968 Fender Musical Instruments Corporation gave Harrison a custom-made Fender Telecaster Rosewood prototype, made especially for him by a Fender master builder who also crafted a prototype Stratocaster for Jimi Hendrix.[238]
Studio collaborations
See also: Apple Records and Dark Horse Records
Harrison's music projects during the final years of the Beatles included producing Apple Records artists Doris Troy, Jackie Lomax and Billy Preston.[239] Throughout his solo career, he benefited from the inclusion of guest musicians on his albums, and he made efforts to reciprocate the favours by participating in their recordings. He was featured as a guitarist on tracks by Dave Mason, Nicky Hopkins, Alvin Lee, Ronnie Wood, Billy Preston andTom Scott.[240] Harrison co-wrote songs and music with Dylan, Clapton, Preston, Doris Troy, David Bromberg, Gary Wright, Wood, Jeff Lynne, and Tom Petty, among others.[241]
Harrison co-wrote the song "Badge" with Clapton, which was included on Cream's 1969 album, Goodbye.[242] Harrison played rhythm guitar on the track, using the pseudonym "L'Angelo Misterioso" for contractual reasons.[243]He used the same pseudonym when he recorded a guitar part for "Never Tell Your Mother She's Out of Tune", a song from Jack Bruce's 1969 solo album, Songs for a Tailor.[244] In May 1970 he played guitar on several songs during a recording session for Dylan's album New Morning.[245] In addition to his own work, between 1971 and 1973 he co-wrote and/or produced three top ten hits for Starr: "It Don't Come Easy", "Back Off Boogaloo" and "Photograph".[246] In 1971 he played electric slide guitar on "How Do You Sleep?" and a dobro on "Crippled Inside", both from Lennon's Imagine album.[247] Also that year, he produced and played slide guitar on Badfinger's top ten hit "Day After Day", and a dobro on Preston's "I Wrote a Simple Song".[248][nb 18] He worked with Harry Nilsson on "You're Breakin' My Heart" (1972) and with Cheech & Chong on "Basketball Jones" (1973).[250] In 1973 he produced and made a guest appearance on the album Shankar Family & Friends.[251]
In 1974 Harrison founded Dark Horse Records. In addition to eventually releasing his own albums on the label, he initially used the company as an avenue for collaboration with other musicians.[252] He wanted Dark Horse to serve as a creative outlet for artists, as Apple Records had for the Beatles.[253] Harrison explained: "Most of the stuff will be what I produce".[254] Eric Idle commented: "He's extremely generous, and he backs and supports all sorts of people that you'll never, ever hear of."[255] The first acts signed to the new label were Ravi Shankar and Splinter, whose album Harrison produced, which provided Dark Horse with their first hit, "Costafine Town".[256]Other artists signed by Dark Horse include Attitudes, Henry McCullough, Jiva, and Stairsteps.[257]
Harrison collaborated with Tom Scott on Scott's album New York Connection (1976), and in 1981 he played guitar on "Walk a Thin Line", from Mick Fleetwood's The Visitor.[258] In 1996 he recorded "Distance Makes No Difference With Love" with Carl Perkins, and played slide guitar on the title track of Dylan's Under the Red Sky album.[259] In 2001 he performed as a guest musician on Jeff Lynne and Electric Light Orchestra's comeback albumZoom, and on the song "Love Letters" for Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings.[260] He also co-wrote a new song with his son Dhani, "Horse to the Water", which was recorded on 1 October, eight weeks before his death. It appeared on Jools Holland's album Small World, Big Band.[261]
Sitar and Indian music
During the Beatles' American tour in August 1965, Harrison's friend David Crosby of the Byrds introduced him to Indian classical music and the work of sitar maestro Ravi Shankar.[262][263] Harrison described Shankar as "the first person who ever impressed me in my life ... and he was the only person who didn't try to impress me."[264] Harrison became fascinated with the sitar and immersed himself in Indian music.[265] According to Lavezzoli, Harrison's introduction of the instrument on the Beatles' song "Norwegian Wood" "opened the floodgates for Indian instrumentation in rock music, triggering what Shankar would call 'The Great Sitar Explosion' of 1966–67."[266] Lavezzoli described Harrison as "the man most responsible for this phenomenon".[267][nb 19]
In June 1966 Harrison met Shankar at the home of Mrs Angadi of the Asian Music Circle, asked to be his student, and was accepted.[269] On 6 July, Harrison travelled to India to buy a sitar from Rikhi Ram & Sons in New Delhi.[269] Lavezzoli described Harrison's sitar playing on the Revolver track "Love You To" as an "astonishing improvement" over "Norwegian Wood" and "the most accomplished performance on sitar by any rock musician."[270] In September, he returned to India to study sitar with Shankar.[269] He initially stayed in Bombay, then moved to a houseboat on a remote lake where Shankar taught him for six weeks.[269] After Shankar, he received tutelage from Shambhu Das.[271]
Harrison studied the instrument until 1968, when an encounter with Clapton and Hendrix at a hotel in New York convinced him to put down the instrument and return to guitar playing. He commented: "I decided ... I should get back to the guitar because I'm not getting any better at it, and I'm not going to be a great sitar player ... because I should have started at least fifteen years earlier."[272]
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