Entertainment For Lively Minds
The Quiet One
I have been on a George Harrison trip recently (man).
The more I have read about him and the more I have listened to his records the more I have come to like and respect the man.
Here was a supremely gifted musician and songwriter who in any other group would be top dog.
George Harrison was in The Beatles: ("Not bad George, we'll stick one on the album, that ok?").
One track that has taken hold is "All Those Years Ago" from the horribly unfashionable 1987 album "Cloud Nine" which included the massive hit "Got My Mind Set On You".
Anyway, at the time this song kind of passed me by (I was 16 and was obsessed with The Doors and myself I think).
It is an unashamed tribute to his friend and fellow Beatle John Lennon.
Near brought a tear to my eye it did.
A true gent.
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good tune...
are you sure you're not mixing it up with THIS Beatley number, which ws on Cloud 9
the cover of it was pretty cool as well - he got Klaus Voorman to kinda update his image from Revolver.
'All Those Years Ago' was originally written...
...as a song for Ringo, then Lennon was killed and George rewrote it as a tribute.
Yeah
All Those Years Ago was from the equally unfashionable Somwehere in England.
All Those Years Ago and When We Was Fab are both just, well, lovely, really. But then he wrote a lot of good songs, when you think about it. Even that little throwaway at the end of Lethal Weapon 2, Cheer Down, is a top song. But then I'm biased because I think he is my favourite HJH, too.
And, of course, he was the man who ponied up the cash for Life of Brian, simply because he was a fan and wanted to see the movie. I suppose sneaking that cameo in the Rutles movie gave a fairly good indication of the way he saw the whole thing
I agree: George was the Fabbest of the Fabs...
...why he/they never released this (from 1969) is a mystery:
Always had a soft spot..
for 'When We Was Fab' and there were rumours at the time that Macca appeared in the video dressed as the Walrus. Don't thisnk it really was him though. Wasn't there also a rumour that McCartney was one of the zombies in the 'Thriller' video?
Thumbs aloft?
I was always convinced it was Macca cycling past at the beginning...
I have learned to appreciate
the HJH's thanks to this blog, but I have always loved "My Sweet Lord" it brings back so many memories, my older sisters must have owned it because it is quite possibly my most evocative song. "Imagaine", "Mull Of Kintyre" or any Beatles songs don't do to me what MSL does and for that he is my favourite Beatle. I know you all know it intimately but here it is anyway
I prefer the original version...
I'm sure that he has basically a decent cove. 'Taxman' doesn't do much to endear him though.
When I was younger I just thought he was grumpy
Didn´t understand his deadpan sense of humour. But he really was funny and I soon also wanted a hairstyle called Arthur.
Here´s one of the Anthology highlights.
Nice to see I'm not alone
All my life I've kept harping on about George and people keep giving me strange looks...
From the very start George was always my favourite, his songs just hit a special corner of my heart.
We used to have the My Sweet Lord single, and I used it as a cure for sadness, disappointments and bad moods by first wallowing in my sadness listening to the B-side of Isn't It A Pity and then flipping it over to My Sweet Lord to chase away the dark clouds.
Whether you believe in a "Lord", sweet or not, doesn't matter. That song is musical Prozac!
I know I have mentioned this probably once too many; but this is probably my favourite song of all time ( and will be played at my funeral ): Run Of The Mill...
Also from ATMP
Quality item.
I have to confess to a huge factual error in my op.
"All Those Years Ago" was from the 1981 album "Somewhere In England" not "Cloud Nine".
I have put myself in the naughty corner as punishment.
Don't mean to be an irritant
If George was the only songwriter in a band then the band would run out of steam pretty quickly. His collection of songs from from his first band are great partly because the quality control not just the competition was so good. It goes downhill pretty quickly after the first two discs of All Things - the songs are competent with the odd beam of light shining through. Don't get me wrong - I like Savoy Truffle and can listen to Piggies.
I've often said
the Beatles benefited from their own inbuilt quality control.
Don't forget he wrote some good songs for the Traveling Wilburys as well, but by the time of the second Wilburys album all of the band members took joint writing credits so his work can't be identified as such.
I confess I've never been a
I confess I've never been a big fan of All Things Must Pass. I don't like the Spector production, I get bored of the mysticism stuff easily, and (I guess the biggest problem for me) I don't like George's thin vocals. I thought his voice was fine when it's in the mix with Lennon and McCartney's but George's voice is just not interesting enough to sustain my interest over a whole album. I much prefer his voice in small doses.
Something
by coincidence, I've just been making a playlist of Beatles songs for a friend who claims not to like them. It ends with 'Something', which is by far my favourite Beatles song. George seemed to have hit his songwriting stride at this point, given 'Something' and what he came up with for 'All Things', my favourite Beatles solo album.
I may be alone here but...
...after The Inner Light, Long Long Long is my favourite Beatles song. Something would be pretty close after that. In fact, most of my faves would be George's songs come to think of it. But I take the point above: the quality control was necessarily high 'when he was fab'. He could never have sustained a whole album of songs until the later 60s, whereas L&McC just churned the stuff out and at a remarkable quality...
All this got me to thinking
So off I toddled into iTunes and created this little playlist for the drive to work and back tomorrow. On balance, there's some not bad stuff on there, with only Got My Mind... and Between The Devil... not written by him, I think.
My Sweet Lord
While My Guitar Gently Weeps (from Love - acoustic with extra verse)
Heading For The Light
Wah-Wah
That's the Way It Goes
What Is Life
Ballad Of Sir Frankie Crisp (Let It Roll)
Gone Troppo
Maxine (extra track on Wilburys vol 1)
All Those Years Ago
When We Was Fab
Taxman
Got My Mind Set On You
Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth)
Any Road
Cheer Down
Here Comes The Sun
Piggies
Something
Old Brown Shoe
I Want To Tell You
If I Needed Someone
Rising Sun
Between The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea
And there's a few others that could have gone on there too.
Don´t Bother Me
Really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really should be on there.
Apart from that it is indeed fab.
Someone should post this
Oh.
In order of preference
George, John, Ringo, Paul.
Never a great fan of the "granny music".
"All things must pass" proved George wasn't getting his fair share of the Fabs tracks.