George Harrison, R.I.P.
 

Since nobody else on this board has mentioned it yet, I thought I'd start a thread. In case you've been in a cave with the al-Qaida, George Harrison died last night, after a long battle with cancer.

I don't know how effected the younger generations of fans will be by this, but this is one of those celebrity passings that truly makes me sad. He was a great musician and songwriter, a really cool guy with a conscience, and I just plain liked the man. It's certainly better to have lived into his late fifties, even fighting disease, than to have been assassinated at 40 like John. But it's sad just the same.

Out of the four Beatles, I thought his musical output after the group disbanded was the best overall and most consistent. And the stuff with the Traveling Wilburys (Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison, Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne), seemed like pure fun and I enjoyed the whole idea. I have lots of post-Beatle Harrison favorites, including "My Sweet Lord", "Cheer Down", "Cockamamie Business", "What Is Life?", "Blow Away", "Give Me Love", "Handle with Care", "Bangla Desh" and "Poor Little Girl".

We all know as a Beatle he was never allowed to contribute as a songwriter the way John and Paul were, but he still managed to pen some of their best tunes: "Something", "For You Blue", "Here Comes the Sun" and of course "While My Guitar Gently Weeps".


Harrison was also a supporter of Film in the U.K. He was one of the driving forces behind the independent company Handmade Films, which produced such modern classics as Monty Python's Life of Brian, Time Bandits, Withnail & I, The Long Good Friday, Mona Lisa, and Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels.

I loved him in The Beatle movies too. In A Hard Day's Night John gets all the Groucho Marx-type lines, Ringo gets all the pathos, and the running bit with Paul's 'Grandfather' ("He's so clean") is classic stuff, but my favorite scene after all these years is when George is pulled into the advertising office to get an average teenager's opinion about the next fashion trend. He's so good in that scene and it's so deadpan funny, it's always the part that I remember most fondly.

He will definitely be missed, obviously.

This is one of my favorite Harrison songs...

You're right in your implications: I, and some others my age that I know, don't know what to think. I probably wouldn't even have bothered to enjoy The Beatles' music if my mom were not such a fan. I don't know much about Harrison, but I will pray for his soul nonetheless. He certainly helped to make wonderful music, and as far as I'm concerned, that's reason enough to honor him.

Nice tribute Holden. He never really got the media attention that the others got. We knew the girls loved Paul, John was the hippie/passive/activist type, Ringo was the silly one, with THAT voice...and then there was George. Truth be told, I had a crush on him. He was the most attractively drawn Beatle in Yellow Submarine.:D I just thought his quietness was interesting in a mystrious way. Musicly, I never really paid much attention to which one of them was writing what, although...I could tell most of the time. I didn't really follow there careers after the Beatles either, but I know what a loss it is. I do know that.
Damn. He was only 58 too. That's so young. Truly a loss.:(

i'm sad he's gone

As I wrote on another board I frequent:

Not only the fact that the shy one has gone, [called the shy one because he was the peaceful one. Lennon got more attention in his solo persuits because of his ruffling-feathers approach to his work with his strong messages. Harrison was peaceful. Content]. but the fact that there are only two Beatles left. Two. One day, while I'm still around, there will be no Beatles left. I was not around for the death of John Lennon, so if anything, I always took for granted that there were only three -- but not anymore. It has been like teaching me in a way, the frailties of human life. The man was a legend, immortal, and now...gone.

Can that even be possible?

It appears so.

I hate the beatles.

Then perhaps you shouldn't be posting in a thread about the death of one of them. Especially what you just wrote. That's pretty disrespectful, I think.

George Harrison will be sorely missed. While IMO Paul McCartney had the best post-Beatles solo career, George (along with Ringo and Paul) was still a living legend. I love "Something," "Here Comes the Sun," "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," and of course the ever-witty "Taxman."

It's just a shame that George wasn't allowed to contribute as much as Paul and John, on both the albums and the movies.