George Harrison

George Harrison (Liverpool, February 25, 1943 - Los Angeles, November 29, 2001) was a multi-instrumentalist musician, composer, singer-songwriter, music producer, film producer, actor, philanthropist, British peace activist, environmentalist, guitarist and singer of the rock band The Beatles. Although John Lennon and Paul McCartney were the main songwriters within the group, Harrison also included his own compositions on The Beatles' albums, such as "Don't Bother Me", "You Like Me Too Much", "Think For Yourself », «If I Needed Someone», «Love You To», «I Want to Tell You», «Blue Jay Way», «Piggies», «Long Long Long», «Savoy Truffle», «Only a Northern Song», "For You Blue", "I Need You", "Taxman", "I Me Mine", "Within You Without You", "Old Brown Shoe", "It's All Too Much", "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", "Something" and "Here Comes the Sun".

Harrison's earliest musical influences included musicians such as Big Bill Broonzy, Chet Atkins, Chuck Berry, Ry Cooder and Buddy Holly. In 1965, he pioneered the introduction of Indian music to the West through instruments such as the sitar, which he played on songs such as "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)" and "Within You Without You". Harrison also had a special interest in Hindu culture and religion through the Hare Krishna movement and introduced his fellow Beatles to Eastern philosophy through Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, a determining factor in the group's musical evolution since the recording of The White Album (1968).

After The Beatles disbanded, Harrison released All Things Must Pass (1970), the first solo album by a Beatle to reach No. 1 on the Billboard 200 list. i>. This album featured the participation of several musicians, including Ringo Starr on drums and Eric Clapton on guitar. The production was in charge of George Harrison himself and Phil Spector, who worked with the Beatles on the album Let It Be. He also organised, with Ravi Shankar, The Concert for Bangladesh (1971), the first benefit concert in rock music history and a forerunner of charity events such as Live Aid. Throughout his career he obtained several musical successes with singles such as "My Sweet Lord", "What is Life", "Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth)" and "Got My Mind Set on You", he participated as a guitarist on recordings by a long list of musicians and groups including Badfinger, Ronnie Wood, Billy Preston and Eric Clapton, and co-founded the supergroup Traveling Wilburys with Bob Dylan, Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison and Tom Petty. His musical career has been recognized with several awards: he was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006, and Rolling Stone magazine ranked him 11th on the list of one hundred greatest guitarists of all time.

In parallel to his work as a musician, Harrison also worked as a music and film producer. In 1974 he founded Dark Horse Records, an independent label under which he released his records from Thirty Three & amp; 1/3 (1976) to Brainwashed (2001), and he created HandMade Films, a production company that financed feature films such as Life of Brian and Time Bandits.

Harrison was married twice: to Pattie Boyd, whom he divorced in 1977, and to Olivia Trinidad Arias, with whom he had his first and only child, Dhani. In November 2001, Harrison passed away at the age of 58 after suffering from lung cancer, and his ashes were scattered in a private ceremony in the Ganges and Yamuna rivers.

Biography

1943-1960: the early years

George Harrison was born on February 25, 1943 at 12 Arnold Grove, Liverpool, England, into a Catholic family and of Irish descent from his mother, Louise. He was the only Beatle whose childhood it was not marred by the death or divorce of his parents. His father, Harold Harrison, had been a sailor until he left his position and became a bus driver.

He attended Dovedale Road Nursery School, near Penny Lane, at the same time as John Lennon, although due to their age difference they did not meet. At the age of eleven, after passing a test, he was granted a place at the Liverpool Institute for Boys, a building today converted into the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, where he met Paul McCartney. At the age of twelve, shortly before starting the course, he was admitted to the hospital due to nephritis. During his convalescence he bought his first guitar, an Egmond, from a fellow Dovedale resident, Raymond Hughes, for £3 10s.

Shortly thereafter, while picking up his first "decent guitar," a Hofner President, he formed his first post-skiffle band: The Rebels, along with his brother Peter and Arthur Kelly. Artists who influence his playing include Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley, Little Richard, Buddy Holly, Fats Domino, Bill Halley, Eddie Cochran, Lonnie Donegan, and Chet Atkins.

After dropping out of school in 1959, he briefly alternated his love of music with an apprentice job as an electrician. His training helped make Harrison the most effective member of the group at experimenting with new sounds and arranging equipment. In the mid-'60s, he was the first to equip his Esher home with a personal studio where he could compose and work more effectively.

The Quarrymen

George first saw the band during a concert on February 6, 1958 at Wilson Hall. Harrison later offered to audition for The Quarrymen in order to join them in March of that year. Lennon thought that Harrison was too young to join the band, so McCartney arranged another gathering where his friend performed songs for them again. At McCartney's insistence, Lennon agreed to let the fifteen-year-old Harrison of age, was the guitarist of The Quarrymen. After a misunderstanding that caused discord between the members of the band, Griffithes left it. Later, McCartney showed his first song, 'I've Lost My Little Girl" to Lennon, who was "extremely impressed", in Shotton's words. Later, Duff Lowe, another friend of McCartney's, joined the band as pianist in the summer of 1958. In the early days of The Quarrymen, McCartney encouraged Harrison to join. At the beginning, and due to his young age, he was viewed with disdain by the other members of the group. At first, Harrison could not be considered a virtuoso guitarist, although the fact that he knew enough chords to play several songs made him John Lennon will accept him in the group. Despite this, by the mid-60s, practice made Harrison a more fluid and creative guitarist, performing the duties of lead and rhythm guitarist. Later, in the 70s, the sound he achieved with the steel guitar would become his personal trademark.

1960-1970: The Beatles

Following the consolidation of the Quarrymen to The Beatles after several members left the band and with the arrival of Stuart Sutcliffe on bass and Pete Best on drums, Harrison with the other members would venture to a series of concerts in Hamburg, Germany. During his stay Harrison perfected his style, but at the age of 17 he had entered the country illegally and when the Beatles began playing at the Top-Ten club, they thus broke their contract with the Kaiserkeller club and Harrison consequently is betrayed and deported to his country, but returns to Hamburg a year later after turning 18.

Harrison was the first of the Beatles to travel to the United States to visit his sister, Louise, in Benton, Illinois, in September 1963, five months before the group's appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. During the visit, George visited a record store and bought several singles without being recognized by the owner due to the limited knowledge Americans had of British pop music; no one could sell him a Beatles record. Upon his return to England, he commented to his bandmates that it would be difficult to achieve success in the United States.

McCartney, Harrison, Swedish singer Lill-Babs and Lennon on Swedish television program Drop-inOctober 30, 1963.

During Beatlemania, Harrison was characterized as the "quiet Beatle" or the & # 34; Silent Beatle & # 34;, due to his introspective nature and his tendency to take a back seat at press conferences. Despite the image of a "quiet Beatle", most of his colleagues and friends, such as Eric Idle, a member of Monty Python, assure that in short distances he was very talkative and talkative, contrary to the image he used to have the press of him.

During The Beatles' first trip to the United States in February 1964, Harrison received a new model guitar, the "360/12", from the Rickenbacker company, an electric twelve-string, that he would start playing on future albums by the group. Roger McGuinn, interested in sound, adopted the 360/12 as his own model, giving rise to the characteristic sound of The Byrds songs.

Harrison wrote his first song, "Don't Bother Me," during a convalescent day in bed in 1963, in order to prove, as he later declared, "if he was able to compose a song". It appears published on the album With the Beatles in 1963 and in its American version, Meet the Beatles!, in 1964. Although for the group's next album, Beatles For Sale , had also composed a song, this was discarded, forgetting the composition until he contributed to the album Help! with the songs "I Need You" and "You Like Me Too Much".

Paul McCartney and George Harrison in 1964.

Harrison was the singer of all the songs composed by him in his time with The Beatles. Likewise, he also sang songs by other artists, including & # 34; Chains & # 34; and "Do You Want to Know a Secret" in Please Please Me, "Roll Over Beethoven" and "Devil In Her Heart" on With the Beatles, "I'm Happy Just to Dance With You" on A Hard Day's Night, and "Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby" in Beatles For Sale.

A major turning point in his musical career occurred during the 1965 American tour, in which David Crosby of The Byrds introduced Harrison to Indian culture through the music of Ravi Shankar. Very soon he became fascinated with the special sound of his music, allowing its slow introduction into Western culture. After buying a sitar shortly after the end of the 1965 tour, he was, before Dave Davies, guitarist for The Kinks, one of the first pop culture musicians to introduce the instrument on a studio album, on the song &# 34;Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)", from the album Rubber Soul.

Another important moment in his life occurred during the filming of the movie Help! in the Bahamas, when a Hindu handed him a book on reincarnation. Also at that time he maintained a decisive correspondence with Joan Mascaró after reading the version of the Upanishads by that Mallorcan translator. The use of psychedelics encouraged him on his journey towards meditation and Hinduism. His interest in Hindu culture would expand formally by embracing Hinduism. On a pilgrimage with his wife Pattie to India between The Beatles' last tour in 1966 and the beginning of the recordings of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Harrison took sitar lessons, met various gurus and visited sacred sites, thus becoming closer to Eastern culture. Shortly after, back in England, he met Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, whom he introduced to the rest of the group to initiate some transcendental meditation exercises that would take place in early 1968 in Rishikesh.

In the summer of 1969, he produced the single 'Hare Krishna Mantra,' performed by devotees of the London Radha-Krishna temple. That same year, he and John Lennon met A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, founder of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) [1]. Soon after, Harrison would embrace the Hare Krishna tradition, particularly the chanting of the mantra used as a private meditation and called the japa-mala, similar to the rosary in the Catholic tradition.

As time passed, Harrison's compositions became more notable, falling from the background to rivaling the compositions of Lennon and McCartney in terms of quality. Between 1963 and 1970, the songs composed by George Harrison were: Don't Bother Me, I need you, You like me Too Much, "If I Needed Someone", "I Want to Tell You", "Think For Yourself", "Taxman" (which opened the album Revolver), "Within You Without You", "Blue Jay Way", "Only a Northern Song", "It´s All Too Much", "Love You To", "Old Brown Shoe", "I Need You", "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" 3. 4; (with Eric Clapton on guitar), "Piggies", "Long, Long, Long", "Savoy Truffle", "Something", "The Inner Light", "Here Comes the Sun", "I Me Mine" and "For You Blue".

The friction between Harrison, Lennon and McCartney began to become apparent after the death of Brian Epstein, the group's manager, and especially since the recording sessions of The Beatles, even trying to leave the group at that time. Between 1967 and 1969, McCartney expressed his dissatisfaction with Harrison's playing on more than one occasion. The tensions between the two are evident during the rehearsals of the Get Back project at Twickenham Studios, which will end up being released as a documentary under the title Let It Be, where Harrison ends up saying with sarcasm: 'Fine, I don't care. I'll play whatever you want me to play or I'll play nothing if you don't want me to play anything. Anything to please you, I will do it". Unhappy with the poor conditions in which the sessions took place and lethargic for the working hours, Harrison ended up leaving the group on January 10, although he will return to work on the 22nd of the same month, after two business meetings.

Internal relations within the group became more cordial during the recording sessions for Abbey Road, which included Harrison's compositions "Something" and "Here Comes The Sun". "Something" It has been recognized as one of The Beatles' best works by both Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra, who told McCartney that it was one of his favorite songs. Harrison's growing productivity at the end of The Beatles' life would allow him to collect enough material to develop a fairly successful and long solo musical career, which would begin from the last session with the rest of the group on January 4, 1970., with almost 27 years.

After The Beatles (1970-2001)

1970-1980

George during the visit to the white house in 1974

After The Beatles disbanded in 1970, and after years overshadowed by the shadows of Lennon and McCartney, he released much of the material he had amassed over the past few years in his most critically lauded project, All Things Must Pass, their first (triple) album.

All Things Must Pass was a triumphant entrance for Harrison's solo musical career, thus silencing the dissenting voices that predicted a bad career for him. Together with John Lennon's album John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, Paul McCartney's Ram and Ringo Starr's Ringo , All Things Must Pass is considered one of the most worked albums by a Beatle in his solo career.

The album, which reached #1 on both the UK and US charts, included the hit singles "My Sweet Lord" and "Isn't It A Pity," as well as "What Is Life," which entered the top ten. Years later, Harrison would be sued due to a copyright violation in "My Sweet Lord", where he allegedly imitates The Chiffons' single "He's So Fine". 3. 4;. Although Harrison denied the accusation, he ended up losing the trial in 1976. During it, the court had accepted the possibility that Harrison had "subconsciously copied"; the success of The Chiffons as the basis for his own song, which he used to taunt the court on his & # 34; This Song & # 34;, published on the album Thirty Three & amp; 1/3. Copyright disputes continued into the 1990s, with former Beatles manager Allen Klein suing Harrison after he bought Bright Tunes, the company that held the copyright to 'He's So Fine". Ultimately, Harrison would end up owning the rights to both tracks.

An important thing to note about Harrison was his closeness to the "Hare Krishna" and its founder "Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada", a relationship that is evident both in aspects of his personal life and in his music, as shown by the production of "The Radha Krsna Temple (album)&# 3. 4; and his 1973 released studio album 'Living in the Material World'.

Harrison was also the first musician to organize a benefit concert. His Concert for Bangla Desh on August 1, 1971 brought together nearly 40,000 people for two shows organized at Madison Square Garden in New York to raise funds to alleviate hunger and poverty. misery of refugees in former East Pakistan, now Bangladesh. Ravi Shankar opened the concert, which included the likes of Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan, Jim Keltner, Billy Preston, Leon Russell, Ringo Starr and Klaus Voormann. Unfortunately, tax problems and questionable spending clouded the legend of it. In October 2005, Apple Corps. reissued the concert on CD and DVD, with the money raised from sales going to UNICEF.

In addition to his own work, Harrison wrote two songs for Ringo Starr, "It Don't Come Easy" and "Photograph", and was also featured on John Lennon's album Imagine, as well as on the tracks "You're Breakin' My Heart" by Harry Nilsson, "Day After Day" by Badfinger, "That's The Way God Planned It" by Billy Preston and "Basketball Jones" by Cheech & chong.

Harrison's next album, Living in the Material World, would be released in 1973. Its first single, "Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth)" would give him his second #1 in the United States, while "Sue Me Sue You Blues" it would serve as a mockery of the judicial process that McCartney was developing to officially dissolve The Beatles. With a more intimate sound and more spiritual and philosophical lyrics, the album stayed at the top of the US charts for five weeks. In September 2006, a reissue of the album with "Deep Blue" and "Miss O'Dell" as bonus tracks, as well as with DVD, it would peak at #38 on the Billboard Pop Catalog Chart.

In 1974, he published Dark Horse, while beginning a tour of the United States. The tour was heavily criticized for the length of the headline act, performed by Ravi Shankar, and for Harrison's hoarse voice due to laryngitis. Even so, the album reached #5 on the US charts, although unfavorable reviews and little interest caused Dark Horse to miss the UK charts. The single "Dark Horse" it would reach #15 on the Billboard charts.

In preparation for the US tour, he opened offices on La Brea Avenue in Los Angeles for his future record label, Dark Horse Records. In opening this new division, he worked in conjunction with A & M Records where his future wife, Olivia Trinidad Arias, worked. They first established a relationship over the phone, having many things in common, including a passion for meditation and Indian culture. Soon after, Olivia moved to work at the label alongside Apple's Terry Doran and Jack Oliver. Being in an official relationship beginning in 1974, he was her accompanist on the Dark Horse Tour.Harrison had been going through a life of addiction for some years before, and claims to have been saved from this life by her. Making the decision to put his life in order.

His last studio album on the Apple label, Extra Texture (Read All About It), was released in 1975, from which two singles were extracted: "You", which reached the Top 20 of the Billboard charts, and 'This Guitar (Can't Keep From Crying)', which was the last single released by Apple and the first single by a Beatle not to be released. entered the US charts.

After the departure of John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr from the EMI label (Paul McCartney would remain on it until he signed with Hear Music in 2007), the record company was free to edit the work of the group and its members on solo on the same album, using Harrison as an experiment in The Best of George Harrison, which combined his hits composed by The Beatles and solo. At the same time, Harrison found himself embroiled in trouble with the recording industry. During the recording of his first album on Dark Horse Records, Thirty Three & amp; 1/3, Harrison was afflicted with hepatitis, delaying its publication and violating a clause of the contract previously signed with the distributor A&M. After being reported, Warner Bros. Records took over label distribution from him, allowing him plenty of time to recover from illness and record the album.

Thirty Three & 1/3 was a considerable success after their two previous albums, reaching #11 on the US charts. The first single, "This Song", is a satire of the judicial process for "unconscious plagiarism" from "He's So Fine" by The Chiffons, while "Crackerbox Palace" it would later be published as the second single.

After his marriage to Olivia Trinidad Arias and the birth of his first and only child Dhani Harrison, Harrison would start recording his eponymous album, George Harrison, released in 1979 with the singles "Blow Away", "Love Comes To Everyone" and "Faster". Both the album and the first single reached the Top 20 on the Billboard charts.

1980-1990

George Harrison at The Prince's Trust in 1987 playing "Here Comes The Sun", Wembley Arena.

In 1980, Harrison became the first Beatle to write an autobiography, entitled I Me Mine. The Beatles' publicist Derek Taylor helped him with the arduous task of writing the book, initially published by Genesis Publications. While Harrison's biography tells a few anecdotes from his time with the Beatles, it mostly focuses on the artist's hobbies, from gardening to Formula 1.

Following the assassination of John Lennon on December 8, 1980, Harrison suffered a severe shock, due in part to his little contact with Lennon and his anger at not being mentioned in his autobiography. Lennon's death forced Harrison to surround himself with security measures at his Friar Park mansion in Henley-on-Thames. Shortly after, he modified the lyrics of & # 34; All Those Years Ago & # 34;, a song that he had originally composed for Ringo and which later served as a tribute to Lennon on his album Somewhere in England . With Ringo Starr on drums and Paul and Linda McCartney on backing vocals, both the album and the single, released in 1981, received good reviews from music critics, reaching #2 on the US charts.

After the publication in 1982 of Gone Troppo, George Harrison found himself removed from the world of music for a total of five years to give priority to other hobbies. During this time, he would appear publicly on the special Carl Perkins and Friends , with Ringo Starr and Eric Clapton among the guests, and would record a song for the "Porky" soundtrack. s Revenge & # 34; and the song "I Don't Want To Do It" by Bob Dylan. In 1987, he would return with Cloud Nine, one of his most critically acclaimed albums, produced by Jeff Lynne, reaching his third number 1 in the United States with the single "Got My Mind Set. On You". & # 34; When We Was Fab & # 34;, a retrospective theme of his stage with The Beatles, was also a notable success. The album peaked at #8 on the US charts and #10 on the UK charts, giving Harrison his best score since Living in the Material World.

While recording the song "Handle With Care" would gather Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne and Roy Orbison in Bob Dylan's garage. What at first would be the B-side of the single "This Is Love" it would end up becoming the first song recorded by The Traveling Wilburys, as the record company considered the song too good to be relegated to the background. The group's first album, recorded just two weeks before Bob Dylan's tour began, was released in October 1988 under the name Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1 and under the names of the musicians hidden behind pseudonyms.

One of the companies developed by Harrison during the time was the film production company Handmade Films, shortly after EMI Films rejected the Monty Python project Life of Brian. Handmade Films financed the project, starting a slate of films produced by Harrison's company including Mona Lisa, Time Bandits, Shanghai Surprise and Withnail and I. In some of them, Harrison even came to make cameos, as in the case of "Shanghai Surprise" as a nightclub singer, and portrayed as Mr. Papadopolous in Life of Brian. One of his most memorable cameos was as a reporter in The Beatles parody The Rutles, created by Eric Idle. Despite everything, Handmade Films would go bankrupt due to mismanagement and lawsuits that plagued Harrison's finances.

In early 1989, George Harrison, Lynne and Starr participated in the recording of Tom Petty's 'I Won't Back Down', where George plays electric guitar. That same year the second compilation of Harrison's musical career was published, Best of Dark Horse 1976-1989 , with the hits from his stage under the Dark Horse Records label. the album includes two songs recorded for the occasion, "Poor Little Girl" and "Cockamamie Business", as well as the soundtrack theme Lethal Weapon 2 "Cheer Down".

1990-2001

The first year of the new decade saw the release of the Traveling Wilburys' second album, Traveling Wilburys Vol. 3, despite the death of Roy Orbison in 1988. As a substitute, the group had thought of Del Shannon, but in February 1990 the musician would commit suicide, truncating the plans of the other components.

In 1991, Harrison undertook his first tour of Japan since 1974 with Eric Clapton called the George Harrison–Eric Clapton 1991 Japan Tour, although he still had bitter memories of that moment in mind. After a dozen concerts, in 1992 the album Live in Japan would be released, credited to George Harrison, Eric Clapton & Band. In October of the same year, Harrison would participate in the Bob Dylan tribute concert at Madison Square Garden in New York performing three songs: "If Not for You", "Absolutely Sweet Marie" and "My Back Pages".

Between 1994 and 1996, together with Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, he undertook the Anthology project, including the recording of two new Beatles songs based on home demos from the late 70s where John Lennon he played the piano and sang. Likewise, the project included a visual journey through the group's musical career, with interviews with the three surviving members. In 1996, he would record and produce the song & # 34; Distance Makes No Difference With Love & # 34; with Carl Perkins; for his album Go-Cat-Go.

Harrison's last television appearance was in 1997 promoting Chants of India, a collaboration with his friend and Indian musician Ravi Shankar. On the show, Harrison performed, after being asked by an audience member for a "Beatles song" and he would reply "'I dont think I know any", "All Things Must Pass" and the future "Any Road", a song that would appear in 2002 on his posthumous album Brainwashed.

In January 1998, Harrison would attend the funeral of his youthful idol, Carl Perkins, in Jackson, Tennessee, where he performed a cover of the song "Your True Love" during the ceremony.

In the mid-1990s, and due in part to his smoking status, Harrison fought a battle against cancer, being removed in successive operations first of the mouth and later of the lung.

On December 30, 1999, Harrison lived through the aftermath of the assassination of John Lennon by surviving a knife attack on his own Henley-on-Thames mansion by an intruder. Harrison and his wife, Olivia, confronted the intruder and subdued him to later be transferred to police stations by authority. Michael Abram, 35, testified that he was possessed by Harrison's spirit and that it was a God-given mission to kill him. He later he was transferred to a mental institution. After the event, Harrison was relatively traumatized and further limited his public appearances. In 2002 Abram was granted probation authorized by the Mental Health Review Tribunal.

In 2001, Harrison appeared as a guest on the Electric Light Orchestra's album Zoom, played steel guitar on the songs "Love Letters" for Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings, he remastered and restored songs from the Traveling Wilburys and composed a new song, "Horse To The Water." The song, which would be his last release during his lifetime, was recorded on October 2, two months before his death, and appeared on Jools' album Small World, Big Band. Holland.

Death

Harrison's lung cancer recurred in 2001, with two metastases to the brain. Harrison underwent aggressive treatments in Switzerland and New York, but on November 22 doctors confirmed his terminality. They then decided to apply only palliative treatments, which would allow him to spend the last days with family, friends and give the last indications of some projects to be finished by his son Dhani and his wife Olivia. He arranged a last, absolutely private meeting with Paul and Ringo, whom he was able to say goodbye to in peace, as well as his sister Louise, with whom he had clashed in the past.

Harrison was concerned with making these final days easier for his family and preventing their home from becoming a place of worship for mythomaniacs. For this reason, he hired the adviser Gavin de Becker, who recommended that he spend his last days in Los Angeles. Olivia remembered that Paul McCartney owned a villa in the Hollywood Hills, Los Angeles, and he immediately offered it to her. It was there that he finally passed away, on November 29, 2001, at the age of 58. His death was attributed to lung cancer that he suffered from and its metastasis. Later he was cremated, and although some media claimed that his ashes had been deposited in the Ganges river, there has been no family statement to certify it.

After Harrison's death, his family issued the following statement: "He left this world as he lived: God-conscious, unafraid of death, and at peace, surrounded by family and friends." Harrison sometimes said, 'Everything else can wait, but the search for God can't; love one another".

Harrison and Aaliyah made history on the British charts by becoming, to date, two consecutive number ones after the artist's death, with the song "More than a Woman" by Aaliyah reaching number one on January 13, 2002 and the reissue of "My Sweet Lord" rising to the top of the charts on January 20, 2002.

George Harrison's posthumous album, Brainwashed, was completed by his son Dhani Harrison and Jeff Lynne and released on November 18, 2002, to positive reviews and peaking at #18 on the charts. of Billboard albums. The promo "Stuck Inside a Cloud", was broadcast frequently on American radio stations, while the first single, "Any Road", released in May 2003, peaked at #37 on the British charts.

In September 2021, the publishing house Libros del Kultrum republished in Spanish his biography 'I Me, Mine', a 1980 work of which only 2,000 copies were published. In it, Harrison tells some anecdote from his musical stage in The Beatles but above all he focuses on his hobbies and his stormy life as an artist. The musician describes his anguish, admits feeling "stuffed" and "ignored" by Lennon and McCartney and confesses that "The Beatles were doomed." “Your own space, friend. It is a very important thing. That's why we were doomed, because we didn't have it. It's what happens with monkeys at the zoo. They die. You know, everyone needs to be left alone, ”he writes in said account.

Personal life

Harrison married model Pattie Boyd, whom he met on the set of the movie A Hard Day's Night, on January 21, 1966 at the Esher Civil Registry, with Paul McCartney as a witness. George would have dedicated the song Something to him, although much later he said he had composed it thinking of the music of Ray Charles, and that it was definitely a love song that could have been dedicated to anyone.

Dhani Harrison, George Harrison's only son.

In the late 1960s, Eric Clapton fell in love with Pattie, making his love clear in the song Layla. Shortly thereafter, Pattie Boyd left Harrison to marry Eric Clapton; however, both continued to maintain a strong friendship; in fact, at Eric's wedding to Pattie in 1979 George played with Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr.

On September 2, 1978, Harrison married Olivia Trinidad Arias. A short time later, his first and only child would be born, Dhani Harrison, who bears such a resemblance to his father that he served Paul McCartney as an anecdote at the Concert for George, telling the public: "Olivia He told me that in this scenario it looks like George stayed young while all of us got older', referring to Dhani.

The influence that Olivia had on his life was "calming", he says he was saved from a life of addiction thanks to her. Starting in 1974 she became the recipient of numerous dedicated songs to her, such as "Beautiful Girl", "Dark Sweet Lady", and "Your Love is Forever", as well as an optimistic influence on her records.; in honor of her, he gets the nickname of her & # 34; Jorge Arias & # 34; in reference to her maiden name & # 34; Arias & # 34;. She also regularly helped him in his songwriting process, she also influenced her interest in Mexican culture, introducing him to classic Mexican cinema. Harrison then became a fan of Jorge Negrete and Mexican music, adding this music to his Rockola.

Harrison was a great fan of the Monty Python group, to such an extent that his production company Handmade Films was founded expressly to finance the Python film Life of Brian in which Monty Python himself Harrison appears fleetingly in one of the scenes at the end of the film with John Cleese.

During filming, he developed a strong friendship with Eric Idle, a member of the comedy troupe, who would later make the comedy All You Need Is Cash, in which Harrison appears as a reporter named Erik Manchester in a scene in which the economic excesses that occurred in Apple, the company he founded with his three companions from The Beatles, were parodied. Idle appeared as a guest at the Concert for George, performing the songs The Lumberjack Song and Sit On My Face alongside the rest of the comedy troupe and actor Tom Hanks.

Harrison also declared himself a supporter of the humorous rock group Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, who appeared in The Beatles' film Magical Mystery Tour.

One of Harrison's main hobbies was Formula 1. Even before he was a musician, he collected photos of drivers and their cars. On more than one occasion he had access to the paddocks of the British Grand Prix at the Silverstone Circuit, as well as other circuits. The song "Faster", released on the album George Harrison, is dedicated to Jackie Stewart and Niki Lauda. Also, in The Beatles Anthology you can see a poster of the Brazilian Formula 1 driver Ayrton Senna behind McCartney, Starr and Harrison while they discuss some episodes of their lives.

Awards and recognitions

Harrison's first recognition took place on June 12, 1965, when Harrison and the rest of The Beatles were recognized as Members of the Order of the British Empire, receiving a badge from Queen Elizabeth II at her investiture in Buckingham Palace on October 26.

In 1970, The Beatles won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for the film Let It Be. Each Beatle received an Oscar.

Asteroid (4149) Harrison, discovered on March 9, 1984 by B. A. Skiff at Lowell Observatory's Anderson Mesa Station, is named in his honor.

George's Guitar at Hard Rock Café, San Francisco, California.

A few days after his death, The Simpsons episode "A Hunka Hunka Burns in Love" it was dedicated in memory of him.Previously, Harrison had appeared as a guest in the episode "Homer's Barbershop Quartet".

On November 29, 2002, commemorating the one year anniversary of his death, McCartney, Starr, Eric Clapton, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Jeff Lynne, Billy Preston, Joe Brown, Jools Holland, Sam Brown, Olivia Harrison and Dhani Harrison participated with other musicians in the Concert for George, held at the Royal Albert Hall in London.

In it, McCartney played "Something" accompanied by a ukulele, telling as an anecdote that when he used to visit Harrison at his house after dinner, George used to take out a ukulele and play some song. Likewise, McCartney, Clapton and Starr met for the first time on the song "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" since it was recorded in 1968. Proceeds from the concert were donated to The Material World Charitable Foundation, which Harrison founded in 1973.

In 2011 Rolling Stone magazine published a list voted by a panel of renowned guitarists and other experts, George Harrison was ranked number 11 on the List of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.

George Harrison Star at Hollywood Fame Walk.

Harrison was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist on March 15, 2004 by fellow Traveling Wilburys members Jeff Lynne and Tom Petty, and into the Madison Square Garden Hall of Fame on August 1, 2006 commemorating the 35th anniversary of The Concert for Bangladesh.

The musical legacy and life of George Harrison was the theme song for Time magazine in its December 10, 2001 issue, marking the first cover dedicated to a particular person or subject since the 9/11 attacks.

On April 14, 2009, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce honored Harrison posthumously with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, located in front of the Capitol Records building. The event was attended by his widow Olivia, their son Dhani, his former bandmate Paul McCartney, Jeff Lynne, Tom Hanks, among others. Following the ceremony, EMI Records announced the release of Let It Roll: Songs by George Harrison, a compilation album of Harrison's musical career.

In October 2011 George Harrison: Living in the Material World, a documentary about Harrison's life directed by Martin Scorsese, was released. And then in 2012 the album Early Takes was released. Volume 1 which includes demos and unpublished material from the artist.

In 2016 George Fest (A Night to Celebrate the Music of George Harrison) was released, an album of live covers recorded in 2014 during the tribute concert organized at the Fonda Theater in Los Angeles. The album included the participation of artists such as Brian Wilson, Al Jardine, Conan O'Brien or Dhani Harrison, son of the musician.

Guitars

• Egmond: Classic Guitar
• Hofner President Acustic
• Hofner Club 40 model 244
• Resonet Futurama
• Gretsch 6128 Duo Jet
• Gibson J-160E
• Classical Ramirez
• Gretsch 6122 Country Gentleman
• Gretsch 6119-62 Tennesse Rose
• Rickenbacker 425 Jet-gloo
• Rickenbacker 360/12 Fire-glo
• Rickenbacker 360/12 Fire-glo "new style"
• Fender Stratocaster 'Rocky'
• Epiphone Casino
• Gibson SG Standard
• Gibson Jumbo J-200
• Fender Rosewood Telecaster
• Gibson Les Paul Gold Top colored Cherry (Lucy)
• Gibson ES-335

Solo

• Zemaitis Custom acoustic 6 and 12 strings
• Hambur-Guitar
• Ukeleles

Tours

• George Harrison and Ravi Shankar 1974 North American Tour
• George Harrison-Eric Clapton 1991 Japan Tour

Discography

Studio Albums

Album	Year	List position		Certification
Wonderwall Music	1968	49	-
Electronic Sound	1969	191	-
All Things Must Pass	1970	1	1	Platinum (x6)
Living in the Material World	1973	1	2	Gold
Dark Horse	1974	4	-	Gold
Extra Texture (Read All About It)	1975	8	16	Gold
Thirty Three & 1/3	1976	11	35	Gold
George Harrison	1979	14	39	Gold
Somewhere in England	1981	11	13
Gone Troppo	1982	108	-
Cloud Nine	1987	8	10	Platinum
Brainwashed	2002	18	29	Gold

Awards

Grammy Awards