Paul McCartney may have been the one who first started messing around with analog adventurism during the Revolver era, but with his second solo project it was Harrison who dove deep into the chasm of these studio explorations when he acquired his first Moog synthesizer. May God continue to keep George Harrison in His warm embrace. In honor of this somber anniversary, I wrote about five George Harrison solo albums I feel deserve more love than they get. Words like “bitchy” and “petulant” have been bandied about on Facebook posts, and I’m reading it like, “Really, dudes?” Wouldn’t you be a little annoyed if you were writing songs as good as “All Things Must Pass” and they were getting snubbed for “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer.” I mean, come on kids. Not to mention the lingering impact of 9/11 still very thick in the New York skyline.Īmidst all of this hoopla on my socials about the new Peter Jackson documentary series, the most annoying remarks regarding Get Back is in reference to George and his attitude during these sessions. It was like I wasn’t just mourning the loss of our beloved George, but also this repressed sorrow I had bottled up about dealing with the deaths of my mom and grandpa as well. So when that horrible post-Thanksgiving news hit the Internet that George Harrison had lost his battle with cancer, which spread from his lungs to his brain like my grandmother, it was a mighty blow to my soul. VIDEO: Traveling Wilburys “Wilbury Twist” High school, meanwhile, was as defined by the Traveling Wilburys as it was Sonic Youth and Public Enemy. I have my grandpa, who passed away 25 years ago this past November, to thank for kicking me down the corn that 8th grade Saturday night at the Hudson Valley Mall in Kingston after a ravioli dinner in the Papa Gino’s across from the tape shop. To this day, that scent is still etched in my memory when I hear Cloud Nine.
GEORGE HARRISON GREATEST HITS CRACKED
When I began collecting cassettes myself in middle school, I got Cloud Nine the weekend after it was released in late 1987–I can still remember that weird smell from the original clear cassettes hitting me when I cracked open the cellophane and opened up the tape for the first time. And while she never owned a copy of All Things Must Pass to my memory, she had a couple of George’s solo works in the mix. My first proper music collection, I suppose, was my mom’s collection of 8-Track tapes, which mostly included Beatles and Wings albums. And, while I never confirmed it with her, I am pretty certain she made her way down the street from where we lived to Nassau Coliseum when Harrison toured in 1974. But she also went to the Concert for Bangladesh, as well. I also remember her going to at least two Wings concerts, as she bought tour posters that she would hang up in my room in lieu of little kid stuff. Just as she was there at JFK when the Fabs landed and at Shea Stadium when they returned in ’65. Now my mom was most definitely a Paul Girl, but George was a close second. Their music is also a direct pipeline to the memories I have of my mom, who had died two years prior to George in June of 1999. I feel their songs like blood coursing through my arteries, if that makes any sense. As the son of the biggest Beatlemaniac in Nassau County, their music has been hardwired into my DNA in a way that cannot really be explained with words. The Beatles have been a part of my life since birth. The first time I ever openly wept over the passing of a musician was the day George Harrison died on November 29, 2001. George Harrison and Ravi Shankar / Photo by Clive Arrowsmith, courtesy of the Harrison family