Îòïðàâëåíî: 31.10.11 19:30. Çàãîëîâîê: Eunarchy in the UK: ..
Eunarchy in the UK: George Harrison's first movie
Long before The Life of Brian, George Harrison funded an award-winning film stuffed with British talent – so why has it taken 40 years to surface?
In 1979 George Harrison purchased, almost on a whim, what Terry Jones would later call "the most expensive movie ticket of all time". After a single reading of the script of Monty Python's Life of Brian, he mortgaged his own luxury mansion and sank the resultant funds into a project that had been abandoned, days before shooting started, by its original backer, Bernie Delfont of EMI. Why did he do it? "Because I liked the script and I wanted to see the movie," said Harrison later. A Beatle can do that.
From that almost informal exchange of favours between good friends sprang arguably the most interesting British production company of the 1980s, Handmade Films, backed by Harrison and his producing partner Denis O'Brien. Handmade gave us Brian and Withnail & I, The Long Good Friday and Mona Lisa, and the early work of Terry Gilliam. That legend is well known; less well known is that Brian was not Harrison's first foray into film production; that distinction belongs to Stuart Cooper's superb adaptation of David Halliwell's play Little Malcolm and His Struggle Against the Eunuchs, retitled Little Malcolm. It was made in 1973, won the Silver Bear at Berlin in 1974, and then was lost to public view for nearly four decades as one of the many contested assets of what Cooper today calls "the Beatles' divorce".
"George never said this to me," says Cooper, "but I definitely got the feeling that Little Malcolm may have been the first and last time George ever went to a play. But he was a big, big fan of it and also a big fan of [its star] Johnny Hurt, so he was in our corner already. Also, at the time, the other Beatles all had a film gig, John had done Imagine, Paul, I guess, directed Magical Mystery Tour, and Ringo was in Candy and The Magic Christian. So the only one without a film gig was George. He financed Malcolm through a company called Suba Films, which existed solely to receive profits from the animated Yellow Submarine. It was financed entirely by Yellow Submarine! It wasn't a big budget, somewhere around a million, million and a half pounds – not expensive. He financed it top to bottom. He stepped up, wrote the cheque, and we made the movie."
Cooper, then 31, hailed from wealthy Newport Beach, California, and had won a scholarship to Rada, one of six Americans chosen. Although Cooper always planned to become a director, among his classmates was Anthony Hopkins, and just graduating were Hurt and David Warner, soon to become friends, both of whom would later appear in Little Malcolm. Mike Leigh, who in 1965 would direct the first stage version of Little Malcolm (running five hours and starring the apparently cuts-averse Halliwell), was a little younger. The Leigh production flopped, but a two-hour version ran in the West End later that year starring Hurt. Harrison saw this one and loved it.
It's easy to see why. Malcolm is an impotent, powerless nobody sustained by hopeless compensation-fantasies, a recently expelled art student who sees himself as at war with what he calls "the Eunarchy" of social conformists and the sexually timid. All his art is self-portraiture while his pseudo-radical groupuscule, the toothsomely named Party of Dynamic Erection, is camouflage for the knock-kneed terror that its members – Wick, Irwin and Nipple (Warner) – all feel in the presence of women. Hurt's magnificently verbose, quasi-fascist ranting and his fondness for loyalty tests, public shaming and show trials ("Do you plead guilty or very guilty?") soar aloft on language that's part-Beckett, part "free love" advocate Wilhelm Reich, with more than a hint of the Beatles' beloved Goons. In some moments there are clear pre-echoes of David Thewlis in Naked and the mad squabbling of Withnail & I. This is a 40-year-old movie that hasn't dated an hour.
After filming in Oldham in gas board buildings emptied out by a strike, using Kubrick's great cinematographer John Alcott, Cooper says it seemed only moments after the final cut was printed that the movie was impounded. "In the end, we got hung up by the Beatles' breakup, when all of the Apple and Beatles assets went into the official receiver's hands. So Little Malcolm just basically sat there for a couple of years. Whatever heat and buzz we generated was all lost. It didn't diminish the movie but it stopped the momentum. George had to fight to get it back.
"Berlin was the first airing we managed, but it won best direction and the response was incredible. We got great reviews from Alexander Walker and Margaret Hinxman, but by then it really didn't have any legs. It was a film that got lost, and I had to put it on a shelf and say to myself, well, there might be a day for that one day – and here we are now, after so many years."
Little Malcolm won the Silver Bear at Berlin in 1974 (Cooper's next movie, the sombre and chastening Overlord, won another Silver Bear in 1975), and the post-ceremonial bacchanals were memorable indeed. "We partied with Fassbinder the night we won the Silver Bear in '74," laughs Cooper. "He loved Malcolm, and watching him - I think everyone has a pretty clear idea of how Fassbinder looked at that point; scruffy, sunglasses, leather, unkempt beard - watching him drinking with Johnny Hurt with his horrible scruffy beard, and still dressed like Malcolm, really - they could have been twins! Fassbinder could have played Malcolm!"
Biographer Hunter Davies remembers the Quiet Beatle - whose ambition was the real reason for the band’s breakup
George had been sitting for a long time cross-legged on the floor. He was putting new strings on his sitar while telling me about his spiritual life, about transcendental meditation, about reincarnation and stuff. I might well have been ever so slightly dozing off. This was 1968 and we were in his ranch-style bungalow in Esher, Surrey. George was in one of his more spiritual periods.
The telephone rang. George picked it up. I could hear muffled giggling noises. “Esher wine store,” barked George, affecting a cockney accent. And hung up. He laughed at his own trick. Then went back to telling me how much I was missing in my spiritual life.
This was the thing about George. He could be intensely, often achingly, serious one moment, then break out of it, laughing, well aware of himself. Remember that excellent song he did on the Sgt Pepper album – Within You Without You – which is full of Indian music and instruments. When it comes to an end you can hear the other Beatles burst out laughing. People at the time thought it rather nasty of them, mocking George’s earnestness. In fact it was George’s own idea.
“After that Indian stuff,” as he told me, “you want some light relief after five minutes of sad music. You don’t have to take it all that seriously, you know.” George was a late developer, which comes across clearly in Living in the Material World, Martin Scorsese’s two-part documentary on his life being screened by BBC2 this weekend. He was not just younger than John and Paul, he was far less mature, physically and sexually, and clearly had talent but lacked confidence.
A puzzling thing about George’s early years was that, despite having passed the 11-plus and gone to a top grammar school, the Liverpool Institute (which was where he met Paul, a year ahead), he left at 16 and became a humble apprentice electrician. A sign, perhaps, of lack of ambition or some sort of inferiority. Or perhaps in a way he was just asleep, waiting.
When George joined the Quarrymen, he seemed to trail in their wake for the first few years, in awe of the other two. John was an art student, Paul a sixth-former, men of the world, with ambitions and status, writing songs, having sex, while George just seemed like, well, Little George. When I was working on their biography, back in the 60s, I talked to many people – John and Paul themselves, other early members of the Quarrymen, Cynthia (John’s first wife) and Astrid, their Hamburg friend – and they all had the same visual memory.
They all remembered George walking down the street, one step behind John. Paul and John had each other to spark them, to combine and compete against, but George, when he slowly started writing songs, was on his own, and became self-conscious that his lyrics weren’t quite as good as their creations.
That’s what he felt – and for a long time it was probably true. On the other hand he was happy enough with his music, though he worked obsessively on it. Paul and John gained from each other, bashing and hammering into shape both their words and their music.
George became the Quiet Beatle, got overlooked in the noise and commotion. On stage, you could see his deadly concentration, not showing off or flirting with the audience as Paul and John did. He maintained he had to concentrate as he was carrying the music along.
Even when they were at their height, I don’t think many people realised just how much George was contributing. Yes, we knew about the Indian influence, but it is remarkable, when you look back, just how many George numbers were on the Beatles albums, right from their second one, With the Beatles, back in 1963, when he contributed Don’t Bother Me. Not a classic, but they got better, all the time. On Revolver I was surprised, when I started to count up, that three of the songs were his - Taxman, Love You To and I Want to Tell You.
One of the joys of the Scorsese film – along with unseen home-movie footage and the interviews with Ringo, Paul and George’s widow Olivia talking about his last years – is having George’s music all the way through, both his Beatles and post-Beatles music. You realise then just how much he wrote. Personally I could do without the old TV clips of David Frost and Malcolm Muggeridge chuntering on yet again, but the film does manage to capture George’s spiritual life, without grinding on too much.
George was the first, from my observation, to get pissed off by being a Beatle. He had by then developed – ahead of them. Long before the Apple rows or before Yoko came into John’s life, or Linda into Paul’s, elements usually listed in their break-up, George was desperate to move on and leave them all behind. He’d done all that, that phase in his life was over, and found wanting.
He was, in many ways, the late developer who developed most, right to the end of his life. The other three, at various stages, went on to mark time, but George was always seeking, studying, gardening, making, thinking, doing. It made it hard for me, at the time, to get him to concentrate and think back to the early days of the Beatles, when the subject bored him stiff. It was spiritual matters that he really wanted to talk about. When I finished the book, he was the only one who moaned about wanting more in – about his spiritual views. I talked him out of it, saying it would unbalance the book.
At the same time he was always a realist, and also still tempted by the weakness of the flesh, which Olivia – without spelling it out – indicates very clearly continued to go on. “He did like women and women did like him,” she says in the film. And his combination of seriousness and humour was always there. His passion for Monty Python, and saving their Life of Brian film, was done for his own amusement because he wanted to see the finished film – despite being such a seriously religious person himself.
The Beatles, when I was writing their biography, came to our house in north-west London to have tea or a meal. At the time, they had become vegetarians. When Ringo came, my wife had prepared an amusing ratatouille and some clever dish with aubergines and nuts, which Ringo pushed away. By vegetarian, Ringo really meant baked beans and corn flakes, which is what he had practically survived on for years in the backs of vans.
George was of course more sophisticated, in all his tastes. He was also the only one of them all who brought a present when he and Pattie arrived – nothing madly original or expensive, just flowers and chocolates. I often used to think he was off in the clouds, not concerned or aware of this world, but he could be well aware of the little worldly everyday things.
Îòïðàâëåíî: 15.11.11 14:37. Çàãîëîâîê: Apple Jam honors Geo..
Apple Jam honors George Harrison in sell-out concert at Seattle's Triple Door
November 14, 2011, Seattle, Washington – George Harrison, the “quiet”Beatle, was honored Saturday night at the Triple Door in Seattle with a rousing and memorable concert by the popular Seattle tribute group Apple Jam. The concert was organized in remembrance of the tenth anniversary of Harrison’s death November 29, making this concert a moving experience for fans in attendance.
Tickets to this event were sold out over a month prior, and the venue was packed without a seat to spare. The Triple Door’s swank atmosphere offered nice seating, food and drinks. The stage set up featured a large life-size standup of Harrison surrounded by gnomes and sunflowers, paying homage to his estate at Friar Park and his love of gardening, as well as replicas of his favorite guitars.
Apple Jam came on the stage at 8pm after some introductory videos of Harrison brought back great memories of the ex-Beatle with the incredibly dry sense of humor. The footage shown in the beginning and also intermission included the Saturday Night Live announcement by Loren Michaels inviting the Beatles to perform 3 songs for $3000, Harrison’s humorous music video to Crackerbox Palace, as well as the ode to his courtroom battles over My Sweet Lord entitled This Song, and Harrison’s appearance as a reporter in a Rutles movie.
The mood now set for a night with George Harrison, the audience was treated to an evening of expertly performed Harrison songs from the Beatles years as well as the first part of his solo career (1970-1974) from his first four albums--All Things Must Pass, Bangladesh, Living In the Material World, and Dark Horse.
Apple Jam’s set list included the most well-known songs from Harrison’s work as well as some lost pieces buried in obscurity—lost pieces embedded in the less popular albums that the casual fan would be unfamiliar with. However, devoted Harrison followers were on “Cloud 9.” Harrison history and trivia were shared with the audience during song introductions.
The band opened the show with one of George’s gems from All Things Must Pass--Wah-Wah, followed by What Is Life. Two Beatles songs followed—Do You Want To Know A Secret, written by John Lennon and given to George to sing. (John’s reasoning for this “gift” was backhanded---John said in interviews that “it only had three notes and George wasn’t the best singer.”) Apple Jam told the audience that Lennon wrote it in 1963 for his wife Cynthia who was pregnant at the time. The pregnancy and the marriage at the time were kept a big secret in fact, from fans. The next song was George’s earliest compositions, Don’t Bother Me.
Front man Rick Lovrovich then told the audience that the next song was actually George’s very first—You Know What To Do. It didn’t make it onto the Beatles album A Hard Days Night but was discovered much later and included on Anthology. The song was recorded by Apple Jam on their Off The Beatle Track CD.
New band mate Robbie Christmas made his official debut as he stepped forward to sing While My Guitar Gently Weeps, as Mike Mattingly did phenomenal guitar work, receiving cheers from the audience. (see video at left) Other big highlights of the evening featured popular Harrison tunes All Things Must Pass, What Is Life, If Not For You, My Sweet Lord, Bangladesh, Here Comes The Sun, Tax Man, and Something, as well as the little New Year's ditty, Ding-Dong Ding-Dong.
Multi-talented Jon Bolton alternated between drums and acoustic guitar and did lead vocals on many songs. While his drumming is phenomenal enough, always standing out with his performances, his attention to detail on vocals is equally amazing. It includes making his throat raspy enough to sing Dark Horse, he says, “authenticly.” (Harrison was so ill during the recording of the album, that critics called it “Dark Hoarse.”) Bolton notably came on stage wearing a George Harrison shirt, and in the second half, sported an orange T-shirt sporting the words, “Extra Texture (Read All About It)” for George’s 1975 album that very few remember.
Some of the more obscure pieces of the night were 1974’s So Sad from Dark Horse, a song that Jon Bolton announced was “so sad, I can’t sing it without crying,” Awaiting On You All (All Things Must Pass), and That Is All (Living In The Material World.) Another song that was quite a surprise was Badfinger’s Day After Day (1971), included because George produced it and did lead guitar for the song. It Don’t Come Easy, usually credited to Ringo Starr, was given to Harrison on this night, because as Lovrovich said, “We think George actually wrote it.” (In fact Ringo has said that George co-wrote the song--the guitar riffs and reference to Hare-Krishna in the chorus of course is a dead giveway.)
Apple Jam’s Beatle shows are immensely popular in Seattle’s music scene, as well as around the world, including Liverpool’s Beatle Week. True to their reputation, they delivered a fantastic show. The lineup, featuring Rick Lovrovich, Jon Bolton, Mike Mattingly, and Johnny Jones (whose new haircut and specs are fab), introduced newcomer to the group, guitarist Robbie Christmas. Robbie is the replacement for Kurtis Dengler, who moved earlier in the year. (Read this article for their full history including bios and past shows) Mark Mattingly, Mike’s brother, sat in on drums while Bolton was on guitar.
It was a beautiful night devoted to the Quiet One, one that memorably highlighted the sometimes hidden work of George Harrison. I’ll admit that despite the valuable Harrison education we received at the show, I missed hearing songs from George’s later albums, like Blow Away (George Harrison, ‘79), All Those Years Ago for John Lennon (Somewhere in England,’ 81), the songs from Cloud 9 and Brainwashed, and Traveling Wilburys. But they only had a couple of hours….perhaps they can do a Harrison tribute Part 2?
SET LIST:
First set: Wah-Wah, What Is Life, Do You Wanna Know A Secret, Don’t bother Me, You Know What to Do, I Need You, While My Guitar Gently Weeps, If Not For You, So Sad, Dark Horse, My Sweet Lord, Ding Dong, Ding Dong, Give Me Love,I Me Mine.
Second set Piggies, For You Blue, It Don’t Come Easy, Here Comes The Sun, Something, All Things Must Pass, Day After Day, Taxman, Bangladesh, That Is All.
Îòïðàâëåíî: 17.11.11 20:43. Çàãîëîâîê: George Harrison and ..
George Harrison and India: The Real ‘Magical Mystery Tour’
It’s hard to believe that we are coming up on the tenth anniversary of the tragic death of George Harrison.
The former Beatle’s passing -- at the premature age of 58 from lung cancer on Nov. 29, 2001 -- came less than three months after the monumental 9-11 terrorist attacks, which may have somewhat overshadowed the importance of his untimely demise.
As a lifelong Beatles’ fan, George was one of the most important and influential pop culture figures of my life -- however, as a person of East Indian descent, my view of ‘The Quiet Beatle’ is rather complicated.
For better or worse, George Harrison inadvertently became the greatest promoter of Indian culture and Hinduism to the Western world during the 20th century.
This had its good and bad aspects.
First, a little background.
By most accounts, George first became interested in Indian music when he picked up a sitar during a break in the filming of The Beatles’ second movie, “Help!,” in 1965. (I have never been completely satisfied by this story, since, like many tales about The Beatles, it may be apocryphal).
If you recall, that movie (which The Beatles reportedly disliked and didn’t take too seriously) featured an absurd ‘plot’ that included cartoonish villains who looked vaguely like Indians. The film also had certain other Indian symbols and ambience. (By this reckoning, if ‘Help!’ had depicted, say, Chinese or Arab villains, perhaps 1960s history would’ve been dramatically different).
In any case, an interest in the sitar (which made its wobbly Western pop music debut in the song ‘Norwegian wood’ later that year) led to a meeting with Indian musician/virtuoso Ravi Shankar, which in turn led to George’s infatuation and ultimate deep immersion into Indian culture, food and Hinduism.
These chance events would ultimately make a significant impact upon The Beatles, and, by extension, Western pop culture.
By the late 1960s, The Beatles had engineered another pop culture revolution (at least in Europe and North America) by wearing Indian-style clothing, spouting religious and philosophical aphorisms that seemed to borrow from ‘Eastern’ thought, and later even visiting India for a highly-publicized training session to learn Transcendental Meditation with the fraudulent ‘mystic’ Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.
For John Lennon, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, their interest in Indian/Hindu culture was rather fleeting and temporal -- although it may have led John and Paul to become vegetarians. Ringo (God bless him) just went along with the fad, wore colorful clothes for a while, but remained, at his essence, an ordinary, unpretentious Northern English lad who never really changed his working-class attitudes and customs.
But for George, India completely overhauled and changed his life permanently. He learned to play the sitar, he read Hindu texts, he meditated, he chanted, he frequently visited India, he dressed in Indian-style clothes, and he became deeply involved in the ‘Hare Krishna’ consciousness movement.
And because he was a Beatle -- part of the most popular, powerful and influential pop culture force the world has ever known -- his thoughts and activities influenced millions of others around the globe.
Indeed, tens of thousands of Westerners (of various ages, but mostly the young) became interested in India, learned about yoga (which itself, ironically, eventually metamorphosed into a billion-dollar industry); and many journeyed to India.
And it all occurred because of a poor Irish Catholic boy from Liverpool with no education and a nasal voice.
Ironically, Westerners had been fascinated by India for centuries – but such interest was limited to scholars and academics like Max Müller, John Muir, Edwin Arnold, William Jones, and others. They had little influence over the broader society. As a result, Westerners remained largely ignorant of or indifferent to India.
That changed when a long-haired rock guitarist burst onto the scene in the 1960s. Unlike those 18th and 19th century academics, George Harrison had a ready-made global audience of hundreds of millions due to The Beatles’ immense fame and popularity and the instantaneous power of global mass media. Plus, George was handsome, smart and charming -- an ideal ‘P.R. man’ for something as remote and incomprehensible as Indian/Hindu culture.
However, it might not all have been for the best.
For many Westerners, India and Hinduism was nothing but a fad, a temporary (very superficial) infatuation that led nowhere.
Most disturbing, in some circles, Indian culture somehow became associated with drugs and free sex (i.e., the hippie movement). For people like my parents, they were baffled and outraged by this misappropriation, cheapening and corruption of Indian culture.
Therefore, we must wonder -- was George’s immersion in India really genuine?
Yes, I believe it was… with some reservations.
The lifestyle of a Western rock-and-roll star (use of drugs & alcohol; sexual promiscuity, etc.) are anathema to conservative, traditional-minded Indians. These two poles are simply not compatible.
However, here we must make a distinction between “Hinduism” and “Indian culture.”
Unlike Christianity, Judaism and Islam, Hinduism (which is itself a vague and arbitrary term coined by Westerners), has no fixed precepts of human behavior. There is nothing analogous to the ‘Ten Commandments’ within the broad umbrella of Hindu philosophy.
Thus, customs and practices that Westerners associate with Hinduism are actually Indian traditions (the two things are, of course, deeply intertwined). For example, Hindus worship the cow and refrain from eating beef not because their holy books forbid it; but rather because at one point in ancient times, a cattle shortage led people to preserve and protect the valuable livestock. Over the centuries, this became part of the fabric of Indian society.
At its essence, Hinduism, like Buddhism, simply believes that as long as people are ensnared in physical addictions and have any kind of ‘desire,’ they will be endlessly reborn on earth to suffer the fates and arrows of the material life. Once a person’s consciousness evolves beyond earthly desires (a state of ‘Nirvana’), he or she will be freed from this cycle of birth and re-birth and enter a joyful, painless everlasting existence in the spiritual sphere.
That is quite a long row to hoe -- for anyone -- much less a wealthy British rock star with all the temptations and pleasures of the material world laid out at his feet.
Indeed, even after his introduction to Indian/Hindu culture, George continued drinking alcohol, abusing drugs (although he apparently stayed away from heroin), amassed a huge fortune, and had innumerable affairs with women who were not his wife.
No real devoted “Hindu” would behave in this way.
However, I don’t blame him for that at all – if I were in his shoes, I would do much the same.
Still, by claiming to be so ‘spiritual,’ George became subject to charges of hypocrisy. George’s apparent obsession with money (‘Taxman’) also would appear to contradict and undermine his spiritual aspirations.
Then again, many self-proclaimed ‘Hindus’ are also hypocrites -- some to appalling degrees.
Yet, I still believe that George tried the best he could to live his life in a spiritual way – within the framework of his privileged life as a very wealthy celebrity.
For one thing, he explicitly and repeatedly decried the meaninglessness of fame and wealth (i.e., the ‘material world’). Clearly, he was searching for something beyond the physical reality and found it in Hinduism.
Reportedly, George once said: “Through Hinduism, I feel [like] a better person. I just get happier and happier. I now feel that I am unlimited, and I am more in control.”
As I recall, George’s embrace of India and Hinduism caused him much grief – critics complained he and his music became boring, sanctimonious and exasperating.
From a purely musical point of view, George’s exploration of Indian music and culture produced a decidedly mixed impact on his career as a rock star.
While songs like ‘Norwegian wood’ (which mildly incorporated the sitar) worked exceedingly well, George’s purely “Indian” productions like ‘Love you to,’ ‘Inner light,’ ‘Blue Jay Way’ and ‘Within you without you’ were tiresome and simply did not belong on Beatles albums. (Reportedly, Lennon, McCartney and producer George Martin were very reluctant to include such songs on The Beatles’ records.)
In 1969, George produced the single ‘Hare Krishna Mantra,’ which was performed by him and the devotees of the Radha-Krishna Temple in London. Amazingly, the chanting tune entered the top 10 record charts in Britain and elsewhere.
After The Beatles broke up and George was finally free to make his own records, he enjoyed some initial success (including, the mega-popular ‘All Things Must Pass’ album), but eventually he petered out. By the mid-1970s, George (just a little over 30 years old) was finished as a vital, meaningful force in pop music and pop culture.
I believe the very peak of George’s career (and perhaps his life) was an event that took place in the summer of 1971 and shattered the boundaries between and East and West and represented the very best example of combining entertainment/pop culture with a noble cause.
‘The Concert for Bangladesh’ featured George and a number of other top recording stars and sought to raise money for millions of refugees who were fleeing the deadly civil war in Bangladesh (formerly East Pakistan).
For an Indian boy of Bengali descent who was also a Beatles fan, the ‘Concert for Bangladesh’ was a stunning and life-changing event. I was actually too young to understand what the concert meant at the time, but in retrospect, I see it as possibly one of the greatest moments of post-war global cultural exchange.
What on earth did some long-haired, bearded Western rockers have to do with the impoverished nation called Bangladesh thousands of miles away?
Absolutely nothing… and that was the beauty of it. Without George Harrison and Ravi Shankar it would have never been possible.
I get chills and almost teary-eyed today watching a video of the concert. To see George, Ringo, Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan, Leon Russell and others singing songs to raise awareness about a place most people in the Madison Square Garden audience probably knew nothing about was wonderfully bizarre, poignant and moving.
Even more impressive, the cover of the album of the concert did not depict George or any of the musicians who appeared on stage. Rather, it depicted a black-and-white photo of a small, anonymous, starving, bug-eyed Bengali child sitting in front of a plate of food (he likely died shortly thereafter).
It was an image as far from the “glamorous” world of showbiz and rock-and-roll as possible – and yet, that photo and the album found itself at the very center of Western pop culture that year.
Although his old band-mates John and Paul were more widely celebrated for their songwriting skills, ‘Bangladesh’ placed George at an exalted position in pop culture that the other two arguably never reached. From my perspective, there is yet another interesting aspect to George’s obsession with India.
During the late 1960s (as The Beatles and hippies celebrated India), Britain was embroiled in a deep debate over immigration from the Commonwealth countries (i.e., India, Pakistan, Jamaica, etc.) Right-wing politicians demanded a halt to such immigration, while extremists called for their deportation. In fact, the Beatles alluded to this in one of their biggest songs. ‘Get back’ was originally a song called ‘Don’t dig no Pakistanis’ which spoofed the anti-immigrant stance.
Thus, while the ‘beautiful people’ of London enjoyed and promoted Indian culture, many ordinary British people became increasingly anxious over the presence of so many Indian (and other) immigrants in England.
George, who lived a privileged life of a wealthy rural country squire, did not concern himself with such mundane details of British life.
Sadly, after ‘Bangladesh,’ George spent the next thirty years of his life largely in obscurity (mostly by choice).
In any case, George’s connection to India only deepened as he aged, raised a family, and went into semi-reclusion as an eccentric gardener.
After he passed, it was reported that he left behind £20-million for the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. His corpse was also cremated and his ashes immersed in the Ganges River, near the holy city of Varanasi.
McCartney tribute band marks 10th anniversary of passing of George Harrison
Ýòî íå Ïîë,à Mike Miller.
New England-based McCartney tribute band "One Sweet Dream: The Paul McCartney Experience!" will be performing a special concert next Tuesday, November 29th, which is the 10th anniversary of the passing of George Harrison.
Along with the usual format of Paul's Beatles and solos, One Sweet Dream will be performing a special set of George Harrison's Beatles and solos, including Traveling Wilburys.
Mike Miller as Paul is noted in the media at being one of the best at capturing the look, sound and persona of Sir Paul. The show takes place at a movie theatre in Mystic, Connecticut with a stage in front. Montage videos of Paul and George will be showing on the screen throughout the concert.
"One Sweet Dream: The Paul McCartney Tribute for George Harrison" happens at Mistick Art Cinemas which is located at 27 Coogan Blvd. in Mystic, CT with doors opening at 8 pm. Tickets are $12 with proceeds with benefiting the Oral Cancer Foundation. To purchase or reserve tickets, go to www.MaccaTribute.com for your options but hurry, the show is rapidly approaching and you will need a few days for ticket delivery if paying with check or credit card.
Îòïðàâëåíî: 29.11.11 13:19. Çàãîëîâîê: Louise Harrison remi..
Louise Harrison reminisces about brother George Harrison and the BeatlesBy Gerry Galipault, Herald-Tribune Monday, November 28, 2011 For more than 40 years, Beatles fans have asked Louise Harrison to write a book about her famous younger brother, George. Now she has finally relented.
George Harrison holds his infant son, Dhani, who was born on Aug. 1, 1978. (Photo provided by Walt Kane) Toddler Dhani Harrison sits on his father George's shoulders. (Photo provided by Walt Kane)
The 80-year-old former Sarasota resident has finished most of the text for a book to be released next year or 2013. Now she’s scanning never-before-published photos, letters and documents that will fill the rest of the pages.
“So much garbage has been written about George and the Beatles,” Harrison says from her home in Branson, Mo., where she created Beatles tribute band Liverpool Legends six years ago and oversees its stage production.
“Half of the stuff has been written by people who spent maybe an hour on a plane with the Beatles. Now I think it’s my duty to get the truth out. There’s been all kinds of myths and fantasies written about them. At least I have some facts to go on, because I was there — from even before they were the Beatles.”
George Harrison died 10 years ago Tuesday from lung cancer at age 58. For Louise, memories of her “kid brother” remain intact.
“We were very fortunate to have such great parents,” Louise says. “They kept us grounded. Even when George became a public figure, as did I, so to speak, my parents would receive thousands of letters from fans all over the world thanking them for having George. They took very good care to answer them all — they felt they were creating a global family for Beatles fans.
“They had so much love within them, and they shared that love with everyone.”
Louise Harrison doesn’t want to give away too many details about her involvement with the Beatles’ meteoric rise to fame (“You’ll have to read the book,” she says, with a laugh). But she will say she had a finger on the pulse of the United States in the early 1960s.
“That’s because I was already living in the U.S. in 1963,” she says. “I would relay information over to (Beatles manager) Brian Epstein. I told him that the Beatles weren’t getting any airplay over here, that they really needed to play on ‘The Ed Sullivan Show,’ which they had never heard of but it was the most popular show on television, and that they needed to find a major record label here.”
When the Beatles performed on “Ed Sullivan” in 1964, kicking off the British Invasion, George Harrison was quickly dubbed the “quiet Beatle.” There was a reason for that, Louise says.
“First off, he wasn’t quiet,” she says, laughing. “But the weekend they flew into New York to do ‘Ed Sullivan,’ George was very sick. They were staying at the Plaza Hotel, and we got him to see the hotel doctor, Dr. Gordon. Dr. Gordon said, ‘This is a very sick kid. He’s got a 104-degree temperature and has strep throat.’
“He was given some shots and vaporizer treatments, and I was in charge of watching over him. George was told to use his voice as little as possible. That’s why at all the press conferences he was so quiet, and so the press thought he was the quiet one. George used to have a good laugh about it.”
For her book, Louise Harrison is getting help from an unlikely source: ex-husband Walt Kane.
The two were introduced at a bar in New York City, married in 1973 and divorced in 1983. They moved to Sarasota in 1980, and Kane has lived here ever since.
“I loved George Harrison,” Kane says. “He was a very nice man. I can’t say enough good things about him.”
The 66-year-old Kane, now retired from a career in sales and marketing, has fond memories of hanging out backstage with Paul Simon and Lorne Michaels during Harrison’s “Saturday Night Live” appearance in November 1976, and staying at Harrison’s sprawling English manor in Henley-on-Thames.
In addition to recounting his marriage to Louise Harrison and memories of George for the book, Kane is providing her with his unpublished photos of George, including some taken at his estate and such personal moments as George holding his newborn son, Dhani, in 1978.
“George was always happiest at his estate, which he renamed ‘Crackerbox Palace,’” Kane says. “It was a beautiful place, 30-plus acres of moats and caves and gardens. It was a maze of shrubbery. It had 120 rooms and a huge recording studio. And there were no locks on the doors.”
That changed when Harrison’s former Beatle band mate, John Lennon, was gunned down by an obsessed fan in December 1980.
“After Lennon was killed, George electrified the fences and hired a bodyguard,” Kane said. “He said, ‘It takes only one maniac to take me out.’ He got tired of the fame; he just wanted to be a gardener. He said he was planting for the next generation.”
Despite the increased security at Harrison’s mansion, an intruder broke into his home and stabbed him in late 1999.
Louise Harrison says her brother became more cautious but not paranoid.
“But he did say to me, ‘Don’t be too out in the public, because I don’t want some lunatic to have their 15 minutes of fame.’ He was more worried about his family than himself. That was George.”
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George Harrison: What Is Life
Michael Palin presents a tribute to his friend George Harrison, who died in November 2001. It features archive interviews with George, as well as contributions from his wife and son, Bob Geldof, Jim Keltner, Jeff Lynne, Brian May, Gary Moore, Tom Petty, Ringo Starr, Ravi Shankar and the Beatles' producer George Martin.
The programme highlights George's contribution to the extraordinary and enduring legacy of the Beatles. Although John or Paul would usually sing the lead vocal, George played a vital role in the distinctive harmonies that enhanced the Beatles' records. Guitarist Gary Moore demonstrates the brilliance of George's solos on their records. And Ravi Shankar talks about how George's love for Indian music and culture influenced Beatles records.
After the Beatles split in 1970, all four released solo records but - to the astonishment of many - it was George who initially achieved the most commercial and critical success. His single My Sweet Lord was a worldwide number one in 1971 and returned to the top of the UK chart in 2002. He organised the Concert for Bangladesh and the triple album of the recordings topped charts around the world. This event, and George Harrison's understanding of the power and responsibility that rock musicians could wield in the world, have had a lasting influence.
George's solo career had periods of great productivity and also two phases when his profile dipped below the horizon. He enjoyed a late 1980s 'comeback' with his hit album Cloud Nine, released the number one single Got My Mind Set On You and two albums with his supergroup The Traveling Wilburys (featuring Bob Dylan, Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison and Tom Petty). The year after George died Brainwashed was released, which featured the music he had worked on since his last solo album in 1987. Among them was the beautiful instrumental Marwa Blues, which won a Grammy Award.
George Harrison’s 1965 Aston Martin DB5 Surprises Auctioneers with $549,045 Winning Bid
Legendary lead guitarist of The Beatles, George Harrison, whose musical skills promise to sweep the audience off their feet has now surprised the Coys auction house, who sold a 1965 Aston Martin DB5 formerly owned by Harrison. The car, along with a huge collection of movie posters, was auctioned at the Coys True Greats auction, which was held at Royal Horticultural halls in London on Wednesday, December 7. The car fetched an astonishing £350,000 or about USD 546,000 / ?410,000 after a fierce bidding among the fans, which was far more than the estimated price of £225,000 – £260,000.
George Harrison’s DB5 was manufactured in the year 1964 and was delivered to him on January 1, 1965. In the late 1980’s, when Harrison sold this car, it found its way into a museum in Tokyo, Japan. In 1995, it was purchased by a Japanese collector residing in Germany. The DB5 has been maintained in a largely original and unrestored condition with a recorded mileage of just over 22,000 miles.
The winning bid was made by an anonymous Beatles and Aston Martin fan from Houston in Texas who said: “George Harrison would be amazed about all the money his car is going to raise for Christian causes”.
Other vehicles sold at Wednesday’s auction included a Cord 810 Phaeton owned by Jimmy Page (of Led Zeppelin fame) and entrepreneur Duncan Bannatyne, Mercedes Benz 300 SL Roadster that hadn’t seen the light of day for almost a quarter of a century, and a Mercedes Benz 540K once owned by Formula One Management CEO Bernie Ecclestone.
The BBFC has produced an exclusive 80-page A4 size full-colour magazine, HARRISON EXCLUSIVE, a tribute magazine with a difference.
Packed with features by top quality writers, including some of those who knew George personally, HARRISON EXCLUSIVE covers George's life and career, from his childhood through to his untimely passing in 2001.
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TALKING GEORGE HARRISON
By Spencer Leigh
Over the past 30 years I have been fortunate enough to interview music personalities for my BBC Radio Merseyside programme, On The Beat. Invariably, I seek out any Beatle connections and if there aren’t any, I ask for a favourite Beatles track. It sounds as though I do my interviews on autopilot but by asking for a favourite Beatles track, I find I receive all kinds of different answers and they are rarely the same. By way of a tribute to George, here are some comments from my guests about George Harrsion.
Session guitarist and former member of Wings, Laurence Juber told me, “When I worked with George Harrison, he told me that when he was 13, he had some jazz guitar lessons from someone on the boats who was familiar with Django Reinhardt. Those diminished chords that George uses came from Django, so he was a very sophisticated guitar player.”
Chris Curtis, drummer with the Searchers: “George was wonderful on the guitar. His little legs would kick out to the side when he did his own tunes. He’d go all posh and say, ‘I’d like to do a tune now from Carl Perkins, ‘Everybody’s Trying To Be My Baby’, and it’s in A.’ Who wanted to know what key it was in? But he always said that.”
Billy Kinsley of the Merseybeats: “The Beatles sang ‘A Shot Of Rhythm And Blues’ in unison and then broke into a little harmony with some backing vocals from George. ‘Some Other Guy’ was also in unison and it became a Liverpool thing to sing in unison. George had a monotone Scouse accent and he sang like that when doing harmonies, which was the perfect way to do it. You wanted that in there because John and Paul were so melodic. That was good luck – they thought, ‘Doesn’t it sound great?’ and did it.”
With The Beatles contained the first George Harrison song, the sulky and self-protective ‘Don’t Bother Me’. Bill Harry, the editor of the Mersey Beat newspaper, says, “When everyone was going on about the Lennon-McCartney partnership, I felt that the others should come to the fore in some creative way. I kept on at George Harrison by saying, ‘Look, the first original number the Beatles ever recorded was one of yours, ‘Cry for a Shadow’ in Hamburg, so why don’t you write some more?’ He would say, ‘I can’t be bothered.’ That led to him writing ‘Don’t Bother Me’ ’cause I was always on his back. When I met him after its release, he said, ‘Thanks very much. I’ve already made £7,000 in royalties.’”
In the US, George Harrison bought a 12-string guitar, which he used in A Hard Day’s Night. Roger McGuinn of the Byrds: “George Harrison was playing a Rickenbacker 12 string and he gave me the idea for getting one too. His method of playing lead was to play up and down the G string as he got more punch out of it. I emulated that style and it sounded really good.”
Rory Gallagher: “I liked the Beatles a lot, particularly the way they revived an interest in Carl Perkins and Buddy Holly. Most of the string bending came from Paul, and John was a very powerful rhythm player. George Harrison was an underrated slide player, very accurate and very good in the Carl Perkins vein. He worked within the song and he had unusual phrases and didn’t fit into the Eric Clapton/ Jeff Beck area. He could play great ethnic rock’n’roll and rockabilly guitar.”
Music writer Paul Du Noyer: “George Harrison came out of Liverpool, unlike the other guitar heroes of British rock who were nearly all Home Counties boys like Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page. They had been brought up on the blues but Liverpool was steeped in country music and so Chet Atkins was a bigger influence on George. You can hear that single note picking, rather than long, sustained blues notes, in his early work. It gave the Beatles a very different sound and once it was developed you get ‘Ticket To Ride’ and ‘Day Tripper’, which have very intricate guitar playing. George had taken what he had learnt and put it into a new dimension. The southern boys went for the blues and that developed into psychedelia and heavy rock.”
Neville Marten, lead guitarist with Marty Wilde’s Wildcats: “I was turned onto music by George Harrison. John and Paul were casual, easy-going musicians but George was very studious, always taking great care, and I thought, ‘That’s the guy I want to be’. It was said that the Stones could play and the Beatles could write songs but George Harrison played some lovely guitar on their records. The solo in ‘Something’ is a classic, a song within a song. ‘And I Love Her’ on the classical guitar is an absolute example of understanding an instrument as it relates to a song, which is what many guitarists fail to understand today.”
The Hollies recorded George’s song, ‘If I Needed Someone’ for a single: it scraped into the Top 20 but deserved to go higher. Allan Clarke: “The only Beatles number that the Hollies ever did was ‘If I Needed Someone’. It was written by George Harrison and we got slated for it. Even George said it was terrible and we didn’t like that ’cause it dented our egos. It was a lovely song that had the Hollies’ ingredients written all over it but somehow the public didn’t accept it. They accepted the Rolling Stones doing a Beatles song but not us.”
Graham Nash, also from the Hollies: “I was sad that George didn’t like it as we certainly didn’t want to upset him. We were honouring his songwriting and it was a great song and we did a good job of it. We did it a little too fast but the harmonies are pretty good.”
Barbara Dickson: “I recorded ‘If I Needed Someone’ in 2006 and I thought it was a very good song, very up-tempo and so not as fundamentally thoughtful as some of his songs. I sing it in concert in memory of George Harrison as he gets overlooked so much of the time. If he had been in another band, he could have been as big as Lennon or McCartney but he was overshadowed by them. He was such a sensitive soul and I love him for that.”
Ian McNabb, formerly of the Liverpool band, The Icicle Works: “George Harrison was into Chet Atkins and he was getting to be a really good guitarist around 1966. ‘Taxman’ can’t have sat too well with his Indian gurus as you’re not supposed to be bothered with worldly goods if you’re into Gita.”
Beatles historian, Mark Lewisohn: “I like ‘Taxman’ for several reasons. First and foremost, it’s George Harrison’s writing. He had been writing a few songs over the years and although they’re very pleasant, there’s nothing especially great about them. They hadn’t got the depth that Lennon and McCartney’s songs had but that changed with ‘Taxman’, which is a very clever composition and typically George Harrison because the stories of his fascination with money are legion. He always wanted to know what they were owed and what they were earning. The fact that they were paying a great deal in tax rankled George a lot more than it did Paul, John or Ringo, so he wrote this stinging song to show how bitterly he felt about it all and he rounded it off with some of the best playing on any Beatles record.”
Bill Nelson from Be Bop Deluxe: “I loved jazz guitar and I looked down a bit on the earlier Beatles stuff and then, when they did Rubber Soul and Revolver and became more experimental, they got my attention. Now I love the early stuff as well as I can see the value of it. I liked George Harrison as he was a big fan of Chet Atkins and he played a Gretsch Chet Atkins guitar which I lusted after when I only had cheap guitars. The productions were so inspiring. My all-time favourite is ‘Baby, You’re A Rich Man’. I just love the vibe of it.”
Actor Victor Spinetti: “I said to George Harrison, ‘I can’t get it together with Eastern music’, and he said, ‘Vic, don’t listen to it. Let it happen to you. Western music is all maths, but Eastern music is the flow and you can jump in and out whenever you want.’”
Mike Heron from the Incredible String Band: “I loved everything that George Harrison did. It’s very clever to write songs that are commercially acceptable and yet have spiritual messages. I’ve tried to do that but he was a master at it.”
EMI historian, Brian Southall: “‘Only A Northern Song’ was George’s dig at Northern Songs having his publishing. John and Paul as co-owners and directors and shareholders in Northern Songs earned almost as much as George Harrison did from his songs and that caused resentment. George felt he had been conned and it is true that he wasn’t given any independent advice. Seemingly, every lawyer and every accountant who advised the Beatles was retained by NEMS, which was Brian Epstein’s management company.”
Jackie Lomax from the Liverpool band the Undertakers recorded George’s song, ‘Sour Milk Sea’: “I was signed to Apple Publishing with a view to writing songs for other artists to record. George Harrison heard my stuff and wanted me to work with him. I had to wait for him to come back from India where they had been with the Maharishi. George had written ‘Sour Milk Sea’ out there about the ages of the world. They believe that every 26,000 years, the world changes. In between there is a just a sour milk sea where nothing happens. It was a heavy driving rock song at a time when everyone was doing ballads and we thought it would be a hit. Apple released four singles on the same day and mine got lost in the crush.”
When Jackie Lomax’s album was issued on CD in 1991, Billy Kinsley from the Merseybeats was on the bonus cuts. “‘Going Back To Liverpool’ was great because George Harrison produced it. George was a wonderful producer as he was very methodical and never looked at his watch: he just wanted everything to be precisely right. Paul could be like that too, but he also went for feel. If it sounded okay, that was fine. ‘Going Back To Liverpool’ is a wonderful track and I remember doing the backing vocals with George, Billy Preston and Tim Rennick. That is when I realised how high George could get with his falsetto. We had a competition to see who could get the highest, but I can’t remember who won.”
Billy Kinsley also saw the animosity between the Beatles: “George Harrison had a big bar of Cadbury’s Fruit and Nut and he gave pieces to me, Pete Clarke and Derek Taylor. Paul McCartney walked in and saw us all eating chocolate and wanted some. George, very deliberately, put the last piece in his mouth. (Laughs) It’s childish, and I’ve done things like that in the Merseybeats, but Paul was really annoyed that George didn’t give him his last piece of Fruit and Nut. (Laughs)”
The film, Wonderwall, was a psychedelic love story starring Jane Birkin. Its director was Joe Massot: “I asked George at the opening of the Beatles’ boutique if he would like to do the music for Wonderwall. I told him that it was a silent film and his music would provide the emotion for the characters. Quincy Jones told me that it was the greatest soundtrack he had heard but the movie was too far out for some audiences. It did well in London though.”
Donovan: “George introduced me to Indian music and he gave me a tambura, and it is still making music. I put it on ‘Hurdy Gurdy Man’ and it is the drone in between the verses. George did write a verse for that song, but because of the guitar solo, we didn’t include it on the record. I include it in my concerts now. Yeah, George.”
Billy Bob Thornton: “I like George Harrison’s songs, and ‘Here Comes The Sun’ is one of my favourite Beatles songs. It’s a fantastic song. George seized his chance on Abbey Road: ‘Quick, while the others aren’t looking!’”
Richie Havens: “I thought ‘Here Comes The Sun’ was the happiest, simplest, clearest wishing well for the world of all the songs that they had ever done. It is a message for all of us. The sun is going to come up tomorrow, no matter what. You’ve got to be prepared, it’s going to be all right. Things are not as hard as you’re making it. That was the message of the time that needed to be heard. I said that to George and he said, ‘It is a song about finding the light, the real light, the sun.’”
Donovan: “All psychedelia points to one thing and one thing only: there is a spiritual path that the world needs and it was the singers and painters and dancers and filmmakers and poets that presented this path to the world. Now the doors of perception are open and George pointed the way by singing, ‘Here comes the sun, And I say, It’s all right.’”
Louise Harrison: “George wasn’t particularly made up that Frank Sinatra had recorded ‘Something’. Once I was staying with him at the Plaza in New York and he spent the night hiding from Frank’s guys who were after him. Sinatra wanted him to write a whole album for him and he felt that these weren’t the sort of people you said no to.”
John York of the Byrds: “The power struggle helped George grow as an artist in a strange sense so that when he put out All Things Must Pass, everyone went ‘Wow’, because he had been held down.”
Alan White, whose drumming was featured on All Things Must Pass: “I don’t agree that George had copied the Chiffons’ ‘He’s So Fine’ for ‘My Sweet Lord’. That song changed so much in the studio and to me, it was and always will be legitimate. George was the sweetest guy in the world. A really, really great guy and he wouldn’t harm anyone or anything. The vibe and the atmosphere when we recorded ‘My Sweet Lord’ were incredible. We played music all day every day for three weeks and it was a great group of people.”
Joe Brown’s late wife, Vicki, was a fine singer in her own right, having an uncredited No.1 with J J Barrie on ‘No Charge’. Vicki Brown: “George lived five minutes away from us and when he was doing the soundtrack for Shanghai Surprise, he asked me to help to demo a song for Madonna. He had worked out some great harmonies and we did the duet. Two weeks later, the producers wanted Whitney Houston to do it instead, but he said, ‘I think you should do it.’ We sang it on the soundtrack but they didn’t release it as a single as the film flopped.”
Klaus Voormann recalled going to see George in 2001: “George Harrison was in Austria and he was in bad shape. It was a lovely day and the sun was shining and we were sitting outside. Olivia explained about his treatment and it took him ages to come down because he was so weak. He couldn’t get up easily and getting shaved and dressed was agony for him. He wore a gardening hat and he took it off and he had no hair, but he was happy. He was laughing. His concern was to make me feel good. It was the opposite of what I expected, that is, for me to try and make him feel good. He said, ‘If I die, that’s okay, and if I live on, that’s okay too. My body in not important, that is just my shell. My spirit will stay with you always.’ It was lovely that he felt like that and he wasn’t scared. He was still fighting for his life but he knew he was going somewhere better. If everybody could feel that way, it would be great.”
‘Goodnight, George’ at the end of Fate’s Right Hand by the singer/ songwriter Rodney Crowell is a reference to George Harrison. “We were rehearsing the song ‘This Too Will Pass’ and I got a phone call from my daughter Hannah who lives in Los Angeles and is an incredible Beatles fan. She was in tears because George had died. I went back and told Pat Buchanan and Michael Rhodes who were on the session with me and as we were recording the play-out at the end, I just said, ‘Goodnight, George’. It was just an emotional thing. We went into the control room and Pat had tears down his face and he said, ‘Do you realise how similar this song is to All Things Must Pass?’ I hadn’t thought about it until that moment, but he’s right. We left ‘Goodnight, George’ on the song and decided to end the record that way.”
Klaus Voormann remembered his final meeting with George Harrison: “That last day I met him, he had had a video of himself when he went to the dentist to have a tooth out and he was singing, ‘How does it feel to be one of the beautiful people?’”
Legendary helmer Martin Scorsese received two honors last night at the 17th Annual Critics Choice Movie Awards – one for his most recent documentary, and another recognizing his efforts in combining music and film.
Scorsese’s George Harrison: Living in the Material World, a loving tribute to the multi-faceted Beatle and solo artist, was named best documentary feature during the ceremony in Los Angeles. Also, the director received the second annual Music + Film award from the Broadcast Film Critics Association (BFCA).
The second honor is presented to filmmakers who have, in the words of the BFCA, “heightened the impact of film through the brilliant use of source and soundtrack music.” While Scorsese certainly meets that criteria with his scripted features, his work in documentary – specifically with such films as The Last Waltz, which documented the final performance by The Band, and the Bob Dylan doc No Direction Home – also fits the bill. To that end, Dylan performed “Blind Willie McTell” as a special musical tribute to the director, who received the award from George Harrison’s widow Olivia and Leonardo DiCaprio.
Scorsese’s latest scripted feature, Hugo, was also up for best picture. While it did take an award for best art direction, it lost the best picture nod to The Artist.
Next month, Scorsese will be presented with the British Academy of Film and Television Arts’ Academy Fellowship at the BAFTAs ceremony.
Îòïðàâëåíî: 18.01.12 23:17. Çàãîëîâîê: The Guitar Collectio..
The Guitar Collection: George Harrison iPad App To Be Released February 23
BANDWDTH Publishing, in conjunction with the George Harrison Estate, announces the release of a special iPad app celebrating the guitarist and his historical guitar collection. The Guitar Collection: George Harrison iPad app will be released through iTunes on February 23, two days before George’s birthdate.
The app brings George Harrison’s private guitar collection to life through photographs, detailed descriptions, audio, and video footage.
For the first time, with the help of unique 360° imaging by photographer Steven Sebring, fans can see the scratches, dings, and worn threads on the guitars as if they were themselves holding the instruments.
Fans will be able to examine Harrison’s private guitar collection, through personal audio recordings from Harrison himself as he introduces many of the guitars and plays sections of songs.
The history of each guitar is laid out in great detail; including the origin of the guitar, when and how it became part of Harrison’s collection, modifications he made to it and why each was so important in creating his distinctive sound. Songs from his catalogue are organized by the guitars used on each track, which allows the user to appreciate the personalities of each instrument.
The video section of the app contains footage of Ben Harper, Josh Homme, Mike Campbell, and Dhani Harrison each playing and showcasing the guitars and exploring their feel and tone. In addition, Conan O’Brien and Dhani discuss what make these guitars so exceptional. Also in this section, guitar great Gary Moore shares his views on what made George Harrison such a distinctive and influential guitar player.
The app will sell for $9.99 at the Apple App Store.
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Living in the Material World: George Harrison exhibit at the Grammy Museum at LA Live
LOS ANGELES, Ca, January 23, 2012 - Honoring the ten-year anniversary of the passing of legendary Beatle George Harrison, the Grammy Museum at LA Live in downtown Los Angeles hosts an engaging and powerful exhibit featuring many of the musician’s personal effects, iconic pieces of wardrobe, letters, sketchbooks and of course many of the renowned musician’s instruments.
The exhibit, located on the museum’s second floor features handwritten lyrics to songs like “Something,” “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” and “All Things Must Pass.” Fans can run their eyes across the carefully written words as the songs play in their fullest expression in the background.
In addition to the many guitars Harrison used while playing with The Beatles, fans can find other instruments that were a rich part of Harrison’s life as well. While he is most commonly known as the lead guitar player for the Beatles, Harrison spent much time in India learning to play the Sitar under the tutelage of Sitar master Ravi Shankar. Harrison was also a fan of the ukulele, usually traveling with two at a time so that his friends could play with him. Harrison’s ukuleles, ukulele banjos, and his sitar are also on display at the museum.
The exhibit is opened in conjunction with the release of “Living in the Material World,” a book of photography and quotes about George put together by his wife Olivia. The book is released along with the Martin Scorsese documentary which originally aired on HBO and will be available on DVD at a later date.
While the exhibit offers much insight into Harrison as a musician, what one unfamiliar with the complex life of the shy Beatle will quickly see that there is much more to Harrison than his decade as a member of one of the world’s most influential bands.
Îòïðàâëåíî: 01.02.12 14:10. Çàãîëîâîê: The Beatles ‘Here ..
The Beatles ‘Here Comes The Sun’: Lost Solo Discovered
Here comes the Son.
Dhani Harrison, the son of George (the late and great Beatles guitarist) visited Abbey Road studio with long-time Beatles producer George Martin and his son, Giles to discover something sacred. Deep in the master tracks of “Here Comes The Sun” from 1969′s Abbey Road, Dhani stumbles upon a lost solo from his father’s ballad. It completely changes the texture of the song, not to mention how freakin’ cool it is.
It’s chilling, but doesn’t compare to the moment when George Martin turns to Dhani and says, “You’re like your father.”
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