GEORGE HARRISON

George Harrison was born February 24, 1943. He was a popular British songwriter and musician, best known as a member of The Beatles. He was born in Liverpool, England, and raised at 12 Arnold Grove. He first attended school at Dovedale Infants, just off Penny Lane. Later on, he attended the Liverpool Institute, a "smart school", but was regarded as a very poor student. His friends described him as someone who liked to sit alone in a corner reading or writing. In the mid-50's, he met Paul McCartney, who was a Liverpool Institute student also and who played lead guitar in the band initially called the Quarry Men, that eventually became the Beatles. At the height of the Beatles' popularity, he was often characterized as the Quiet Beatle. He had an introspective manner and a growing interest in Hinduism.

In the mid-60's, he began playing the sitar, which influenced the sound of the Beatles music in such songs as "Norwegian Wood," "Love You To", and "Within You Without You". His experimentation with the instrument brought him into contact with the sitar virtuoso Ravi Shankar, who became a close friend and mentor. It was his meeting with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi that led him first into meditation. In the summer of 1969, the Beatles produced the single "Hare Krishna Mantra", performed by Harrison and the devotees of the London Radha-Krishna Temple that topped the 10 best-selling record charts throughout UK, Europe, and Asia. The same year, he and John Lennon met Swami Prabhupada A.C. Bhaktivedanta, the founder of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. Soon after, Harrison embraced the Hare Krishna tradition and remained a devotee till his death. While not the primary composer in the group, John and Paul wrote most of the Beatles' material, as time went on his songs improved greatly and his material earned respect from both his fellow Beatles and the music-buying public. Notable examples include, "Taxman", "Here Comes the Sun", "Something", and "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", which was strongly influenced by the music of his friend Roy Orbison and featured a guitar solo by Eric Clapton.

After the Beatles split in 1970, Harrison released a number of albums that were critically and commercially successful, both as solo projects and as the member of other groups. After many years of being limited in his contributions to the Beatles' catalog, he unleashed a torrent of material in the first major solo work released after the breakup, the triple album All Things Must Pass. The album included the number one hit single, " My Sweet Lord ", although Harrison was later sued for copyright infringement over similarities between " My Sweet Lord " and the 1963 Chiffon's single, "He's So Fine". Harrison denied deliberately stealing the song, but he did lose the case in 1976. In the ruling, the court accepted the possibility that Harrison had unconsciously taken the Chiffon's song as the basis for his own song.

Harrison was perhaps the first modern musician to organize a major charity concert. His Concert for Bangladesh on August 1, 1971, drew over 40,000 people to New York's Madison Square Garden and raised millions of dollars to aid the starving refugees of Bangladesh. The concert included other popular musicians, such as, Bob Dylan, Leon Russell, Badfinger and Billy Preston. Classical sitar maestro Ravi Shankar opened proceedings. Harrison continued to make records throughout the 70's but successive releases met with dwindling interest and sales. He formed his own record label, Dark Horse Records in 1974 and issued a limited number of records by performers such as Splinter, Attitudes and Ravi Shankar. He moved his own music to the label in 1976, once his contract with EMI finished. Immediately following the murder of his close friend and former band-mate, John Lennon, Harrison composed a tribute song to Lennon, "All Those Years Ago," which gained high radio airplay and continues to be a favorite of classic rock radio. He released no records for five years after Gone Troppo in 1982 was met with much indifference. He returned in 1987 with the album " Cloud Nine ", co-produced with Jeff Lynne and was a super hit : #1 in the U.S. and #2 in the U.K.. He also released his cover version of " Got My Mind Set On You " as a single. The album made it to #8. During the 1980's, he helped form the Traveling Wilbury's with Roy Orbison, Jeff Lynne, Bob Dylan, and Tom Petty, when they gathered in Dylan's garage to quickly record an additional track for a projected Harrison European single release. The record company realized the track, " Handle With Care " was way too good for its original purpose and asked for it to be made into a separate album. It had to be completed inside 2 weeks, as Dylan was scheduled to start a tour.

He was involved in film production through his Hand-Made Films company, providing financial backing for the Monty Python film, " Life of Brian ", after the original backers, EMI Films, withdrew because of the controversial subject matter of the film. Other films produced by Hand-Made include, " Mona Lisa ", " Time Bandits ", " Shanghai Surprise ", and " Withnail and I ". Throughout the 1990's, Harrison, a heavy smoker, endured an ongoing battle with cancer, having growths removed first from his throat, then his lung. There was a 1999 attempt on his life by a crazed fan who stabbed him at his home, Friar Park in Henley-on-Thames, puncturing his lung. George married twice. His first wife was the model, Patti Boyd, for whom Harrison is supposed to have written the song, " Something ". Following their divorce, Boyd married Eric Clapton who was said to have written, " Layla ", for her after their affair. Harrison married for a second time to Olivia Arias, in September 1978. The ceremony took place at their home, with Joe Brown acting as Best Man. They had one son, Dhani Harrison, born the month before.

George passed away at the home of a friend in Los Angeles, California, on Thursday, November 29, 2001, at the age of 58, death being caused by a brain tumor. He was cremated and his ashes were scattered in the River Ganges. His final album, " Brainwashed " was completed by Dhani Harrison and Jeff Lynne and released in November 2002. On November 29th, 2002, the first anniversary of his death, the Concert For George saw the two remaining Beatles Paul McCartney, and Ringo Starr join many of Harrison's friends for a special memorial concert at the Royal Albert Hall in London that benefited the Material World Charitable Foundation.





Album Discography

• Wonderwall (Film Soundtrack)
• Electronic Sound
• All Things Must Pass
• Concert For Bangla Desh
• Living In The Material World
• Extra Texture
• Dark Horse
• 33 and 1/3
• George Harrison
• Somewhere In England
• Gone Troppo
• Cloud Nine
• Traveling Wilburys Volume 1
• Traveling Wilburys Volume 3
• Live In Japan
• Brainwashed