George Harrison MBE (25 February
1943 – 29 November 2001) was an English
rock guitarist, singer-songwriter and film
producer who achieved international fame as lead guitarist in
The Beatles. Often referred to as "the
quiet Beatle", Harrison embraced Indian mysticism, and helped
broaden the horizons of the other Beatles, as well as those of
their Western audience. Following the band's breakup, he had a
successful career as a solo artist and later as part of the
Traveling Wilburys, and also as a
film and record producer. Harrison is listed number 21 in
Rolling Stone magazine's list
of "The 100 Best Guitarists of All Time".
Although most of The Beatles' songs were written by
Lennon and McCartney, Harrison generally
wrote one song per side from the
Help! album onwards. His later
compositions with The Beatles include "
Here Comes the Sun", "
Something", "
I Me Mine",
"
Taxman", "
Within You Without You", "
Think For Yourself", "
If I Needed Someone", "
The Inner Light", "
Old Brown Shoe", "
Piggies", and "
While My Guitar Gently Weeps".
By the time of the band's breakup, Harrison had accumulated a
backlog of material, which he then released as the acclaimed and
successful triple album
All
Things Must Pass in 1970, from which came two singles: a
double A-side single, "
My Sweet Lord"
backed with "
Isn't It a Pity", and
"
What Is Life". In addition to his solo
work, Harrison co-wrote two hits for
Ringo
Starr, another ex-Beatle, as well as songs for the
Traveling Wilburys—the
supergroup he formed in 1988 with
Bob Dylan,
Tom
Petty,
Jeff Lynne and
Roy Orbison.
Harrison embraced
Indian culture
and
Hinduism in the late 1960s, and helped
expand Western awareness of
sitar music and of
the
Hare Krishna movement.
With
Ravi Shankar he organised a major
charity concert with the 1971
Concert for Bangladesh, and
is the only Beatle to have published an autobiography, with
I
Me Mine in 1980.
Besides being a musician, he was also a record producer and
co-founder of the production company
Handmade Films. In his work as a film
producer, he collaborated with people as diverse as
Madonna and the members of
Monty Python. He was married twice, to the
model
Pattie Boyd in 1966, and to the
record company secretary
Olivia
Trinidad Arias in 1978, with whom he had one son,
Dhani Harrison. He was a close friend of
Eric Clapton. Harrison died of lung
cancer in 2001.
Early years: 1943–1959
Harrison
was born in Liverpool
, England, on 25 February 1943, the last of four
children to Harold Hargreaves Harrison and his wife Louise, née
French.

Harrison's first home - 12 Arnold
Grove
He had one sister, Louise, born 16 August 1931, and two brothers,
Harry, born 1934, and Peter, born 20 July 1940. His mother was a
Liverpool shop assistant, and his father was a bus conductor who
had worked as a ship's steward on the
White Star Line.
The family was Roman
Catholic; his maternal grandfather, John French, was born in
County
Wexford
, Ireland, emigrating to Liverpool where he married
a local girl, Louise Woollam.
Harrison
was born in the house where he lived for his first six years:
12 Arnold
Grove
, Wavertree
, Liverpool, which was a small 2 up, 2 down terraced house in a cul-de-sac, with an alley
to the rear. The only heating was a single coal fire, and
the toilet was outside.
In 1950 the family were offered a council house, and moved to 25 Upton Green,
Speke
.
His first
school was Dovedale Primary
School, very close to Penny Lane
, the same school as John
Lennon who was a couple of years ahead of him.
He passed
his 11-plus examination and achieved a place
at the Liverpool Institute for Boys
(in the building that now houses the Liverpool
Institute for Performing Arts
), which he attended from 1954 to 1959. When
Harrison was 14 years old, he sat at the back of the class and
tried drawing guitars in his schoolbooks: “I was totally into
guitars. I heard about this kid at school who had a guitar at ÂŁ3
10s, it was just a little acoustic round hole. I got the ÂŁ3 10s
from my mother: that was a lot of money for us then.” Harrison
bought a Dutch Egmond flat top acoustic guitar. While at the
Liverpool Institute, Harrison formed a
skiffle group called The Rebels with his brother
Peter and a friend, Arthur Kelly. At this school he met
Paul McCartney, one year older, who played in
a band called
The Quarrymen.
The Beatles: 1960–1970
Harrison became part of The Beatles when they were still a
skiffle group called
The Quarrymen. McCartney told Lennon about his
friend George Harrison, who could play "
Raunchy" on his guitar. Although Lennon
considered him too young to join the band, Harrison hung out with
them and filled in as needed. By the time he was 16, Lennon and the
others had accepted him as one of the band. Since Harrison was the
youngest member of the group, he was looked upon as a kid by the
others for another few years.
Harrison left school at 16 and worked as an apprentice electrician
at local department store
Blacklers for a
while.
When The Beatles were offered work in Hamburg
in 1960, the musical apprenticeship that Harrison received playing
long hours at the Kaiserkeller
with the rest of the group, including guitar
lessons from Tony Sheridan, laid the
foundations of The Beatles' sound, and of Harrison's quiet,
professional role within the group; this role would contribute to
his reputation as "the quiet Beatle". However, the first
trip to Hamburg was shortened when Harrison was deported for being
underage.
When
Brian Epstein became The Beatles'
manager in December 1961 after seeing them perform at The Cavern
Club
in November, he changed their image from that of
leather-jacketed rock-and-rollers to a more polished look, and
secured them a recording contract with EMI. The first
single, "
Love Me Do", with Harrison
playing a
Gibson J-160E, reached
number 17 in the UK chart in October 1962, and by the time their
debut album,
Please Please
Me, was released in early 1963, The Beatles had become
famous and
Beatlemania had arrived.
Harrison was popular with girls, receiving an estimated 30,000
gifts and cards for his 21st birthday. After he revealed in an
interview that he liked
jelly babies,
audiences showered him and the rest of the band with the sweets at
live concerts and fans sent boxes of them as gifts. Unfortunately
American fans could not obtain this soft British
confection, replacing them with the harder
jelly beans instead. To the group's
discomfort, they were frequently pelted with jelly beans during
concerts while in America.
The popularity of The Beatles led to a successful tour of America,
the making of a film,
A
Hard Day's Night (during which Harrison met his future
wife
Pattie Boyd), and in the 1965
Queen's Birthday Honours,
all four Beatles were appointed
Members of the Order of the British
Empire (MBE). Harrison, whose role within the group was that of
the careful musician who checked that the instruments were tuned,
by 1965 and the
Rubber Soul
album, was developing into a musical director as he led the others
into folk-rock, via his interest in
The
Byrds and
Bob Dylan, and into Indian
music with his exploration of the sitar. Harrison's musical
involvement and cohesion with the group reached its peak on
Revolver in 1966 with his
contribution of three songs and new musical ideas. By 1967,
Harrison's interests appeared to be moving outside The Beatles, and
his involvement in
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts
Club Band consists mainly of his one song, "
Within You Without You", on which no
other Beatle plays, and which stands out for its difference from
the rest of the album.
During the
recording of The
Beatles in 1968, tensions were present in the band; these
surfaced again during the filming of rehearsal sessions at Twickenham
Studios
for the album Let It
Be. Frustrated by ongoing slights, the poor working
conditions in the cold and sterile film studio, and Lennon's
creative disengagement from the group, Harrison quit the band on 10
January. He returned on 22 January after negotiations with the
other Beatles at two business meetings.
Relations among the Beatles were more cordial (though still
strained) during recordings for the album
Abbey Road. The album included "
Here Comes the Sun" and "
Something", which was later recorded by
Frank Sinatra, who considered it "one of the
greatest songs of the last twenty years". Harrison's increasing
productivity, coupled with his difficulties in getting The Beatles
to record his music, meant that by the end of the group's career he
had amassed a considerable stockpile of unreleased material.
Harrison's last recording session with The Beatles was on 4 January
1970. Lennon, who had left the group the previous September, did
not attend the session.
Relationships with the Beatles
For the most part of the Beatles career, the relationships in the
group were extremely close and intimate. According to Hunter Davis,
"The Beatles spent their lives not living a communal life, but
communally living the same life. They were each others greatest
friends." Harrison's wife Patti Boyd described how the Beatles "all
belonged to each other" and admitted, "George has a lot with the
others that I can never know about. Nobody, not even the wives, can
break through or even comprehend it." . Ringo Starr also stated,
"We really looked out for each other and we had so many laughs
together. In the old days we'd have the biggest hotel suites, the
whole floor of the hotel, and the four of us would end up in the
bathroom, just to be with each other." and added "There were some
really loving, caring moments between four people: a hotel room
here and there - a really amazing closeness. Just four guys who
loved each other. It was pretty sensational."
John Lennon stated that his relationship with George was "one of
young follower and older guy." and admitted that "[George] was like
a disciple of mine when we started." . The two would often go on
holiday together throughout the 60s, and George made a tribute to
Lennon with his song "All Those Years Ago".
Paul McCartney has often referred to Harrison as his "baby
brother", and he did the honours as best man at George's wedding in
1966. The two were the first of the Beatles to meet, having shared
a school bus, and would often learn and rehearse new guitar chords
together. McCartney stated that he and George usually shared
bedrooms together while touring.
Guitar work
Harrison's guitar work with The Beatles was varied, flexible and
innovative; although not fast or flashy, his guitar playing was
solid and typified the more subdued lead guitar style of the early
1960s. The influence of the
plucking
guitar style of
Chet Atkins and
Carl Perkins on Harrison gave a
country music feel to The Beatle's early
recordings. Harrison explored several guitar instruments, the
twelve-string, the
sitar and the
slide
guitar, and developed his playing from tight eight- and
twelve-bar solos in such songs as "
A Hard Day's Night" and "
Can't Buy Me Love", to lyrical
slide guitar playing, first recorded
during an early session of "
If Not for
You" for Dylan's
New
Morning in 1970. The earliest example of notable guitar
work from Harrison was the extended acoustic guitar solo of
"
Till There Was You", for which
Harrison purchased a
José
RamĂrez nylon-stringed classical guitar to produce the
sensitivity needed.
Harrison's first electric guitar was a Czech built
Futurama/Grazioso, which was a popular guitar among British
guitarists in the early 1960s. However, the guitars Harrison used
on early recordings were mainly
Gretsch
played through a
Vox amp. He used a variety
of Gretsch guitars, including a
Gretsch
Duo Jet - his first Gretsch, which he bought in 1961 second
hand off a sailor in Liverpool; a Gretsch Tennessean, and his
(first out of two) Gretsch Country Gentleman, bought new for ÂŁ234
in April 1963 at the Sound City store in London, which he used on
"
She Loves You", and on The Beatles'
1964 appearance on
The Ed
Sullivan Show.
During The Beatles' February 1964 trip to the US, Harrison acquired
a
Rickenbacker 360/12 guitar. He
had tried out the 12-string electric guitar during an interview
with a Minneapolis radio station, and was given the guitar either
by the
Rickenbacker company or the
radio station. The 360/12 was an experimental
12-string guitar with the strings reversed so that
the lower pitched string was struck first, and with an unusual
headstock design that made tuning easier.
Harrison used the guitar extensively during the recording of
A Hard Day's
Night, and the jangly sound became so popular that the
Melody Maker termed it "the
beat boys' secret weapon".
Roger
McGuinn liked the effect Harrison achieved so much that it
became his signature guitar sound with
the
Byrds.
He obtained his first
Fender
Stratocaster in 1965 and used it for the recording of the
Rubber Soul album, most notably
on the "
Nowhere Man" track, where
he played in unison with Lennon who also had a Stratocaster. Lennon
and Harrison both had Sonic Blue Stratocasters, which were bought
second hand by roadie
Mal Evans. Harrison
painted his Stratocaster in a psychedelic design that included the
word "Bebopalula" painted above the pickguard and the guitar's
nickname, "Rocky", painted on the headstock. He played this guitar
in the
Magical Mystery
Tour film and throughout his solo career.
After
David Crosby of
the Byrds introduced him to the work of
sitar master
Ravi Shankar
in 1965, Harrison---whose interest in Indian music was stirred
during the filming of
Help!,
which used Indian music as part of its soundtrack---played a sitar
on the
Rubber Soul track
"
Norwegian Wood
", expanding the already nascent Western interest in Indian music.
Harrison listed his early influences as
Carl Perkins,
Bo
Diddley,
Chuck Berry and the
Everly Brothers.
Song writing and singing
Harrison wrote his first song, "
Don't
Bother Me", while sick in a hotel bed in Bournemouth during
August 1963, as an exercise "to see if I could write a song", as he
remembered. "Don't Bother Me" appeared on the second Beatles album
(
With the Beatles) later
that year, then on
Meet the
Beatles! in the US in early 1964, and also briefly in the
film
A Hard Day's
Night. The group did not record another Harrison
composition until 1965, when he contributed "
I Need You" and "
You Like Me Too Much" to the album
Help!.
Harrison's songwriting improved greatly through the years, but his
material did not earn respect from his fellow Beatles until near
the group's breakup. McCartney told Lennon in 1969: "Until this
year, our songs have been better than George's. Now this year his
songs are at least as good as ours". Harrison had difficulty
getting the band to record his songs. The group's incorporation of
Harrison's material reached a peak of three songs on the 1966
Revolver album and four
songs on the 1968 double
The
Beatles.
Harrison performed the lead vocal on all Beatles songs that he
wrote by himself. He also sang lead vocal on other songs, including
"
Chains" and "
Do You Want to Know a Secret"
on
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" on
Beatles for
Sale.
Solo work: 1968–1987
Before The Beatles split up in 1970, Harrison had already recorded
and released two solo albums,
Wonderwall Music and
Electronic Sound. These albums,
however, were mainly instrumental.
Wonderwall Music was a
soundtrack to the
Wonderwall film in which Harrison
blended Indian and Western sounds; while
Electronic Sound
was an experiment in using a
Moog
synthesiser. It was only when Harrison was free from The
Beatles that he released what is regarded as his first "real" solo
album, the commercially successful and critically acclaimed
All Things Must
Pass.
All Things Must Pass (1970)
After years of being restricted in his song-writing contributions
to The Beatles,
All Things Must
Pass contained such a large outpouring of Harrison's songs
that it was released as a
triple album,
though only two of the discs contained songs - the third contained
recordings of Harrison
jamming with
friends. The album is regarded as his best work; it was a critical
and commercial success, topping the charts on both sides of the
Atlantic, and producing the number-one
hit
single "
My Sweet Lord" as well as
the top-10 single "
What Is Life". The
album was co-produced by
Phil Spector
using his "
Wall of Sound" approach,
and the musicians included
Eric
Clapton,
Dave Mason,
Billy Preston, and
Ringo Starr.
Harrison was later sued for
copyright infringement over the
single "My Sweet Lord" because of its similarity to the 1963
Chiffons single "
He's So Fine", owned by Bright Tunes. Harrison
denied deliberately stealing the song, but he lost the resulting
court case in 1976 as the judge accepted that Harrison had
"subconsciously" plagiarised "He's So Fine". When considering
liable earnings, "My Sweet Lord"'s contribution to the sales of
All Things Must Pass and
The Best of George Harrison
were taken into account, and the judge decided a figure of
$1,599,987 was owed to Bright Tunes. The dispute over damages
became complicated when Harrison's manager
Allen Klein changed sides by buying Bright Tunes
and then continuing the suit against Harrison. In 1981, a district
judge decided that Klein had acted improperly, and it was agreed
that Harrison should pay Klein $587,000, the amount Klein had paid
for Bright Tunes - so he would gain nothing from the deal, and that
Harrison would take over ownership of Bright Tunes, making him the
owner of the rights to both "My Sweet Lord" and "He's So Fine" and
thus ending the copyright infringement claim. Though the dispute
dragged on into the 1990s, the district judge's decision was
upheld.
The Concert for Bangladesh (1971)
Harrison
organised a major charity concert,
The Concert for Bangladesh, with Ravi Shankar on 1 August 1971, drawing over
40,000 people to two shows in New York's Madison
Square Garden
. The aim of the event was to raise money to
aid the starving refugees during the
Bangladesh Liberation War. Ravi
Shankar opened the proceedings, which included other popular
musicians such as
Bob Dylan (who rarely
appeared live in the early 1970s),
Eric
Clapton, who made his first public appearance in months (due to
a heroin addiction which began when
Derek and the Dominos broke up),
Leon Russell,
Badfinger,
Billy
Preston and fellow Beatle
Ringo
Starr. Tax troubles and questionable expenses tied up many of
the concert's proceeds. Apple Corporation released a newly arranged
concert DVD and CD in October 2005 (with all artists' sales
royalties continuing to go to
UNICEF), which
contained additional material such as previously unreleased
rehearsal footage of "
If Not for
You", featuring Harrison and Dylan.
Living in the Material World to George
Harrison (1972–1979)
Harrison would not again release an album that came close to the
critical and commercial achievements of
All Things Must
Pass. Although 1973's
Living in the Material
World initially did well, holding number one spot on the
US album chart for 5 weeks and reaching number two in the UK, and
the album's single, "
Give Me Love ", was
also successful, reaching number one in the US and the top ten in
the UK, neither could match the sales of
All Things Must
Pass and "My Sweet Lord". The album was lavishly produced and
packaged, and its dominant message was the power of Harrison's
Hindu beliefs. The one fully secular song, "Sue Me, Sue You Blues",
expressed Harrison's disgust with the endless legal squabbling that
had overtaken all of the former Beatles. The
Dark Horse album of 1974 written
after Harrison's breakup with his wife
Pattie Boyd and when he was suffering from
laryngitis received harsh reviews, as did
the accompanying tour of North America. Harrison was criticized for
poor songwriting and poor vocals on the album, and for
over-indulging his love for Indian music during the tour. The album
and single "
Dark Horse" did
briefly make an appearance near the top of the US charts, but both
failed to chart in the UK.
His final studio album for EMI (and Apple Records) was
Extra Texture ,
featuring a
diecut cover. The
album spawned two singles, "
You" which reached the Billboard
top 20 and "
This
Guitar ", which became Apple's final original single release in
December 1975. It was also the first solo Beatles single that
failed to chart in the US. Following the former Beatle's departure
from Capitol, the record company was in a position to licence
releases featuring Beatles and post-Beatles work on the same album,
using Harrison for this experiment.
The Best of George Harrison
(1976) combined his Beatles songs with a selection of his solo
Apple work.
Thirty Three &
1/3 his first Dark Horse release, was his most successful
late-1970s album, reaching number 11 on the US charts in 1976, and
producing the singles "
This Song" (a
satire of the "
My Sweet
Lord"-"
He's So Fine" court case
ruling) and "
Crackerbox Palace",
both of which reached the top 25 in the US. With an emphasis on
melody, musicianship, and subtler subject matter rather than the
heavy orchestration and didactic messaging of earlier works, he
received his best critical notices since
All Things Must
Pass. With its surreal humor, "Crackerbox Palace" also
reflected Harrison's association with
Monty
Python's
Eric Idle, who directed a
comic
music video for the song. After
his second marriage and the birth of son
Dhani Harrison, Harrison's next released a
self-titled album. 1979's
George Harrison included the
singles "
Blow Away", "
Love Comes to Everyone" and "
Faster". Both the album and
"Blow Away" made the Billboard top 20.
In addition to his own works during this time, between 1971 and
1973 Harrison co-wrote or produced three top ten US and UK hits for
Ringo Starr ("
It Don't Come
Easy", "
Back Off Boogaloo",
and "
Photograph").
Harrison played electric, slide and
dobro
guitars on five songs on John Lennon's 1971
Imagine album ("
How Do You Sleep?", "
Oh My Love", "
I Don't Want to Be a Soldier",
"
Crippled Inside" and "
Gimme Some Truth"), with his stinging slide
guitar work on the first of these indicating that he took John's
side of the intense Lennon-McCartney feud of the time. Lennon later
said of Harrison's work on the album, "That's the best he's ever
fucking played in his life!" Harrison also produced and played
slide guitar on the Apple band
Badfinger's
1971 top ten US and UK hit "
Day
After Day".
During the decade, Harrison also worked with
Harry Nilsson ("You're Breakin' My Heart",
1972), as well as
Billy Preston
("
That's the Way God
Planned It", 1969 and "
It's My
Pleasure", 1975) and
Cheech &
Chong ("
Basketball
Jones", 1973).
Somewhere in England to Cloud Nine
(1980–1987)
Harrison
was deeply shocked by the 8 December 1980 murder of
John Lennon
. The crime reinforced his decades-long
worries about safety from
stalkers. It was
also a deep personal loss, although unlike former bandmates
McCartney and Starr, Harrison had little contact with Lennon in the
years before the murder. Their estrangement had been marked by
Harrison's longstanding dislike of Yoko Ono, his refusal to allow
her participation in the
Concert for Bangladesh, and his
omission of any mention of Lennon in his autobiography,
I Me
Mine, published the year of Lennon's murder. The omission had
upset Lennon greatly, which Harrison had regretted, leading him to
leave a telephone message for Lennon, but Lennon had declined to
return the call and they had not spoken again. Following the
murder, Harrison said, "After all we went through together I had
and still have great love and respect for John Lennon. I am shocked
and stunned. To rob life is the ultimate robbery in life."
Harrison modified the lyrics of a song he had written for Starr to
make it a tribute song to Lennon. "
All Those Years Ago" received
substantial radio airplay, reaching number two on the US charts.
All three surviving ex-Beatles performed on it, although it was
expressly a Harrison single. "Teardrops" was issued as a follow-up
single, but was not nearly as successful. Both singles came from
the album
Somewhere in
England, released in 1981. Originally slated for release
in late 1980,
Warner Bros. rejected the
album, ordering Harrison to replace several tracks, and to change
the album cover as well. The original album cover that Harrison
wanted was used in the 2004 reissue of the album. In 1981, Harrison
played guitar on one track of
Mick
Fleetwood's record
The Visitor and
Lindsey Buckingham's song "Walk a Thin
Line".
Aside from a song on the
Porky's
Revenge soundtrack in 1984 (his version of a little-known
Bob Dylan song "I Don't Want To Do It"),
Harrison released no new records for five years after 1982's
Gone Troppo received apparent
indifference. In 1985, Harrison made a rare public appearance on
the
Showtime special
Carl Perkins and Friends along with Starr
and Clapton among others. He only agreed to appear because he was a
close admirer of Perkins.
In 1987 Harrison returned with the critically acclaimed platinum
album
Cloud
Nine, co-produced with
Jeff
Lynne of
Electric Light
Orchestra, and enjoyed a hit (number one in the US; number two
in the UK) when his rendition of
James Ray's early 1960s number "
Got My Mind Set on You" was released
as a single; another single, "
When We
Was Fab", a retrospective of The Beatles' days complete with
musical flavours for each bandmate, was also a minor hit.
MTV regularly played the two videos, and elevated
Harrison's public profile with another generation of music
listeners. The album reached number eight and number ten on the US
and UK charts, respectively. In the US, several tracks also enjoyed
high placement on Billboard's Album Rock chart - "Devil's Radio",
"
This Is Love"
and "Cloud 9" in addition to the aforementioned singles.
Live performances 1971–1992
On 23 November 1971, Harrison appeared on an episode of
The Dick Cavett Show
in a band called Wonder Wheel performing a song written by
Gary Wright called "Two Faced Man". George
Harrison played slide guitar in this band as a favour since Wright
had played piano on Harrison's album
All Things Must Pass. The episode
can be viewed on DVD "The
Dick Cavett
Show: Rock Icons: Disc 3".
Harrison launched a major tour of the United States in 1974.
Critical and fan reaction panned the tour for its long mid-concert
act of Pandit Ravi Shankar & Friends and for Harrison's hoarse
voice.Harrison had hired filmmaker
David
Acomba to accompany the tour and gather footage for a
documentary. Due to Harrison's hoarse voice throughout most of this
tour, the film was not released, but in 2007 Acomba placed a newly
revised director's cut in the Harrison archive. It was the last
time he toured in the United States.
In 1986,
Harrison made a surprise performance at the Birmingham Heart Beat
Charity Concert 1986 a concert event to raise money for the
Birmingham Children's
Hospital
. Harrison played and sang the finale
"
Johnny B. Goode" along with
Robert Plant,
The
Moody Blues, and
Electric
Light Orchestra, among others.
The following year, Harrison appeared at
The Prince's Trust concert in
Wembley
Arena
, performing "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" and
"Here Comes the Sun" with Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton, and
others.
In 1991, Harrison staged a tour of Japan along with
Eric Clapton. It was his first tour since the
1974 US tour, but no other tours followed. The
Live in Japan
recording came from these shows.
On 6
April 1992 Harrison held a benefit concert for the Natural Law Party at Royal Albert
Hall
, his first London performance in 23 years and his
last full concert. In October 1992, Harrison performed three
songs ("If Not for You", "Absolutely Sweet Marie", and
"My Back Pages") at a Bob Dylan tribute concert at Madison
Square Garden
in New York City. This was released on the
album
The
30th Anniversary Concert Celebration in August 1993.
Later life: 1988–2001
Early in 1989, Harrison, Lynne and Ringo Starr all appeared in the
music video for
Tom Petty's "I Won't Back
Down", although Starr did not actually play on the track; Harrison
played acoustic guitar. The same year also saw the release of
Best of Dark
Horse 1976–1989, a compilation drawn from his later solo
work. This album also included two new songs, "Poor Little Girl",
and "Cockamamie Business" (which saw him once again looking wryly
upon his Beatle past), as well as "
Cheer
Down", which had first been released earlier in the year on the
soundtrack to the film
Lethal Weapon
2, which starred
Mel Gibson and
Danny Glover. Unlike his previous
greatest hits package, Harrison made sure to oversee this
compilation. In 1989 Harrison played slide guitar on the "
Leave a Light On" song from
Belinda Carlisle's third album "
Runaway Horses". The song was a commercial
success worldwide.
In 1996, Harrison recorded, produced and played on "Distance Makes
No Difference With Love" with
Carl
Perkins for his
Go-Cat-Go record.
Harrison's final television appearance was not intended as such; in
fact, he was not the featured artist, and the appearance had been
intended to promote
Chants of
India, another collaboration with Ravi Shankar released in
1997, at the height of interest in
chant
music.
John Fugelsang, then of
VH1, conducted the interview, and at one point
an acoustic guitar was produced and handed to Harrison. When an
audience member asked to hear "a Beatles song", Harrison pulled a
sheepish look and answered, "I don't think I know any!" Harrison
then played "All Things Must Pass" and "Any Road", a song which
subsequently appeared on the 2002
Brainwashed album.
In
January 1998, Harrison attended the funeral of his boyhood idol,
Carl Perkins, in Jackson,
Tennessee
. Harrison played an impromptu version of
Perkins' song "Your True Love" during the service. That same year
he attended the public memorial service for
Linda McCartney. Also that same year, he
appeared on
Ringo Starr's
Vertical Man, where he played both
electric and slide guitars on two tracks.
In 2001, Harrison performed as a guest musician on the
Electric Light Orchestra album
Zoom. He played slide guitar
on the song "Love Letters" for
Bill
Wyman's Rhythm Kings, and remastered and restored unreleased
tracks from the Traveling Wilburys. He also co-wrote a new song
with his son Dhani, "
Horse to the
Water". The latter song ended up as Harrison's final recording
session, on 2 October. It appeared on
Jools Holland's album
Small World, Big Band.
Harrison's final album,
Brainwashed, was completed by
Dhani Harrison and
Jeff Lynne and released on 18 November 2002. It
received generally positive reviews in the United States, and
peaked at number 18 on the
Billboard
charts. A media-only single, "
Stuck Inside a Cloud", was heavily
played on UK and US radio to promote the album (number 27 on
Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart), while the official single
"
Any Road", released in May 2003, reached
number 37 on the British chart. The instrumental track, "Marwa
Blues" went on to receive the
2004
Grammy Award for
Best Pop Instrumental
Performance, while the single "Any Road" was nominated for
Best Male Pop Vocal
Performance.
The Traveling Wilburys: 1988–1990
In 1988, Harrison played an instrumental role in forming the
Traveling Wilburys 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 realised the track ("
Handle With Care") was too good for
its original purpose as a B-side and asked for a full, separate
album. This had to be completed within two weeks, as Dylan was
scheduled to start a tour. The album,
Traveling Wilburys Vol.
1, was released
in October 1988 and recorded under pseudonyms as half-brothers
(supposed sons of Charles Truscott Wilbury, Sr.). Harrison's
pseudonym on the first album was "Nelson Wilbury"; he would use the
name "Spike Wilbury" for the Traveling Wilburys' second
album.
After the death of Roy Orbison in late 1988 the group recorded as a
four-piece. Though
Traveling Wilburys Vol.
3 was their
second release, the album was mischievously titled
Vol.
3 by Harrison. According to Lynne, "That was George's
idea. He said, 'Let's confuse the buggers.'" It was not as well
received as the previous album, but did reach number 14 in the UK
and number 11 in the US where it went platinum, while the singles
"
She's My Baby", "Inside Out", and
"
Wilbury Twist" got decent air
play.
The Beatles Anthology: 1994–1996
In 1994–1996, Harrison reunited with the surviving former Beatles,
and Traveling Wilburys producer Jeff Lynne for
The Beatles
Anthology project, which included the recording of two new
Beatles songs built around solo vocal and piano tapes recorded by
John Lennon in the late 1970s, as well as the lengthy interviews on
The Beatles' history. The single "
Free as
a Bird", was the first Beatles single since "
The Long and Winding Road" in
1970.
HandMade Films: 1978–1994
HandMade Films was a British film production and distribution
company that Harrison formed in 1978 with his business partner,
Denis O'Brien. It was
created to help out his
Monty Python
friends by raising ÂŁ2 million to finish their film
Life of Brian after
EMI Films, the original financiers, pulled
out due to the film's satirical content. Harrison took the name
from some
handmade paper he had been
given on a mill visit. Though the company was formed with the
intention of funding just the one film, Harrison and O'Brien bought
the rights to
The Long Good
Friday, which had been faced with various cuts, and
released it in its original form.
The first film started under the company was
Time Bandits in 1981. Harrison produced
twenty three films with HandMade, including
Mona Lisa,
Shanghai Surprise, and
Withnail and I. He made several
cameo appearances in these movies,
including appearing as a nightclub singer in
Shanghai Surprise and as Mr
Papadopolous in
Life of
Brian. Handmade Films became a rarity in the British film
industry, a production company that was both consistently
successful and internationally known. The company was well regarded
both for nurturing British talent and for most of its films having
British settings or inspirations.
Harrison was involved in some creative decisions, approving
projects such as
Withnail and I and visiting sets as
executive producer to sort out creative problems. On the whole,
though, Harrison preferred to stay out of the way: "[As a musician]
I've been the person who's said of the people with the money, 'What
do they know?' and now I'm that person. But I know that unless you
give an artist as much freedom as possible, there's no point in
using that artist."
The bulk of the financial and business decisions were left to
O'Brien, who was tasked with making sure that films got made on
time and on budget. This eventually resulted in disagreements and
lawsuits between the pair as Handmade Films encountered reversals,
and Harrison sold the company in 1994.
Interest in Indian culture
Sitar and Indian music
During the Beatles' American tour in August 1965, Harrison's friend
David Crosby of
the Byrds introduced him to
Indian classical music and the work
of
sitar player
Ravi
Shankar. Harrison became fascinated with the instrument,
immersed himself in Indian music and played a pivotal role in
expanding the emerging interest in the sitar in particular and
Indian music in general in the
West.
Buying
his own first sitar from a London shop called India Craft later
that year (as he recalled during interviews for "The Beatles
Anthology"), he played one on the Rubber
Soul track "Norwegian Wood ", which
was influential in the decision to have Ravi Shankar included on
the bill at the Monterey Pop Festival
in June 1967. After a few initial lessons
with Pandit Ravi Shankar, Harrison was placed under the tutelage of
Shambhu Das.
Hinduism
During
the filming of the movie Help!, on location in the Bahamas
, a Hindu devotee presented
each Beatle with a book about reincarnation. Harrison's interest in
Indian culture expanded to
Hinduism.
During a
pilgrimage to Bombay,
India
with his wife, Harrison studied sitar, met several
gurus and visited various holy places, filling
the months between the end of the final Beatles tour in 1966 and
the commencement of the Sgt.
Pepper's
Lonely Hearts Club Band recording sessions. In 1968,
Harrison traveled to India with the other Beatles to study
meditation with the
Maharishi
Mahesh Yogi.
In the summer of 1969, he produced the single "
Hare Krishna Mantra", performed by the
devotees of the London
Radha Krishna Temple. That same year, he and fellow Beatle
John Lennon met
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami
Prabhupada, founder -
acharya of the
International
Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON). Soon after,
Harrison embraced the Hare Krishna tradition (particularly
japa-yoga chanting with beads), became a
lifelong devotee, being associated with it until his death.
While
during his lifetime, Harrison bequeathed to ISKCON his Letchmore
Heath
mansion (renamed Bhaktivedanta Manor
) north of London, some sources indicate he left
nothing to the organisation, others report he did leave a sum of 20
million pounds.
Personal life

Photo of a copy of Harrison's birth
certificate
Harrison
married model Pattie Boyd on 21 January
1966, at the Leatherhead
and Esher
Registry
Office, with McCartney as best men.
They had met during the filming for
A Hard Day's Night, in which
the 19-year-old Boyd was cast as a schoolgirl fan. After Harrison
and Boyd split up in 1974, she moved in with
Eric Clapton and they subsequently
married.
Harrison married for a second time, to
Dark Horse Records secretary
Olivia Trinidad Arias on 2 September
1978. They had met at the Dark Horse offices in Los Angeles in
1974. They had one son,
Dhani
Harrison. After the 1999 stabbing incident in which Olivia
subdued Harrison's assailant nearly single-handedly, Harrison
received a fax from his close friend
Tom
Petty that read: "Aren't you glad you married a Mexican girl?"
Harrison formed a close friendship with Clapton in the late 1960s,
and they co-wrote the song "
Badge",
which was released on
Cream's
Goodbye album in
1969. Harrison also played
rhythm
guitar on the song. For contractual reasons, Harrison was
required to use the pseudonym "L'Angelo Misterioso", meaning "The
Mysterious Angel" in Italian. Harrison wrote one of his
compositions for The Beatles'
Abbey
Road album, "
Here Comes the
Sun", in Clapton's back garden. Clapton also guested on the
Harrison-penned Beatles track "
While My Guitar Gently Weeps".
Through Clapton, Harrison met
Delaney
Bramlett, who introduced Harrison to slide guitar. They
remained close friends after
Pattie Boyd
split from Harrison and married Clapton, referring to each other as
"husbands-in-law".
Through his appreciation of Monty Python he met Python member
Eric Idle. The two became close friends,
with Harrison appearing on Idle's
Rutland Weekend Television series
and in his Beatles spoof,
The Rutles'
All You Need Is Cash.
Idle also performed at the Concert for George, held to commemorate
Harrison.
An
accomplished gardener, Harrison restored the English manor house
and grounds of Friar
Park
, which once belonged to Victorian eccentric Sir
Frank Crisp. Purchased in 1970,
the home is the basis for the song "Ballad of Sir Frankie Crisp
(Let It Roll)". Several Harrison videos were also filmed on the
grounds, including "
Crackerbox
Palace"; in addition, the grounds served as the background for
the cover of
All Things Must
Pass.
He employed a staff of ten workers to
maintain the 36-acre garden, and both of his older brothers worked
on Friar
Park
as well. Harrison took great solace working
in the garden and grew to consider himself more a gardener than a
musician; his autobiography is dedicated "to gardeners
everywhere".
That autobiography,
I Me Mine, published in 1980, is the
only full autobiography by an ex-Beatle. Former Beatles' publicist
Derek Taylor helped with the book,
which was initially released in a high-priced limited edition by
Genesis Publications. The book
said little about The Beatles, focusing instead on Harrison's
hobbies, such as gardening and
Formula
One automobile racing. It also included the lyrics to his songs
and some photographs with humorous captions.
Harrison had an interest in
sports cars
and
motor racing; he was one of the 100
people who purchased the
McLaren F1 road
car, and would often attend
Formula One
races. He had collected photos of racing drivers and their cars
since he was young; when he was 12 he attended his first race, the
1955 British Grand Prix at
Aintree, in which
Stirling Moss won his first Grand
Prix. He wrote "
Faster" as a tribute to the
Formula One racing drivers
Jackie Stewart and
Ronnie Peterson. Proceeds from its release
went to the
Gunnar Nilsson cancer
charity, set up following the Swedish driver's death from the
disease in 1978.
Harrison's first "important" car was
recently sold at auction in Battersea Park
, London. The 1964 Aston
Martin DB5 was bought new and delivered to Harrison personally
in 1965 at his Kinfauns estate
in Esher
, Surrey
,
England.
In late 1999 Harrison survived a knife attack by an intruder in his
home.
At
3:30 AM on 30 December 1999 Michael
Abram broke into the Harrisons' Friar Park
home in Henley-on-Thames
and began loudly calling to Harrison.
Harrison left the bedroom to investigate while his wife, Olivia,
phoned the police. Abram attacked Harrison with a seven-inch
kitchen knife, inflicting seven stab wounds, puncturing a lung and
causing head injuries before Olivia Harrison incapacitated the
assailant by striking him repeatedly with a fireplace poker. The
attack lasted approximately fifteen minutes.35-year-old Abram, who
believed he was possessed by Harrison and was on a "mission from
God" to kill him, was later acquitted of attempted murder on
grounds of insanity, but was detained for treatment in a secure
hospital. He was released in 2002 after 19 months' detention.
Traumatized by the break-in and attack, Harrison rarely appeared in
public afterwards.
Death
Harrison developed throat cancer, which was discovered in 1997
after a lump on his neck was analysed. He attributed it to his
smoking in the 1960s.
Early in May 2001, it was revealed that he
had undergone an operation at the Mayo Clinic
to remove a cancerous growth from one of his
lungs. In July of that year, it was reported that Harrison
was receiving radiotherapy for a brain tumour at a clinic in
Switzerland.In November 2001, Harrison began radiotherapy at
Staten Island
University Hospital in New York City. During his treatment
there, Dr. Gilbert Lederman, a radiation oncologist, allegedly
revealed confidential medical information to the public and forced
Harrison to autograph a guitar. The incident led to a lawsuit,
which was ultimately settled out of court under the condition that
the guitar be "disposed of".
Despite the treatments and operations,
Harrison died on 29 November 2001 at a Hollywood Hills
mansion that was once leased by McCartney and was
previously owned by Courtney
Love. His death was listed on his Los Angeles County
death certificate as "
metastatic non-small cell lung cancer".
He was cremated at
Hollywood
Forever Cemetery
and his ashes were scattered in the Ganges
River by his
close family in a private ceremony according to Hindu
tradition. He left almost ÂŁ100 million in his
will.
In 2002,
on the first anniversary of Harrison's death, the Concert for George was held at the
Royal Albert
Hall
; it was organized by Eric Clapton and included
performances by many of Harrison's musical friends. The
profits from the concert went to Harrison's charity, the Material
World Charitable Foundation.
Honours
Harrison's first official honour was when The Beatles were
appointed Members of the Order of the British Empire (
MBE) in 1965, and received their
insignia from
the
Queen at an investiture at Buckingham Palace on 26 October.
Another award with The Beatles came in 1970 when they won an
Academy Award for the best Original
Song Score for
Let It
Be.
A significant music award as a solo artist was in December 1992,
when he became the first recipient of the
Billboard Century Award - presented
to music artists for significant bodies of work. The minor planet
4149, discovered on 9 March 1984 by B. A. Skiff at the Anderson
Mesa Station of the Lowell Observatory, was named after Harrison.
In 2003, Harrison was ranked 21st in
Rolling Stone's list of
The 100 Greatest
Guitarists of All Time.
Harrison
was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
as a solo artist on 15 March 2004 by his Traveling Wilburys friends Jeff Lynne and Tom
Petty. He was inducted into the Madison Square Garden
Walk of Fame on 1 August 2006 for the
Concert for Bangladesh.
Harrison featured twice on the cover of
Time magazine, initially with The
Beatles in 1967, then on his own, shortly after his death in 2001.
In June
2007, portraits of Harrison and John Lennon were unveiled at
The
Mirage
Hotel on the Las Vegas Strip
, where they will be on permanent display. In
September 2007,
Variety
announced that
Martin Scorsese would
make a film about Harrison's life.
On 14
April 2009, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce awarded Harrison a
star on the Walk of Fame
in front of the Capitol Records Building
. (The Beatles have a group star on the Walk
of Fame, but Harrison and John Lennon are presently the only
individual members to be honoured with a star, but Starr will be
awarded with one in 2010.) Musicians Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne and Paul
McCartney were among those in attendance when the star was
unveiled. Harrison's widow Olivia, actor
Tom
Hanks and comedian
Eric Idle made
speeches at the ceremony; Harrison's son Dhani uttered the
Hare Krishna mantra.
After the ceremony,
Capitol
Records
/EMI Records announced
that a new career-spanning CD entitled Let It Roll: Songs by
George Harrison would be released in mid-June
2009.
Solo discography
Notes
- Many published sources give Harold as Harrison's middle name:
Everett, The Beatles as Musicians: The Quarry Men Through
Rubber Soul, p 36; The Lost Lennon Interviews, page 246,
Geoffrey Giuliano, John Lennon, Vrnda Devi, Published by Omnibus
Press, 1998, ISBN 0-7119-6470-X. Others, however, dispute that,
based on the absence of any middle name on Harrison's birth
certificate:( ).
- The Acoustic Rock Masters, page 23, H. P.
Newquist, Rich Maloof, Backbeat Books, 2003, ISBN
0-87930-761-7
- Schaffner, The Boys from Liverpool, pp 77-78.
- Handwritten Harrison Beatles lyrics up for
auction, CBC Arts, 11 January 2007. Retrieved 13 December
2008
- Reliable sources and his birth certificate show his birth date
as 25 February, though some sources give 24 February.
- Miles and Badman, The Beatles Diary, p. 6.
- Harry, The Beatles Encyclopedia, p 492.
- Ingham, Rough Guide to the Beatles, p 328.
- Miles and Badman, The Beatles Diary, p. 7.
- Harrison, I Me Mine, p 28.
- Frame, Rockin' Around Britain, p 73.
- Giuliano, Dark Horse, p 9.
- Shapiro, Behind Sad Eyes, p 23.
- Davies, The Beatles 1985, pp 44–45.
- Davies, The Beatles 1985, p 55.
- Harrison, I Me Mine, p 29.
- Leng, While My Guitar Gently Weeps 2006, pp 2-6.
- Miles and Badman, The Beatles Diary, p. 27.
- Schaffner, The Boys from Liverpool, pp 7-10.
- Babiuk, Lewisohn, and Bacon, Beatles Gear, p 59.
- Everett, The Beatles as Musicians: The Quarry Men Through
Rubber Soul, p 126.
- Babiuk, Lewisohn, and Bacon, Beatles Gear, pp 72-73.
- The Songwriting Secrets of the
Beatles, page 560, Dominic Pedler, Omnibus Press, 2003,
ISBN 0-7119-8167-1
- Greene, Here Comes the Sun, p 34.
- Leng, While My Guitar Gently Weeps 2003, p 13.
- Turn! Turn! Turn!: The '60s Folk-rock
Revolution, pp 180-181, Richie Unterberger, Backbeat
Books, 2002, ISBN 0-87930-703-X
- Contributions to Asian Studies, pp 34 - 36,
Jon B Higgins, K Ishwaran, Brill Academic Publishers, 1978, ISBN
90-04-05809-5
- Leng, While My Guitar Gently Weeps 2003, p 14.
- Leng, While My Guitar Gently Weeps 2003, p 19.
- Schaffner, The Boys from Liverpool, pp 75-78.
- Everett, The Beatles as Musicians: Revolver through the
Anthology, pp 111-112.
- Leng, While My Guitar Gently Weeps 2006, pp 29-30.
- Babiuk, Lewisohn, and Bacon, Beatles Gear, p 217.
- Miles and Badman, The Beatles Diary, p. 354.
- Frank Sinatra: The Man, the Music, the
Legend, page 38, Jeanne Fuchs, Ruth Prigozy, Boydell &
Brewer, 2007, ISBN 1-58046-251-0
-
http://www.amazon.com/Beatles-Hunter-Davies/dp/0393315711/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1259526049&sr=1-1
-
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Beatles-Anthology/dp/0304356050/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1259583324&sr=1-1
- http://www.beatlesinterviews.org/db1980.jlpb.beatles.html
-
http://www.theinsider.com/news/1030566_Sir_Paul_McCartney_says_George_Harrison_was_like_his_baby_brother
- http://taz4158.tripod.com/macint.htm
- Guitar World Presents the 100 Greatest
Guitarists of All Time, p 17, Jeff Kitts, Hal Leonard
Corporation, 2002, ISBN 0-634-04619-5
- All Music Guide: The Experts Guide to the Best
Recordings page 181, Vladimir Bogdanov, Chris Woodstra, Stephen
Thomas Erlewine, Backbeat Books, 2001, ISBN 0-87930-627-0
- Leng, While My Guitar Gently Weeps 2003, p 50.
- Everett, The Beatles as Musicians: The Quarry Men Through
Rubber Soul, p 182.
- Leng, While My Guitar Gently Weeps 2006, p 11.
- Time 2.40 minutes - 3.50 minutes
- Everett, The Beatles as Musicians: The Quarry Men Through
Rubber Soul, p 270.
- 50 Years of Gretsch Electrics, page
65, Tony Bacon, Backbeat Books, 2005, ISBN 0-87930-822-2
- The History of Rickenbacker Guitars, pp 77-79, Richard
R. Smith, Centerstream Publications, 1988, ISBN 0-931759-15-3
- Babiuk, Lewisohn, and Bacon, Beatles Gear, pp 110-112.
- Fretbase, George Harrison's 12 String
Rickenbacker
- Babiuk, Lewisohn, and Bacon, Beatles Gear, p 120.
- Christie's Rock and Pop Memorabilia,
page 82, Peter Doggett, Sarah Hodgson, Pavilion, 2003, ISBN
1-86205-538-6
- The Fender Stratocaster, page 22, A.
R. Duchossoir, Eric Clapton, Hal Leonard Corporation, 1994, ISBN
0-7935-4735-0
- Babiuk, Lewisohn, and Bacon, Beatles Gear, p 157.
- Everett, The Beatles as Musicians: The Quarry Men Through
Rubber Soul, p 193.
- Miles (1997) p554
- John Lennon: One Day at a Time: a Personal Biography of the
Seventies, page 96, Anthony Fawcett, New English Library, 20
January 1977, ISBN 0-450-03073-3
- Icons of Rock: An Encyclopedia of the Legends who Changed
Music Forever, page 174, Scott Schinder, Greenwood Press,
2008, ISBN 0-313-33846-9
- The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll: Revised
and Updated for the 21st Century, page 413, Holly
George-Warren, Patricia Romanowski, Patricia Romanowski Bashe, Jon
Pareles, Fireside, 2001, ISBN 0-7432-0120-5
- The Dawn of Indian Music in the West,
page 182, Peter Lavezzoli, Continuum International Publishing
Group, 2006, ISBN 0-8264-1815-5
- All Music Guide to Rock, page 508,
Vladimir Bogdanov, Chris Woodstra, Stephen Thomas Erlewine,
Backbeat Books, 2002, ISBN 0-87930-653-X
- Schaffner, The Boys from Liverpool, p 155.
- Sonic Alchemy: Visionary Music Producers and
Their Maverick Recordings, pp 36 - 37, David N. Howard,
Hal Leonard Corporation, 2004, ISBN 0-634-05560-7
- All Music Guide: The Experts Guide to the Best
Recordings, page 181, Vladimir Bogdanov, Chris Woodstra,
Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Backbeat Books, 2001, ISBN
0-87930-627-0
- In early 2007, it was determined that All Things Must
Pass should have been noted as a number one album in the
United Kingdom when first released in the winter of 1970-71.
Because some sales were not properly counted, the album originally
peaked at number four in Britain.
- Schaffner, The Beatles Forever, p 142.
- The "My Sweet Lord"/"He's So Fine" Plagiarism Suit,
Joseph C. Self, The 910, 1993. Retrieved 13 December 2008
- Huntley, Mystical One.
- Schaffner, The Beatles Forever, pp 158–159.
- Leng, While My Guitar Gently Weeps 2003, pp 111-112.
- Greene, Here Comes the Sun, p 213.
- Schaffner The Beatles Forever, pp. 209–210.
- Schaffner, The Beatles Forever, p 192.
- Schaffner, The Boys from Liverpool, p 164.
- Leng, While My Guitar Gently Weeps 2006, pp 108–109.
- Schaffner, The Beatles Forever, p 145.
- Without You: The Tragic Story of
Badfinger, p 136, Dan Matovina, Frances Glover Books,
2000, ISBN 0-9657122-2-2
- Shapiro, Behind Sad Eyes, p 219.
- Leng, While My Guitar Gently Weeps 2006, p 59.
- Shapiro, Behind Sad Eyes, p 220.
- Harry, The George Harrison Encyclopedia, p 247.
- Harry, The George Harrison Encyclopedia, p 246.
- Ingham, Rough Guide to the Beatles, p 159.
- Tom Petty
- Bob Dylan: Performing Artist 1986–1990 &
Beyond: Mind Out of Time pp129-138, Paul Williams, Omnibus
Press, 2004, ISBN 1-84449-281-8. retrieved 13 December 2008
- Hurwitz, Matt. "Wilburys set to travel again" USA
Today 11 June 2007
- Everett, The Beatles as Musicians: Revolver Through the
Anthology, p 286.
- Davies, The Beatles 1985, pp 362–363.
- Encyclopedia of Contemporary British Culture, Peter
Childs and Mike Storry, Taylor & Francis, 1999, ISBN
0-415-14726-3 pp 245–246
- Withnail & I: Everything You Ever Wanted to
Know But Were Too Drunk to Ask, pp 26–27, Thomas
Hewitt-McManus, Lulu.com, 2006, ISBN 1-4116-5821-3
- Leng, While My Guitar Gently Weeps 2006, p 243.
- Ingham, Rough Guide to the Beatles, p 160.
- Everett, The Beatles as Musicians: Revolver through the
Anthology, p 284.
- The Dawn of Indian Music in the West,
page 172, Peter Lavezzoli, Continuum International Publishing
Group, 2006, ISBN 0-8264-1815-5
- Everett, The Beatles as Musicians: Revolver Through the
Anthology, p 71.
- Leng, While My Guitar Gently Weeps 2003, p 34.
- Greene, Here Comes the Sun, pp 226-227.
- Leng, While My Guitar Gently Weeps 2003, p 68.
- Davies, The Beatles 1985, p 360.
- Huntley, Mystical One, p 170.
- An autobiographical sketch by John Lennon, titled after one of his songs,
The Ballad of John and
Yoko, was posthumously published in 1986 as part of his
collection Skywriting by Word of
Mouth.
- Amazon.com Reviews
- Cars of the Super Rich, page 127,
Martin Buckley, MotorBooks/MBI Publishing Company, 2004, ISBN
0-7603-1953-7
- Huntley, Mystical One, p 167.
- The Greedy Bastard Diary: A Comic Tour of
America, pp 277-278, Eric Idle, Harper Entertainment,
2005, ISBN 0-06-075864-3
- Entertainment Celebrities, page 787,
Norbert B. Laufenberg, Trafford Publishing, 2005, ISBN
1-4120-5335-8
- The Dawn of Indian Music in the West,
page 198, Peter Lavezzoli, International Publishing Group, 2006,
ISBN 0-8264-1815-5
- Hinduism, page 47, Lynne Gibson, Pat
Wootten, 2002, ISBN 0-435-33618-5
- The Beatles: A Diary, page 172, Barry
Miles, Chris Charlesworth, Omnibus Press, 1998, ISBN
0-7119-6315-0
-
http://www.google.com/url?sa=U&start=6&q=http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hmSUcAyBBlEi3-Y52fBlLn1LsmcAD97IEH6O0&ei=O_TkSbaNFceD_QbayLTKCQ&usg=AFQjCNFe9foCNsaUxGVbJudnXKmA1Xpyrg
- BPI certified awards were introduced in April 1973.
References
External links