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Hare Krishna or hari-kari? George Harrison’s solo years began in a riot of confusion, heartbreak and copyright infringement, noble crusades and genre-bending genius. As his Apple albums re-emerged in a lavish box set in 2014, it was time to boggle at the triumphs and transgressions of The Beatles’ dark horse. “George was a bad boy, believe me.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Words by Mat Snow<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2024\/06\/gettyimages-104409210-594×594-1.jpg” title_text=”gettyimages-104409210-594×594″ _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text module_class=”image-gallery-caption” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”|300|||||||” text_font_size=”16px” text_line_height=”1.2em” custom_margin=”-10px||||false|false” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n Wonderwall Music: George Harrison<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”text-with-dropcap” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n SELDOM WITHOUT A a cigar, Joe Massot looked the part of an American movie big shot. His tales of high adventure and habit of carrying a loaded shooting stick as protection from supposed Cuban assassins made him a cherished ornament of Swinging London.<\/p>\n In 1966 his short film, Reflections On Love, starred Jenny Boyd who, a year later, would co-manage The Beatles\u2019 new Apple Boutique. At the opening on December 5, 1967, Massot charmed George Harrison \u2013 married to Jenny\u2019s sister Pattie \u2013 into agreeing to provide the soundtrack to a feature he\u2019d just completed. Wonderwall starred Jane Birkin with cameos by Stones girlfriends Anita Pallenberg and Suki Potier and psychedelic designs by The Fool; only Jack MacGowran and Irene Handl stopped the whole thing floating away.<\/p>\n Massot did not exactly have to sell the project to Harrison, who needed an outlet for his stymied musical creativity. Paul McCartney had soundtracked The Family Way the year before, so here was his junior school friend\u2019s chance to keep up. By now a seasoned recording and movie pro, George reviewed the edit with notepad and stopwatch, and planned the music: an East-West fusion along the lines of his friend Ravi Shankar\u2019s score for Jonathan Miller\u2019s 1966 BBC TV production of Alice In Wonderland. Versed in both classical Western and Eastern musics, Shankar\u2019s collaborator was a young music graduate, John Barham. He and George got on, despite The Beatle\u2019s distaste for his beloved Brahms.<\/p>\n \u201cOnce in his home in Esher,\u201d Barham recalls, \u201che slowed down to 16rpm a record of the Brahms Violin Concerto played by David Oistrakh, who I really liked, to complain, \u2018Listen to that awful vibrato!\u2019\u201d.<\/p>\n The fruit of their unlikely liaison, Wonderwall Music would provide two firsts: Apple Records\u2019 initial album release and the first credited to George Harrison alone. From this promising start, George\u2019s solo records would veer wildly in style and quality, trailing controversy as well as glory. Nor, despite his Krishna faith and dedication to meditation, would George\u2019s personal life be any more placid. Overcoming his reticence to lead some of rock\u2019s greatest stars to raise funds for disaster victims, life then dealt him a lesson in the world\u2019s cynicism. Then yielding to temptation without a fight, he would lose his marriage and mislay his friends in a hard-partying rock\u2019n\u2019roll soap opera. Yes, George was the Quiet One all right\u2026<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”text-with-dropcap” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n ALL WAS TO was to come as 1968 dawned. Back then, Wonderwall offered fresh adventure and musical bonds outside The Beatles. There was a trip to Bombay to record local musicians; Harrison\u2019s friend Eric Clapton attended sessions at Abbey Road. Shankar\u2019s nephew, Aashish Khan, was enthralled when George had him overdub a second sarod part onto the first for the track Love Scene, a studio technique he had never encountered before. Then there were old Merseybeat friends, The Remo Four.<\/p>\n \u201cColin Manley [Remo Four singer\/guitarist] had been at school with George,\u201d explains drummer Roy Dyke. \u201cThe Beatles liked The Remo Four as a good band. George wanted some musicians and we were in the right place at the right time.\u201d<\/p>\n George would give Dyke and co a timing and a few musical ideas. \u201cHe would say, \u2018Can you play a cowboy type thing?\u2019 and so on. It wasn\u2019t like playing with a megastar but with a friend \u2013 a relaxed, friendly session. George was telling us about his experiences in India and his experiments in Indian music. Everything was new and interesting.\u201d<\/p>\n The sessions yielded The Remo Four\u2019s amazing, George-produced In The First Place \u2013 a lysergic extra lap of the Magical Mystery Tour that didn\u2019t make the original soundtrack album but is restored on the box set version \u2013 and The Inner Light, recorded in Bombay as an instrumental but repurposed with George\u2019s overdubbed vocal as his first Beatles B-side, to March \u201968\u2019s Lady Madonna. The Inner Light would be George\u2019s last piece of Indian fusion music for decades. That summer he had a crisis of confidence about his efforts in the idiom. \u201cRavi said to George, \u2018I think you should go back to your roots,\u2019\u201d recalls John Barham. \u201cHe should take what he wanted from what Ravi had to offer, but be true to his musical origins. Identify himself as a Westerner; don\u2019t take on an alien identity.\u201d<\/p>\n Advice George appeared to take into the troubled sessions for The White Album, from which his While My Guitar Gently Weeps (lead guitar by Clapton) was a highlight. Afterwards, he took off to the US, incorporating a Thanksgiving visit to Bob Dylan at his Bearsville home, where his host was so anxious that his restricted chordal knowledge would be shown up by Harrison\u2019s virtuosity that the guitars stayed unplayed for days. But when they broke them out the result was their beatific co-write, I\u2019d Have You Anytime.<\/p>\n On that trip, George helmed sessions at Sound Recorders in LA for old Mersey compadre Jackie Lomax\u2019s debut Apple album, Is This What You Want? The tracks used Moog 3 synth probings by Bernie Krause, a former member of folk group The Weavers turned paid consultant for the new instrument.<\/p>\n George was intrigued and after the session asked Bernie to put the synthesizer through its paces. According to Krause\u2019s detailed account in his memoir Into A Wild Sanctuary, Harrison had the tape operator record his demonstration without his knowledge or consent. A few months later, in February 1969, he ordered a Moog for Apple, to be escorted through UK customs and set up by Krause. Inviting the latter to his Esher home, Harrison enthusiastically played him a tape of synth music scheduled for release on Apple\u2019s avant-garde sub-label, Zapple.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s my first electronic piece,\u201d George said, \u201cdone with a little help from my cats.\u201d<\/p>\n Krause recognised his demonstration piece, edited down to 25 minutes to fit one side of an album. A row ensued, with George seemingly baffled at Krause\u2019s outrage. \u201cIf it sells, I\u2019ll send you a couple of quid,\u201d he said, according to Krause. \u201cWhen Ravi Shankar comes to my house, he\u2019s humble\u2026 Trust me. I\u2019m a Beatle.\u201d [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”pull-quote” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_text_color=”#111111″ header_2_font_size=”46px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”pullquote-name” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_font_size=”46px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” header_3_text_align=”center” header_3_text_color=”#111111″ header_3_font_size=”38px” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_divider color=”#111111″ module_class=”custom-divider” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” custom_padding=”||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][\/et_pb_divider][et_pb_text module_class=”text-with-dropcap” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n MEANWHILE, BACK AT the day job, Harrison\u2019s reputation had never been higher, with Here Comes The Sun and Something the acclaimed peaks of The Beatles\u2019 climactic Abbey Road album. Yet now he finally had the spotlight, George sought the shade of a new set of outsize musical personalities.<\/p>\n When Eric Clapton\u2019s band Blind Faith toured the US in 1969, among their support acts were Delaney & Bonnie & Friends, a blue-eyed rock\u2019n\u2019soul revue fronted by husband-and-wife singer-songwriters Delaney and Bonnie Bramlett. They so appealed to Clapton that, losing interest in his own group, he would join them playing guitar on-stage. When Delaney & Bonnie toured Europe, Clapton stayed and, inspired to join in the fun as a humble sideman, Harrison overcame his distaste for the stage. \u201cWould you mind if I joined the band?\u201d he asked Delaney. \u201cWould there be too many guitars?\u201d<\/p>\n Picking up George at Kinfauns, his Esher bungalow, on the morning of December 2, 1969, the tour set off for the next date in Bristol. In the party was gospel-soul singer-organist Billy Preston, a contributor to The Beatles\u2019 Get Back, Something and I Want You (She\u2019s So Heavy). George loved The Edwin Hawkins Singers\u2019 summer \u201969 hit Oh Happy Day and asked Billy and Delaney how to write in that vein.<\/p>\n Like Imagine for John Lennon, My Sweet Lord would condense George\u2019s idealism into an enduring worldwide anthem: his greatest, yet, it would transpire, most burdensome hit. Among a backlog of tunes dating back to 1966 including The Art Of Dying and Isn\u2019t It A Pity, it was one of several new songs George brought to Abbey Road in spring 1970. They would pour into a triple album whose expansiveness, tunefulness and optimism filled the black hole left by The Beatles, whose split went public on April 10.<\/p>\n \u201cI heard many of the songs that would appear on All Things Must Pass when George invited me to dinner,\u201d recalls John Barham of a Saturday evening with the Harrisons at Friar Park, their vast new home in Henley-on-Thames. \u201cLater we went through the arrangements together in one of the rooms with a piano. George played me some Phil Spector productions, including Proud Mary [by Checkmates Ltd],\u201d Barham continues. \u201cWe were very impressed \u2013 I\u2019d never heard a sound like that before, and that was the kind George wanted.\u201d<\/p>\n Endearing himself to Harrison through his post-production work salvaging The Beatles\u2019 final album Let It Be, Spector would now be working with a seasoned songsmith at Abbey Road rather than at Gold Star Studios with the puppets of his early \u201960s heyday. Yet his approach to recording had not changed: a Wall of Sound.<\/p>\n \u201cThe way that symphony orchestras and choirs had been for hundreds of years, the studio was laid out for a rock orchestra, the guitarists and keyboardists regimented in rows,\u201d says Barham.<\/p>\n Among the keyboardists was former Delaney & Bonnie sideman (and soon to be a Domino with Eric \u2018Derek\u2019 Clapton), Bobby Whitlock: \u201cWhen you walked into this massive room, you\u2019d see two sets of drums on risers, a piano, organ and other electric keyboards to the wall on the left, up against the far wall on the right were Badfinger, and in the centre were George and Eric and the guitars. Everybody played at once.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cGeorge made everybody feel at home,\u201d remembers bassist and old friend from Hamburg, Klaus Voormann. \u201cIn the studio he made a little altar with his joss sticks and little figures; everyone felt good.\u201d<\/p>\n Spector took the cymbals off the drum kits, as he had done for Lennon\u2019s Instant Karma, and removed the buffers from between the amplifiers to enable leakage. When George\u2019s mother died suddenly that July, sessions were suspended. Progress further slowed as he insisted upon retake after retake of small vocal and instrumental details. Behind the scenes, meanwhile, Eric Clapton had fallen in love with the neglected Pattie, threatening to lose himself in heroin if she didn\u2019t run off with him.<\/p>\n \u201cI went down that road of smack with Eric, which started during the recording of All Things in the Abbey Road tea room,\u201d recalls Bobby Whitlock. \u201cThis African conga player who played with Stevie Winwood and used to supply everybody brought it \u2013 Reebop [Kwaku Baah, who died in 1983].\u201d<\/p>\n And then there was My Sweet Lord. \u201cListening to the playback of My Sweet Lord in the control room at EMI,\u201d says Whitlock, \u201cI innocently brought up, Man, that\u2019s just like He\u2019s So Fine [the 1962 Chiffons\u2019 hit]. Whoah! A hush all over the room. George said, \u2018I\u2019ll take care of it if it ever comes around.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Klaus Voormann: \u201cGeorge was laughing, \u2018I didn\u2019t know!\u2019 I don\u2019t think he realised the trouble he could get into if he released it; I think he thought that you\u2019d just pay some money.\u201d<\/p>\n The chart-topping single that heralded All Things Must Pass (an unprecedented worldwide Number 1 triple LP), My Sweet Lord was a hit immediately slapped with a writ by Bright Tunes, which controlled the copyright of He\u2019s So Fine. The copyright case would drag on for 20 years. But worse was to come.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2024\/06\/gettyimages-158320403-594×594-1.jpg” title_text=”gettyimages-158320403-594×594″ _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text module_class=”image-gallery-caption” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”|300|||||||” text_font_size=”16px” text_line_height=”1.2em” custom_margin=”-10px||||false|false” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n Got My Mind Set On You: George Harrison sits with Ravi Shankar in 1974 in London, England.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”text-with-dropcap” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n A FORTNIGHT BEOFRE the release of All Things Must Pass, in November 1970 a tropical cyclone struck the Ganges Delta; some half-a-million people died. Civil war then added manmade to natural disaster. To help his fellow Bengalis, Ravi Shankar enlisted his superstar friend. As well as recording the charity chart-topper, Bangla Desh, George organised the first ever all-star rock\u2019n\u2019roll benefit concert, featuring Bob Dylan\u2019s live US comeback, on Sunday, August 1, 1971, at New York\u2019s Madison Square Garden, with a spin-off album and movie.<\/p>\n The triumph had a bitter aftermath. Record companies and retail creamed off vast profits, while Harrison\u2019s manager Allen Klein failed to claim charitable status on the income. In the UK alone George had to write a personal cheque for a million pounds as tax on income he\u2019d donated straight to charity.<\/p>\n \u201cGeorge told me later that the way the money disappeared was brutal,\u201d recalls Neil Innes of The Bonzo Dog Band. \u201cTo naively set out with such a good cause and discover that humanity is horrible and the world a rough neighbourhood when there are large sums of money around hurt George a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n Harrison withdrew and would do little but mutter his mantra \u201cGopala Krishna, Om Hari Om…\u201d for comfort. Eventually, the songs for Living In The Material World would emerge, from Sue Me, Sue You Blues to the visionary The Day The World Gets \u2019Round. With renewed creativity, darkness lifted. Drummer Jim Keltner had befriended George on Lennon\u2019s Imagine sessions and worked on Harrison\u2019s new album: \u201cDuring the Material World sessions, George\u2019s hair was long, thick and shiny, his skin and eyes were clear. He wasn\u2019t smoking and he had the beads. And always at Friar Park the smell of incense wafting from somewhere. He would sit down with his guitar and play his song for you. That\u2019s just how John and Bob Dylan would do it too \u2013 the classic singer-songwriter approach.\u201d<\/p>\n Much of the recording took place at Friar Park, with Keltner, Voormann, Spooky Tooth keyboard player Gary Wright and pianist-by-appointment Nicky Hopkins. \u201cIt was an intimate, quiet, friendly atmosphere,\u201d reflects Voormann, \u201ca big difference from Imagine with John in Ascot and film cameras leaning over our shoulders and Yoko interrupting the sessions for a song like Jealous Guy screaming that [self-styled black revolutionary] Michael X was on the phone. George would never have allowed anything like that.\u201d<\/p>\n Some interruptions, however, were tolerated\u2026<\/p>\n \u201cOn Be Here Now I played upright bass in the toilet to get a nice sound. As I was playing [veteran Beatles driver\/minder] Mal Evans came in and flushed it. George would laugh. I did not know Oasis used the same title. George hated them: \u2018Fucking Oasis \u2013 can\u2019t stand them!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n John Barham has less happy memories: \u201cI began to sense a dark atmosphere around Friar Park. George was getting moody and introverted. Something was upsetting him. It didn\u2019t feel very good to be around him. My instinct was to stay away. I didn\u2019t see George again for 17 years.\u201d<\/p>\n A friend to both George and Pattie, Harrison\u2019s PA Chris O\u2019Dell recalls \u201ca darkness to do with their relationship. Pattie simply was not going in the same direction that George was, with his meditation and spiritual life.\u201d Contrastingly, cocaine and booze weren\u2019t helping, with a low point when George announced to a stunned Ringo that he was in love with his wife, Maureen.<\/p>\n \u201cMaureen and Ringo had their own problems before things started with George,\u201d says O\u2019Dell. \u201cNeither George nor Maureen ever said of their relationship that it became physical though I definitely witnessed a deep attraction. Women threw themselves at George.\u201d<\/p>\n Harrison, meanwhile, threw himself into work. Itching to leave EMI\/Capitol and the increasingly moribund Apple label, he planned a new record deal and his own label, Dark Horse. He produced its first two album releases: Ravi Shankar\u2019s Shankar Family & Friends, and the South Shields soft-rock duo Splinter\u2019s The Place I Love. Dark Horse\u2019s distributor, A&M, hired the super-efficient and attractive Olivia Arias as George\u2019s secretary. With Pattie finally having left George for Eric Clapton in July 1974, romance was only a matter of time.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”pull-quote” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_text_color=”#111111″ header_2_font_size=”46px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”pullquote-name” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_font_size=”46px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” header_3_text_align=”center” header_3_text_color=”#111111″ header_3_font_size=”38px” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_divider color=”#111111″ module_class=”custom-divider” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” custom_padding=”||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][\/et_pb_divider][et_pb_text module_class=”text-with-dropcap” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n A US NUMBER 1 album, Living In The Material World had knocked Paul McCartney\u2019s Red Rose Speedway off the summit and spawned the sprightly but lightweight Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth), a Stateside chart-topper again at Paul\u2019s expense (My Love). But George could not match Paul for productivity and the self-imposed pressure was on. Getting Dark Horse Records and its artists off to a flying start had drained him and left little time to make his own music. Worse, he had given himself a deadline by agreeing to a full North American tour, teamed with Ravi Shankar and scheduled for November\/December.<\/p>\n In songs destined for his fifth solo album, George responded to the end of his marriage both conventionally, in So Sad, and sourly, in his rewrite of The Everly Brothers\u2019 Bye Bye Love (\u201cThere goes our lady\/With a you-know-who\/I know she\u2019s happy\/And old Clapper too\u201d). New to the musicianly mix was Sly Stone drummer Andy Newmark, who\u2019d bumped into the Beatle at Ronnie Wood\u2019s Richmond pad: \u201cWillie [Weeks, bassist] and I came down to the kitchen and there was George drinking a cup of tea. Wow! He looked just like in all the pictures.\u201d<\/p>\n Invited with Weeks to Friar Park to play on what was to become Dark Horse, Newmark found Harrison \u201ca very relaxed, easy-going, non-assertive band-leader. George brought in people he knew had the musical instincts to play his songs the way he wanted so he didn\u2019t have to be too specific in his direction. He let us do our thing.\u201d<\/p>\n Talent-spotted by George with Tom Scott\u2019s LA Express backing Joni Mitchell live in London, young guitarist Robben Ford was also invited to Friar Park. \u201cWe went up at about 1pm and Pattie made tea while we waited because George got up around four. She had the loveliest personality, like an angel. When George showed up they didn\u2019t interact and she just disappeared. At one in the morning we started recording and cut two songs \u2013 Simply Shady and Hari\u2019s On Tour \u2013 then returned to London to resume the tour with Joni.\u201d<\/p>\n George finished the album in LA and rehearsed the touring band there, but the schedule was too much for his voice, shot from laryngitis, abuse and overwork. Though propped up on-stage by Billy Preston\u2019s energy and good humour, Harrison was not a commanding front man over those seven weeks on the road with Shankar. Dubbing it the \u2018Dark Hoarse Tour\u2019, critics were not kind.<\/p>\n Chris O\u2019Dell was tour manager: \u201cThe success of the Bangladesh event allowed him to think he would enjoy a huge tour. And then musicians like CSNY would say how much money they made with Bill Graham as promoter. Much as George loved Ravi, by the time he got on stage he could tell that people were bored, and if he couldn\u2019t sing as well, he was having a hard time.\u201d<\/p>\n Robben Ford: \u201cWhen we went out there the audience would go nuts, then it would get dull. The audience area was full of smoke and both on-stage and off-stage there was a tremendous amount of coke, weed, and booze. It affected everything.\u201d<\/p>\n Andy Newmark: \u201cI had never toured on that level with private jets, five star hotels, your luggage being collected. You were part of a giant machine. George was very approachable and down to earth. But lingering in the background were the facts that he\u2019d lost his voice, his marriage had ended, and he was clearly under stress, struggling to keep it all going. We all wanted to make him feel supported.\u201d<\/p>\n As well as his marriage, George\u2019s \u201970s honeymoon with the public was over. \u201cOlivia came into the picture at just the right time, a crazy, dark time,\u201d says Jim Keltner. \u201cShe is a strong person, and when he fell for her we all agreed that was a good thing. It wasn\u2019t good for him to be on his own, and without her things would have got worse.\u201d<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_divider color=”#111111″ module_class=”custom-divider” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” custom_padding=”||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][\/et_pb_divider][et_pb_text module_class=”pull-quote” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_text_color=”#111111″ header_2_font_size=”46px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”pullquote-name” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_font_size=”46px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” header_3_text_align=”center” header_3_text_color=”#111111″ header_3_font_size=”38px” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2024\/06\/gettyimages-73993016-594×594-1.jpg” title_text=”gettyimages-73993016-594×594″ _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text module_class=”image-gallery-caption” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”|300|||||||” text_font_size=”16px” text_line_height=”1.2em” custom_margin=”-10px||||false|false” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n My Sweet Lord: Guitarist George Harrison poses for a portrait with Indian sitar virtuoso Ravi Shankar in circa 1975.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”text-with-dropcap” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n THEY DIDN’T IMPROVE at once. Dark Horse had been a relative disappointment. Fulfilling his expiring Apple contract, could the next album, Extra Texture (Read All About It), restore his fortunes? When Splinter pulled out of sessions booked at A&M\u2019s LA studios due to illness, George took them. \u201cWhere on previous records George was living at home in Friar Park, in LA he was staying in a hotel and he was a big deal,\u201d says Keltner. \u201cToo many people wanted to get to him, too many bad things were available. He should never have made a record outside Friar Park.\u201d<\/p>\n Klaus Voormann agrees: \u201cIn LA I was not happy about the way George was developing, and I think he felt embarrassed about that. When they do too much cocaine, people lose their reliability. They turn vicious. It was not the old George.\u201d<\/p>\n Today a record industry kingpin and producer of some of pop\u2019s biggest stars, keyboardist David Foster was in his apartment when he got the call. He was overjoyed, but the scene in the studio was sobering: \u201cWe would be playing with the piano facing the wall for soundproof reasons, so I couldn\u2019t see any of the other musicians. The bass would drop out, then the drums, then the guitar, so I thought maybe this is where I should play a solo. I was so young and naive I didn\u2019t realise they were leaving the room \u2013 to do whatever they were doing.\u201d<\/p>\n The final solo album of the Apple era is a mixed bag, perhaps the best song a sincere synth-soul tribute to Motown singer-songwriter Smokey Robinson, Ooh Baby (You Know That I Love You). At the end, His Name Is Legs (Ladies And Gentlemen) features the japes of George\u2019s Bonzos pal \u2018Legs\u2019 Larry Smith.<\/p>\n \u201cOne night he invited me over to dinner and said he had a little surprise for me,\u201d Smith remembers. \u201cIn the main hall there was a Steinway grand piano, and he burst in, sat down, gave me a little nod, and started playing this song. Jesus Christ, I realised, it\u2019s about me! I sang the chorus, and did my overdubs one crazy night. I was greatly touched by the whole thing.\u201d<\/p>\n Larry\u2019s fellow Bonzo, Neil Innes, had teamed with Monty Python\u2019s Eric Idle on a new BBC2 comedy, Rutland Weekend Television, and Python fan Harrison was drawn into their orbit.<\/p>\n \u201cPattie had left George for Eric Clapton, and while the Pythons were playing Drury Lane, Eric Idle\u2019s wife left as well,\u201d Innes recalls. \u201cSo the two victims of love became bosom pals.\u201d<\/p>\n One of Innes\u2019s ideas was a spoof of The Beatles\u2019 film A Hard Day\u2019s Night. It all tied in when George appeared on the RWT Christmas special on Boxing Day, 1975. \u201cHe\u2019d already met the [Rutles prefiguring] band, Fatso, and we did drink rather a lot of Dom Perignon which he brought,\u201d says Innes. \u201cEric Clapton was envious of the Bonzos because we could muck about, and always said he wished he could go on stage with a parrot on his shoulder. George beat him to it.\u201d As they migrated from the small to the big screen, Python became George\u2019s new team where he could resume his role as the Quiet One \u2013 behind the scenes, as a movie producer. Making records slipped down his priorities, yet there were musical successes to come. He and Olivia married and Dhani was born. George\u2019s dark age was over.<\/p>\n This article originally appeared in issue 258 of MOJO.<\/em><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_divider color=”#111111″ module_class=”custom-divider” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” custom_padding=”||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][\/et_pb_divider][et_pb_text module_class=”credit-names” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font_size=”14px” text_orientation=”center” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”]<\/p>\n Words: <\/strong>Andrew Perry Images:\u00a0<\/strong>Getty<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Quiet StormHare Krishna or hari-kari? George Harrison’s solo years began in a riot of confusion, heartbreak and copyright infringement, noble crusades and genre-bending genius. As his Apple albums re-emerged in a lavish box set in 2014, it was time to boggle at the triumphs and transgressions of The Beatles’ dark horse. “George was a bad […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":1532,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"modified_by":"akindell","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1528"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1528\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1543,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1528\/revisions\/1543"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Released in May 1969, Electronic Sound didn\u2019t sell, and Krause was never sent so much as a quid. \u201cI didn\u2019t have the money or energy to sue,\u201d he wrote. Today an eminent soundscape recordist and bio-acoustician, he tells MOJO, \u201cI stand by the explanation of my experience as written.\u201d And asked if the label has offered any payment in relation to the current reissue, he replies: \u201cNot a sou. Not a pittance. Not a ha\u2019penny. Nada, rien.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cRavi said to George, \u2018I think you should go back to your roots \u2013 don\u2019t take on an alien identity.\u201d<\/h2>\n
John Barham<\/h3>\n
\u201cWhen we recorded Wah-Wah, the sound in your headphones was reasonably dry, but in the control room to hear the playback, the sound was loud and incredible,\u201d remembers Voormann. \u2028\u201cI loved it but George didn\u2019t: \u2018What are you doing to my song?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cWah Wah sounded loud and incredible. I loved it but George didn\u2019t: \u2018What are you doing to my song?\u2019\u201d<\/h2>\n
Klaus Voormann<\/h3>\n
\u201cHe\u2019d lost his voice, his marriage had ended, and he was clearly struggling to keep it all going.\u201d<\/h2>\n
Andy Newmark<\/h3>\n
It was George all over: unpredictable. Who guessed he would produce a solo album that would outdo John or Paul? Or overcome his distaste for the spotlight to lead his fellow superstars in a stand on behalf of the world\u2019s starving? And who would have tipped the po-faced former Fab to turn his talent to laughter? \u201cAfter The Beatles, Monty Python was my favourite thing,\u201d he explained. \u201cThey were the only ones who could see that everything was a big joke.\u201d<\/p>\n