George Harrison : Favourite Beatles Solo Songs?

Only pick 1 for each.

John Lennon: Imagine - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okd3hLlvvLw
Paul McCartney: Band on the Run - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7D65IomNYY
George Harrison: My Sweet Lord - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQkylt8PX5g
Ringo Starr: King of Broken Hearts - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCD7XFfj1NM

Last Watched:
Moon (2009) - 9/10
Precious (2009) - 8/10

What a disappointing board so far. Two posts, neither of which I can take seriously. The first post mentions the most well-known post-Beatles songs that you can hear 100 times a day on any oldies station (with the exception of the Ringo song), and the second post takes one track off of the three most well-known post-Beatles albums and then thoughtlessly tosses Ringo's solo career aside.

Here are my songs:

John: God (Plastic Ono Band)
Paul: Beware My Love (Wings at the Speed of Sound)
George: I Live For You (bootleg)
Ringo: Husbands and Wives (Goodnight Vienna)

There are so many great songs to choose from that if I had the four catalogs laid out in front of me, there's a good chance I would choose four different songs.

Out of all the Beatles George Harrisons solo songs were the most interesting.

you shoot me in a dream you better wake up and apologize.

Sometimes yes. Sometimes no. Mind Games (John) is a fascinating album, as is Wild Life (Paul), and many others. George had some interesting songs and albums without a doubt, but he could also put out fluff with the best of 'em (e.g. Gone Troppo). I saw a recent article about the most boring classic rock albums of all time, and George's All Things Must Pass was #1. I disagree whole-heartedly, but there you go.

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Here are my songs:

John: God (Plastic Ono Band)
Paul: Beware My Love (Wings at the Speed of Sound)
George: I Live For You (bootleg)
Ringo: Husbands and Wives (Goodnight Vienna)

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I definitely agree with you on Paul and George's songs. Paul's roaring vocals are amazing on "Beware My Love", and the steel guitar on "I Live For 111c You" is hauntingly beautiful (although Pisces Fish is a very close second.) God is also one of my favorites, but I think my all time favorite John song has to be "Instant Karma!". My favorite from Ringo is "Six O'Clock", but only the extended version. The version on Ringo cuts off the best part of the song!

All their lies about makeup and long hair are still there.

George...'just for today'

'All for one and one for all! You go first, I've got a bad leg.'

A spruced up 'I Live for You' was included by George on the remastered 'All Things Must Pass' about a year before his death. You may know that and simply prefer the unaltered bootleg version; I don't know really, but I thought it was worth noting. Especially because it is a gorgeous song. Like many of George's best, it's a highly spiritual song--written to God, indeed--but it also works perfectly, in my opinion, as a secular song of love, longing, and passion. One of the subtler things I've come to love about George's songs is that he wrote these songs to God that could also function as beautiful, passionate love songs to and for people--thus he integrated his deep and remarkable spirituality quite cleverly into the pop/rock music idiom by using a classic motif/subset within that idiom--the love song.

There is such powerful beauty and feeling in nearly all of Harrison's work--he certainly felt inspired by something. It's often said that he was a gruff, cynical curmudgeon, but I suspect that beneath that exterior image, as is so often the case, there was a deeply sensitive, expressive, keen-minded, impassioned person. It certainly comes across that way in his songwriting, anyhow.

If I had to name a favorite solo Beatle track, 'Isn't it a Pity?' is sticking in my mind at the moment--in particular the "Version one" on the first side of ATMP. There are the concluding background vocals, which I suspect were a cheeky nod to Paul's 'Hey Jude', but in the lyrics is such a beautiful, sensitive, worthy sentiment. And Phil Spector's production, in this case, helps to a certain moving majesty without smothering it; whereas 'Wah-Wah' is very strong but perhaps a bit too bombastic for its own good in my opinion. I also love 'Let it Down', 'Run of the Mill', 'Beware of Darkness', and 'Ballad of Frankie Crisp (Let it Roll'--and that's without even getting into the later albums, which I think are often excellent and lovely as well, particularly the warm, tender, and earth eponymous album from 1979, which, to me, feels a bit like a slice of George's mind and spirit coming straight to the listener.

Rock music is not, in general, is not necessarily the most dynamic, involved, artistically complex or deeply developed medium, but when it comes to the challenging of encapsulating an expressive, meaningful message within a five-to-seven minute, relatively simply musical structure, Harrison was one who excelled in the songwriting department if you ask me. Oddly the other one who comes to mind is Peter Gabriel, a far more progressive breed of rocker. He puts more meaning into pop/rock music than virtually anyone I've ever heard and gets incredible mileage out of the idiom, mostly by bucking the rules.


'Irregardless' is not a word

Troll Dahl,

Ha! Funny name!

I have heard the alternative version of "I Live For You," but as you already guessed, I prefer the original (possibly only because I heard it first). My wife and I actually played that song at our wedding. People kept asking me for information on this unheard Beatles song. :)

As I get older, and as I learn more about the life of George and his music, two things become clearer to me: (1) His music is amazing, unique, and such a joy. I was listening to "Somewhere in England" and "Gone Troppo" recently, two fo his forg b68 otten albums...sort of randomly. I hadn't heard either album in their entirety in at least a couple of years, and I played them from start to finish. I was really digging a lot of the songs...Unconscious Rules, Baltimore Oriole, Mystical One, Dream Away, etc. I just love this stuff, even if it was commerically unsuccessful and largely disregarded. (2) My other realization is harder for me to admit, but here goes...I really don't think much of George Harrison as a person. He's always struck me as an angry, cynical, and bitter guy. His insistence on sharing his spiritual journey with the rest of the world is as presumptuous as it is uninteresting. As a former student of religion and philosophy, I find his thoughts on spirituality to be quite banal, simplistic, and rather silly at times. But it was apparent that he was quite certain that he had it all figured it out and the rest of the world had its collective head shoved up its ass. The disdain to which he spoke about humanity was off-putting and even offensive at times. This was particularly troublesome when the degree of George's hypocrisy became known. For a guy who was enlightened and not of this world, he sure took pleasure in the material things this world had to offer (e.g. drugs, marital indiscretions, etc.). The guy was a hedonist who preached about the evils of the material world.

Anyway, thanks for posting. It's always fun to discuss the lives of the Beatles. I hope I didn't offend you with my ramblings about George. Just my opinion.

Have you heard 'Poor Little Girl' from his '80s best-of? To me, it sounds like a subtler, more empassioned version of 'Eleanor Rigby': a microcosm of the world's loneliness, desperation, depravity, and shallowness. To me, Harrison's social conscience shines through that song. I'm not sure which offensive lyrics or quotations your thinking of, but I guess I can't relate. Obviously the guy had his issues. Don't we all? It's the "fight in the head with the dark and the light" (Any Road).

'Irregardless' is not a word

I've heard "Poor Little Girl." Great song. I've loved it for years.

The way I feel about George Harrison's life is the same as how I feel about the movie "Billy Elliot." Boring and self-indulgent; but I liked the music.

I didn't say Harrison's song lyrics were offensive. You misunderstood me. I'm a Beatlemaniac who would be entertained by an interview with a guy who once knew a guy who saw Mal Evans blow his nose. Anything Beatles-related, I'm all about it. Despite this fact, I am bored to tears by George Harrison's interviews (check out the last interview he ever gave). He's so pious, condescending, and boring. He's more self-righteous than any celebrity I've ever seen. It's not necessarily his specific comments that I find offensive but rather his attitude and demeanor. Since the age of 23, he tried to convince the world that he was this enlightened spiritual entity that had it all figured out. And he was above all of the material bull$hit of this world. He chided politicians, businessmen, and the clergy for being phony, disingenuous, and materialistic. But in the end, Harrison was no different from the hypocrites he attacked. This is what I gather from seeing various interviews, various documentaries, and most recently, the Martin Scorsese movie. We all have our faults (myself certainly), but I don't make my life about calling out everyone else's problems and disparaging what the world has become, while fully indulging myself of its tainted fruit.

I've heard Harrison be a sarcastic smart ass, but perhaps I just haven't heard enough interviews, particularly the early ones, to get this off-putting air you're talking about.

It could be the case that Harrison was able to better express himself through his songwriting, since it seemed like his lyrics and themes tended to reflect his intellectual and spiritual views, yet you don't find them offensive. Songs like 'Cockamamie Business' and 'Brainwashed' certainly reflect his harsher side. Yet as I said before, I can't help but sense that beneath anger or frustration, there is o 5b4 ften a very sensitive, well-meaning, lovely person who finds the human world difficult to cope with.

I may try and find the interview you're referring to. Although bear in mind that if this was near the end of his life, he probably wasn't in a great mood even if he had his spiritual beliefs to fall back on. That's human nature. There is certainly an argument for Harrison as a curmudgeon, perhaps even a misanthrope. But most of the interviews I've seen (I'm thinking especially of the Beatles Anthology ones) show him as simply having a caustic sense of humor. Of course, he wasn't talking mostly about his spiritual beliefs then, but more often than not, it seemed to me that he hit the nail on the head and I appreciated what I took as his honesty in those interviews. He wasn't whitewashing or using rose-tinted glasses, or any other metaphor you care to use. I've known one or two people to think George was nasty in some of those interviews, but to me much of it came off as simply a sense of humor--wittiness. I can see how he might rub someone the wrong way, but there must have been some good there and some real compassion. Look at his litany of friends, as shown in the Concert for George performance. In his personal life, he seems to have touched many people in a good way. Anyway, I've never minded sarcasm or a little causticity, so maybe my sometimes-insensitivity that sort of thing makes it harder for me to see what you find off 5b4 ensive. Perhaps Harrison had that flaw as well.





'Irregardless' is not a word

George certainly had a sensitive side. I'm not saying he was a brutal sociopath. From what I understand, he had many close friends with whom he shared deep relationships. I'm not calling the guy Hitler by any means.

I think George was always bitter about being "the quiet Beatle." He was always compared to John and Paul, and usually not in a positive way. His only contribution to Sgt. Pepper was "Within You Without You" which I interpreted as a big "F you" to the other band members. I think he embraced spirituality largely because it set him apart from the other Beatles and for the first time he f 2000 elt unique and special.

I don't mind Cockamamie Business because I see the song largely as biographical. Plus, I love the cadence of the lyrics. The line about tax inspectors and film directors comes to mind. It's just a cool song. Brainwashed does irritate me though. It's the last song on his last album; and it's a really negative way for him to go out. But I think it sort of sums him up. I remember when the album came out, my brother (who is a middle-school history teacher) didn't like the line about being "brainwashed by our teachers and brainwashed by their rules." Here was a guy who never went to college and hadn't stepped into a school in 40 years telling us how screwed up the education system is. Classic George. Criticizing and tearing down things he didn't really understand. And offering no real solution, other than building a meditation room in your house and chanting. For a guy that supposedly found everlasting peace, you can't help but notice his underlying anger.

I don't mind sarcasm and even occasional cynicism. But George had unresolved anger. Very different.

The interview I was talking about was on Vh1, and it was the last time he ever played live in front of an audience. Parts of the interview are enjoyable, particularly when he playe (he debuted "Any Road"), but the majority of the interview is him talking about his spiritual beliefs. Yawn. Have you seen the Scorsese documentary. This will show you a little of George's darker side, although I have to warn you the movie is mostly a PR piece approved by the George Harrison estate...very unfortunate.

On the other hand, even if just to play devil's advocate, let's not forget that Harrison grew up in a religious household--as a catholic. He would later turn his back on Catholicism entirely, but I do think the seed for the spirituality may have been planted. Again, maybe I just haven't watched the right interviews, but he doesn't seem off to me most of the time. And again, his lyrics seem to reflect his spiritual views and you do enjoy some of them, so could it have to do with how he expressed himself sometimes?

It does make some sense that he'd want to establish a distinct identity from the others, and I agree he had a bitter side. However, looking at a song like 'Cockamamie Business'--as you said, it's autobiographical--it seems like some of the bitterness came from his lack of interest in being a star, at least later in life. To his credit, in his later years he did turn his back on show business quite a bit, so it's not like he was being a complete hypocrite while writing those lyrics. It was around that time that he stopped being a musical artist or much of a public personality for the most part (late '80s/early '90s).

It's recorded that George had some rough experiences: Beatlemania, understandably, got to be a strain after a while and was probably more spotlight than George ultimately wanted. Then he had a marriage that ended badly (although it's worth noting that he stayed friendly with Clapton) and the Dark Hours Tour debacle, which had to be pretty depressing. He got a hard time sometimes in the western world for his spiritual leanings and his inclusion of classical Indian music in the shows. He also seems to have become increasingly disenchanted with the music business as time went on. In the early '80s, the record company jerked him around with 'Somewhere in England' and when 'Gone Troppo' flopped, it became clearer and clearer that where he was at personally just didn't gel with pop culture of the time. It was also shortly after John Lennon's murder. I don't think that helped him. When I look at the timeline, I have to wonder Lennon's death was a turning point for him. He seems like got more disenchanted and disconnected with society after that. On the other hand, I remember him noting in his autobiography that he had a creative slump after '33 and 1/3' (explaining the the two-year gap until his self-titled album) and wasn't sure whether he would ever be a singer/songwriter again at that point.

I do think George had trouble fully connecting with and understanding the world at large. As he said shortly before his death, when he went out of his garden gate he felt like he wasn't in the right place ('Brainwashed' bonus DVD). That sounds a little misanthropic to me, but also honest. Harrison saw a lot of greed and shallowness in the "material" world, and I wouldn't be honest if I said he was entirely wrong about that. To me, George did seem sincere in his *pursuit* of spirituality or a more fulfilled, meaningful existence. Which makes sense if he found our world disagreeable and difficult to cope with. I wonder whether our own religious or spiritual leanings could impact how we see Harrison? If your views don't incline towards the eastern philosophies, I wonder if that makes his sometimes heavy commentary even less palatable.

'Brainwashed', the song, was a little sweeping. How "negative" was it really? I don't know. I wouldn't want it to be the last George Harrison I ever heard. I think he's right in that society not infrequently tries to spoon-feed us what to think, but I can see where that song would rub some people the wrong way. I did like the quotation from 'How to Know God'. As someone who has studied God academically, I don't know how you would react to it, of course. 'Brainwashed' is a harsh song but I think it does boast some strong lyrics in places. I am a major believer in education for the record, although I do also think it needs to be complemented, so to speak, with independent thought. The best teachers I've had are the ones who see it as part of their job to get you to think and look at what's around you. You won't find a bigger support of the public schools than me. But let's not kid ourselves: society naturally teaches conformity, for better and for worse.

Above all, it is abun da0 dantly clear that Harrison had different sides within his character. So do I. So, I imagine, does everyone.

'Irregardless' is not a word

Having read many of your posts Rupert, is your sister Debbie Downer?

"Life is a banquet and most poor suckers are starving to death."

How do you know Debbie?

i'm not really familiar with ringo's solo career, but my favorite solo of the other three's:
John Lennon: #9 Dream (Walls and Bridges, 1974) www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8poht52GAs
Paul McCartney: C'mon People (Off The Ground, 1993) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bjhb_tgL5zs
George Harrison: When We Was Fab (Cloud 9, 1987) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQXx-PKTOw0

I have alot of favorite George Harrison solo songs. But I will go along with the board:

John Lennon-Beautiful Boy
Paul McCartney-Helen Wheels (I think this song is so much fun)
George Harrison- alot, but I find myself listening to "Rising Sun" alot, so I will go with this.

I love Lennon and McCartney's music; however, I find myself listening to George's music over and over.

It's nearly impossible to pick only one song each, even for Ringo. But just for something a little different, these are songs that I could listen to over and over and never get tired of them.

John - Jealous Guy
Paul - Wanderlust
George - Don't Let Me Wait Too Long
Ringo - Weight of the World

Jealous Guy
Band On The Run
Blow Away
It Don't Come Easy

John - It's So Hard
Paul - Let Me Roll It
George - Deep Blue
Ringo - don't know