George Harrison - George Harrison

George Harrison

This wonderful 1979 album is a poem of transformations. With precision and insight, George Harrison tells of changes from day to night, summer to winter, storm to calm. Describing what is impermanent, he makes visible the timeless love that surrounds us.

Harrison composed several of the songs in Hawaii, and one ("Soft Touch") in the Virgin Islands. His art, like that of the painter Gauguin before him, blossomed in the tropics, nurtured by the lush, bright atmosphere he found there.

Meditations on nature form the core of the work. There is "Here Comes the Moon," expressing awe as a full moon appears on a Hawaiian shore while the sun is setting; "Blow Away," where redemptive sunlight follows a rainstorm at Harrison's English home; and "Your Love is Forever," which begins:

Sublime is the summertime warm and lazy...
These are perfect days like Heaven's about here,
But unlike summer came and went-
Your love is forever.

Other songs depict extremes of consciousness. In "Soft-Hearted Hana," Harrison eats "magic mushrooms" on the island of Maui, and grows as tall as the Haleakala volcano. He falls in love with Hana, who "lives beneath the crater in the meadow," meeting her "among the fruit and grain...after heavy rain has fallen." "Faster" was inspired by Harrison's friends in Formula One racing. It is a tribute to all those who have "moved into the space/ That the special people share/ Right on the edge of do or die/ Where there is nothing left to spare."

"Brown-Eyed Lady" is a love song for Harrison's wife, Olivia. In the album notes (taken from his autobiography "I Me Mine"), he said the song "sounds to me a bit Hawaiian/Spanish." To my ears, it also resembles Brazilian bossa nova. The lilting verse of "Soft Touch" may be for Harrison's new son, Dhani: "You're a soft touch baby/ Like a snow flake falling/ My whole heart is melting/ As a warm sun rises."

Dating from 1968, "Not Guilty" alludes to the discord within The Beatles at that time. The bitter edge of its lyrics contrasts with the album's prevailing, upbeat mood. It ends with melancholy, wordless singing.

The opening song, "Love Comes to Everyone" and finale, "If You Believe," are morale builders meant to encourage us in our present situations, whatever they are. "Love Comes to Everyone" states the imperative of life:

Go do it,
Got to go through the door,
There's no easy way out at all...
Still it only takes time
'Til love comes to everyone.

There are gorgeous tunes and harmonies throughout, in an instrumental mix both clear and rich. Harrison said that the open tuning on his slide guitar forced him to make up new chords, rather than use conventional ones. On "Blow Away" and "Your Love is Forever," he plays this guitar with the expressiveness of a human voice.

I especially enjoy the music of "Here Comes the Moon." Its sprinkles of harp tones sound like stars twinkling. Sustained vocal and keyboard chords, supported by Willie Weeks' bass, convey the majesty and peace of the cosmos. The sudden shift to quick guitar triplets as Harrison repetitively sings "here comes the moon, the moon, the moon, the moon" emphasize the drama of the moon's emergence. The CD's two versions of the song are in no way repetitive. The full instrumental recording paints an image of the spectacle unfolding in the sky, while the bonus, solo acoustic track gives insight into Harrison's feelings as he watches.

"George Harrison" stands alongside "All Things Must Pass" and "Brainwashed" as one of Harrison's greatest solo albums. Radiant in spirit, it reveals the essence of the artist, and shows why he is irreplaceable.





August 3, 2008

George Harrison

Great CD...had the vinyl but haven't listened to in years, wanted to update to CD. The songs sound great and George playing and singing are some of his best. AAA+++ March 31, 2008

MELLO

This cd is the mello side of george, Blow away will make you feel good and faster will speed it up a little. A very fine lp or cd Just kick back and enjoy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! March 17, 2008

The album that made me re-discover George

I'll make it short and sweet......
I lost interest in George after "Living In The Material World" in 1973. Six years later, this was the album that made me re-discover him. There's some georgous melodies on this album. February 26, 2008

Easy Does It

Compared to his former co-band members in the Beatles, George Harrisons solo output may be considered the most uniform. Not one to wildly diverge as far as styles and soundscapes go, his albums were written either because he felt like writing or because he had to write. As much as we love George to this day, the fact of the matter is, that this was a solo career headed for the dumps. A few prolonged projects in the mid 70's ate away his recording time, and when he returned, the record buying public were looking elsewhere. George was less impressed with the workings and demands of record companies, and even less impressed with the musical tastes of the late 70's. After delivering a fine album (33 1/3) to his new record company, he would go on to watch sales drop, the record company moan and the World losing interest. So, George did other things that interested him. Started paying more attention to downtime, racing, movies, producing movies and so on.

But then, after a couple of years had passed, he returned with this self titled album. And what a return it was. Regardless of the record buying publics reaction to this album, it's a real gem. George sounds so at ease, and in such a pleasant mood here, it radiates positivity through the speakers. Here is a man who has found love, and who seems to have enjoyed himself these past years. He is telling us that we will all receive love (Love Comes to Everyone), he tells us how splendid the moon looked when he was on vacation in Hawaii (Here Comes The Moon) and he lets us in on how much he enjoys Grand Prix racing (Faster).

This is in a way the last of the post-Beatles George Harrison albums. Somewhere in England was recorded mostly before the death of John Lennon, but will forever be remembered as a post Lennon album. By the time of Gone Troppo, George had lost interest in such a degree, it ruined any hope the listener had of hearing a great George Harrison album again. Of course, he would return in a commanding way with 9th Cloud, but in 1979, these events could not be guessed. As it is, George Harrison, the album, bookends a decade that began in such a splendid manner, on the ruins of the Beatles, with the monumental 'All Things Must Pass', and it bookends it splendidly. February 17, 2008

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