George Harrison

 

By: Emory K.

George Harrison is one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, who wrote one of my favorite songs but before we jump ahead, let us go back to George Harrison's past in the winding streets of Liverpool.

George Harrison was born on February 25th, 1943, on number 12 Arnold grove, in Liverpool, England. He was born to a working-class family and was fascinated with musicians such as Little Richard, and Buddy Holly. In the mid 1950s George Harrison met Paul McCartney, who then introduced him to John Lennon, they were both in John’s band, “The Quarrymen”. George wished to join John’s band, so he played one of John’s favorite rock songs. Soon after Ringo Starr joined the band, and they changed their name to The Beatles!

The Beatles’ first album, Please Please Me, was released in which George sang background vocals for most songs including Twist and Shout. In The Beatles’ second album, With the Beatles, George wrote his first song Don't Bother Me. But soon there was a problem for the band, they usually could not hear themselves play due to all the screaming fans in the audience.

Then in 1965, George heard about Ravi Shankar, a musician who specialized in Indian music, including the Sitar, a traditional Indian instrument. This was around the time that the band had stopped touring and, in the song, Norwegian Wood, George played the Sitar with John singing. After Norwegian Wood, George made many songs with the Sitar, and others including While My Guitar Gently Weeps. Then in 1969, George quit the Beatles, and even though he rejoined later, tensions were still high with the band.

In 1970 the band disbanded, and they all set off on solo careers. Later that year, George Harrison released All Things Must Pass, including his hit song My Sweet Lord. In November 2001, George Harrison died of lung cancer. I picked George Harrison because his music is singular, and there is nothing quite like it. His last words were, simply “Love one another.”

Sources
1.Wikipedia
2.Visualizing the Beatles, Jon Pring (2016)
3.The Beatles Anthology
4. BeatlesArchive.com

Also check out
Dreaming the Beatles, Rob Sheffield
The Beatles, Spotify
Get Back (Disney+)

All research was done By Emory, Photo credits by iMBD. Thank you for Listening/Reading