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Living In The Material World: George Harrison

John was the big mouth, Paul was the big eyes, Ringo was the big nose and George was the big mystery. – Unknown

He was known as the “quiet Beatle.” He liked to call himself “just an old skiffle man” the last few years of his life. While Ringo, Paul, and John seemed to embrace fame, George Harrison seemed the most ill at ease; preferring to let the spotlight shine more on the other three and in his latter years was the most reclusive of the boys. According to people who knew him, he was the friendliest and most good natured of the group. While Lennon and McCartney were known as the songwriters, Frank Sinatra claimed that Harrison had penned the most beautiful ballad, “Something,” in the last fifty years. Yet, he is the hardest one to get a handle on and maybe the most interesting one when the facts of his life are examined, especially his changing relationships with the rest of the band, Monty Python, Eastern thought and Eric Clapton.

The son of a bus conductor and the youngest of four children, George Harrison was The Beatle that the older boys, especially John, did not want. At fourteen he picked up a guitar and played in a skiffle group called The Rebels with his brother Peter. In school he became friendly with Paul McCartney who was a year older and played in a band called The Quarrymen. McCartney recognized his friend’s talent but John Lennon resisted letting him into the band. After several months, Lennon finally conceded and let Harrison join the band but always treated him like a kid. By the time he was sixteen, he had quit school and was playing guitar with The Beatles in the Kaiserkeller in Berlin until authorities learned that he was underage and deported him.

Of all The Beatles, he was most devoted to the craft, constantly refining his talent, often to the point of having his fingers bleed from practice. Even though Rolling Stone magazine ranked him as one of the twenty-five greatest guitar players ever, the early years of the band was tough for him. His abilities were often overlooked and not heard in the midst of the throng of screaming fans and that John and Paul controlled the chords being played and emphasized. They were the leaders of the band, even deciding what songs appeared on the albums. The Beatles only recorded one of his songs before 1965 and even after that he was generally allowed only one song on an album. (George got three cuts on 1966’s Revolver.) It would be hard to argue that “Here Comes the Sun”, “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”, and “Something” are not among the most beautiful songs The Beatles recorded. Harrison, as time went on, also had a greater impact on fellow musicians. He popularized the Rickenbacker 12-string electric guitar which became a staple of folk-rock. He introduced, through his friendship with Ravi Shankar, western audiences to the sitar. Still, he was “the disciple” and “the little brother,” not the equal, even though in many ways he had surpassed his friends.

In the midst of his musical growth, at the height of Beatles fame, one of the most interesting stories in the history of rock-n-roll happened. He met a young model named Patti Boyd on the set of the Beatles’ first film, A Hard Day’s Night. Patti did something no girl of that era did to a Beatle. She turned Harrison down, not once but several times. Yet, persistence finally paid off and finally she agreed to a date. Within a week of their first date, George had taken her to meet his parents, he had met her mother, and they were house hunting. The only thing that kept them from walking down the aisle was fear that female fans might react negatively to another Beatle getting married. They would wait until 1966 to tie the knot. She introduced him to Indian mysticism and was there when John and George tried LSD for the first time. He returned the favor by writing “Something.” Yet, their marriage was not as beautiful as the songs he wrote about her. By all accounts, he was an old fashioned husband with a wandering eye. There were even rumors that he had bedded Ringo’s wife. Some point the finger at the fact that George wanted to be a father and that was the one thing Patti could not give him. It was clear the marriage was in deep trouble by the time a backup guitar player on “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” Eric Clapton, entered the picture. Clapton had become one of Harrison’s best friends. A t a party one night Clapton commented on how beautiful George’s wife was. Eric slowly began to weave himself into her life and much like Harrison a few years earlier was madly in love with her but Patti would not cheat on her husband.

Clapton found a substitute for Patti in her younger, underage sister Paula. Pining for Patti, he did what George had done earlier, wrote a song about his love for her, “Layla,” which caused Paula to leave him when she realized that he really loved her sister. He then promptly went on a three year heroin bender. After affairs with Ronnie Wood later of the Rolling Stones and Mick Fleetwood (Mick Jagger and John Lennon also, unsuccessfully, tried to bed Patti), the Harrison marriage ended shortly after the Beatles broke up. Patti claimed years later that George’s new religious faith and personality changes were among the major reasons for the breakup. Learning that Patti and George had separated, Eric pursued Patti. George watching his friend and wife carrying on decided to drag his feet on the divorce. It was not until a couple of years later that George decided to grant the divorce Patti wanted when he finally had the son he had always wanted with another woman. The Clapton’s marriage was marred by Eric’s drug abuse and infidelity before they went their separate ways when the past repeated itself and Clapton had a child with another woman, but it was responsible for another rock-n-roll classic, “Wonderful Tonight.” By all accounts, George and Patti (and Eric) remained close until Harrison’s death in 2001.

Because John and Paul had been resistant about playing George’s songs, he, unlike the others, had a huge backlog of music to draw from when the boys went their separate ways. Working with producer Phil Spector, Harrison released the critically acclaimed and extremely popular triple album “All Things Must Pass” in 1970. Never consumed by ego, Harrison had a who’s who of musicians participate on the album with him including Ringo, Clapton, Dave Mason, Tom Petty, and Billy Preston (the 5th Beatle). A year later, he organized the first all-star aid concert to help refugees of the Bangladesh Liberation War. Harrison continued to put out music throughout the 1970s and 80s, which struggled to garner much mainstream success due to its Hindu influences and references. Mainly Harrison enjoyed helping other musicians, often playing back up on other’s albums and collaborating with Ringo, Carl Perkins, Electric Light Orchestra, Belinda Carlisle, Harry Nilsson, Billy Preston, and even the comedy team of Cheech & Chong. While Lennon and George’s relationship remained strained, due to Harrison’s dislike of Yoko Ono, until John’s death, he remained friendly with the other two Beatles (and surprisingly, Clapton, with whom he toured with in the 1990s) as he slowly retreated from the public eye. Now being an ex-Beatle would be enough for some people, in 1988, with Roy Orbison, Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty and Bob Dylan, he formed the superstar group, The Traveling Wilburys, which stayed together until Orbison’s death. He also dove into making movies, forming HandMade Films in 1978 with his friends from Monty Python. (Harrison wrote The Lumberjack song.) He produced Life of Brian, Time Bandits, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and twenty-one other films, until he sold the company in 1994.

George led a largely private life, except for being stabbed by a stalker. His second wife, Olivia Trinidad Arias saved his life by subduing the assailant, which led Tom Petty to fax him, “Aren’t you glad you glad you married a Mexican girl?” He mainly found his peace working in his 36 acre garden. He even dedicated his autobiography “to gardeners everywhere.” Throat cancer, from years of smoking, and later brain cancer, ultimately took his life in 2001, while staying at his friend Paul McCartney’s home in Hollywood Hills. His ashes were scattered in the Ganges River according to his Hindu faith.

Verdict: A Great Documentary