It's not that it completely sucked... it's just that his career was such a big disappointment that, all things considered... it sucked. Here's why (and remember this is just my opinion... feel free to disagree):Abbey Road was released in September of 1969... just after the summer of love. Sadly, the love between the Beatles was waning.... but they were all at the top of their game. Harrison contributed Something and Here Comes the Sun to Abbey Road. 'Something' was by far his most successful song while he was in the Beatles... it was his only A-side single and his only song to top the American charts. 'Here Comes the Sun' is probably his best known song now and was the most downloaded of all the Beatles' songs when the 2009 remasters were released. Just listen to the brilliant moog melodies starting at 2:12. Because of these two hits... Harrison's solo career was actually getting public attention as being the most promising of the four Beatles... (click read more below)
In 1970 he released his first post-Beatles album, All Things Must Pass. It was a triple album (the first ever by a solo artist). Harrison was always saying in interviews how he had so many songs that were finished and ready to be recorded but he could never get them all out whilst with the Beatles since he was only 'allowed' two songs on each record. So this was him getting all his creative juices out. He co-produced it with Phil Spector and had plenty of heavyweights playing on it (Ringo, Clapton, Voorman, Preston, Badfinger, White, Baker, etc.). There's a number of very good songs on it but the only one that really stands out as a classic and on par with 'Something' and 'Here Comes the Sun' is 'My Sweet Lord.' A totally brilliant song... super simple, great chord changes, modulations, melody, production, and beautifully simple and moving lyrics. Here's what sucked about it: it was a cover. He didn't know it at the time so I don't blame him and I'm very glad he made it... but the fact remains... the song is basically a clever cover version of The Chiffons 'He's So Fine.' And he had to give them a lot of money after they took him to court for it. Therefore, I don't give him full credit for having written the brilliant song. Listen for yourself:
George Harrison - My Sweet Lord (1970: All Things Must Pass)
The Chiffons - He's So Fine (1962: He's So Fine)
The Chiffons - My Sweet Lord (1975: My Sweet Lord)
- Recorded to capitalize on the lawsuit.
In 1971 Harrison put on the Concert for Bangladesh, being the first really big benefit concert ever. I'm not gonna say too much about this... just that Harrison was still looking like he was going to have a huge solo career at this point. He certainly could pull off doing a live show without the Beatles. One of the best performances of the night was a song he wrote called 'Bangla Desh.' Awesome live; not so great recorded though.
After the Concert for Bangladesh his career went downhill. The music he released kept getting worse and worse. Again, so sad for someone who had just written such great stuff with the Beatles. In the 80s he took a long break from recording and touring... though he never did that much touring anyway. And in 1987 he came back with Cloud 9. Not a good record. Two of the three singles off it were totally lame: 'This is Love' and 'When We Was Fab' (especially lame).... and i'm not even gonna post them. The big hit off of it was 'Got My Mind Set On You.' This may be the best thing Harrison ever recorded ever... it's so friggin' good and everyone knows it. So why did it suck? It was a cover... so sad that Harrison's greatest solo material was not original. He had it in him... but it never came out.... and that sucks.
George Harrison - Got My Mind Set on You (1987: Cloud Nine)
James Ray - I've Got My Mind Set on You (1962: I've Got My Mind Set on You)
- written by Rudy Clark
And lastly... Harrison's only other truly amazing song after the Beatles was 'Handle With Care.' But again... not a true original. He needed the help of Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne, Bob Dylan and Roy Orbison just to write one great song. Originally intended to be the B-side to 'This is Love,' Harrison's recording company told him the song was too good for a B-side (duh), and so... the Traveling Wilburys were born.
The Traveling Wilburys - Handle With Care (1988: Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1)
And so, in summation, George Harrison's solo career sucked because he couldn't write another truly great and original song by himself after the Beatles. He should have been able to. In 1970 who could have predicted that any of the Beatles' solo careers wouldn't be amazing?
Also see 'Why Paul McCartney's Solo Career Sucked (And continues to suck)'...
8 comments:
What a great post! I never realized how much his career sucked, but that's probably because I never even thought about trying to check out his oeuvre. I have "All Things Must Pass" but it's really not much fun to listen to all the way through (whereas it's difficult not to listen most Beatles albums all the way through).
Can't wait for the McCartney post! What about a Ringo post? That would be fun, since he's been more prolific than most would realize. Seems like the only Beatle who put out real gems after the break up was Mr. Lennon, though, minus a few great songs here and there from Paul.
I don't know if I could manage a Ringo post... he did release a lot of music but I don't like any of it... he never could and never will top Octopus's Garden.
I wonder if its even fair to think that any of the Beatles would have had good solo careers. I think they epitomized the group concept and how much greater are the sum of all the parts together. They seemed to show us this over and over in their best work which shows amazing contributions from all of them regardless of whose idea the song was. Very interesting points that you bring up and I agree with most of your findings, although thats not so surprising!
Hmm yes... good point... I agree, they all did make amazing contributions to the songs regardless if they wrote them or not. But I think it IS fair to think that the Beatles could have had good solo careers! I think John Lennon had a great solo career... and if you take his solo compositions on their own merit and don't compare them to his work in the Beatles, it's an almost undeniably brilliant body of work, even though it was cut short. Maybe I should do a post on that too!
Hi there. I in particular love George Harrison's solo career, more so than Paul's, who I feel is tremendously over-rated. Well, for starters, I feel that All Things Must Pass is an extremely over-rated album, while his 1973 Living In The Material World is underrated. Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth) is a wonderful song on LITMW. So is Beware Of Darkness. The only songs I like on ATMP is My Sweet Lord and Wah Wah. Cloud 9 is a great George album too. But it's just a matter of opinions what someone likes. I like George, but that doesn't mean you have to like him too. Whatever floats your boat I guess.
Oh, and I also LOVE John Lennon's solo career. All of the songs he did solo are as good as when he was with The Beatles, if not better! Double Fantasy was a brilliant masterpiece from John and Yoko, Sometime In New York City was amazing as well, then you have wonderful John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, true genious. It's so sad that he's not here anymore.
What I was trying to show here was that I actually do like George... I just think his solo career showed more promise and should have been better. Give Me Love and Beware of Darkness are two nice songs for sure... I don't love them but I do like them. It's definitely unfair of me to judge Harrison in relation to his past work... but that's what I felt like doing for fun :) And I didn't do a spotlight post on John Lennon because it would have been exhausting! His solo career is a billion times better than the other Beatles' in my opinion. (And I didn't do a Ringo post because I don't really like anything from his solo career.... except his personality).
Yeah, I don't like Ringo's stuff either. Pretty boring and bland. Coulda been better. Too weak efforts to me. He hadn't written any new songs in years it seems.
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