George Harrison died on this date in 2001 and today is a good time to do a retrospective look at his solo career in chronological order. Yes, I said solo because by 1970, Harrison had long grown tired of being a Beatle. No song said that better than one of his songs on All Things Must Pass, his first solo record following the Beatle’ breakup.
We start out with Run Of The Mill, a reference to the “abuse and humiliation” that Harrison had received at Twickenham during the filming of Let It Be. In Georges eye’s, just walking onto the cavernous set was “Another day for you to realize me / Or send me down again.”
It starts with a plea to Paul to stop being so heavy handed. “It was when Apple was getting crazy. Paul was falling out with us all and going around Apple offices saying ‘You’re no good.’ Everyone was just incompetent. It was that period – the problem of partnerships.”
The lyrics are very telling.
Everyone has choice
When to or not to raise their voices
It’s you that decides
Which way you will turn
While feeling that our love’s not your concern.
It presented Harrison’s realization that he had to walk away and carry on with his own life. And carry on he did. This 13-song collection is but a fragment of the music he left us, beginning with the All Things Must Pass album, where we were introduced to Harrison’s brilliant slide guitar (an instrument George never played with the Beatles) and ending with the posthumously released Brainwashed album in November 2002, almost a year after his death at age 58.
Whatever George Harrison was going through personally, the last song, Rising Sun is still about the wonder of “being.” It is about memory, and about what treasures memories can be. Sometimes, memories can be about baggage. Harrison knew all about that, having something of a love-hate relationship with his own fame. But, in the end, the sentiments in Rising Sun apply to all of us.
Harrison was fascinated by the mystery of what it means to be alive. That he shared that wonder with us so eloquently in his work, even to the last, is our gain.
Memories … That’s What We’re All About
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The George Harrison Medley
