In honor of George Harrison’s birthday (February 25), we present a series of photos spanning the life and career of the “Quiet Beatle” who tragically passed away in November 2001, aged only 58. Long overshadowed by his more celebrated bandmates, John Lennon and Paul McCartney, George did not receive the adulation he deserved until after the Beatles broke up and he released a wildly successful solo album “All Things Must Pass” in 1970. George is widely credited with introducing Indian culture and mysticism into Western pop and society (although some would argue his contributions have been overstated). After a relatively successful solo career, George seemed to return from public life in the late 1980s and devoted himself to filmmaking and gardening.
George Harrison thecurvatuire.comGeorge was initially friends with Paul McCartney – they met riding the school bus together. After Paul met John Lennon and decided to form a band (called The Quarry Men), Paul suggested George join them. Lennon was initially reluctant because George was (and looked) so young, but his expertise with the guitar quickly won the older Lennon over. Still, even with the huge subsequent success of the Beatles, George found it difficult to escape the dominant shadow of John and Paul.Fulx-Rad.comDuring the early years of The Beatles, George concentrated upon playing lead guitar – his songwriting efforts were not widely embraced by John Lennon, Paul McCartney, nor the Beatles’ producer George Martin. Still, George was permitted a quota of about one song per album. Some of George’s early compositions included “Don’t bother me” and “I need you.”
By 1965, as The Beatles work started to become more sophisticated, Paul McCartney started to take more creative control of the group’s musical endeavors. He often clashed with (and overruled) George on various musical ideas. The rift between Paul and George would never truly heal.
Guitarius.comGeorge married his first wife, the former model Patty Boyd, in 1966 after a two-year courtship. The two had initially met on the set of the Beatles first film “A Hard Day’s Night.”
George and Patty were royalty among the Swinging Sixties set, but their marriage was tumultuous and ultimately led to divorce in the early 1970s.
George was involved in a bizarre ménage-a-trois with his wife and his best friend, blues guitarist Eric Clapton, who was obsessed with Patty and wrote the classic lament “Layla” in her honor. Patty eventually married Clapton, but that too ended up in divorce.
Creative CommonGeorge HarrisonBanglasavvyIn spite of his interests in spirituality, George seemed to have a deep passion for money as well. One of his first widely acclaimed songs, “Taxman,” from The Beatles 1966 record “Revolver” was a lament over Britain’s punitive tax structure.
Over the course of The Beatles career, George’s songwriting skills were uneven and generally elicited apathy from his bandmates. That all changed in 1969, when he recorded two masterpieces, “Something” and “Here comes the sun” which appeared on the “Abbey Road” album.
However, this acclaim wouldn’t matter much to George since The Beatles were about to collapse and he was itching to move onto a solo career.
last.fm/musicThe final two years of The Beatles (1968 and 1969) were, paradoxically, a period of tremendous growth in George’s musical and spiritual life, but also the worst of his professional career as his unhappiness with The Beatles could no longer be hidden.
Despite the group’s unyielding success and global popularity, George chafed under John and Paul’s domination. Things came to a head during the tense 1968 recording sessions for the “White Album” and the disastrous “Get back/Let it be” sessions in January 1969. In both cases, he expressed his displeasure with being a Beatle and temporarily quit the band (though he returned both times, of course)
last.fm.musicGeorge released a number of solo records even before The Beatles broke up, including “Electronic Music” in 1968. However, it was not until the smash triple-album “All Things Must Pass” in 1970 that he became a bonafide superstar on his own, The record included many songs composed (and rejected) for inclusion in Beatles albums, including “isn’t it a pity,” “Apple scruffs,” “My sweet lord” and the title track.
George received some measure of satisfaction, in that during the first two years after the break-up, he was far and away the most successful ex-Beatle.
bvml.orgThroughout the 1970s when the media rumors ran wild about a Beatles reunion, George seemed the most adamant against such a thing ever happening. Many of his comments about The Beatles, and especially about the solo careers of Paul McCartney and John Lennon, were quite caustic.
While George’s friendship with Ringo Starr stayed strong throughout their lives, George’s relationship with John was "off and on" and his relationship with Paul fraught with tension. George and Paul almost never collaborated musically, nor appeared on each other records.
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In the mid-1990s when the surviving Beatles decided to re-release old songs from the group’s vault as well as produce a documentary about their career, George was reportedly reluctant to get involved, but did so only because he needed the money (having apparently lost a lot of money in the movie business). But these assertions were never proven and The Beatles Anthology film and CDs were huge successes.
About two years prior to his death from cancer, George was assaulted and nearly killed by an intruder who entered his property and mansion in the south of England. While he survived that frightening ordeal, he reportedly never completely recovered emotionally from the trauma.
George’s death was mourned as the end of an era and elicited grief and sorrow from across the globe.
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