Thursday, February 25, 2010

Happy birthday, George Harrison

Home Paddock reminds us that George Harrison would be 67 today if he were still with us. The Concert for George DVD is a fine memorial: he is too often thought of as the dreamy hippie one of the Beatles who as a solo artist would later bang on about Hare Krishna and “My Sweet Lord”. But some of his songs were mean-spirited and very far from peace and love, man – think of “Taxman” and “Piggies” – and he was the hard-headed businessman who bankrolled the Monty Python films. So, a more complicated, more interesting character than the image.

Here he is with “Got My Mind Set On You” from 1987 (a #1 hit in the US and #2 in the UK). He didn’t write it, but it’s a fun performance.

3 comments:

Dave Hillier said...

And boy could he play guitar.

Phil said...

Yep - good guitar player.
Always seems a shame that he and Ringo were always in the shadows.

No that was Cliff - Ed.

Stephen Stratford said...

And he totally reinvented slide guitar. I don't know of anyone in pop/rock music who could claim anything similar, on any instrument.