Monthly Archives: November 2011

Ten years ago yesterday, George Harrison lost his battle with lung cancer at the age of 58, ending one of the most influential musical lives ever led.

Harrison gained a reputation for himself as ‘the quiet Beatle’, often preferring to leave the spotlight to his more vocal band mates. During this time, however, he was the songwriting master behind some of the most highly regarded songs of the band’s career including ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’, ‘Here Comes The Sun’ and the cheeky stab at the tax department who were, at the time, taxing the band 95% because they found themselves in the top earners in the country, ‘Taxman’.

‘When you think about it, the four egos, it’s amazing they did anything because they’re all very strongpeople,’ producer George Martin said in a BBC Radio Documentary on Harrison.

‘He got a bit fed up because his own music wasn’t recognised, by me as well, I’m guilty. I took the two geniuses and ignored the third,’ he regretfully admitted.

Harrison didn’t start out writing such hugely influential numbers though. In 1958, when the band was known as The Quarrymen, he wrote the band’s very first original song with Paul McCartney (who would later split all of his songwriting royalties with John Lennon). The song ‘In Spite Of All The Danger’ was a Buddy Holly-inspired tune with Lennon on lead vocals.

George’s solo career started before the demise of The Beatles, with his first album ‘Wonderwall Music’, recorded partially in Bombay. It was the soundtrack to a 1968 film