Posted on 11/29/2001 11:08:32 PM PST by MadIvan
Just announced on British news. Nothing follows.
May he rest in peace.
"He died with one thought in mind - love one another," De Becker said.
De Becker said Harrison's wife, Olivia Harrison, and son Dhani, 24, were both with him when he died.
Harrison, who was 58, announced in July he had received treatment in Switzerland for a tumour. He also had surgery for lung cancer in May.
As well as his recent struggle with cancer, Harrison's life was also threatened when he was stabbed by an intruder at his home in Oxfordshire in 1999.
The musician had recently bought a £7m home near his Swiss clinic, about 20 miles from Bellinzona, Lugano near the Italian border.
He lived there with his wife Olivia.
The former Beatle, who met his fellow band members John Lennon, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr where they grew up in Liverpool, was just 27 when the band split in 1970.
They managed to conquer the world musically, achieving 27 number one records in the UK and the US during their career.
Their most recent album, compiling all their number one hits, called 1, topped both the UK and the US charts during 2000.
Harrison's post-Beatles career had several successes. He went on to produce a critically acclaimed solo album All Things Must Pass.
His role as a film producer took off when he worked on Monty Python's Life of Brian in 1979.
He was also responsible for The Long Good Friday, Time Bandits and Mona Lisa.
In the 1980s Harrison teamed with former ELO front-man Jeff Lynne on Cloud Nine and then joined with Bob Dylan, Tom Petty and Roy Orbison as The Travelling Wilburys.
Harrison leaves his wife Olivia and a son, Dhani.
The Associated Press
Friday, November 30, 2001; 3:15 AM
LOS ANGELES –– George Harrison, the Beatles' quiet lead guitarist and spiritual explorer who added both rock 'n' roll flash and a touch of the mystic to the band's timeless magic, has died, a longtime family friend told The Associated Press. He was 58.
Harrison died at 1:30 p.m. Thursday at a friend's Los Angeles home following a battle with cancer, longtime friend Gavin De Becker told The Associated Press late Thursday.
"He died with one thought in mind – love one another," De Becker said. De Becker said Harrison's wife, Olivia Harrison, and son Dhani, 24, were with him when he died.
With Harrison's death, there remain two surviving Beatles, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr. John Lennon was shot to death by a deranged fan in 1980.
In 1998, when Harrison disclosed that he had been treated for throat cancer, Harrison said: "It reminds you that anything can happen." The following year, he survived an attack by an intruder who stabbed him several times. In July 2001, he released a statement asking fans not to worry about reports that he was still battling cancer.
The Beatles were four distinct personalities joined as a singular force in the rebellious 1960s, influencing everything from hair styles to music. Whether dropping acid, proclaiming "All You Need is Love" or sending up the squares in the film "A Hard Day's Night," the Beatles inspired millions.
Harrison's guitar work, modeled on Chuck Berry and Carl Perkins among others, was essential.
He often blended with the band's joyous sound, but also rocked out wildly on "Long Tall Sally" and turned slow and dreamy on "Something." His jangly 12-string Rickenbacker, featured in "A Hard Day's Night," was a major influence on the American band the Byrds.
Although his songwriting was overshadowed by the great Lennon-McCartney team, Harrison did contribute such classics as "Here Comes the Sun" and "Something," which Frank Sinatra covered. Harrison also taught the young Lennon how to play the guitar.
He was known as the "quiet" Beatle and his public image was summed up in the first song he wrote for them, "Don't Bother Me," which appeared on the group's second album.
But Harrison also had a wry sense of humor that helped shape the Beatles' irreverent charm, memorably fitting in alongside Lennon's cutting wit and Starr's cartoonish appeal.
At their first recording session under George Martin, the producer reportedly asked the young musicians to tell him if they didn't like anything. Harrison's response: "Well, first of all, I don't like your tie." Asked by a reporter what he called the Beatles' famous moptop hairstyle, he quipped, "Arthur."
He was even funny about his own mortality. As reports of his failing health proliferated, Harrison recorded a new song – "Horse to the Water" – and credited it to "RIP Ltd. 2001."
He always preferred being a musician to being a star, and he soon soured on Beatlemania – the screaming girls, the hair-tearing mobs, the wild chases from limos to gigs and back to limos. Like Lennon, his memories of the Beatles were often tempered by what he felt was lost in all the madness.
"There was never anything, in any of the Beatle experiences really, that good: even the best thrill soon got tiring," Harrison wrote in his 1979 book, "I, Me, Mine." "There was never any doubt. The Beatles were doomed. Your own space, man, it's so important. That's why we were doomed, because we didn't have any. We were like monkeys in a zoo."
Still, in a 1992 interview with The Daily Telegraph, Harrison confided: "We had the time of our lives: We laughed for years."
After the Beatles broke up in 1970, Harrison had sporadic success. He organized the concert for Bangladesh in New York City, produced films that included Monty Python's "Life of Brian," and teamed with old friends, including Bob Dylan and Roy Orbison, as "The Traveling Wilburys."
George Harrison was born Feb. 25, 1943, in Liverpool, one of four children of Harold and Louise Harrison. His father, a former ship's steward, became a bus conductor soon after his marriage.
Harrison was 13 when he bought his first guitar and befriended Paul McCartney at their school. McCartney introduced him to Lennon, who had founded a band called the Quarry Men – Harrison was allowed to play if one of the regulars didn't show up.
"When I joined, he didn't really know how to play the guitar; he had a little guitar with three strings on it that looked like a banjo," Harrison recalled of Lennon during testimony in a 1998 court case against the owner of a bootleg Beatles' recording.
"I put the six strings on and showed him all the chords – it was actually me who got him playing the guitar. He didn't object to that, being taught by someone who was the baby of the group. John and I had a very good relationship from very early on."
All things must pass
All things must pass away
All things must pass
All things must pass away
IMO, George Harrison was of the most underrated guitarists in music.
Couldn't agree with you more.
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