Harrison
"Should 5% appear too small, be grateful I don't take it all!
Cause I'm the tax man, yeah, yeah, I'm the tax man!"
I'm feeling old.
There'll come a time
When all of us must leave here
Then nothing Sister Mary can do
Will keep me here with you
As nothing in this life that I've been trying
Can equal or surpass the art of dying.
God bless you and keep you George Harrison.
You made a difference.
I don't want to kiss or hold your hand...
If it's funny try and understand...
There is really nothing else I'd rather do...
'Cause I'm happy just to dance with you...
Guess I remember George that way. A good guy, who just wanted everyone to have a good time enjoying life's simple pleasures.
My Sweet Lord and the concert for Bangladesh album stick in my mind as much as the traditional Beatles staples do in others. He was a link to a simpler and happier time.
'Happiness is a warm gun.'
Mornin', guys! Fell asleep in the chair again!....FRegards
Nov. 30 — George Harrison, known to a generation as "the Quiet Beatle," has died, according to several reports. 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.
"He left this world as he lived in it, conscious of God, fearless of death, and at peace, surrounded by family and friends. He often said, 'Everything else can wait but the search for God cannot wait, and love one another,'" his family said in a statement.
Funeral arrangements are not yet known.
Harrison had been fighting cancer for years. He was first diagnosed with lung cancer in 1997 and was treated in Switzerland earlier this year for a brain tumor.
He had recently been had experimental radiosurgery at New York's Staten Island University Hospital and later moved to UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles for more conventional treatment, but it failed to stop the cancer.
"George has given so much to us in his lifetime and he continues to do so even after his passing with his music, his wit and his wisdom," Yoko Ono, widow of former bandmate John Lennon, said in a statement. "His life was magical and we felt we had shared a little bit of it by knowing him. Thank you George. It was grand knowing you."
A Mop Top With a Dry Sense of Humor
Harrison was widely known as the "Quiet Beatle." Lennon and Paul McCartney wrote and sang lead on most of the songs. Ringo Starr clowned his way through the movies.
Harrison, the youngest member of the group, was content to play lead guitar. The Mop Top with a dry sense of humor, he stepped to the fore in the Beatles' later years, writing such classics as "Something" and "Here Comes the Sun."
While he was the most media-shy of the Fab Four, in many ways, he was the most influential. At a time before Westerners were flocking to yoga classes, Harrison became one of the first proponents of Eastern culture, studying meditation and Indian music.
On the Beatles classic "Norwegian Wood," Harrison introduced the Indian sitar to Western ears. Later, Harrison brought awareness to the Third World through The Concert for Bangladesh — the first large-scale pop music fund-raiser — featuring such giants as Bob Dylan and Eric Clapton. It was the forerunner for such events as "Live Aid."
Like the other Beatles, Harrison started out as a working-class lad in Liverpool, England. He was born on Feb. 25, 1943, the youngest of three sons.
His parents ran dance classes for several years, but it was not until Harrison was 14 that he showed any interest in music. When the skiffle group craze hit Britain in the 1950s he learned a few chords on a second-hand guitar he bought from a classmate.
Soon afterward he teamed up with Lennon and McCartney and the group played at Liverpool's Casbah club, run by the mother of Pete Best, then the group's drummer.
As The Silver Beatles, the group played gigs in Hamburg, Germany, until it was discovered that the 17-year-old Harrison was too young to have a work permit and they had to return home.
In 1962, the Beatles signed a recording contract and unceremoniously dumped Best, replacing him with Starr. Within a year, the Fab Four had girls screaming on both sides of the Atlantic, and a new word entered the public lexicon: Beatlemania.
As Harrison later quipped: "I guess if you've got to be in a rock group it might as well be the Beatles."
No other rock group has ever dominated the charts as the Beatles did. On April 4, 1964, the Fab Four had the top five positions on the U.S. Hot 100 and placed another seven elsewhere on the chart. In descending order were "Can't Buy Me Love," "Twist And Shout," "She Loves You," "I Want To Hold Your Hand," and "Please Please Me."
The Beatles' record of 20 No. 1 singles in America still stands.
Even while he was known as the most famous lead guitarist in the world, Harrison needed more time to develop his voice. When the Beatles stopped touring in 1966, Harrison devoted more time to songwriting. On Abbey Road, the group's final album, his song "Something" became his first A-side single.
After the Beatles broke up in 1970, he was the first member of the band to score a major recording success, with the album All Things Must Pass, which included the controversial hit single "My Sweet Lord."
Unfortunately, Harrison was later successfully sued by the publisher of the 1962 Chiffons hit "He's So Fine," which bore a striking resemblance to "My Sweet Lord."
The two songs use the same notes and chord progression. Harrison maintained he hadn't been conscious of the similarities in the songs. Many pop music aficionados rushed to his defense, claiming that many songs in rock bear such similarities.
In 1976, a judge ruled Harrison's acts weren't intentional. Nevertheless, under copyright infringement law, he was found guilty and ordered to pay $587,000.
Harrison's career suffered a slump in the mid-1970s. Many critics dismissed his work as preachy and sanctimonious.
In 1978, he embarked on a new venture, forming HandMade Films, which went on to produce Monty Python's Life of Brian and Time Bandits.
In wake of the fatal shooting of John Lennon in 1980, Harrison recorded the tribute "All Those Years Ago," a No. 1 hit, bolstered with musical contributions from McCartney and Starr, making it a near-Beatles reunion.
Still, his subsequent albums, Somewhere in England and Gone Troppo, were largely ignored by record buyers, and he went on a five-year recording hiatus.
He resurrected his recording career with the 1987 album Cloud Nine, which produced the hits "Got My Mind Set on You" and "When We Was Fab," a parody of the Beatles.
Harrison hit the charts again in 1988 as part of the Traveling Wilburys, a group that featured Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison, Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne.
Harrison grew tired of answering questions about the Beatles, especially after Lennon's death. "As far as I'm concerned, there won't be a Beatles reunion so long as John Lennon remains dead," he announced in 1989.
Still, the three surviving members of the Fab Four teamed up in 1996 to create a retrospective, The Beatles Anthology, which included three volumes of previously unavailable recordings.
The three reunited again in June 1998 for a tribute to Linda McCartney, Paul's wife, who died of breast cancer.
In 2000, the Beatles had a No. 1 hit again, with the release of a greatest-hits album called, simply, 1.
Battling Cancer, Intruders … And the Past
The media-shy Harrison had always been reluctant to share his private life with the public. In 1966, Harrison married British model Patti Boyd, whom he met on the set of the Beatles film A Hard Day's Night.
Boyd fell in love with his longtime friend, guitarist Eric Clapton, in 1970. She finally left her husband for Clapton in 1974, but the two musicians managed to remain friends. Harrison even attended the couple's wedding.
Four years later, Harrison married Mexican-born Olivia Arias, who gave birth to his only child, son Dhani.
In later years his reputation as a recluse grew and he spent much of his free time puttering in his garden at his huge mansion — reported to have more than 100 rooms — outside London.
After Lennon's death, Harrison spent a fortune improving security at his mansion near Henley-on-Thames, about 25 miles west of London. He also sometimes traveled under an alias.
Despite those precautions, an intruder broke into the home on Dec. 30, 1999, and stabbed Harrison. Olivia saved her husband by striking the attacker over the head with a fireplace poker and table lamp. The attacker was found to be insane and confined to a mental hospital.
Harrison recovered from the stabbing, but he soon was engaged in a new battle with cancer. He had first been diagnosed with lung cancer in 1997. In May 2000, he had a cancer-like sore removed from his lungs at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. He blamed the condition on smoking. His publicist said at the time that Harrison had recovered, but earlier this year , Harrison checked into a Swiss clinic for treatment of a brain tumor. He later sought treatment at hospitals in New York and Los Angeles.
Despite his frail health, Harrison recorded a single with pianist Jools Holland, former keyboardist for the band Squeeze. Harrison co-wrote the song, "A Horse to Water," with son Dhani for Holland's album, Small World, Big Friends.
(CBS) 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. at the Los Angeles home of a friend following a lengthy battle with cancer, longtime Harrison friend Gavin De Becker said late Thursday.
"He died with one thought in mind - love one another," De Becker said.
With Harrison when he died were his wife Olivia Harrison, and son Dhani, 24. The Harrisons met 27 years ago and were married about 23 years.
"He left this world as he lived in it, conscious of God, fearless of death, and at peace, surrounded by family and friends. He often said, 'Everything else can wait but the search for God cannot wait, and love one another,' Harrison's family said in a statement.
The exact nature of the cancer wasn't disclosed.
"This is a very private thing. They are very private," De Becker said of the family.
He would only say Harrison died "at the home of a dear friend."
It wasn't immediately known if there would be a public funeral for Harrison. A private ceremony had already taken place, De Becker said Thursday night.
Harrison fought cancer for years and only a few weeks ago was in New York City for treatment at a hospital known for its oncology program.
His death now leaves just two surviving members of the Beatles, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr.
Back in the days when they were four moptop lads - John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr - Harrison was known as "The Quiet Beatle."
Harrison's music sometimes took a back seat to those written by Lennon and McCartney - an irritant to Harrison, especially later in his career - but he was always a force to be reckoned with, both as a guitarist and a songwriter.
Harrison was born Feb. 25, 1943, making him the youngest Beatle and the only one whose childhood was not marred by divorce or death. He showed his rebellious nature early, defying his school's dress code by wearing jeans and growing his hair long. In 1956, when the hip, folk-inspired "skiffle" craze hit, Harrison and his brother formed a band, but their young age forced them to sneak out of the house to play.
Harrison and Paul McCartney rode the same bus to school, and soon found they had music and guitars in common. In 1956, McCartney introduced the 14-year-old Harrison to The Quarrymen.
Not old enough to join, Harrison hung around, idolizing John Lennon and emulating everything he could. Harrison stood in the back of the room at all their shows with his guitar. A few times he filled in for the regular guitarist. Gradually, Harrison became a member of the band.
During a Beatles' gig in Hamburg, Harrison received a deportation notice because he was only 17. A curfew existed for anyone under 18. The police were informed and George was homeward bound. He has said the Beatles never really set out to become the greatest rock band in history.
Yet the man who introduced the other Beatles to Eastern mysticism and brought the sitar into rock and roll always managed to make a musical statement, either with his own compositions or with his guitar work. He was the distinctive lead guitarist on the band's classic tunes and added his vocals to John's and Paul's.
Critics say many of his own songs ranked among the best pop tunes ever. "Taxman," "Something," "Here Comes The Sun" and ""While My Guitar Gently Weeps" were some of his best-known contributions to the Beatles legacy.
He met teenage model Patty Boyd while filming "A Hard Day's Night" and they married on Jan. 21, 1966.
When the Beatles broke up in 1970, Harrison began a solo career, producing what many consider his masterpiece, "All Things Must Pass."
Harrison organized the 1971 benefit Concert for Bangladesh at Madison Square Garden with such friends as Bob Dylan and Eric Clapton to raise money to help millions of starving people in a part of the world Harrison had come to love.
Clapton was also in love with Boyd and eventually she split from Harrison to be with his friend.
Harrison produced seven gold albums and became a movie producer in the late '70s. His autobiography, "I, Me, Mine," was published in 1980. Olivia Arrias became his second wife in 1978 and their son Dhani is Harrison's only child.
In the late 1980s he formed the Traveling Wilburys with Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison, Tom Petty and Bob Dylan. In 1997, Harrison was diagnosed with throat cancer and treated successfully. In Dec. 1999, Harrison and his wife were woken when a man wielding a knife stabbed Harrison in the chest at his home.
Fans sometimes spotted him drinking in his local pub or puttering around on the grounds of his mansion.
George Harrison's legacy will be both his music, with the Beatles and on his own, and the way he lived his life, especially his pursuit of spirituality and meaning in life. That was a quest that took him from Liverpool to London to America and the rest of the world. Friends say he spent his last days preparing himself spiritually for his own death, reflecting on something he learned all those years ago: all things must pass.
© MMI, CBS Worldwide Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press and Reuters Limited contributed to this report.
Amen.
And a huge:
Thank you George Harrison, for your life!"
Today all guitars gently weep
