9 ms·
George Harrison and the Struggle for Creative Freedom
- LeonB 4y agoI’m easy prey to any article mentioning a Beatle, but I found that quite interesting. When watching that recent Beatles doco “Get Back” about the making of Let it be, it was fascinating to see how John and Paul had a way of putting musical ideas back and forth between them — but when a tune wasn’t yet “ready” to move out of that duo of composers then they did not want George to get involved. And I saw Paul getting the most frustrated by this - that George would add some embellishment or input - and Paul would feel like it was a set back and a distraction. So strange to see it unfolding! It was like this. Imagine two people (John and Paul) are working together to build a life size puppet/model of a character using wire and bolts. The two of them are constantly changing the shape of the character as they evolve the idea. But then a third person comes along, who happens to be the worlds best papier-mâché artist, and he starts putting papier-mâché “skin” over the half constructed character. They all get upset with each other. The world expert papier-mâché artist is hurt, the modellers are frustrated, it’s total chaos. Anyway - it was a tough position for George to be in, that was pretty clear.
- jmmcd 4y agoGreat comment and we see the same tension in many other collaborative areas. When designing software interfaces we deliberately use wireframes to prevent people from trying to add detail prematurely. But the place that bothers me the most is when writing papers. I can't find an approach that works well for all teams, or even for myself working alone - do I write the experiments and results first, or do I try to shape the overall message first, ...
- havblue 4y agoWhen you think of the primary roles of each member, this conflict definitely makes sense. John: rhythm guitar. Paul: piano and bass. George: lead guitar. The Beatles catalog is very accessible so it follows that they put a lot of effort to avoid getting bogged down in, as the movie Amadeus put it, "too many notes".
- tiahura 4y agoI saw Get Back as a complete vindication of Yoko Ono. Yoko wasn’t the wedge that drove the Beatles apart, it was George.
- prof-dr-ir 4y agoOn that subject I enjoyed https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/08/arts/music/yoko-ono-beatles-get-back.html https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/08/arts/music/yoko-ono-beatl... .
- least 4y agoI find myself just really annoyed with the author here. Yoko may not have been the catalyst for breaking up the Beatles, but let's not pretend like she was advancing feminism just by being present in the studio, much to the dismay of the other members of the Beatles [1]. She's just being rude in the same way it'd be rude for someone to be standing next to me while I'm on the toilet. She might not be doing anything but her presence is certainly disruptive. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Na7ZY7W3pk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Na7ZY7W3pk
- freejazz 3y agoHave you been in a band? You wouldn't be annoyed at Yoko, you'd be annoyed at John for bringing her into practice like that and insisting that she belongs...
- least 3y ago> Have you been in a band? Yes, I have. > You wouldn't be annoyed at Yoko, you'd be annoyed at John for bringing her into practice like that and insisting that she belongs... I'd be annoyed with both for different reasons.
- freejazz 3y agoWell John brought her in and insisted that she be there because she was part of him and he couldn't do it without her there, so I don't know why you'd be annoyed at her tbh. John was being incredibly obnoxious and obviously trying to get his bandmates riled up about it.
- RHSman2 4y agoIt is really a special thing. Very similar to Theodore trying to get involved in The Big Lebowski and Walter shooting him down, everytime
- stonecolddevin 3y agoI am the Walrus.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- tradeschool45 4y agoQuite fascinating read. I always considered George my favorite beatle. He had a big heart for India and it influenced the Beatles during their later years before they broke up. But it’s because of his overall creative that I was such a fan of him. In addition to his music career, Harrison was also a film producer and a humanitarian. He produced the film "Monty Python's Life of Brian" (1979) and organized the Concert for Bangladesh (1971), a benefit concert that raised money for refugees from the Bangladesh Liberation War. For those who don’t know , George passed away in early 2000s from throat cancer I believe. Such a legend!
- jansenmac 4y agoHarrison's first recorded song was not Taxman, but five years before that: Don't bother me. He also had a song on A Hard days night, two on Help and two on Rubber Soul, before Taxman (where Paul played the guitar solo btw). So it might have been bad, being nr 3, but not bad as suggested.
- mgkimsal 4y agoNitpick - he didn't write the song on AHDN (i'm happy just to dance with you). John did. And George had 2 songs on PPM, but one was a cover (chains) and one was written by John (do you want to know a secret?).
- RandomWorker 4y agoMy two favourite songs by George are Give me Love, and my sweet lord.
- pookha 4y agoI like old George but My Sweet Lord was pretty much lifted from The Chiffons "He's so fine"... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rinz9Avvq6A&feature=youtu.be https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rinz9Avvq6A&feature=youtu.be I want to say later on they trolled the shit out of Harrison by covering "my sweet lord".
- tcbawo 4y agoWhen you have enough time and the same rock chord progressions, there are going to be similarities. I would be surprised if that song had anything other than a subconscious effect on Harrison’s song writing. Lawsuits over this type of thing are a huge impediment to the creative process imho.
- pookha 4y agoHarrison was a pro at orchestrating complex melodies. I think he's a legend. But I don't think there's any question that he bite that 60's ronie mack single. personally I think it was Phil Spector that goaded him into My Sweet Lord. 60's pop was his specialty and he knew it was going to sell. Spector was a lunatic too so there could have also been some behind the scenes situation between him and Harrison when they produced that song. But I in no way want to shit on George Harrison though. I think he's one of the best songwriters of his era. I just wanted to point out that My Sweet Lord was like a sample.
- KerrAvon 4y agoYou should listen to the full All Things Must Pass album. There are so many songs of that caliber.
- paulcole 4y agoThere’s something else missing from this article. Regardless of how creative and respected you want to be as an individual, it might be better to just be in The Beatles.
- Joeboy 4y agoDidn't work out that well for Stu Sutcliffe or Pete Best.
- AlbertCory 4y agoI don't know -- would anyone even know those names if they hadn't been?
- edent 4y ago> Lennon and McCartney had a habit of including only their own songs on their albums Early Beatles albums are full of covers!
- AlecSchueler 4y agoThat's true and was the industry standard at the time, but I think Rubber Soul was the first successful album released where every track was penned by the performing artists.
- arfaone 4y ago[flagged]
- fiftyacorn 4y agoNo mention of "In spite of all the danger" by the quarrymen which was a Mccartney/Harrison collaboration I liked the early Harrison songs like - "I need you" and "You like me to much" on Help. Even the anthology released "You Know What to Do" was good
- mgkimsal 4y ago"In spite" is a bit of a stretch on 'songwriting' credit, as he 'just' wrote the 'solo' bit. But, rethinking, if we're counting the intro guitar line... it's... a hook. It's not nothing. It's hard to think of the song without that little opening hook/riff. We could dig further and look at the only (AFAICR) Lennon/Harrison "Cry For A Shadow" as evidence of early songwriting, but given it's an instrumental, it's another stretch.
- freejazz 3y agoHooks are copyrightable as part of the composition - it's songwriting.
- BigCryo 4y agoI don't know man while My guitar gently weep sounds a lot like Eric Clapton to me
- riffic 4y agoClapton was not the writer.
- StrangeATractor 4y ago[flagged]
- dsr_ 4y agoI'd like to propose this as a reference article for the class of "not particularly well-written essays which nevertheless could not be written by a circa 2023 LLM". A few of the sentences could have been written by an LLM, especially the last one. But the overall structure has motion, empathy, and interprets historical events in the context of human motivations and desires. Quotes are both appropriate and reflective. The author thought about this, rather than compiling it.
- andsoitis 4y agoAt some point, we need to realise that we’ve learned enough through consumption. Only by creating can we maximise the learning journey and prevent what we’ve learned from stagnating within us. The best way to do that is to develop a habit of creative experimentation and expression by allocating daily time for our creative pursuits.
- lawgimenez 4y agoUnrelated but, does anyone noticed that Substack hangs on Firefox on iOS?
- teknico 3y agoIt worked for me. iOS 16.3.1, Firefox 111.
- AlbertCory 4y agoGeorge lived his best life. There's a part of "20 Feet From Stardom" where one of the profiled backup singers who was in The Concert for Bangladesh says it was an experience that anyone would remember for the rest of their life.