lit a candle 1d agoHe walked a faith he didn't just sing about. The way he lived and gave, especially toward the end. That's the quieter legacy.
Their story
This memorial is for George Harrison of the Beatles, the English musician, singer, songwriter, and producer. It is not a page for any other person named George Harrison. George Harrison was born on 25 February 1943 at 12 Arnold Grove in Wavertree, Liverpool, the youngest of four children of Harold…
This memorial is for George Harrison of the Beatles, the English musician, singer, songwriter, and producer. It is not a page for any other person named George Harrison.
George Harrison was born on 25 February 1943 at 12 Arnold Grove in Wavertree, Liverpool, the youngest of four children of Harold Hargreaves (or Hargrove) Harrison, a bus conductor and former White Star Line steward, and Louise (née French), a shop assistant of Irish Catholic descent. He had sister Louise and brothers Harold and Peter. The family later moved to a Speke council house. He attended Dovedale Primary School and, after the eleven-plus, Liverpool Institute High School for Boys (1954-1959), where he met Paul McCartney on the school bus. Early influences included George Formby, Django Reinhardt, Carl Perkins, Lonnie Donegan, and Elvis Presley's "Heartbreak Hotel." His mother bought him a cheap guitar; he formed a skiffle group, the Rebels, with Peter and friend Arthur Kelly.
Some early publicity materials and casual claims used 1941 as his birth year. The birth certificate and standard biographical sources, including Wikipedia, Britannica, the New York Times, and Rolling Stone, give 25 February 1943. This profile stores 1943-02-25 and does not use the 1941 publicity error.
In March 1958 McCartney introduced the teenage Harrison to John Lennon's Quarrymen. After impressing Lennon with the instrumental "Raunchy," he became the group's lead guitarist. The band evolved into the Beatles, endured Hamburg residencies (Harrison was briefly deported for being underage), and, under Brian Epstein's management, signed with EMI. Beatlemania made him world-famous as the "Quiet Beatle," a press nickname that stuck after a strep throat-limited early U.S. visit. Though Lennon-McCartney dominated the songwriting, Harrison contributed "Don't Bother Me," then increasingly substantial songs: "Taxman," "Love You To," "Within You Without You," "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," "Something," and "Here Comes the Sun." His interest in the Byrds, Bob Dylan, and Indian classical music reshaped the band's mid-1960s sound. He studied sitar with Ravi Shankar and brought Hindu philosophy and Transcendental Meditation into the group's orbit.
After the Beatles' break-up he released the triple album All Things Must Pass (1970), co-produced with Phil Spector, which topped charts and yielded the worldwide hit "My Sweet Lord" (later the subject of a subconscious-plagiarism judgment regarding the Chiffons' "He's So Fine"). In August 1971, responding to Shankar's appeal, he organised the Concert for Bangladesh at Madison Square Garden, a prototype for modern benefit concerts. The album won the Grammy for Album of the Year. Solo albums followed (Living in the Material World, Dark Horse, Extra Texture, Thirty Three & 1/3, George Harrison, Somewhere in England, Gone Troppo, Cloud Nine). He founded Dark Horse Records (1974) and co-founded HandMade Films (1978), famously mortgaging his home to finance Monty Python's Life of Brian. In 1988 he formed the Traveling Wilburys with Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison, Bob Dylan, and Tom Petty. He rejoined McCartney and Starr for the mid-1990s Anthology project, including "Free as a Bird" and "Real Love."
He married model Pattie Boyd in 1966 (divorced 1977) and Olivia Arias in 1978. Their son Dhani was born 1 August 1978. A lifelong smoker who became a vegetarian and devoted Hindu practitioner, he restored Friar Park in Henley-on-Thames. On 30 December 1999 he and Olivia were attacked there by intruder Michael Abram. Harrison suffered more than forty stab wounds and a punctured lung. Throat cancer diagnosed in 1997 was followed by lung and brain cancer treatment in 2001. He died on 29 November 2001 in Los Angeles, aged 58, surrounded by Olivia, Dhani, Shankar family members, and Hare Krishna devotees chanting from the Bhagavad Gita. The family's statement relayed his final public message: "Everything else can wait, but the search for God cannot wait, and love one another." He was cremated at Hollywood Forever Cemetery. Ashes were later scattered in the Ganges and Yamuna near Varanasi according to Hindu tradition. The posthumous album Brainwashed (2002), completed by Dhani and Jeff Lynne, closed his studio catalogue. He is a two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee (Beatles 1988; solo 2004) and remains synonymous with melodic guitar, spiritual rock, and the idea that popular music can serve compassion.
Biography adapted from Wikipedia (George Harrison) and citations; NYT (Allan Kozinn, 2001-11-30); Rolling Stone; BBC; Beatles Bible; georgeharrison.com..
In their own words
“Everything else can wait, but the search for God cannot wait, and love one another.”
Final message to the world as relayed in Olivia and Dhani's family statement after his death, 2001. (Wikipedia; Rolling Stone)
“He left this world as he lived in it, conscious of God, fearless of death, and at peace, surrounded by family and friends.”
Harrison family statement on his death. (Rolling Stone; BBC contemporaneous)
“All religions are branches of one big tree. It doesn't matter what you call Him just as long as you call.”
Remark on faith cited in biographical accounts of his Hindu-informed spirituality. (Wikipedia Beliefs)
“I felt exhausted and could feel the strength draining from me. I vividly remember a deliberate thrust to my chest. I could hear my lung exhaling and had blood in my mouth. I believed I had been fatally stabbed.”
Harrison on the 30 December 1999 Friar Park attack. (Wikipedia; BBC / Guardian coverage)
“Life is fragile like a raindrop on a lotus leaf. And you'd better believe it.”
Post-attack statement quoting Adi Shankara, after joking that Abram "wasn't auditioning for the Traveling Wilburys." (Wikipedia; BBC)
“After all we went through together I had and still have great love and respect for John Lennon. I am shocked and stunned.”
Response to John Lennon's murder, December 1980. (Wikipedia)
“It's just something that was like my continuation from the Beatles, really. It was me sort of getting out of the Beatles and just going my own way ... it was a very happy occasion.”
Reflecting on All Things Must Pass around the 30th-anniversary edition (2000 interview as cited on Wikipedia).
Photos
3George Harrison, 13 December 1974. Colorized Commons derivative of a David Hume Kennerly photograph. Same-image 330px thumb; full file returned HTTP 429.
Dec 1974
by People Forever
George Harrison, autumn 1968 promotional portrait included with the initial U.S. White Album pressing
by People Forever
George Harrison at The Ed Sullivan Show, February 1964. Same-image 500px thumb; Commons full file returned HTTP 429.
by People Forever
That's a beautiful detail. He really did live that way at Friar Park.