Today We Celebrate George’s 80th Birthday!
Today we honor George by celebrating what would have been his 80th birthday, born in 1943. This week, there was a surprise announcement from Dhani and BMG Music. All of George’s music from his solo career and his Dark Horse Records will now be distributed by BMG. All of his solo albums are now available via downloads in Dolby Atmos sound. Dhani mentions that there will be more releases that go really deep into George’s archives with new Box Sets, too! Very exciting news indeed! No time frame has been announced.George’s music continues to be a strong thread in our culture even 21 years after his passing. New generations are discovering his incredible catalogue through all new ways of receiving music. Here Comes The Sun is still the most downloaded Beatles song! When Rock stations do annual top 500 or 1000 songs of the rock era – three of George’s songs now hover near the upper reaches of the charts (Something, While My Guitar Gently Weeps and Here Comes The Sun) along side Hey Jude, Let It Be, Yesterday, In My Life and A Day in the Life, to name just a few! One of George’s most amazing accomplishments was to help a friend (Ravi Shankar) raise some money to help an ailing country. His Concert For Bangla Desh in 1971 not only raised millions over years, but became the blue print for all the benefit concerts that followed. It is still at the top of my list of best concerts I ever attended. After the Madison Square Garden afternoon concert, walking out into a pouring rain that nobody seemed to be bothered by, I blurted out that this show will win the Best Album of the Year Grammy (news of a forthcoming album was already written about). Because of the legal record company fighting for rights (George – Capitol and Dylan – Columbia), the box set was not released until December 20, 1971. It wasn’t eligible for 1971 as the cut off was I think Nov 1st. Let history show that it would likely not have beaten out Carole King’s Tapestry, but it did win the Best Album Grammy in 1972, as I had blurted out that rainy day, August 1, 1971!
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