McCartney Times

The Beatles’ George Harrison, the “quiet one,” was in truth a kaleidoscopic force of nature. His catalog and musicianship both with the fab four and beyond have not just aged well but have become straight-up classics enshrined in the firmament of the twentieth century music canon.Without “If I Needed Someone,” “I Me Mine,” “Something,” “Taxman,” “Here Comes the Sun,” or “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” among other George songs, the four would have been unbearably less fabulous. The same goes for his myriad of his envelope-exploding contributions which in addition to so much else included his chiming 12-string Fireglo Rickenbacker from 1963 (you’re welcome Roger McGuinn) used throughout Hard Days Night, his #wtf time-warped backwards guitar on “I’m Only Sleeping” and his tamboura from the astral plane on “Tomorrow Never Knows.” Harrison’s genius is best summed-up perhaps with yet another of his underrated brilliant album cuts: “It’s All Too Much.”And it never stopped. Harrison’s 1970 magnum opus/dam burst following the Beatles’ dissolution that is the triple-album All Things Must Pass is filled with sublime sounds. The raw harmonica-driven “Apple Scruffs” could have been a White Album classic, his prostration before the universe in “My Sweet Lord” somehow became a pop staple (despite the frivolous litigation) and the loping sing-a-long of “What is Life” all stand up to anything he did before or since.Olivia, Dhani, Ringo, Jim James and Weird Al:Photo Gallery From the “I Me Mine” George Harrison Book LaunchSome of these even became hits. Harrison would earn 13 top 40 hits on the Billboard Hot 100. Of those, five reached the top 10, including three No. 1s in “My Sweet Lord / Isn’t It a Pity” (1970), “Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth)” (1973) and “Got My Mind Set on You” (1981 ) while “All Those Years Ago” hit No. 2 in 1981. While songs like “Mind Set On You,” “When We Was Fab,” “All Those Years Ago” and the Traveling Willbury’s “Handle With Care” are still on the F.M., a trove of deep solo album cuts like Dark Horse’s funked-up title track or the soul pop of “Can’t Stop Thinking About You” from Extra Texture (Read All About It) awaits the intrepid.

Source: Olivia Harrison on How George Surprised Ringo, Extended Edition of ‘I Me Mine’ (Q&A) | Billboard