All Things Must Pass

It was a few years after he passed, through nothing but my own curiosity to see a tale continue that I originally searched out his music. I had spent a year listening to the beauty of the Beatles for the first time in my life. And what a year of discovery, I listened to each Beatles album in order, wondering at all of the madness, as if it were the 60's, this music really was that groundbreaking to me. It felt like a year. It was this year just gone. By the end of 'Let it be' I was so amazed, it was so clear that these guys were all still at their creative peaks. I wanted to see where they all went next. I was most curious about George, and so I started downloading. It's funny how few people had his stuff, it was quite a task.

There is something truly manly about George on 'My Sweet Lord'. Those two deep chords on the guitar, that say so much, his voice filled with so much soul, the soul that goes back thousands of years for as long as humans have been connected to, and inspired by God. There is something manly about a man singing so sincerely about God. It is not something that can be done easily. That’s why it’s so often ridiculed- that spiritual/religious music. Read his autobiography (which is tragically short) and you'll see that George was so aware of the need for spirituality to become more of a factor in popular music. He was a spiritual man, and as he said in that autobiography, there were so many people at the time singing songs about nothing, the 'la la la' type lyrics which were so prevalent back then, that he felt he should write about something that mattered. In my opinion something needed to follow the hippy / peace-movements of the 60's, which had inevitably begun to collapse in the 70's. George connected with spirituality, that was his main thing, and that’s something infinite. The best ally a man can have.

I can't for the life of me (I never use that phrase in speech) tell you what the lyrics of 'wah wah' are definitively about. Women, career, something? I really couldn't tell you. But it's so bloody GOOD! And knowing George and his penchant for clever wordplay, that title may well have been some kind of sarcastic reference to all the meaningless pop-songs I was talking about in the previous paragraph. George likes to play in that way, I mean here is a man who once opened a book, saw the two words ‘gently weeps’ in the middle of the page, and then wrote one of the most amazing songs that’s ever been written (loosely based on those words; the wonderful 'whilst my guitar gently weeps'). He was silly sometimes, and that playfulness is part of what makes his music, his personality, so engaging even after all these years.

'Isn't it a pity' is perhaps one of the greatest pieces of music that love has ever been involved with. It speaks so much, in so few words. Like a prayer they are repeated. The words don't need to be elaborated or expanded upon. Their simplicity is met by the most wonderful ocean of sound, and that sound, that piano, the guitar, those booming voices, they all so perfectly reflect the enormity of the subject, the tragedy of this subject.

“Isn't it a pity, isn't it a shame? How we break each others hearts, and cause each other pain. How we take each others love, without thinking anymore. Forgetting to give back. Isn't it a pity?”

My goodness George! For that song alone I'll always love you man. What a man you are. And this desire I have to meet your son and your wife only increase the more I learn about your life, the more songs like this I hear, that tell me so much about what you've felt in your life. It’s a blessing to know you, to feel like we would have had so much in common had we met. I smile at these songs you make. Here comes the sun.

The country side of George is also visited, with the soulful ballads, 'Behind that locked door' and the wonderful 'If not for you' which was a Bob Dylan song I believe, a duet which the two of them performed together a few times. It's so interesting to listen to these songs, this amazing album, after hearing George's work with the Beatles. The most noticeable 'George songs' on Beatles albums had become predominantly Indian-influenced affairs. They are all undeniable masterpieces (Love to you / Within you, without you / Blue Jay Way) and yet, they reinforced this silly image of him as 'the spiritual one' when in reality, we all SHOULD be aiming to get in touch with our spiritual side more than our material side. Musically he was boxed up in some people’s minds, and I'm sure this album, such a wonderfully diverse example of western music at its best, confused a few people. I myself was guilty of that categorisation at the very start of this paragraph when I said 'The country side of George is also visited' because, this may sound like country, but the soul George puts into his voice on 'Behind that locked door' when he sings “Why are you still crying? Your pain is now through" has to make you think twice. This is just special music, full stop.

George Harrison lives and lives forever. Go with God brother.

Y.Misdaq

Advice he continues to give:
"The love you are blessed with, this world's waiting for. So let out your heart please, please, please, from behind that locked door... It's time we start smiling. What else should we do? Only this short time, I'm going to be here with you."

Y.Misdaq aka Yoshi, 29th Sep 2005