Roll up. Roll up for the mystery tour...
Back at the end of January, I shared the first half of Keith's blog on the songwriting contribution of George Harrison to The Beatles catalogue. Keith took as as far as the 'Magical Mystery Tour' on his last pass, this time he continues from 1968, with 'The White Album'.
George Harrison's Songwriting Contribution to The Beatles. (2/2)
Guest Blogger : Keith Toop
The next Beatles release was 'The White Album', which was a double album, allowing space for four of George's compositions. This set of songs included 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps', which was for many his career masterpiece. It was now clear to all that Harrison had arrived as a songwriting force to be reckoned with. His next song was, 'Piggies', which was an attack on the establishment. 'Long Long Long' however, was a slow and soothing song, albeit punctuated by explosive drum fills, but it was certainly in line with the direction in which the group was heading. The fourth and final song was 'Savoy Truffle', which was simply singing about a box of chocolates he’d eaten.
His next song was 'The Inner Light', which featured as the “B” side to the single 'Lady Madonna', (a single which incidentally did not appear on an album at the time - I was not aware of that! -Ed) 'The Inner Light' was another track again very influenced by George's love of Hindu music and the teachings of Taoism. The track eventually featured on 'The Beatles Past Masters Vol 2' album.
The next song from Harrison featured on the strange but wonderful album, 'Yellow Submarine', and was called 'Only A Northern Song'. This was a song about the company Northern Songs Ltd, who owned his, Lennon and McCartney's compositions, but from which John and Paul earned more money per composition than George. On the same album there was a second offering, which was more inspired by Jimmy Hendrix than The Beatles, entitled 'It’s All Too Much.'
The next two offerings from Harrison featured on the 'Let It Be' album. The tracks were 'I Me Mine' and 'For You Blue', the latter being released as a single. I’ve featured the 'Let It Be' album before the 'Abbey Road' album, as chronologically 'Let It Be' was recorded before 'Abbey Road', but was released afterwards.
His third to last track was 'Old Brown Shoe' which featured on the non album single, 'The Ballad Of John & Yoko.' Then followed the album “Abbey Road” which contained I would argue, probably his best works for The Beatles. Those tracks were 'Something' and 'Here Comes The Sun'.
In Conclusion
Although “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” was George's biggest hit with the Beatles, 'Here Comes The Sun' has the accolade of being their most streamed song to date.
When you think of The Beatles compositions you automatically think of Lennon and McCartney, and reasonably so, as probably the most famous and successful songwriting partnership in pop history. Spare a thought for the 'quiet one' though. With twenty two published tracks in such company, and the band's most streamed song to date, George Harrison's contribution was anything but quiet. KT
In Memory
George Harrison passed away in 2001 at the age of 58 of cancer. His ashes were scattered in India on the Ganges and Yamuna rivers, in accordance with the Hindu tradition he came to hold so dear. On the 29th of November 2002, a year after his death, a concert organised by his widow Olivia Harrison and Eric Clapton was held in his memory at the Royal Albert Hall in London.
Once again, I'd like to thank Keith for his contribution for this blog.
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