Inside Out

George Harrison
Nelson Wilbury
Spike Wilbury

George is best known as a Beatle. Born on 25th February 1943, he grew up in Liverpool, England.  Harrison first expressed his hostility to his "chundering" schoolmasters by dressing in outlandish outfits and sleeping in class, but by the age of thirteen, he had discovered a far better way to channel his anger: playing guitar. George took a liking to skiffle music (a genre of folk-derived music played on acoustic guitars, string basses, and washboards), an appreciation he shared with Paul McCartney, whom he usually sat next to on the bus. The two also found they shared an interest in American rock-and-roll music.

McCartney had the good fortune to join up with a local band named the Quarry Men that included another schoolmate, John Lennon, and Harrison joined the group under McCartney's auspices the following year, in 1958. George was sufficiently inspired by the group's success to drop out of the Liverpool Institute to pursue his rock-and-roll dream more earnestly, working as an electrician's apprentice to pay his living expenses (he soon quit because he kept blowing things up). Considerably younger than the rest of the boys, George nevertheless overcame his insecurity and proved himself to be an adept and inventive guitarist. When The Quarry Men finally evolved into the Beatles, Harrison was mature enough in his style to act as lead guitarist.

On the set of the Beatles' 1965 movie, Help!, Harrison picked up a peculiar-looking stringed instrument called a sitar for the first time. Harrison accepted instruction on the sitar from famed Indian musician Ravi Shankar, and subsequently traveled to India to steep himself in Eastern philosophy. The trip and his association with Shankar and religious leader Maharishi Mahesh Yogi ignited a spiritual awakening in Harrison, and his ideas about life and his sense of his own humility would change forever.

When the Beatles split, George was free to explore his full capability. George had always been frustrated in the songwriting department by the prolific Lennon and McCartney, and the end of the Beatles sparked in him something of a musical rebirth. He moved into record production (he formed Dark Horse Records in 1974) and collaborated with other artists (notably Bob Dylan and Eric Clapton). Harrison teamed with Phil Spector to produce his first post-Beatles solo effort, the appropriately titled All Things Must Pass (1970). The album confirmed Harrison's vast and theretofore unrealized talents as a lyricist, musician, composer, and producer.

Harrison tried other projects, both behind the scenes and on center stage: he formed a film production company, HandMade Films, in 1978, producing such memorable films as Monty Python's Life of Brian and Time Bandits; he appeared in a number of films, most notably in a cameo in Monty Python's witty ribbing of Beatles mythology, The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash (1978); he produced and guest-starred as a guitarist on a slew of other artists' albums; and he penned his autobiography, I Me Mine, and of course there was the Wilburys.

For all his hard work, Harrison was honored as the first recipient of Billboard's Century Award, in 1992, the publication's highest distinction for extraordinary creative achievement (he also boasts a total of six Grammy awards and an Oscar that he shares with the other Beatles). Harrison's most recent collaborations included with his fellow ex-Beatles, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, on the sweeping retrospective (in the forms of a television documentary and three volumes of previously unavailable recordings), The Beatles Anthology, as well as work on Ringo Starr's album, and Jools Hollands' album.

George Harrison died of cancer on the 29th of November 2001.

Related Sites:
Abbeyrd's Beatles Page - Best Beatles page on the web, 'nuff said
Beatlelinks.net - Brilliantly organised links to hundreds of Beatle-related sites
Metal Tabs - Great guitar tab site
Guitar World Tabs - Another great guitar tab site

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