Stratos' Beatle Bios: George
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"I first saw The Quarrymen when they were playing at the Wilson Hall at Garston. Paul was playing with them and said I should come and see them, and because I knew Paul, I got introduced to John. John said that if I could play like this other guitarist, Eddie Clayton, I could join the group. I played them "Raunchy" and John said I could join. I was always playing "Raunchy" for them." --George Harrison
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George Harrison was born on February 25, 1943, the youngest of the four children of Harold Harrison and Louise French, who married in 1930. It was George's father that drove the bus that brought he and Paul McCartney to the Liverpool Institute. George wasn't very interested in school, and until he took up the guitar his main outlet for rebellion was dressing in the flamboyant Teddy Boy style (tight pants, elaborate jackets, long greased-back hair) that parents found irritating.
As early as thirteen, George was drawn to the guitar solos on early rock records. When he got his first guitar--a secondhand steel-string acoustic model--he literally practiced until his fingers bled. He and his older brother, Peter, had a band called the Rebels, which didn't last very long. When going to dances, George made it a point to bring his guitar in the hope that one of the bands would let him sit in or even join. After meeting Paul McCartney, who was in a band called The Quarrymen (later renamed The Beatles), he was persuaded to try out. He found his way into The Quarrymen by playing things that the band's leader, John Lennon, could not, particularly the song "Raunchy". By mid 1958, George was a member.
It was on the set of the Beatles' first movie,
A Hard Day's Night
, that George met Pattie Boyd, who had a small role in the film. The couple were married on January 21, 1966. During the filming of the Beatles' second movie,
HELP!
, George became increasingly interested in Indian music which was featured in the film. In late 1966 George went to India to study the subcontinent's music and culture, and met several Indian musicians, most notably Ravi Shankar, whom he became close friends with. George was able to interest the other Beatles in his new obsession to some extent, but he was still testing the degree to which he could integrate this interest into his Beatles work. In February of 1968 George and the other Beatles journeyed to Rishikesh, India, at the retreat of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, whom they met a few months before. This quest for spiritual enlightenment proved to be a failure, however, and it wasn't long before the fab four returned to England.
It was around this time that George's songs started becoming more and more well known, such as "Old Brown Shoe", "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", and "Here Comes The Sun". But it was also around this time that George continually felt like Paul and John's water boy during Beatles sessions. George soon came out with
Wonderwall
, his first solo effort, which did relatively well.
Soon after the Beatles breakup, George again started to work on solo music and released the accurately titled
Electronic Sound
. His
All Things Must Pass
was an unexpected smash hit which included an enormous hit single, "My Sweet Lord". This song also achieved double platinum status, topping the charts on both sides of the Atlantic and topping the American chart for seven weeks. Declaring himself happy to be his own boss, George definitely showed it through things such as this.
Email:
stratosmacca@hotmail.com
