Perhaps his guitar solos are the least recognized aspects of Harrison’s songwriting talents. As lead guitarist for The Beatles, he virtually perfected the art of creating self-contained melodic motifs and solos that seemed to define the songs. Witness his hooks for “And I Love Her,” “It’s Only Love,” the opening chord of “A Hard Day’s Night” and the thrilling runs on “And Your Bird Can Sing.” Of course, there are many more examples.
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This technique reached new levels of sophistication in his solo work, where his guitar breaks became the songs within the song. Particularly memorable examples include the solos for “My Sweet Lord,” “Give Me Love,” “That Is All,” “Blow Away” and “Any Road.” These parts were composed rather than improvised, which makes them a definable part of the songwriting process. Harrison’s sound engineer later recalled that the guitarist spent hours and hours recording and returning to his guitar solos on a Gone Troppo number, “That’s The Way It Goes,” until he was content. Even then, he issued another remix after a five year gap! Another case in point comes in the aforementioned “Isn’t It a Pity,” where the instrumental sequence acts as a mini-drama within the piece. Harrison’s slide guitar solo is signalled by a rising string statement that merges seamlessly into the first notes of Harrison’s falling guitar solo. The string part was scored and written by Harrison’s close musical friend John Barham, also a student of Indian music. Interestingly, this rising and falling statement is similar to one of the key elements of form that comprise an Indian raga, which includes at least five swaras (tones) in both ascending (aroha/ aahroh) and descending (avaroha/aavroh) scales.
Harrison once lamented that he tended to become caught up in complex chord patterns and wished he could just stick to playing rockabilly tunes. Happily he did not do that, continuing to reveal his sophisticated talents through “unusual” songs. In retrospect it emerges that Harrison’s was a unique musical voice. No other popular artist achieved his perfectly natural blending of charming melodies within a harmonic setting-underpinned by a profound knowledge of another culture’s music.
Rhythmically Harrison was rooted in the West, but harmonically, and as a peerless Indo-slide guitarist, he was a true pioneer of fusion music. And in keeping with the Indian tradition, his creative act was part of his philosophical search. He believed in the Indian doctrine of “Nada Brahma”-“Sound Is God.” In that sense Harrison’s work can be read as a document of his spiritual explorations, and as musical offerings.
George Harrison never really took himself seriously as a musician or songwriter. The evidence suggests he was mistaken in that view.
[1] Known as the chitravina in South India, the vichitra veena is a development of the classic Indian stringed instrument, the veena. The vichitra veena is played with a slide to create perfect intonation and vibrato. Harrison was an expert on all forms of Indian music and would have been very familiar with this instrument.
[2] This album has a chequered history and its first incarnation was rejected by Warner Brothers, who asked for four songs to be replaced. Harrison later released the demo of “Life Itself” on one of the limited edition Songs By George Harrison book and CD sets.
Simon Leng is the author of While My Guitar Gently Weeps: The Music of George Harrison, recently published by Hal Leonard.
Chitraveena is a name that has been coined recently to replace Gotuvadyam, another name for vichitra veena in the south. But it bwas known as vichitra Veena even in ancient days though there is a slight variation in the bodies of North and South indian vichitraveenas.
This is a beautiful write-up. Both Harrison’s songs and music have been a tremendous influence — both musically and spiritually — in both my- and my wife’s life. So much so, that we’re naming our son after him.
Simon Leng, what a great insight to the mind of George Harrison. He’s my favorite Beatle also! I even own the #2 of 3 Hamburguitar that Harrison used on Real Love, the green tele like guitar Bernie made for Carl Perkins that George had to have, George had #1 of course. I also have a sheet of 35 MM negatives of George in his first house and Abby Road producing the Radha Krsn album. Let me know if you could use them in a reprintor new book. I hope you get this message, trying to find you on the web. Peace, Bill Long [email protected]
I just wanted to mention that I thought this was one of the best pieces I’ve ever read on George’s songwriting approaches. There definitely seems to be few people looking as deeply into George’s writing as there are people who dissect the Beatles material. This is a quite refreshing look at a truly underappreciated songwriter.