It’s The (Not So) Quiet Beatle

Written for Glyn’s Mixed Music Bag #15, where we are asked to write about a song by a group or solo artist beginning with the letter G or H.

This was a no-brainer for me; not only does my featured performer’s first name start with the letter G, his last name starts with the letter H. It’s almost as if I had a sign from the heavens, divine intervention. Yes, as soon as I saw this week’s MMB challenge, I knew who and what I would write about. And if you know me or follow my blogs then you know, too! As the title of my post says “It’s The (Not So) Quiet Beatle” so, unless you’ve been in a 50-year-long coma or stranded on a desert island since infancy, you’ve already figured out that my featured artist today is George Harrison, the multi-talented musician born February 25, 1943 in Liverpool.

George was the youngest of four children born to Harold, a bus conductor, and Louise, a shop assistant. His earliest musical influences included Cab Calloway, Hoagy Carmichael, Carl Perkins, Elmore James and Lonnie Donegan. One day while riding his bicycle, George heard Elvis Presley’s “Heartbreak Hotel” playing from a nearby house and the song piqued his interest in Rock & Roll. At first his father was apprehensive about George’s interest in pursuing a music career but he was willing to let his son give it a go. He bought him his first guitar and had one of his friends teach George how to play a couple of old songs; like many others at the time, George started a skiffle* group with his brother and a friend. At the age of 14 George met Paul McCartney on the bus to school and the pair bonded over their shared love of music. Paul introduced George to John Lennon and the rest, my friends, is the stuff that dreams are made of. [*a genre of folk music with influences from American folk music, blues, country, bluegrass and jazz]

While there’s a plethora of songs to choose from George’s days with the Beatles, I will be focusing on a few songs from his prolific solo career. These songs may be lesser known but they will all be fun, clever, amusing and uniquely special …. just like George. As he said, “Didn’t want to be a star, wanted just to play guitar in this cockamamie business”.

I hope you enjoy my selections today.

Chris O’Dell is probably the most well-known woman in Beatledom. Not only did she land a job at Apple Studios, she was an assistant and facilitator to the Beatles and other acts including Derek & the Dominos, the Rolling Stones, Dylan, Santana etc., etc. Besides Freda Kelly (the Beatles’ personal secretary), Chris O’Dell knew more about the guys in the band than their own wives. She was on the roof during that famous concert; not just anyone got invited to the roof! You had to be really popular and Chris O’Dell had that market cornered as a super-groupie, something she proudly wrote about in her bio. She was such a favorite among the rock stars, she had songs written about her …. like this one which George Harrison wrote in Los Angeles in April 1971 while waiting for O’Dell to ‘pay him a visit‘ 😉😉 at his rented home. For whatever reason, she never showed and George wrote a light-hearted number which provides insight into the Los Angeles music scene at the time. Chris O’Dell went on to write her memoirs in a book called “Miss O’Dell”, named after George’s song. George recorded several versions of the song but this one is my favorite. The string of numbers you hear George reciting at the end of the song was Paul McCartney’s actual phone number.

From George Harrison’s album “Living In A Material World”, this is “Miss O’Dell”. I dare you not to smile.

This next song was George Harrison’s humorous send-up of the “He’s So Fine”/”My Sweet Lord” silly little plagiarism court case. The lyrics have a playful reference to the case (“My expert tells me it’s OK”) and, at one point, Eric Idle chimes in with some very funny Motown song references. In case you’re not familiar with the legal goings-on, in 1981 George Harrison was ordered to pay $587,000 for ‘subconsciously plagiarizing’ the Chiffons’ 1963 hit single “He’s So Fine” during the creation of his own song “My Sweet Lord”. Harrison reflected in his biography “I wasn’t consciously aware of the similarity to ‘He’s So Fine’.” I don’t think the law suit had much of a negative impact on George’s pocket or popularity.

From 1976 (and featuring a full cast of characters), this is the funny, campy, in-your-face “This Song” from George Harrison’s album “Thirty Three And 1/3”.

My last song today is from George Harrison’s 1987 album “Cloud Nine”. “When We Was Fab”, one of the first songs cowritten by George and Jeff Lynne, looks back to his Beatles days and contains various musical and lyrical references to the 1960s, including quotations from songs by Bob Dylan and Smokey Robinson. This beauty of a tune harkens back to several well-know Beatles songs, particularly from their psychedelic period. Beatles drummer Ringo Starr is fittingly behind the kit on this recording and is prominently featured in the video. Pay attention to this one; there’s a lot of little things going on that are easy to miss.

From “Cloud Nine”, this is “When We Was Fab”.

I hope you enjoyed a look at a different side of George Harrison …. the funny, sharp-witted, clever and not-so-quiet side that he enjoyed in this cockamamie business.

Thanks to Glyn and his Mixed Music Bag weekly prompts. See you next time.

Mixed Music Bag 2024 – week 15 – Groovy times

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