George Harrison

Post-Beatles, George Harrison led a surprisingly varied but quiet life:

as a musician
a successful film producer
a racing car enthusiast &
I'm sure, a lot more until his death from brain cancer in 2001

...saw George becoming a very busy boy, both as a musician and as a producer for several Apple acts in the late 1960s...

All Things Must Pass

Stepping out from The Beatles' shadow Harrison stunned everybody with this impressive double album + bonus jam album. Now remastered and remixed to reflect a more modern experience, All Things Must Pass still sounds fine.

The Concert For Bangla Desh

Star-studded concert & film that was designed to bring world attention to the plight of war-torn Bangla Desh. The line-up was:

Ravi Shankar
George Harrison
Ringo Starr
Bob Dylan
Billy Preston
Leon Russell

+ a drug-f***ed Eric Clapton, most of Badfinger, Jim Keltner etc.

Living In The Material World

Earnest, diappointing follow-up to All Things Must Pass that was a bit too heavy on the Krishna consciousness...but could have been so much better. Good news, the remastered version has some of the missing great tracks.

In an effort to quell the increasing Beatles-to-reform rumours, George undertook a near-disastrous tour of the USA in early 1974. Here is the Hari's On Tour:

program &
tour pics
amateur footage from Washington cut over Hari's On Tour the instrumental that opened the show + a funked version of What Is Life (a 2-voice vocal with Billy Preston) + a little of the then-recent #1 single Give Me Love

George proceeded to release several middling albums during the latter part of the 1970's, the highlights being the singles:

This Song
Crackerbox Palace
Fade Away &
his John Lennon tribute All Those Years Ago

N.B.: see George Harrison interview for Crawdaddy, 1977. He talks about getting his songs recorded by The Beatles, Eric Clapton, problems with The Concert For Bangla Desh etc.

In 1988 his comeback album, Cloud Nine, containing the big hit Got My Mind Set On You and the superb Beatles commentary, When We Was Fab.

George Harrison: The Dark Horse Years

"...A few years after going solo, (Harrison) formed his own corporation - Dark Horse and now a box spanning his entire Dark Horse record label career has been released! You get:

Thirty Three And A Third
George Harrison (self-titled album)
Somewhere In England
Gone Troppo
Cloud Nine and even
George's 1992 LIVE album!

...These new versions of the classic albums have been remastered, and they include new bonus tracks!
Album art has been updated. Somewhere In England features the original deleted album cover, and Cloud Nine features new art on the back cover.
There is a DVD exclusive to this set, which is sure to please any fan of Harrison's, with all of its music videos and bonus content.
LIVE In Japan is the COMPLETE concert, and is now a 2-disc set. The original CD release was a single disc that did not contain the complete concert. Thank God that's been fixed!..." Amazon reviewer Taylor X

"...George Harrison was a man of taste, and the visual quality of the box surely respects his last words. Trust me, buy it 'cause even if you don't like the music, it will make a beautiful decoration... Just take a look at the booklet with transparent sheets and interesting texts and photos, or the interface of the dvd... incredible!..." Amazon reviewer Buckingham "buck"

"...The DVD is great fun. To see Mr. Harrison as a younger man having a blast in some of the videos is highly entertaining. The more mature Harrison tastefully narrates the DVD with the use of a low-key and not seen interviewer. His wit, wisdom and humor sparkle through reminding us why he has always been such a humble and endearing superstar in his own right..." Amazon reviewer Richard G. Jerskey

George Harrison's Greatest Hits

Unfortunately there is no comprehensive Greatest Hits collection, just two incomplete ones:

The Best Of George Harrison

"...This collection, originally released in 1976, combines seven of Harrison's best-known Beatles numbers, including Something, If I Needed Someone, Here Comes the Sun and While My Guitar Gently Weeps with a half-dozen early solo hits including My Sweet Lord, Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth), You, and What Is Life. As such, it's a good entry-level Harrison primer..." Amazon blurb

George Harrison: The Best Of Dark Horse 1976-1989

"...This album is a great collection of George Harrison's later solo hits. His considerable talent is well-reflected in these hits. The Best Of Dark Horse includes such gems as Blow Away and Crackerbox Palace (for some odd reason, they are rarely played on the radio), as well as the deeply moving tributes of When We Was Fab and All Those Years Ago..." Amazon reviewer Robert Fishman

LIVE in Japan

In 1991, Harrison embarked on a short SOLO tour of Japan with buddy Eric Clapton & band, away from major publicity. The resultant LIVE album is surprisingly good.

A Concert For George

A concert commemorating the life and music of George Harrison 1943-2001 on the near first anniversary of his death with:

Paul McCartney
Ringo Starr
Eric Clapton
Tom Petty
Jeff Lynne &
(Most of) Monty Python

A Concert For George is a great looking, respectful concert video. The review includes videos from the show...and my personal reaction to George's death.

Patti Boyd: Marriage to George & Eric

"...Patti Boyd...tells us the story of her life and her loves, her experiments with drugs and alcohol. Along the way she married two of the best musicians of our time, George Harrison and Eric Clapton..." Amazon reviewer pris

Patti Boyd at the Las Vegas Beatlefest, 2008

Excellent interview, especially after 3 minutes

Movies Produced By

George Harrison &

Handmade Films

During the late 1970's Harrison stepped in when finance of the second Monty Python film, The Life Of Brian fell through. The company he created, Handmade Films, went on to become a stalwart of the British film industry for much of the 1980s.

After a long honeymoon period, in which Handmade had a number of critical and commercial successes, they received a mauling for Shanghai Surprise (starring the then-married Sean Penn & Madonna) and Harrison began to lose interest in the film industry.

He finally sold Handmade Films in 1994 to Paragon Entertainment for $8.5 million (now subsequently resold) and also successfully sued Denis O'Brien, his Handmade partner for financial mismanagement. In 1996 Harrison was awared almost $11 million compensation. The court denied O'Brien's appeal in 1998 and the damage payment was confirmed.

Read the whole story in:

Robert Sellers: Very Naughty Boys

"...This is the gripping true story of the rise and fall of one of the UK's most innovative film companies. Handmade Films was personally set up by George Harrison to make Monty Python's Life and Brian. They went on to make Withnail and I, Nuns on the Run and The Time Bandits amongst many other classics. However it all went sour when Harrison fell out with his financial partner (Denis O'Brien) and filed a US$25m lawsuit against him..." Amazon U.K. blurb

"...A thoroughly entertaining, gossipy jaunt through the short life and sad death of Britain's most unusual film company. Sellers manages to convince the reader that Handmade was a unique establishment and concentrates on the two figures at the top. George Harrison is drawn as a saintly, magnaminous but otherworldly character and Denis O'Brien is the evil villain. And what a villain he is: paranoid and petty, profligate and penny-pinching - all the ingredients of a fascinating rogue. Unfortunately, for all the people mentioned in the book, he exists...

Complete with some marvellously naughty quotes...this account pulls no punches and delivers a witty eulogy to a much missed company..." Amazon U.K. reviewer Book Wallah

Handmade's films included:

Monty Python's The Life Of Brian
Time Bandits
Monty Python LIVE At The Hollywood Bowl
The Missionary
Privates On Parade
A Private Function
Mona Lisa
Withnail & I
Shanghai Surprise
How To Get Ahead In Advertising
Nuns On The Run