Pill popping, wife swapping, hippy dippy ‘quite one’ that was George Harrison. By all accounts the ‘quite’ bit is made up of myth and bullishit although if we’re talking mystical bullshit, George was partial to a bit of that himself. Listen to his wife, girlfriend or mistress and they all say the same thing; George was a technicolor riot of sex, love and laughter. After leaving the ‘Hey Jude’ hit makers with the withering line ‘See you round the clubs’, George Harrison made some stone cold stunning records which outstrip those of his former playmates by some considerable distance.

Wah Wah

A song that reduces the greatest story pop ever told to something comparable to a nauseating headache: ‘You’re given me such a Wah-Wah’.  The song received the full kitchen sink Spector production with Clapton and Harrison kayaking over the oceans of reverb the gun totting lunatic thought necessary to apply. Apparently recorded on the day he left the band, it serves as a more creative goodbye than a self righteous ‘this is how I feel right now’ status with whimsical meme,

This is Love

‘Imagine’ to be clear is a bloody awful song, sanctimonious tripe. This however, is unfathomably brilliant; riffs that could power Network Rail leading a charge of choirs, glockenspiels, string sections parping horns and just about anything else you can fit into 4 minutes and 25 seconds.

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Awaiting On You All

George, it’s fair to say, banged the spiritual drum louder than most and sometimes this could get a little bit distracting. He could also write a half decent pop banger and this is exactly what we have here: over three verses he manages to extol the virtues of having a direct relationship with a higher power through chanting alone, whilst not forgetting a tongue lashing for John & Yoko for dossing around in their duvets all day. ‘You don’t need no love in, you don’t need no bed pan,’ before the final verse where he bitch slaps Catholicism with: ‘While the Pope owns 51% of General Motors / And the stock exchange is the only thing he’s qualified to quote us.’

George Harrison-Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth)

‘Have that McCartney you pleb.’ Although we can’t be sure this is ‘exactly’ what George was saying, it’s safe to say the serial shagging ‘Just For Men’ enthusiast McCartney would trade in one of his flaxen haired offspring (not Stella she makes BANK, probably James) to be able to write a love song like this. Based around some sublime slide guitar playing, it’s basically George banging that peace drum again but it doesn’t half sound lovely. On its release in May 1973 it also knocked Macca off the top sport in the US. So yeah, have that you pleb.

Dark Horse

With a voice consisting of so much gravel a team of Irish / Polish (delete where your casual xenophobia sits most comfortably) builders could quite comfortably gravel the pathways and driveways of Lancashire and it’s surrounding borders, it’s nonsensical how it was even recorded. That said, it’s still a bit of tune.

Got My Mind Set On You

Two things to note here: it’s the only song on the list not to have its legs wrapped between a deity or lover, and it’s also the only song not written by the boy George himself. Either way this pinnacle of the dad-dance-finger-point movement smashed the bones out of 1983, gave George his final number one and if you greedy bastards wanted any more how about a saxophone playing squirrel?

 

The album George Harrison, The Apple Years 1968-1975 is out now.  Get it in here