GEORGE
THE GUITARIST part
2
HARRISON AND THE SLIDE GUITAR
George was always learning and practicing
music. As we know, he's interested in
many different music styles.
George
experimented a lot with guitars. That was
already obvious in the Beatles period.
Trink, tor instance,
about '12-Bar
Original'. Recorded on November the 4th,
1965, and represented in a shortened
version on
ANTHOLOGY 2. Here George
already experimented with several foot
pedals with different effects.
George got in contact with playing slide
guitar in 1969, when he played in the
backing band of Delaney and Bonnie.
Slide (also called bottleneck) means
playing with a small metal tube around the
finger. He had never played the guitar
that
way before, but still it made rum decide to
give it a try. Eventueally he did a good job.
For a recognizable point in George's
guitar work is often rus choice tor
melodious slide solos.
Through the years his slide guitar playing
became appreciated. Many friends and
fellow musicians invited George to
do the
slide work on their records. For instance,
big names like John Lennon, Bob Dylan,
Eric Clapton, Jeff Lynne
and Duane Eddy
invited George to show what he could do
on their albums.
On all his solo albums George played
several slide solos. aften they weren't fast
and creaky, but pure and melodious.
George often used the Fender Stratocaster
for his slide work, like on a very recent
Beatles number, 'Free As A Bird'.
Actually, Paul McCartney has never been
too impressed by George's slide playing.
From Paul we know that he likes a little
more solid slide work, instead of George's
pure and melodious style.
So during the
making of 'Free As A Bird' Paul was a little
insecure about George's slide part. But
after aIl
the result
(and
Paul thinks so
too) was sublime. George had energy
coming out
of his toes while a somewhat
heavy
sound.
So
George surely is an
allround
guitarist and musician. Rhythm
parts,
solo's, slide work, sitar, etc. George
certainly
has
no
problem with any of it.
LIVE
PERFORMANCES
George
isn't really known as being a live
artist. Not
that he plays miserably during
live shows,
but something
keeps
George
from
performing. Through the years we
have come to
know George as being
slightly
unsociable.
Strange?
Not at all! He
wants to
have peace around his own
person and
just wants to be a human
being.
Could
you disagree with him? Still,
George
appeared on stage quite a lot
during his
career. Of course I can't
discuss
all of his career as far as live
performances
are concerned, but a small
important
list of big performances
should
be no
problem.
August
the 1st, 1971
New
York - Madison Square Garden
On
behalf of Bangladesh, George played
two concerts
with friends like Bob Dylan,
Eric
Clapton, Ravi Shankar,
Billy
Preston,
etc. George
was the big conductor of the
concerts.
They went down in history as
one
of the biggest
and
best charity
performances.
Actually the precursor of
Live Aid.
The concerts were filmed and
shown on
TV
several
times. A triple LP box
and a double
CD set exist as well: the LP
box Apple
STCX 3385, CD-2 Epic 468835
(Sony
Music), and for a short while it was
on sale on
video.
November
the 2nd, 1974 -December
20,1974
North
American Tour (USA and
Canada),
During
this period George did fortyfour
concerts in
the USA and Canada to
promote rus
(then to be released) album
DARK
HORSE on December the 20th,
1974. In
this period during the concerts
George had
to put up with some
negative
comments
from the press and even fans.
People
expected George to be the Beatle,
playing
songs like
'Something',
'Here
Comes The
Sun', 'While My Guitar Gently
Weeps' and
'Taxman'. George chose for
many
Indian
sounds
through his friend
Ravi
Shankar, soul sounds through friend,
organist and
singer Billy Preston and
himself
revealed
his deep respect for Hare
Krishna.
George
went his own way during this tour.
Although the
music was not bad, the
audience
didn't get spoiled with real
Beatle
sounds.
Adding the
fact that George's voice was
very bad and
hoarse from a1 his studio
work just
before the tour.
George
on the 1974 North American Tour:
"I know
that every time at least ten people
will say at
the end of a show it
was
worthless.
But I also know that there were
more than a
hundred who, when you ask
them
"Did you get what you wanted?", will
say "We
got a lot more than we ever dared
hope
for". People expect so much. If you
don't expect
anything,
life
is one big
bonus. But
if you expect too much you
will be
disappointed. I don't let anyone
down. Why do
people want Beatle George?
I'm
not saying that's what I am. Ghandi
says you
should choose and create an
image you
like. You should hold on to that
image
and maintain it. The image I chose
for was
never the one of Beatle George.
Why
should I live in the past? You should
be in the
presence, whether you like me
or not. This
is me!", says a fanatic, and a
maybe
right George in 1974.
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