Ex-Beatle George Harrison dies

2001-12-03 18:13

Los Angeles - George Harrison, the Beatles' quiet lead guitarist and spiritual explorer who added both rock 'n' roll flash and a touch of the mystic to the band's timeless magic, has died, following a battle with cancer. He was 58.

Longtime family friend Gavin De Becker said, "He died with one thought in mind - love one another." Harrison's wife, Olivia Harrison, and son Dhani, 24, were with him when he died.

With Harrison's death, there remains two surviving Beatles, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr. John Lennon was shot dead by a deranged fan in 1980.

In 1998, when Harrison disclosed that he had been treated for throat cancer, Harrison said: "It reminds you that anything can happen." The following year, he survived an attack by an intruder who stabbed him several times. In July 2001, he released a statement asking fans not to worry about reports that he was still battling cancer.

Four distinct personalities

The Beatles were four distinct personalities joined as a singular force in the rebellious 1960s, influencing everything from hair styles to music. Whether dropping acid, proclaiming "All You Need is Love" or sending up the squares in the film "A Hard Day's Night," the Beatles inspired millions.

Harrison's guitar work, modeled on Chuck Berry and Carl Perkins among others, was essential.

He often blended with the band's joyous sound, but also rocked out wildly on "Long Tall Sally" and turned slow and dreamy on "Something." His jangly 12-string Rickenbacker, featured in "A Hard Day's Night," was a major influence on the American band the Byrds.

Although his songwriting was overshadowed by the great Lennon-McCartney team, Harrison did contribute such classics as "Here Comes the Sun" and "Something," which Frank Sinatra covered. Harrison also taught the young Lennon how to play the guitar.

'I don't like your tie'

Harrison also had a wry sense of humour that helped shape the Beatles' irreverent charm, memorably fitting in alongside Lennon's cutting wit and Starr's cartoonish appeal.

At their first recording session under George Martin, the producer reportedly asked the young musicians to tell him if they didn't like anything. Harrison's response: "Well, first of all, I don't like your tie." Asked by a reporter what he called the Beatles' famous moptop hairstyle, he quipped, "Arthur."

He was even funny about his own mortality. As reports of his failing health proliferated, Harrison recorded a new song - "Horse to the Water" - and credited it to "RIP Ltd. 2001."

He always preferred being a musician to being a star, and he soon soured on Beatlemania - the screaming girls, the hair-tearing mobs, the wild chases from limos to gigs and back to limos. Like Lennon, his memories of the Beatles were often tempered by what he felt was lost in all the madness.

"There was never anything, in any of the Beatle experiences really, that good: even the best thrill soon got tiring," Harrison wrote in his 1979 book, "I, Me, Mine." "There was never any doubt. The Beatles were doomed. Your own space, man, it's so important. That's why we were doomed, because we didn't have any. We were like monkeys in a zoo."

'We laughed for years'

Still, in a 1992 interview with The Daily Telegraph, Harrison confided: "We had the time of our lives: We laughed for years."

Harrison evolved as both musician and songwriter. He became interested in the sitar while making the 1965 film "Help!" and introduced it to a generation of Western listeners on "Norwegian Wood," a song by Lennon from the "Rubber Soul" album. He also began contributing more of his own material.

Among his compositions were "I Need You" for the soundtrack of "Help"; "If I Needed Someone" on "Rubber Soul"; "Taxman" and "Love You To" on "Revolver"; "Within You, Without You" on "Sgt. Pepper"; and "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" on the White Album.

In 1966, he married model Patti Boyd, who had a bit part in "A Hard Day's Night." (They divorced in 1977, and she married Harrison's friend, the guitarist Eric Clapton, who wrote the anguished song "Layla" about her. Harrison attended the wedding.)

More than any of the Beatles, Harrison craved a little quiet. He found it in India. Late in 1966, after the Beatles had ceased touring, George and Patti went to India, where Harrison studied the sitar with Ravi Shankar. He maintained a lifelong affiliation with that part of the world.

Worn out by Beatlemania

In 1967, Harrison introduced the other Beatles to the teaching of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, and all four took up transcendental meditation. Harrison was the only one who remained a follower - the others dropped out, with Lennon mocking the Maharishi in the song "Sexy Sadie."

By the late '60s, Harrison was clearly worn out from being a Beatle and openly bickered with McCartney, arguing with him on camera during the filming of "Let It Be."

As the Beatles grew apart, Harrison collaborated with Clapton on the song "Badge," performed with Lennon's Plastic Ono Band and produced his most acclaimed solo work, the triple album "All Things Must Pass." The sheer volume of material on that 1970 release confirmed the feelings of Harrison fans that he was being stifled in the Beatles.

But one of those songs, the hit "My Sweet Lord," later drew Harrison into a lawsuit: The copyright owner of "He's So Fine," written by Lonnie Mack and recorded by The Chiffons, won a claim that Harrison had stolen the music.

Despite the occasional hit single, including the Lennon tribute song "All Those Years Ago," Harrison's solo career did not live up to initial expectations. Reviewing a greatest hits compilation, Village Voice critic Robert Christgau likened him to a "borderline hitter - they can pitch around after the sluggers (Lennon and McCartney) are traded away."

Fame continued to haunt Harrison

Harrison's family life was steadier. He married Olivia Arias in 1978, a month after Dhani was born.

The next year, Harrison founded Handmade Films to produce Monty Python's "Life of Brian." He sold the company for $8.5 million in 1994.

Fame continued to haunt him. In 1999, he was stabbed several times by a man who broke into his home west of London. The man, who thought the Beatles were witches and believed himself on a divine mission to kill Harrison, was acquitted by reason of insanity.

But fame also continued to enrich Harrison. The following year, he saw a compilation of Beatles No. 1 singles, "1," sell millions of copies and re-establish the band's status around the world.

"The thing that pleases me the most about it is that young people like it," he said in an interview. "It's given kids from 6 to 16 an alternate view of music to what's been available for the past 20 years.

"I think the popular music has gone truly weird," he said. "It's either cutesy-wutesy or it's hard, nasty stuff. It's good that this has life again with the youth." - Sapa/AP

- SAPA