Best of George Harrison - Harrison, George (CD 1990)

To put it charitably, this greatest hits collection was an insult to George Harrison.

With the breakup of the Beatles, there was a large school of thought that Harrison could not hope to match the expected solo successes of his former bandmates, Paul McCartney and John Lennon. Although George had written several important songs for the group, and penned a bona fide classic in Something, he was not a prolific songwriter, nor was his voice particularly well-suited for taking the lead much of the time. His strength, it seemed, was as a guitarist, and not much more than that.

So it must have been an especially sweet victory when Hari dominated the charts with his first true solo work, the mammoth three disc ALL THINGS MUST PASS. To their delight, fans learned that Harrison was indeed prolific...he simply hadn't been given many chances to record his own work with the Beatles. But he had been building up a catalog of songs for years.

And through the mid-Seventies, Hari continued to place albums and singles in the Top 40 on both sides of the Atlantic, although he never really equaled the huge success of his first outing (but to be fair, it can be argued that Lennon and McCartney both had a hard time matching the success and quality of their former partner's debut as well).

By 1976, George had moved to A&M Records, and his former labels (Parlophone in Britain and Capitol in the U.S.) rushed out this 'best of' collection to wring a few more dollars out of his fans. And also, perhaps, as an act of revenge. (From my understanding, Harrison had no hand in compiling this collection.)

What had to bother Harrison so much was that 7 of the 13 tracks collected here were songs from the Beatles. It was if Parlophone/Capitol was saying that he hadn't accomplished enough on his own to justify a solo hits collection. And this mere months after John Lennon and Ringo Starr had each released greatest hits packages of their own solo material!

Mind you, the Beatles songs found here are all great. But they are all readily available on Beatles records. And by including them here, a number of very worthy solo efforts from George had to be omitted.

Therefore, I will not be reviewing the Beatles material, other than to list them. If you wish to learn more about them, I suggest you seek out reviews of the original Fab Four records they appeared on, as that is their proper context.

THE SOLO SONGS

My Sweet Lord-George had never made a secret of his spirituality, but even so, it was odd for him to put out so religious a song as a single. But upon its release at Christmastime of 1970, it struck just the right chord, and it was a Number One hit around the world! Strip away producer Phil Spector's "Wall of Sound" accompaniment and chorus, and you've got a very simply acoustic guitar-based song, perfect for singalongs. The fact that Harrison was later found guilty of unintentionally plagiarizing the early-Sixties hit by the Chiffons, He's So Fine, in no way diminishes the power of this tune, nor its much-deserved status as a classic of its era. (Ironic tidbit: George later said that when he originally wrote this song, he felt it sounded too much like another tune, Oh Happy Day by the Edwin Hawkins Singers. And, in attempting to rework it so that it didn't sound so much like that song, he guessed he must have subconsciously picked up on the melody of He's So Fine.) John Lennon quipped that the song simply must have had some heavenly inspiration to be such a huge hit.

Give Me Love-The big hit off of Harrison's second solo album*, which, much like My Sweet Lord, is built upon his very expressive acoustic guitar. A hopeful song from a time when hope seemed in very short supply, the listener gets a hint of the strength which the artist draws from his faith.

You-Because he was not a demonstrative man in public, and because he had developed a reputation as something of a mystic, it was easy to overlook the fact that Harrison had a very wicked sense of humor (he was great chums with Monty Python, after all). With this tune, it's almost as if he's mocking Pop Music itself, building a catchy riff around a single word, and throwing in some near-nonsense lyrics to round it out. Tom Scott's wailing sax adds the perfect touch.

Bangla Desh-If You was Harrison being playful, this song was him being perhaps too serious. Shocked and angered by the famine in the Asian nation, Harrison organized the historic Concerts for Bangladesh to help raise money and worldwide awareness. To promote the event and to generate more money, George wrote and recorded this song. Unfortunately, when it isn't being preachy, it's hobbled by some awkward rhyme schemes ("Bangla Desh...It sure looks like a mess/I've never known such distress"). A catchy melody, but hard to warm up to.

Dark Horse-Sometimes things just wouldn't go right for George. On the one hand, he had written a very good pop single with this, in which he pokes a bit of fun at himself; unfortunately, when he went into the studio to record it, he was struck by a severe case of laryngitis. As a result, it's almost painful to listen to him sing this, as he strains to hit notes. Nonetheless, there's a certain ragged charm to his vocals that compliments the theme of the tune.

What Is Life-Another hit from the first album, a fast paced number with a wonderfully romantic sentiment ("What is my life without your love? Darling, who am I without you by my side?") and some electrifying horns that make this song impossible to resist!

And, for the record, here are the Beatles songs also found here: Something, If I Needed Someone, Here Comes the Sun, Taxman, Think for Yourself, For You Blue and While My Guitar Gently Weeps.

If I had my druthers, I would have dropped the idea of the Beatles tunes and dug deeper into Harrison's solo catalog. After all, this is a "Best Of," not a "Greatest Hits," so I think it's perfectly legitimate to cull album tracks that were not Top 40 singles, but which nevertheless are among the artist's best work. Songs which I wish had been considered for inclusion would include: All Things Must Pass, Beware of Darkness, Isn't It a Pity, Living in the Material World, Miss O'Dell, Try Some Buy Some, Ding Dong Ding Dong (which was a minor hit, but was left off of this album) Far East Man and The Answer's at the End. All worthwhile musical efforts from Hari's first four solo records.

Technically, the tunes found here sound good. For the Beatles tracks, producer George Martin always got a good, clean sound out of the band (although be warned...most of these 60's songs are not in stereo, but actually are double mixed mono). On the solo work, Harrison was ably handled by Phil Spector at first, but soon developed into a very solid producer in his own right, toning down Spector's Everything-But-The-Kitchen-Sink production values while still retaining a liberal use of brass and choruses.

Honestly, you can't go wrong with having this CD in your collection. But it should only be considered a first, small step towards indulging in the impressive solo works of George Harrison. He accomplished much, much more than this so-called "Best Of" would suggest.


* Harrison released two solo albums while still with the Beatles, WONDERWALL MUSIC and ELECTRONIC SOUND, but neither could be considered true "Rock" records; the first was a movie soundtrack consisting mostly of Indian ragas, and the second was George making ambient music with a synthesizer. For the purpose of this review, we'll consider ALL THINGS MUST PASS to be his first true solo record.