NOT GUILTY
"Not Guilty, For Looking Like A Freak"George Harold Harrison
George Harrison was born to Louise and Harold Harrison on February
25, 1943, making him the youngest of the Beatles. George's sister
Louise and his brothers Peter and Harry rounded out the stable nuclear
family of George's childhood which, unlike those of the other Beatles, was
untouched by death and divorce.
George was a schoolmate of John Lennon's in elementary school but was two
forms behind Lennon. Later, he would attend high school with Paul McCartney,
one form behind. He was only an average student in school, having found his
true interest in music by age 13. Guitar playing did not come easy to him at
first and for a short while, he attempted to learn the trumpet instead.
Eventually, he picked up the guitar again with more success. Nonetheless,
the virtuosity he would eventually display came only with a great deal of
effort and practicing that often ran late into the night.
George and classmate Paul McCartney--who, by that time, was playing in John
Lennon's band, the Quarrymen-- became friends based on their common interest
in music. Paul invited George to see the Quarrymen perform. George came to
idolize John Lennon and began to hang around with the Quarryment hoping to
join. Eventually Lennon did invite him to join. The Quarrymen would evolve
through many changes in line-up. Stuart Sutcliffe eventually joined to play
bass and Pete Best became their drummer. George would be partially
responsible for the band, now called the Beatles, being deported from
Germany where they were playing professionally...he was still underage at
the time.
The Beatles would become stars in late 1962 having a world-wide influence
and popularity unmatched to this day. Yet, throughout the early years of
Beatlemania, George, always quiet and reserved by nature stayed in the
background. He did not have the vocal or songwriting abilities of Lennon or
McCartney and was not as outwardly charismatic as any of his bandmates.
However, by 1965, that would begin to change. While the Beatles were filming
their second motion picture, "Help!" George became interested in the sounds
of Indian musical instruments, most notably the sitar. During this period,
he also met and became the student of sitarist Ravi Shankar. George
introduced the sitar sound to the world via "Norwegian Wood" on the Rubber
Soul LP. His continued interest in all things Indian would lead George and
the rest of the Beatles to Transcendental Meditation and Maharishi Mahesh
Yogi in 1967. Thus, George was responsible for taking the Beatles--and by
extension, their world-wide army of followers-- in brand-new, exotic, often
life-altering directions.
Perhaps an even more significant effect of this new individuality was the
fact that the "quiet Beatle" was establishing his own individual identity
within the group. He would no longer be content to stay completely in the
background--at least not when it came to music. George was also becoming a
more accomplished and prolific songwriter and longed for a bigger piece of
the Beatles songwriting responsibility, still largely monopolized by John
and Paul. His new abilities, new musical influences and awakened sense of
spirituality often could not find proper expression within the Beatles. The
disatisfaction this caused George would contribute to the difficulties that
would lead to the Beatles break-up in 1970.
George's solo career began very successfully. Perhaps because of the
backlog of songs that had accumulated waiting to be permitted onto a
Beatles album, George was able to release a three record LP called "All
Things Must Pass." He also organized the highly successful benefit "Concert
for Bangladesh." The LP was a smash with critics and with fans. By 1974
however, things had deteriorated. Critics beghan to complain that his
records had become too religiously preachy. A tour in 1974 during which he
had severe laryngitis the whole time, did nothing to help win back critical
favor.
In his personal life, there were problems as well. His marriage to Patti
Boyd, an actress whom he had met on the set of "A Hard Day's Night" back in
1964 was failing and his best friend Eric Clapton was in love with Patti
(providing the subject matter of the Derek and the Dominoes song, "Layla.")
In 1977, George and Patti divorced and Patti married Eric Clapton. George
supported the marriage saying that he'd rather see her with someone he likes
rather than "some jerk." George had already met his new love, Olivia Arias.
They gave birth to a son, Dhani, in 1977 and were married in 1978.
George continued to record throughout the seventies and branched out into
film production in the eighties, producing Monty Python's "The Life of
Brian" and "Time Bandits," among others. He recorded a comeback album, Cloud
Nine," in 1987 and shortly thereafter, teamed up with Bob Dylan, Tom Petty,
Roy Orbison and Jeff Lynne for the Traveling Willburys project. Throughout
all of this, George has carefully guarded his privacy, including keeping a
tight rein on information regarding polyps found in his throat in 1997.
George recently admitted that the polyps were indeed malignant but that he
is fighting and, thankfully, winning the battle against throat cancer.
