Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

"Blow Away" had one of the prettiest slide guitar solos George may have done. I've still got the 45 with the original sleeve. Both that song and "This Song" were missing from "Concert for George" and I missed them. Still a great DVD though.

Yes, and that's a drag because I always thought This Song was one of his best singles.

Is "You" in the Concert for George?

No Glenn, "You" is not on the Concert For George.

I have always been amazed that someone has not done a detailed review of Harrison's slide guitar work. Most of his songs sound like standard tuning. Has anyone seen such a review discussing his technique, with examples.

Mick raises a good point, which was the importance of Harrison's background singing to the Beatles' "sound."

Those songs in which he is clearly heard doing harmonies -- Because, Help, I Don't Want To Spoil The Party, Octopus's Garden and The Word, to name just five -- have a whole new dimension than if it were just John and Paul singing. Not to knock J & P's vocals: their blend was one of the most amazing in contemporary music. One could argue that as a duo their voices blended even better than Simon & Garfunkel, or Phil & Don Everly. But the addition of that third voices -- Harrison's obvious nasality, which lent it so much character -- brought the Beatles' harmonies to a whole new level.

One of the most detailed published critiques of George's slide work was in a copy of Musician from the mid 80s, an interview with Clapton, who was commenting on George's style and technique.

My copy of that 'zine is looooong gone.

From what I remembered Clapton just went on about his admiration for George's original slide style, one that favored melody over conventional, blues or country based approaches. Perhaps George was the only pure pop slide player, though he certainly had imitators in the early 70s. It's pretty cool that he kept on with that instead of dropping it like every other ripoff artist (America, anyone?)

I believe "You" was recorded for Ronnie Spector. For some reason she didn't lay her vocals down and George did an included it on "Extra Texture".

Kinda late here... remember reading (about 1990-ish)mag interview with Clapton, basically saying "Uncle George" taught him everything he knows. Pretty high praise, I thought

will also add this... in an online interview, someone asked him what advice he would offer young guitarists. His answer was, basically, "get a ukulele"

Both of these two guys seemed to have admired each others work and infulenced each other as well. Both were monumental guitarist, writers and musicans.

The other night here in Minnesota I met a guy who works at a local music store. He's the brother of one of the members of Badfinger, and he says he used to hang out at the studio during the recording sessions of All Things Must Pass. I wanted to throw him in my trunk and make him tell me stories until my envy went away. He says he was a young punk then, watching these guys set up small amps on chairs and mike them. He watched George record "Wah Wah." And he'd join them all for pints afterwards. Tell me that doesn't make you wish you could have been there??

David,
I believe George referred to himself and EC as "husbands-in-law".

....."remember reading (about 1990-ish)mag interview with Clapton, basically saying "Uncle George" taught him everything he knows."

Hmmmmm... I'd like to read that and see what the actual quote was. The fact of the matter is that Clapton was a young guitar phenom in the early 60's and cold play circles around George even before beatlemania broke out. Dont get me wrong, I love George's guitar playing, it was always tasteful and seemed to fit in perfectly with the Lennon/McCartney songwriting, but lets face it: George was never (even in his later days) in the same league as some of the real guitar greats of which Clapton certainly is one.

Good point. From everything I've read it was mainly being in the same group with Lennon and McCartney that caused George to be overshadowed .... but I guess just about ANYONE would have to take a back seat in THAT situation, eh?

In the early days, one factor was simply the songwriting. While J&P were cranking our #1 hits on an almost daily basis, George was struggling to come up with even one that could be album-worthy. In the studio, the Beatles were clearly the "Paul and John show" (and in that order). Even many of George's guitar parts were heavily influenced and directed by George Martin. It really wasn't until the later 60's into the 70's George's songwriting talent started to make it's mark.