George Harrison: ten quintessential songs [playlist]

This playlist with annotations that I have put together is not intended to be a “best-of” George Harrison (although all the songs here would easily be on such a playlist). Nor is it meant to be exclusive—one could easily devise a playlist with ten different “quintessential” George Harrison songs: one that would include “My Sweet Lord,” “It’s All Too Much,” “I Me Mine,” “Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth),” “Blue Jay Way,” and, of course, “Something” and “Here Comes the Sun.”

Rather, these are ten songs that represent various aspects of George Harrison’s brilliance as a songwriter and recording artist. They tie together themes, concepts, and musical and lyrical approaches in a manner that represents some essential aspects of George’s genius and creativity.

1. Don’t Bother Me

Written while he was lying ill in a hotel bed in August 1963, “Don’t Bother Me” could well stand as a credo for George Harrison, an early manifesto capturing his personality and entire mindset about fame. Especially in the context of the Beatles’ 1963 album, With the Beatles—replete with typically sunny original numbers by Lennon and McCartney including “All My Loving,” “I Wanna Be Your Man,” and “Hold Me Tight,”—“Don’t Bother Me” introduced the world to a new invention: the ambivalent pop star. For George, the very first message he chose to impart as a Beatles songwriter was that of a back turned to the crowd, foreshadowing his conflicted feelings about Beatlemania and particularly about the highly excitable crowds that flocked to their concerts.

2. If I Needed Someone

George explored the ambiguities of love and the difficulties of relationships in songs including “You Like Me Too Much,” “If I Needed Someone,” “I Want to Tell You,” “Long, Long, Long,” and even “Something.” Harrison wrote about love with a more sophisticated, mature understanding of its complexities than what was typically found in pop music of the time. Written in the conditional tense (note the first word of the title), “If I Needed Someone” (included on Rubber Soul) finds George singing behind the beat; the disparity between the melody line and the song’s rhythm echoes and implies the ambivalence of the lyrics. Plus, the song was propelled by Harrison’s patented jangle-rock style created by using the then-new Rickenbacker 12-string electric guitar.

3. I Want to Tell You

With “I Want to Tell You” (on Revolver), George Harrison continued to write about the impossibility of putting feelings into words. In this way, he was very “meta” or post-modern. As startling as the jagged, dissonant piano chords that color the song’s overall sound is how perfectly they replicate in music the lyrical meaning, echoing the narrator’s stated inability to communicate clearly, while introducing a discordant sound rather alien to pop music. In less than three years, the Beatles went from “I Want to Hold Your Hand” to “I Want to Tell You.” That alone speaks volumes of the difference between Lennon and McCartney’s songwriting and Harrison’s

4. Within You Without You

“Within You Without You” on Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was George Harrison’s most sophisticated Hindustani-pop fusion effort—commonly referred to as raga rock. The structure of the song adhered mostly to the Northern Indian classical format, albeit with verses and refrain organized in a recognizable Western pop style. Harrison was the only member of the Beatles to play on the track, which employed musicians from London’s Asian Music Circle and Western classical musicians for the orchestral background. With the opening line, “We were talking about the space between us all,” the song continues to explore the perennial theme of the impossibility of clear communication.

5. All Things Must Pass

George Harrison had tried to get the Beatles to record this song, and they did rehearse it during the January 1969 “Get Back”/”Let It Be” sessions. It was even originally slated to be part of the setlist for the famed “rooftop” concert at Apple headquarters at the end of that month. But nothing ever came of it, Beatle-wise. George revived the tune for his first solo album, aptly choosing it as the title track, which could not help but be seen as a commentary on the breakup of the Beatles. Harrison self-consciously wrote and recorded the song in the style of The Band, with whom he had spent time in Woodstock, N.Y., in autumn 1968.

6. What Is Life

Also included on All Things Must Pass, “What Is Life” is a perfect pop single— channeling Motown and early rock ’n’ roll even as it creates an entirely new sound, bright and effervescent, soulful and anthemic, and incredibly catchy, its multiple riffs circling in and around one another, building a glorious celebration of the power of music to express a gleeful combination of love, lust, and gospel-like prayer. As in so many of his best songs, Harrison kicks it off with an invocation of frustrated expression: “What I feel, I can’t say.”

7. Be Here Now

Found on George Harrison’s second solo album, Living in the Material World, “Be Here Now” borrowed its title and concept from the 1971 book of that name by Baba Ram Dass (né Richard Alpert), one of the “bibles” of the Sixties counterculture. Its musical setting is vaguely reminiscent of Harrison’s Beatles numbers “Blue Jay Way” and “Here Comes the Sun,” although it was dialed down a few beats from the latter to make the music more meditative in keeping with the song’s message: that the past and future are illusory and that the only state of being that matters is the present. One of Harrison’s most profound and evangelical songs is thus delivered in one of the most quiet, gentlest performances of his career, one that is also, most appropriately, timeless—the most intimate performance on his most intimate album.

8. Dark Horse

The bouncy, rocking title track of his 1974 solo album served as an updated manifesto as well as an answer song to critics and former bandmates. Calling himself a “dark horse” (a name he also gave to his nascent record label), with the connotation of constantly being underrated and underappreciated, gave new meaning and focus to his work; it served to recontextualize his professional and personal lives with a new self-narrative. Whether it was as a Beatle or a solo artist or a lover or a husband, he seemed to be suggesting, he was “a blue moon,” as he sang in the song, something that only occasionally or rarely shows up, not unlike a “dark horse.” The smart money does not bet on a dark horse, as dark horses win only once in a blue moon. Harrison had a way of defying the odds.

9. You

“You” was originally composed for a projected solo comeback album by Ronnie Spector, which was going to be co-produced by Harrison and Spector’s then-husband, Phil Spector. The project was aborted midway through, but Harrison made eventual use of several of the songs he wrote for Spector, including “You,” found on his 1975 solo album, Extra Texture, where it was transformed into a joyously upbeat Motown-style love song. It has an instantly recognizable quality to it, one full of happiness and movement and delirium—a perfect bit of pop that just happened to have been made by one of the most serious songwriters and musicians of the rock era. One can even hear echoes of the music and lyrics in Paul McCartney’s megahit, “Silly Love Songs,” released the following year, whose refrain, “I love you”—which also figures prominently in Harrison’s song—could be a pun on “I love ‘You,’” a reference to the Harrison tune.

10. This Song

The funniest song ever written about being accused of plagiarism.

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