PowerPop: They Say It's Your Birthday, Part Deux

Monday, February 25, 2008

They Say It's Your Birthday, Part Deux

Here's should-have-been-65-year-old birthday boy George Harrison -- with future Rutles Eric Idle and Neil Innes -- and "The Pirate Song."

Who's my favorite Beatle? Sorry -- not telling...

8 comments:

Anonymous said...: Thanks for remembering my favorite Beatle's birthday, Steve. George was quiet, but he had a wicked sense of humor (not to mention a bit of talent in the guitar/songwriting department).I miss George and John every day.

Keep the Beatle clips coming!; 2/25/2008 3:45 PM
steve simels said...: ramona --

I'm glad you're enjoying them....; 2/25/2008 4:22 PM
Anonymous said...: Leave it to George to throw us such a great curveball!

return of the plumber; 2/25/2008 5:09 PM
TMink said...: My favorite beatle changed. It started out as Ringo, probably from the cartoons! Then it was Paul cause he wrote pretty songs and I was a repressed teenager. Then it was John cause I was a dope smoking college student. Now I really enjoy them all, but John was a bit of a git even with all that talent.

"Genius is Pain" from the Lemmings album skewered him pretty well, as did the Elvis line "Was it a millionaire who sang "Imagine no posessions?"

George's post Beatles work holds up the best for me, I think John and Paul needed each other more and their post breakup work suffered a bit.

Trey; 2/25/2008 6:13 PM
TJWood said...: Some good posts of George on both posts. For my part I will say that as strange as it may be seem to consider any of the Beatles underrated or underappreciated, George does tend to get slighted in discussions of the great guitarists of his era. The names that come to mind first are usually Hendrix, Clapton, Page, Beck, Townshend, Allman, Richards, etc. George often doesn't get a mention until somewhat further into the list, other times not at all. This despite having a distinctive guitar style as a Beatle and a perhaps even more distinctive one as a solo artist. Harrison perhaps lacked the flash of the guitarists previously mentioned, and he was after all the third-rated talent in his band. But I would venture to say that these players (including Hendrix and Allman were they alive) would neither exclude George from their lists--or change a note of what he played given the chance.; 2/25/2008 8:42 PM
Anonymous said...: Who's my favorite Beatle? Sorry -- not telling ...

Well, I am telling. It was George right from the get-go. Those cheekbones! Those beautiful hands! That quick, dry humor. Was he the best guitarist out there? No. But he had a beautiful, lush, unique sound ... his work was distinctive and as influential as any of the others mentioned above.; 2/25/2008 9:43 PM
dave™© said...: Well, these guys have been celebrating George's birthday yesterday AND today. Apparently, at some point a few years ago, he decided he was REALLY born on the 24th. They've been playing a ton of George and George-related items both days (including excerpts from the "Concert for Bangladesh" DVD where George talks about Dylan getting freaked out by all the hubbub surrounding the show and telling Harrison "it's not my scene" and Harrison getting pissed, since he had a million other things to deal with, and basically slapping him across the face and saying "Deal with it, Bob!").; 2/26/2008 2:03 AM
Noam Sane said...: It was only in the past year or so I discovered "All Things Must Pass," and that via a best-of box called "All Those Years Ago" (also wonderful). Sad, I know, but things do slip under the radar. Truly great songs, certainly up to Beatle standards.

It would be interesting to see a list of 70s hits that copped Hari's slide sound.

Fr'instance - America's "Sister Golden Hair" - the intro slide-guitar part? That's George's sound.

And hey - no hatin' on Ringo.; 2/26/2008 9:15 AM