George Harrison, the forgotten guitarist

I'd like to write this post about George Harrison.  If this seems strange to you to start with George, imagine how much worse it was in the early 80s when I first got into the Beatles.  John had just been killed and got the most attention.  Paul had just spent a decade with a ton of hit records in the 70s and was still a force, at least commercially, having hit records with Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson.  George was mostly the invisible man.  Everyone knew about All Things Must Pass, but that seemed long ago.  It didn't help that unlike John and Paul, George had always seemed to avoid the spotlight. He seemed most happy just playing his guitar and writing songs.  He didn't do a lot of interviews and he didn't tour.  Books that I read in that period always focused on the relationship between John and Paul and either underplayed George's contribution as a Beatle or outright said that he was just lucky to be in the band, similar to Ringo.  Just a lucky guy at the right place and the right time to find Lennon and McCartney.  These materials were often hostile to George's playing comparing him unfavorably to Eric Clapton or Jimi Hendrix or the other guitar gods.  Some of them speculated that anybody could have been in the Beatles with Lennon and McCartney.  

It feels like this began to change in the late 80s, with the initial fervor over John's death and Paul's career having a downturn, suddenly, George Harrison was in the charts and on MTV.  First with the #1 single Got My Mind Set on You (the last #1 by a former member of the Beatles) and the huge album Cloud Nine.  Then George with the Travelling Wilbury's with more hits and popularity. In 1995, the Beatles Anthology also was good for George's reputation as he seemed to be the most frank and had the most interesting takes on the Beatles career.  George finally received his just due as a great artist in his own right in 2004 when he was elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame posthumously.  It's a shame that it didn't happen when he was alive as he was deserving and I'm not sure he completely realized it.  Just another example of George not wanting to draw attention to himself.

So why was George undervalued so long and why is he still undervalued in some circles.  I alluded to one possible reason, namely, George himself never drew attention to himself, but I have another theory.  George Harrison has never received the credit he deserves because he is underrated as a guitarist and as a composer.  Now, he has begun to get his due as a composer (Here Comes the Sun is the most downloaded and streamed Beatles song and if the 14 year old girls I teach know ANY Beatles song, it's usually that one), but IMO he still doesn't get his due as a guitarist.  So this article is to make a case that there is not a guitarist on EARTH that would have been a better guitarist for the Beatles and, in fact, he was the PERFECT guitarist for the Beatles.

Before we get into George as a guitarist, let's get one thing straight.  George is the best guitarist in the Beatles, and it's not close.  Yes, Paul had a few moments, most notably Taxman which is a brilliant solo.  Paul also played some other leads.  Back in the USSR, Good Morning Good Morning, Another Girl, etc.  Great lead work on all of them.  But, I would argue, all of these solos/leads are also very similar.  Paul was very good at that one thing and it's great.  He does, what I think of is that "stinging" solo really well.  Paul is probably the best overall musician in the Beatles, but as a guitarist, George was unquestionably better.  I'll give lots of examples below, but Paul doesn't have enough finesse to play the fingerpicking on All My Loving or the "Clapton-like" dominant, bluesy solo on Old Brown Shoe.  He just doesn't.  He's a competent lead guitarist if George isn't playing, but he can't completely replace what George does.

George is a 50s guitarist.  His heroes were Chet Atkins, Carl Perkins, Scotty Moore, Chuck Berry and Buddy Holly.  By the late '60s, he was being compared to guys like Clapton and Hendrix and Jimmy Page, but George is NOT a blues guitarist.  He is more of a country-picking, jazzy guitarist.  He's not Robert Johnson, he's Chet Atkins.  Therefore, he never got good at improvising over blues scales the way Clapton is.  He plays lead guitar like a composer, not a gunslinger.

But here's what he is good at.  When Clapton got tired of the "Clapton is god" guitar hero stuff, who did he go to?  He went to George Harrison who knew more chords than anybody he knew and had a gift for writing melody and would solo within the chords instead of just using a blues scale.  Badge was the result, the most melodic of all the Cream hits.  George is also good at finding the perfect accompaniment to a song.  Paul told a story about George coming up with the 4 note riff on And I Love Her based on the chords in the song and ....... that part made the song.  Without those 4 notes, I don't even know what that song is.  Yes, great melody.  Good lyrics.  Paul sings it well, but those 4 notes ...... that's the song.  When Till There Was You, the original version, had no solo, George composed a brilliant, jazzy solo out of thin air.  All My Loving has this great country and western solo that's like a song within a song.  This was the first solo America ever saw from George Harrison on Ed Sullivan .... he nailed it.  

People treat musicians like they treat sports, who is best?  Lists rank guitarists.  Sometimes they are fun to look at and argue about, but here's the problem, music is art, it's not sport and there are no winners and losers.  George was formed completely by his experience as a Quarrymen in 1950s Liverpool,  First skiffle, then rock and roll, with country music backgrounds and the great American songbook.  Clapton and Hendrix were formed by their blues background.  Is one "better" or "worse?"  George, for sure, didn't play as fluidly or as fast as a guy like Clapton.  George was no guitar god.  If you asked him if he wanted to be, he'd probably say no.  But I have a question.  Name a guitar player who, after having a hall of fame worthy career as the lead guitarist in a famous band, then had a hall of fame-worthy career as a solo artist with a completely different guitar style?  There is only one I can think of ..... George Harrison.

So George is the lead guitarist of, arguably, the greatest band ever, then his 1st solo album comes out with a fully formed slide guitar style that he never played as a Beatle.  Not only did he play slide, but he also played slide in a completely unique way.  Not rooted in the blues.  Not in open tuning.  Not on multiple strings.  Melodic, almost sounding like a human voice.  Very precise in pitch.  You can almost hear George's background in sitar if you listen closely, but it really doesn't sound far off from his style as a Beatle. So many great examples, but I think my favorite is This is Love off of Cloud Nine.  No less a critic than Paul McCartney was worried that George's slide on Free as a Bird, wouldn't sound "Beatley" enough, until he heard it. 

In short, George is criminally underrated as a composer, guitarist and singer.  Despite pronouncements by John Lennon and others, I don't believe the Beatles are the Beatles without George Harrison.