I Me Mine

My guess is this is George Harrison speaking out against egocentric me culture. It doesn’t even take a spiritual man of Harrison’s caliber to be disgusted by the selfishness and narcissism of nearly everyone, and the way those qualities are celebrated by society. And this was 1970, before the words I Me Mine became a de facto religious mantra. I don’t  know much about religion, but as I understand it, most major faiths agree that to achieve a higher spiritual plane one must learn to relinquish the self. Yet right now I see reams of books and seminars aiming to guide you to spiritual fulfillment by nourishing and pampering the earthly self in every conceivable way. That seems contradictory to me, but again, it’s not something I often think about. What George Harrison made of it, I don’t know. He lived long enough to witness millennial ’me society’ in nearly all of its largesse, but he kept his thoughts to himself in his later years. What he’d have made of the advances that occurred in the years since his death, we can only imagine, but somehow I don’t see him looking kindly upon the glut of self-obsession new technology has allowed us to display.

Here Comes the Sun

Sometimes I suspect that the Beatles weren’t real, because, how could they be? Their story is stranger than fiction. Who could have written the story of four lads from an obscure port town who came together and took over the world in the most peaceful way possible? It’s so farfetched – if you were writing that your editor would tell you to tone it down and make it more realistic. What really makes everything fishy is how it’s like somebody wrote them as embodiments of four basic personality types – The Thoughtful One, The Troubled One, The Goofy One, The Romantic. Other people in other bands had personalities too, but no one else fell into such well defined personas. It wasn’t just some thing Brian Epstein thought up to make them more appealing. Those were really their personalities, and when they broke up they found themselves reverting to type more and more without the others to balance them out. John was shouty and mad, Paul couldn’t stop singing about his dog, Ringo was inconsequential and drunk. I’d say that George had the most consistent solo output, because he wasn’t as inclined as the others towards being ridiculous. You can’t say that John and Paul didn’t frequently make fools of themselves, but George never did. That’s why I like him so much. He was decent and not crazy and he wrote some of their best songs, like this one, which is one of their most inspiring.

Here Comes the Moon

If you recall, George Harrison also wrote Here Comes the Sun. Then I guess he decided it wasn’t fair to the moon, so he wrote about that too. This is certainly not as classic, but a pretty song nonetheless. In recent times I’ve become more and more attracted to George as my favorite Beatle. Because he strikes a sane balance between Paul McCartney’s saccharinity and John Lennon’s bile. Those two sometimes took their respective personas to cartoonish extremes, whereas George didn’t even have a persona besides steadfastly being himself. Picking a favorite Beatle is a simple and effective personality test, so picking the sane one is itself a sign of sanity. Right?

Heading for the Light

Something inspiring from The Traveling Wilburys. They always had a very optimistic vibe about them, almost surprisingly so, coming from a batch of middle-aged men, who except for Tom Petty, might have had reason to feel that their better days were behind them. At that time, Petty was the biggest star among them, at least in terms of being on the charts and relevant. Jeff Lynne had done his best known work in the seventies, Dylan and Harrison in the sixties, Roy Orbison even before. They could’ve felt a like a bunch of has-beens trotting down memory lane. But they were so cheery and buoyant, so obviously having a blast that it was a huge breath of fresh air. Some of their stuff has taken on a certain poignancy, given that Orbison passed away not long after, and the Wilburys would become his legacy for a generation too young to remember the Pretty Woman days. He certainly didn’t sound like a man fixin’ to die, and no one sounded like they were looking backwards or feeling anything but jolly. Traveling Wilburys Volume I remains a sure picker-upper. Listening to it feels like being invited to the guys’ barbecue party for music and beers.

Handle With Care

The best supergroup. A lesson in superstars sharing the spotlight, having fun and bringing out the best in each other. Usually when big stars get together on a project it becomes a competition of who’s awesomer and more famous. The Traveling Wilburys were all about being awesome together. It was a buddy project. Although it was probably hard to imagine, before they came along, that Bob Dylan, George Harrison and Roy Orbison would ever be trading vocals. With their wildly disparate styles, it’s amazing how great they sound together. And make no mistake, it’s a showcase for those three legends – Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne are just sidemen, and though they both made good contributions to The Wilburys, they must have known they were outclassed. They must have felt very honored. But of course, it wasn’t about who had the biggest legend.

Got My Mind Set On You

Another example of a catchy hit song that’s so charming we don’t even notice that it seems to be about being a stalker. There’s a fine line between fierce devotion and just being creepy and pathetic, and we’ve all walked it at one time or another. So there’s plenty to relate to in George Harrison’s song, even though it’s only four lines. He’s planning to seduce this lady no matter how much time and money it takes. That’s either romantic and inspiring or slightly skeevy, depending on your point of view. But this one of those songs where the tune takes precedence over any point of view anyone may have and the meaning is beside the point. The meaning is in the music, which says to have a good time. The words are just words. Harrison is supposed to be so serious and deep, but he knew when to step back from deep thoughts and just make pop music for the sheer pleasure.

 

Good Morning Good Morning

Take a moment to be astounded once again. John Lennon got the idea for this song after watching a Kellogg’s Cornflakes commercial. A commercial jingle may seem like the last place anyone would draw inspiration from and if you did the results would surely be awful, but this is John Lennon we’re talking about. On Sgt Pepper he also found creative spark in a vintage circus poster and his son’s school art project. One could be tempted to say that finding fascination in mundane little things is just typical of a mind steeped in psychedelic drugs. It’s conventional wisdom to dismiss some of the brilliance of Sgt Pepper as drug-induced, but I believe that’s wrong. The Beatles weren’t using drugs to enhance their creative performance. On the contrary, they took drugs because they were already wildly creative and thirsty for fresh ways to see the world. Drugs, psychedelic or not, don’t do anything to bring about creativity if it isn’t already there. The Beatles were influenced and inspired by what they ingested, indubitably, but they were already brilliant and would have gone on being so without the aid of Dr. Robert.

Also, take a moment to celebrate what would have been George Harrison’s 69th birthday. Though technically, as he revealed shortly before his death, it’s was actually yesterday a little before midnight.

Gone Troppo

Gone Troppo is what George Harrison thought the music industry had done, in 1982. ‘Troppo’ means crazy, in Australian. The story of how Harrison picked up that bit of slang is unknown, but it suited him. If he’d been weary of pop stardom at the start of the seventies, by the end of them he was thoroughly over it and ready to enjoy a normalesque life away from touring, interviews and publicity. He recorded Gone Troppo as an obligation to his contract. The casualness shows. This song’s goofy melody is almost reminiscent of a children’s song. The album didn’t sell much, was poorly reviewed and it’s gone down in history as a failure and a sign of artistic decline. Though it’s not up there with Dark Horse or All Things Must Pass, it’s far from a bad album. Admittedly, it lacks depth and thoughtfulness, which we do expect from The Deep Thinking One, but the tossed-off quality is actually rather charming, and there are several memorable tunes to be had.

Give Peace A Chance

If by chance you weren’t satisfied with yesterday’s dose of Beatle-y inspiration, here’s something in a similar vein but without those pesky allusions to god. John’s message is even easier to absorb that George’s. Some people would say that Lennon’s starry-eyed anthems about peace and love are naive. It was partly in response to the idealism of the peace and love movement that Peter Tosh wrote “We don’t want no peace, until we get equal rights and justice.” Peter Tosh had a point, but John Lennon’s point was equally valid. The best slogans are the easiest to remember, and once qualifiers are added, the original point gets lost. Lennon wasn’t dumb enough to think he could engender peace on earth – he was protesting the war in Vietnam. Harrison didn’t expect his sweet lord to grant him peace on earth either – he was talking about spiritual peace. These songs aren’t offering political solutions. They are personal guides, inviting every listener to pursue his or her own path towards peace. And added up, all those souls that were guided by George and John’s songs did move towards making changes for the better, worldwide.

Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth)

It’s 10 days since the secular new year, three days since Ethiopian Orthodox new year, four days to Eastern Orthodox and thirteen until Chinese. We’re stranded between years now, January a purgatory no-man’s land. This should be the time to meditate on the future, prepare your resolutions and absolve the past. For those of us with a hapless desire to do better spiritually but no idea how to go about it, I propose taking the simple words of George Harrison as our New Year’s prayer. Harrison was one of the few entertainers able to combine his faith and his music in a graceful way. Perhaps because he was one of those strong souls who could embrace religion without losing his identity, he was also able to express his beliefs in a non-didactic, appealing manner. He tried to share his faith with his fans, and no doubt helped many towards a more enlightened life, and he taught by example. His life wasn’t always perfect – his first marriage failed dramatically, he smoked and drank too much, he could sometimes be a jerk – but he tried to lead a good life and it showed in his work. He probably wouldn’t mind if some of us took his song as our own little mantra to take us into another year.

Give me love
Give me love
Give me peace on earth
Give me light
Give me life
Keep me free from birth
Give me hope
Help me cope, with this heavy load
Trying to, touch and reach you with,
Heart and soul

Om m m m m m m m m m m m m m
M m m my lord . . .

Please take hold of my hand, that
I might understand you