By Ahmet Abdulaziz….
I always say like many others, I had never taken George Harrison seriously, when The Beatles were reigning the world of music, way back during 1960s. His overall appearance always kept him behind John and Paul, who were always at the forefront.
But I still did not take him seriously even after the band had broken up, and all of them had gone their separate ways. During the 1970s I had heard about the “Concert for Bangladesh“, which George had organised, but I never got a chance to listen and watch the video of the event, released by UNICEF.
The years passed too quickly, when one day during 1990s, I came across the video about the “Concert for Bangladesh”. While watching that particular video, I remember there were two singers who caught my instant attention. The first one of course was George Harrison and the other one was Leon Russell. I hope one day I will write about Leon too. But it was “Still My Guitar Gently Weeps“, that I got hooked on instantly.and it stays with me!
That was early 1990s and still after some 30 years, I love this particular song. There is something very attractive in the tune and the musical instrumentation, along with the lyrics, that keep me glued to this particular video. That evidences is the class of George Harrison that comes through to me.
Yes the “Shy Beatle” was in fact a song writer and musician of very high calibre. There is no doubt that he was one of the forces behind all the songs produced by the Beatles, but for sure, both John Lennon and Paul McCartney, placed him a step behind them. There may be two valid reasons for that too. First, being the youngest Beatle, the older ones were always trying to safeguard George. Secondly, both John and Paul were more confident to face and amuse the public, so they always preferred to remain at the forefront.
What ever the reason may be but for sure, in the post Beatles period it provided George Harrison the opportunity to come out openly, letting the world recognise his real talent, and accept him as a musician of high calibre. This particular song though was written by him when the group was intact and was released in the Beatles’ album, it became more popular during the post Beatles’ days.
I will not be doing justice if I do not mention the part played by Eric Clapton in this song. The last part of the song was ruled by him. A wonderful piece of guitar led music, adds a real beauty to the song. Eric though was the main reason behind separation of George from Patti Boyd, but remained his closest friend too.
George Harrison died of Throat Cancer on 29th November 2001. He was 58. Almost 21 years have passed, yet I am sure this one song has still kept him alive for his fans and I am one.
