My favorite Beatle changed over time, and George was the one that I went for first. His dreamy meditations like "Within You Without You" really captured me. Next was John, then Paul, and finally Ringo when I realized what a genius drummer he was. Anyway, it is nice to have a new biography of George Harrison, in many ways the most enigmatic Beatle.
The paradoxes of George Harrison’s career can perplex even the most casual Beatles fans. Taken together the contradictions are as much a part of the band’s legend as John Lennon’s solipsism or Paul McCartney’s eagerness to please. Here, after all, was a global pop star who played lead guitar in the most influential group in history and yet was regarded as its invisible man. He was a paid-up antimaterialist whose first significant Beatles song, “Taxman,” was a scarifying assault on the U.K. tax regime, and a sharp-eyed scourge of selfishness (see his final contribution to the Beatles’ oeuvre, “I Me Mine”) whose emotional life seems to have been a gargantuan exercise in having your cake and eating it. Being in the Fab Four might have given Harrison (1943-2001) fame, wealth and boundless opportunity, but as Philip Norman shows in this absorbing biography, the burden it placed on his far-from-resilient shoulders stayed with him for the rest of his life.
Some of the best Beatles songs came from his imagination such as "Taxman," that kicked off one of their finest albums, Revolver:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYCntCKHy6I
"Something," Frank Sinatra's favorite Beatles song:
"Love You To," another great track from Revolver, showing the Indian music influence:
And finally, "Within You Without You"
Wait, let's have one more, from the Traveling Wilburys:
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