George Harrison

The Best Of George Harrison

The rating is for the CD not for the life of George Harrison

Review Score:

(8/10)
George Harrison died today and of course I have been listening to this CD and other albums this evening. Other reviewers have detailed the problems with this particular "Best of" collection, which have to do with contractual obligations and record company dealings, but certainly today the irony of this album is stronger than ever. The first "side" are Harrison's most successful songs from the days of the Beatles, with "Something," "Here Comes the Sun" and "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" being the most memorable. If you were going to select only seven songs from that period, there would be something close to consensus that these songs would be the seven. The problem with the second "side," of course, is that it could only include what Harrison had done in his solo career up to 1976. So why any George Harrison collection would have to include "My Sweet Lord," "Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth)" and "Bangladesh," there are a lot of later songs that we would rather have rather than the other three that are included. Again, the record companies will come into play and as soon as possible I am sure we will see a new "Greatest Hits" collection honoring the memory of the "Quiet" Beatle. The idea that Harrison was not as good a song-writer as Lennon and/or McCartney was always a bum rap because during the Sixties unless you were Bob Dylan there was nobody on that same plateau. Still, his body of work as a musician is eminently praiseworthy. Besides, Harrison had an impact on modern culture that went well beyond the Beatles, simply because every Band-Aid or concert to raise money for those in need can be traced right back to the Concert for Bangladesh organized by Harrison. That is the album I would really like to be listening to tonight. He was a kindly soul and the material world is a better place for him having lived in it.

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