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My iPod #45: George Harrison – Any Road

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Another George Harrison song.

‘Any Road’ was released on George Harrison’s posthumous album ‘Brainwashed’ almost a year after his death from cancer.

It was written during the making of the video for his song ‘This Is Love‘ from ‘Cloud Nine’ in 1988, and continued to work on songs over the next decade.

On 30 December 1999, Harrison and his wife were attacked in their home. Harrison had to be hospitalized after being stabbed multiple times, and underwent treatment for his first bout of cancer in 2001. It was rough times for him. The cancer in his liver then spread to his brain, and after learning that it would be fatal he dedicated more time towards completing the album with his son Dhani and Jeff Lynne of Electric Light Orchestra.

He passed away whilst the album was still being made, but had left enough information for Jeff and Dhani to finish the job.

However bleak the history behind the album may seem, ‘Any Road’ provides a shining light in the tunnel. After a three second introduction by George, (Give me, uh, plenty of that guitar), the song bursts into life with a joyful ukelele and slide guitar licks that pop up here and there after the chorus.

The song is basically Harrison telling us his life story, the things he’s witnessed before him, places he’s been to and how he got there, and of course having such a life to the full like Harrison did you would have no idea whether you were coming or going. It has an ‘Amazing Grace’ type of message, I once was lost but now am found kind of thing, but it’s no preachy thing. In fact, you can tell that Harrison wanted to make this a fun song whilst maintaining a serious and reflective message. Listen to those ‘Arribas’ during the last minute or so, it’s quite heartwarming once you listen to it all.

Rest in peace George Harrison, you were a cool guy.

Until next time.

Jamie.

My iPod #44: Pink Floyd – Any Colour You Like

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In 2009, I became a Pink Floyd fan.

I don’t particularly know why or how. As a child I saw the video for ‘Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)’ on the TV. The band wasn’t in it, and it only showed clips of children running around in a playground interspersed with the walking hammers that are seen in the film. Of course I had no idea what I had just witnessed, and was left quite confused by the whole thing.

I watched the movie for ‘The Wall’ when I was 13, and I guess I was just hooked from then. Bob Geldof was actually a good actor, the concept behind the album was enthralling and obviously the music played a big part. I ended up getting the double album for my fourteenth birthday.

‘The Wall’ is up there for being one of Pink Floyd’s most popular albums. However, ‘The Dark Side of the Moon’ is the one that most people agree on for being their finest piece of work and one of the greatest albums ever.

‘Any Colour You Like’ starts rather abruptly; the song before it named ‘Us and Them’ segues right into it. There are no lyrics as it is an instrumental, but it’s really funky and upbeat. David Gilmour, Nick Mason, and Richard Wright wrote the song, making it one out of three tracks that Waters did not contribute on.

The first minute or so is a synthesizer played by Wright, panning and echoing from one channel to the other. That then segues into a guitar solo, and the whole band joins in with additional scat singing.

I would think that most people would skip this song, but please reconsider. If you have this album, where the songs segue into each other (except one time), and you don’t have this song… Well then, that just messes everything up doesn’t it? It’s also very important in the album’s overall concept. Pink Floyd had a thing for concept albums.

Until next time.

Jamie.