Tag Archives: george harrison

#1144: George Harrison – Run of the Mill

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Well, it looks like this track right here will be the last one you’ll see on here from George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass album. I know, it’s a real shame, isn’t it? On the contrary, if there was a real-life situation where songs were disappearing from albums and the one left standing was the one you could hear for the rest of your days, I wouldn’t complain about having ‘Run of the Mill’ as the survivor. Ever since hearing it around 2010/11 via an old, old streaming service called We7 that went defunct years ago, the track’s been a strong favourite of mine from the record. It’s that horn melody during the introduction that always stirs something within me initially. And Harrison’s lyrics are also something to ponder on, even though they’re very much himself and his own experiences.

The big experience influencing the song’s words would be the tense time when the Beatles, that band Harrison used to be in, were on the verge of breaking up. Harrison didn’t feel he was being taken seriously as a songwriter by bandmates Paul McCartney and John Lennon, and his relationships with the two were becoming strained. Adding the fact that they were trying to run a business at the same time, which ran itself into the ground quite dramatically, and the whole situation was a sorry state of affairs for everyone involved. ‘Run of the Mill’ contains Harrison’s thoughts on the matter, which basically tell his two bandmates to get their acts together and stop laying their own frustrations out on him without mentioning their names outright.

The performers on this particular track are an all-star cast, featuring the members who would go on to become Derek and the Dominos with Eric Clapton very during the album sessions for All Things… Session musician Jim Price provides the trumpets that play the song’s main instrumental hook. But, apart from George Harrison’s great vocal, my ears also tend to latch onto the bass guitar work of Carl Radle that climb and fall and perform other melodic hooks that interplay with the track’s chord progression. Harrison is also singing “It’s you that decides” and not “The jeweller decides”, which I believed to be the lyric initially. ‘Run of the Mill’ is a song of rumination, but it doesn’t aim to make the listener feel sad or melancholy in any way. You can empathise with Harrison for sure. But I think it’s the warming music against the resigned inspiration behind the lyrics that make the track one of the songwriter’s best.

#847: George Harrison – Miss O’Dell

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Here’s a nice little ditty by George Harrison. ‘Miss O’Dell’ was originally a B-side to ‘Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth)’ when that song was released as the first single from Harrison’s well-anticipated album Living in the Material World in 1973. Years and years later, ‘O’Dell’ was added as a bonus track to the album has part of a whole Harrison catalogue re-release. As a result, hopefully, a few more people know about the existence of this track as opposed to it fading into obscurity as a song that could only be found on vinyl from the ’70s.

I think the notable thing about this track is that in the middle of the second verse, Harrison messes up the lyric and from then on can barely contain his laughter as the song goes on. It’s hard not to smile when you hear his happiness, but sometimes you want to hear what the lines are meant to be. Luckily, there’s an alternative version (below) where Harrison re-recorded the vocal and the laughs are gone. That version doesn’t hit as much, funnily enough.

The track is a dedication to real person Chris O’Dell, a friend of Harrison who worked with pretty much everyone from the Beatles to the Rolling Stones to Bob Dylan during their heydays. Harrison is bored and lonely according to the lyrics and just wants O’Dell to give him a ring and have a chat. That is the core of the track. Quite innocent and warm in its intentions, and the upbeat tone provides the track with a very friendly and welcoming feel. Harrison does give away Paul McCartney’s old childhood phone number in the very last seconds of it though, which adds a cheeky twist to the whole thing. They weren’t on the best of terms at this point in time.

My iPod #464: George Harrison – Got My Mind Set on You

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So one day whilst flicking through the countless music channels on TV, I stumbled across the video for “Got My Mind Set on You” on VH1. The camera shot makes a close up on the artist singing and playing the guitar in an old chair, and the first question I asked myself was “Is that George Harrison?” He sounded like him, and though with a few wrinkles and grown out hair he looked a bit like him too. I don’t know why I questioned it so much. Actually, it’s because it was the first time I’d seen a video of his on television. I do know why. Indeed it was George Harrison who was singing the song, but it’s clearly a stunt double doing the flips and crazy dance moves during the solo.

After taking a few years out of music to pursue other interests during the early 80s, “Got My Mind Set on You” was the first single from Harrison’s album Cloud Nine released in 1987. The track is a cover and was originally written by Rudy Clark and recorded by James Ray in 1962, but George – with the help of Jeff Lynee of ELO – makes the song feel like it’s his own laying a great vocal take in the midst of massive-sounding drums, that iconic slide-guitar, and a dominant presence of saxophones.

Just a note, I listen to the extended version of the song that was released as a bonus track on the 2004 reissue of the album. The song is the same. The instrumental breaks are just a bit longer.

My iPod #430: George Harrison – Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth)

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The first time I heard “Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth)”, or at least bits and pieces of it, was in the song “I’m Just Sitting Here”. That track is from the mash-up album “Everyday Chemistry” which was created by some person who tried to pass it off as an actual album that somehow made it to Earth from a parallel universe where The Beatles didn’t split up. No joke. But the actual product isn’t bad. “I’m Just Sitting Here” is a mix of “Watching the Wheels” by John Lennon with the slide guitars and George Harrison vocal, “Ooooooh my lord” and another Ringo tune. It starts at 29:40 in the link above.

But just those little parts made me want to hear the whole track. Decision well made. “Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth)” starts off what was Harrison’s fourth album (or second if you don’t count the experimental ones before it) with a sole acoustic guitar which then makes way for Harrison’s trademark slide guitar work. After a verse or two of George’s pleas for the Lord to give him love/peace on Earth, the track fully gets under way when the backing piano, and rhythm section come in together adding a bustling groove to the music.

A good song with a positive message, pleasant and lovely track to listen to, made for some easy listening.

My iPod #216: George Harrison – Crackerbox Palace

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2011 marked ten years without George Harrison on this Earth and as a dedication, the BBC showed a new documentary detailing the musician’s life. It is very good, I recommend you see it if you haven’t.

The reason I talk about that is that there were these clips of Harrison, not during his days with The Beatles but what looked like in a time way after, joking around and goofing off with a lot of people in the gardens of his mansion.

What I thought were clips from a never-seen before film of George at his home, turned out to be clips taken from the music video for “Crackerbox Palace”, a song from his fifth solo album “Thirty-Three & 1/3“.

It took me a long time to find out where those video clips were from. Originally I saw the documentary in 2011, but didn’t see the “Palace” video until the summer of last year. I don’t know.

With a thunderous drum intro, the song suddenly starts with a Calypso-Carribean groove accompanied with a joyful slide guitar and fitful drums. Most of what you hear in the lyrics are based on actual events too, which may or may not be interesting to you.

Only feelings of happiness and loving life arise when I hear this song, and those are further increased when I see the video for it featuring cameos from Eric Idle, Neil Innes, and his wife who he had not yet married at that point.

All in all, fun tune.