George Harrison (1943–2001) was an English rock and pop guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He was the lead guitarist and the youngest member of the Beatles.
Per Beatles’ producer George Martin, Harrison was “the Beatles’ Third Man, always there yet somehow elusive.” This “Quiet Beatle” also launched the Indian instrument sitar to British pop music.
Harrison was a devotee of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s tradition of transcendental meditation. His interest in India most manifested in his solo career after the Beatles’ breakup in 1970.
Born in Wavertree, Liverpool, Harrison met Paul McCartney on a bus to school, and the duo became close friends. When McCartney linked up with John Lennon in 1957, they created the Quarrymen skiffle group with Harrison. The Quarrymen quickly evolved into the Beatles.
The Beatles played at various clubs around England and in Hamburg, Germany. They then returned to England and played at Liverpool’s Cavern Club, where businessman Brian Epstein discovered them. After signing up as their manager, Epstein signed the Beatles with EMI records in 1962 and had drummer Pete Best replaced by Ringo Starr. By 1963, the Beatles were the most famous rock and roll band in England. The following year, they took America by storm with their appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. ‘Beatlemania’ swept across Europe and America.; the Beatles’ every movement was sure to be accompanied by crowds of screaming young girls and enthusiastic admirers.
Following the breakup of the Beatles in 1970, Harrison engaged in a solo career that produced his top-of-the-charts song “My Sweet Lord” (1970; from the album All Things Must Pass.) In 1971, he organized benefit concerts for the people of Bangladesh in collaboration with his sitar teacher Ravi Shankar. His 1974 recording, Dark Horse, was a smash hit, but subsequent solo recordings were not commercially successful, except for Cloud Nine (1989.)
In 1988–90, Harrison enjoyed new success with the Traveling Wilburys, an ad hoc “supergroup” that assembled such music stalwarts as Jeff Lynne, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, and Roy Orbison.
Harrison published an autobiography, I Me Mine, in 1982.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by George Harrison
My life belongs the Lord Krishna now. I’m just the servant of Krishna. I’ve never been so humble in all my life, and I feel great.
—George Harrison
From the Hindu perspective, each soul is divine. All religions are branches of one big tree. It doesn’t matter what you call Him just as long as you call. Just as cinematic images appear to be real but are only combinations of light and shade, so is the universal variety a delusion. The planetary spheres, with their countless forms of life, are naught but figures in a cosmic motion picture. One’s values are profoundly changed when he is finally convinced that creation is only a vast motion picture and that not in, but beyond, lays his own ultimate reality.
—George Harrison
I still practice Transcendental Meditation and I think it’s great. Marharishi only ever did good for us, and although I have not been with him physically, I never left him.
—George Harrison
Topics: Meditation
All the world is birthday cake, so take a piece, but not too much.
—George Harrison
Topics: Birthdays
I’ve heard that while the show was on there were no reported crimes, or very few. When The Beatles were on Ed Sullivan, even the criminals had a rest for ten minutes.
—George Harrison
Gossip is the Devil’s radio.
—George Harrison
Topics: Gossip
Life flows on within you and without you.
—George Harrison
Topics: Life and Living
The Beatles exist apart from my Self. I am not really Beatle George. Beatle George is like a suit or shirt that I once wore on occasion and until the end of my life people may see that shirt and mistake it for me.
—George Harrison
Topics: Identity
Heaven and hell is right now … You make it heaven or you make it hell by your actions.
—George Harrison
Topics: Self-reliance
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