George Harrison 1968

George Harrison 1968, hand-drawn portrait of himself in July, 1968 at a recording session for the White Album at Abbey Road Studios, age 25.

Harrison was an English musician, singer-songwriter, and music and film producer who achieved international fame as the lead guitarist of the Beatles.
Although the majority of the band’s songs were written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, most Beatles albums from 1965 forward contained at least two Harrison compositions. His songs for the group included “Taxman”, “Within You Without You”, “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”, “Here Comes the Sun” and “Something”.

“The Beatles”, also known as the “White Album”, is the ninth studio album and only double album by the band, released on November 22, 1968.
Its plain white sleeve has no graphics or text other than the band’s name embossed, which was intended as a direct contrast to the vivid cover artwork of the band’s previous LP Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Most of the songs for the album were written during a Transcendental Meditation course attended by the band with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in Rishikesh, India, between February and April 1968.

“While My Guitar Gently Weeps” was written by Harrison during a visit he made to his parents’ home in Cheshire. He first recorded the song as a solo performance, on acoustic guitar, on July 25th 1968 – a version that remained unreleased until Anthology 3. Harrison invited his friend Eric Clapton to come and play on it, doing the solo work; he gave Harrison the guitar he used, which Harrison later named “Lucy”.

“Hey Jude” was recorded at the end of July 1968 during the sessions for The Beatles but was issued separately as a single nearly three months before the album’s release. The B-side, “Revolution”, was a different version of the album’s “Revolution 1”. Instead, the single featured a new, faster version, with heavily distorted guitar and an electric piano solo from Nicky Hopkins. This was the first release on Apple Records and ultimately the band’s most successful single in the US.

“Julia” was the last track to be recorded for the album and features Lennon on solo acoustic guitar which he played in a style similar to McCartney’s on “Blackbird”. This is the only Beatles song on which Lennon performs alone and it was a tribute to his mother Julia Lennon, who was killed in 1958 in a road accident while Lennon was only seventeen.

In June, 1997 Harrison was diagnosed with throat cancer and was treated. In May 2001, it was revealed that Harrison had undergone an operation to remove a cancerous growth from one of his lungs, by November it had spread to his brain.

On November 29, 2001, Harrison died at Paul McCartney’s property on Heather Road in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, age 58.

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