Today, guitars all over the world are gently weeping to mark the passing of George Harrison 10 years ago today from cancer.
George (25 February 1943 – 29 November 2001) is certainly the most underrated Beatle, and was unique in the group in that his musical talents and abilities were at their height and still improving at the time when the Beatles broke up, whereas the other members had peaked well before then (although I'm sure I'll trigger a lot of debate and possibly some hate for that).
Most people focus their attention on debating whether Paul or John was the better singer/songwriter and who made who better. George tends to get left out of that conversation simply because his body of work is much smaller. He was, after all, "the quiet Beatle". But whenever I ask people what their favorite Beatles song is, the most common response that I get is "Here Comes the Sun", which is, of course, a George Harrison song. Now, the collection of people that I've talked to hardly qualifies as a statistically sound sample, but honestly, who can argue with "Here Comes the Sun"?
Harrison also wrote several other "Best of the Beatles"-caliber songs:
- "While My Guitar Gently Weeps"
- "Here Comes the Sun"
- "Blue Jay Way"
- "If I Needed Someone"
- "Within You, Without You"
- "I, Me, Mine"
- "Something"
George, we miss you.
"If I had some more time to spend,
then I guess I'd be with you my friend..."
- "If I Needed Someone" (George Harrison, 1965)