"Dark Horse" is a song by English rock musician George Harrison and the title track to his 1974 solo album on Apple Records. The song was the album's lead single in North America, becoming a top-20 hit in the United States, but it was Harrison's first single not to chart in Britain when issued there in February 1975. The term "dark horse" had long been applied to Harrison due to his unexpected emergence as the most accomplished solo artist of the four former Beatles following the band's break-up in 1970. In the song, however, he said he used the phrase in reference to gossip about someone who carries out clandestine sexual relationships. Commentators interpret the lyrics as a rebuttal to several possible detractors: Harrison's first wife, Pattie Boyd; reviewers who criticised the spiritual content of his 1973 album Living in the Material World; and his former bandmates John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Harrison named his Dark Horse record label after the song, and his 1974 North American tour with Ravi Shankar came to be known as the Dark Horse Tour.
Harrison taped an early version of "Dark Horse" in November 1973, intending to finish this recording for the album. The officially released version was recorded live on a sound stage in Los Angeles during rehearsals for his 1974 concerts, at a time when Harrison's exhaustion through overwork contributed to him contracting laryngitis and losing his voice. His hoarse singing similarly marred the ensuing tour – the first in the US by a member of the Beatles since 1966 – leading to a critical backlash that was reflected in contemporaneous reviews of Dark Horse. Some music critics have since recognised the song as one of Harrison's best post-Beatles compositions and believe that the single would have achieved greater success with a cleaner vocal performance. The recording features a musical arrangement incorporating aspects of folk and jazz, and includes contributions from musicians such as Tom Scott, Jim Horn, Billy Preston, Willie Weeks and Andy Newmark.
Harrison played "Dark Horse" throughout the 1974 tour and his 1991 Japanese tour with Eric Clapton. A live version appears on his 1992 album Live in Japan. Recordings also exist of Harrison performing the song during radio and television appearances in the 1970s, although none are available on official releases. The studio recording was included on the 1976 compilation The Best of George Harrison. The 2014 Apple Years reissue of Dark Horse includes an acoustic demo of the song, which Harrison recorded in 1974 before the onset of laryngitis.
Background and inspiration George Harrison wrote "Dark Horse" in 1973, having emerged as the unexpected front-runner, or dark horse, among the former members of the Beatles.Huntley, pp. 105–06. His ascendancy had begun before the group's break-up in 1970, with his two song contributions to their 1969 album Abbey Road.Ingham, p. 126. Although his 1973 album Living in the Material World had divided music critics due to its overt religiosity,Frontani, pp. 159, 267. he was still widely viewed as the most accomplished solo artist of the four former bandmates.Schaffner, pp. 159, 160.Rodriguez, p. 159. Harrison said the term "dark horse" was an accurate description for him as "The one nobody's bothered to put any money on [to win]. That's me I guess."
In a 1974 BBC Radio 1 interview with Alan Freeman, Harrison recalled starting to write the song at five o'clock one morning as he was on his way to bed. Harrison said he approached the title phrase with the meaning he knew from growing up in LiverpoolHunt, p. 103. – where a dark horse was someone who carries out clandestine sexual relationships.Pieper, p. 111. In the same interview, he compared his personal life to the radio drama Mrs Dale's Diary but added that he did not need to read gossip published in magazines such as Rolling Stone and Woman's Own, written by people who "think they know something" about him, when he was fully aware of his transgressions. In that context, he summed up the song's message as "I'll admit my sins or failings, as long as you all admit to yours too."
Biographer Elliot Huntley describes "Dark Horse" as a song that addresses "people's perceptions" of Harrison. His marriage to Pattie Boyd had become the source of rumour and speculation since late 1973.Harry, p. 394. In November, Faces guitarist Ron Wood told the press that he and Boyd were having an affair, which Harrison dismissed in a statement the next day,Badman, p. 113.Harry, pp. 75, 394. and Harrison conducted an affair with Wood's wife.Doggett, pp. 208–09. Harrison later described his behaviour during their final years together as "the naughty period, 1973−74".Tillery, p. 116.George Harrison, p. 274. In addition, Harrison was reportedly stung by the criticism of the overt Vaishnava Hindu spirituality in his music.David Cavanagh, "George Harrison: The Dark Horse", Uncut, August 2008, pp. 36–48.Inglis, p. 43. His purchase of Bhaktivedanta Manor in early 1973, as a UK headquarters for the Hare Krishna movement,Clayson, p. 306. led to ridicule in the British press.Greene, p. 196.The Editors of Rolling Stone, p. 227. In his 1974 Dark Horse Radio Special interview, recorded with Nicky Horne of Capital Radio, Harrison dismissed his reputation as the "weird mystical ex-Beatle, the gentle giant of pop" as media misrepresentation.Harry, p. 145. Theologian Dale Allison writes that Harrison's comments on "Dark Horse" in his 1980 autobiography, I, Me, Mine, are as "obscure" as the song's lyrics. He adds that the lyrics lack religious imagery, and suggest instead either a song to Boyd about adultery or a message to detractors regarding his public image.Allison, p. 139.
Composition Music "Dark Horse" is in time throughout."Dark Horse", in George Harrison Dark Horse: Sheet Music for Piano, Vocal & Guitar, Charles Hansen (New York, NY, 1974). The composition consists of three verses and choruses, with a chord-based guitar riff introducing each verse, and a repeated chorus to end the song.George Harrison, pp. 289–91. Its musical key is B major in the verses, while the chords over the choruses suggest both G major and A major. The verses use seventh chords throughout. In musicologist Thomas MacFarlane's view, a forward motion results from the tension caused by the melody's use of these three key areas, a quality that he says masks the composition's essentially simple structure.
Harrison plays the song with a capo on the seventh fret of his guitar, a common device in his songwriting since the Beatles' "If I Needed Someone" and "Here Comes the Sun".MacFarlane, p. 92.David Simons, "The Unsung Beatle: George Harrison's behind-the-scenes contributions to the world's greatest band", Acoustic Guitar, February 2003 (archived version retrieved 27 October 2016). The melody is thereby transposed so that the guitar riff is played over A7 and E7 chords. According to MacFarlane, the composition is an example of Harrison fully embracing roots influences, while the musical arrangement on the released recording incorporates aspects of folk and jazz in a fusion similar to Joni Mitchell's work.
Lyrical interpretation Authors Simon Leng and Ian Inglis each view "Dark Horse" as a possible rebuttal to critics of Living in the Material World.Leng, p. 154. Inglis also interprets it as Harrison's message of defiance to Boyd,Inglis, p. 47. as do music journalists Nick Hasted and Lindsay Planer.Nick Hasted, "George Solo: Dark Horse", Uncut Ultimate Music Guide: George Harrison, TI Media (London, 2018), pp. 70–71.Lindsay Planer, "George Harrison 'Dark Horse'", AllMusic (retrieved 5 December 2014). In Leng's description, "Dark Horse" shows its composer addressing his critics by creating a "new persona". "This 'George' is a man one step ahead of his detractors," Leng continues, "triumphing with quicker feet and better gags. Commentators try to pin his character down at peril, for he is likely to change and take the least expected course."Leng, pp. 154−55. In the song's choruses, Harrison declares himself "a dark horse" on "a dark race course", "a blue moon", and a "cool jerk" who is "Looking for the source".George Harrison, p. 290. Leng paraphrases this self-depiction as meaning "a loner" and "an elusive, cheeky maverick".Leng, p. 193.
While describing the lyrics as "smarmy, if not somewhat defensive", Planer identifies the song's opening verse as "seem[ing] to address the situation" between Harrison and Boyd, with lines such as "You thought that you knew where I was and when / Baby, looks like you've been fooling you again". Planer states that the "searing" verse-two lines "You thought you had got me in your grip / Baby, looks like you was not so smart" are a further example of this interpretation.
Like Planer, Inglis recognises Harrison's former bandmates John Lennon and Paul McCartney as another possible target of his scorn. Inglis comments that in the final verse, Harrison is making it clear to those who have underestimated him in the past that his abilities are not "recent acquisitions":
Leng says that this Harrison "character" returns in his 1976 composition "This Song", written as a light-hearted reflection on his "travails in court" during the "My Sweet Lord" plagiarism case.
Recording
1973 basic track
Harrison first recorded "Dark Horse" at his Friar Park studio, FPSHOT, in Oxfordshire, in November 1973.Spizer, pp. 259, 264. The sessions that month, which included contributions from Ringo Starr, Jim Keltner, Klaus Voormann and Gary Wright,Kahn, p. 186. marked the start of recording for his Dark Horse album.Spizer, p. 264. This early version is slower in tempo and more relaxed than the official release.Madinger & Easter, p. 444.
In early 1974, Harrison included the song, along with rough mixes of "Ding Dong, Ding Dong" and recordings by Splinter and Ravi Shankar, on a tape he compiled for David Geffen, the head of Asylum Records in Los Angeles.Leng, pp. 142 fn, 153–55. At the time, with the Beatles' Apple record label being wound down,Woffinden, p. 74. Harrison was looking for a way to release these projects.Clayson, pp. 345–46. "Dark Horse" provided the name for the record label he subsequently founded, Dark Horse Records, when he agreed terms in May for worldwide distribution through A&M Records.Badman, p. 125. Shankar and Splinter were the first acts signed to the label.Harry, p. 147.Rodriguez, p. 197. Harrison then announced that he would be touring North America in November and December.Doggett, p. 224. Intended to promote Dark Horse Records,Frontani, p. 159. the tour featured Shankar as co-headlinerSchaffner, p. 176. and it was the first US tour by a member of the Beatles since 1966.Ingham, p. 128.
Official version By October, when he arrived in Los Angeles to prepare for the tour, a combination of Harrison's business commitments, his dedication to projects by Shankar and Splinter, and a lifestyle that Leng terms "one drink too many, too frequently"Leng, p. 148. meant that production on Dark Horse was severely behind schedule.Madinger & Easter, p. 442.The Editors of Rolling Stone, p. 44. His personal life continued to be the source of public intrigue.Andrew Bailey (with David Hamilton), "George Harrison: The Niceman Cometh", Rolling Stone, 21 November 1974; available at Rock's Backpages (subscription required). Boyd left Harrison for his friend Eric Clapton in JulyTillery, p. 94. and he holidayed with model Kathy Simmons the following month;Badman, p. 129.Harry, p. 342. in addition, rumours had reached the US about Harrison having an affair with Starr's wife, Maureen Starkey. Along with speculation about the Beatles, Harrison's marriage was among the issues raised by reporters at his pre-tour press conference in Los Angeles,Schaffner, pp. 176–77.Clayson, pp. 328–29. on 23 October.Kahn, p. 183. Harrison stated that his new album was "like Peyton Place" and would reveal all the details regarding his private life.MacFarlane, p. 90.