George Harrison is the eighth studio album by the English rock musician George Harrison, released on 14 February 1979. It was written and recorded through much of 1978, a period of domestic contentment for Harrison, during which he married Olivia Arias and became a father to son Dhani. Harrison wrote several of the songs in Hawaii, while the track "Faster" reflected his year away from music-making, when he and Arias attended many of the races in the 1977 Formula One season. The album also includes the hit single "Blow Away" and "Not Guilty", a song that Harrison originally recorded with the Beatles in 1968.
Harrison co-produced the album with Russ Titelman. The contributing musicians include Steve Winwood, Neil Larsen, Willie Weeks and Andy Newmark, with Eric Clapton and Gary Wright making guest appearances. The recording sessions took place at Harrison's FPSHOT studio in Oxfordshire.
Issued on Dark Horse Records, George Harrison was well-received by music critics on release. Commentators regularly cite it among Harrison's best works after his 1970 triple album All Things Must Pass. The album was remastered in 2004 as part of Harrison's Dark Horse Years 1976–1992 reissues.
Background In February 1977, George Harrison completed the promotion for Thirty Three & ⅓,Madinger & Easter, p. 454. his 1976 debut on his Dark Horse record label and an album that was widely viewed as a return to form after the critical disappointments of Dark Horse and Extra Texture.Rodriguez, p. 65. Rather than follow up on this success, Harrison took a sabbatical, which he described as "what the English call 'skyving'".Snow, p. 64. For much of the year, he travelled with his girlfriend, Olivia Arias,Huntley, p. 153. and became a regular presence at motor races in the Formula 1 World Championship.Badman, p. 201.Harrison, pp. 72, 404. As a rare artistic project during that time,MacFarlane, p. 112. Harrison assisted comedian Eric Idle in developing his Beatles satire, the Rutles, into the 1978 TV film All You Need Is Cash.Doggett, pp. 243–44. After a chance meeting with representatives from Genesis Publications at a hotel near Heathrow Airport in July 1977,Harrison, p. 11. he also began compiling his song manuscripts for a limited edition leather-bound book, leading to his 1980 autobiography I, Me, Mine.Clayson, pp. 382–83.
Before resuming songwriting for the new album, Harrison had not written a song since 1976.Rodriguez, p. 175. He said he was compelled to return to making music to satisfy requests from his friends in the Formula 1 community.Kahn, p. 269.Harry, p. 188. He also felt a sense of duty towards Warner Bros. Records, the company that had taken up the distribution of Dark Horse in 1976, when A&M Records chose to offload the label,MacFarlane, p. 115. particularly as the Warner's executives had not pressured him for a new album throughout 1977.Kahn, pp. 269–70.
Harrison said the project was informed by his contentment with how his life had progressed since Thirty Three & ⅓.MacFarlane, pp. 114–15. In June 1977, he was granted a divorce from Pattie Boyd, who had left him for his friend Eric Clapton in 1974.Tillery, pp. 94, 163. Boyd's solicitor, a partner at the London firm Theodore Goddard, later remarked on the sensitivity shown by each party towards the other, and how rare this was in his experience of high-stakes divorces. Among other "profound changes" that influenced the album's creation, according to author Ian Inglis, Harrison became a father for the first time when Arias gave birth to their son, Dhani, in August 1978, three months after the death of his father, Harry Harrison.Inglis, p. 66.
Songs
Harrison began writing "Love Comes to Everyone" in September 1977. It was one of several new compositions that reflected his contentment with Arias and with life generally.Eduardo Rivadavia, "35 Years Ago: George Harrison Releases Self-Titled Album" , Ultimate Classic Rock, 20 February 2014 (retrieved 14 May 2021). Author Simon Leng comments that while familiar Harrison lyrical references to Krishna and Hindu spirituality appear to be absent on George Harrison, these themes are "rife" but stated subtly; he adds, "Hence, the 'love' that comes to everyone ... is, of course, God's."Leng, p. 202. "Blow Away" was initially inspired by rain damage to a roof at Harrison's Friar Park estate in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire. He turned the experience into one of positive thinking, reasoning that if he sought to be optimistic by expressing love, the problem would diminish in importance. He later said that he wrote "Blow Away" as a song that Niki Lauda, Jody Scheckter, Emerson Fittipaldi and others in the F1 "gang" might enjoy.Harrison, p. 404. He also wrote "Faster" in late 1977, drawing inspiration from Lauda's successful comeback from a near-fatal crash at the Nürburgring the previous year.Clayson, pp. 366–67. The album credits listed former driver Jackie Stewart, whose autobiography was titled Faster, as the other source of inspiration.Rodriguez, p. 177.Allison, pp. 102, 141.
Harrison listened to his 1970 triple album All Things Must Pass for inspiration.Huntley, p. 162.Badman, p. 221. He wrote "If You Believe", incorporating musical and lyrical elements familiar from All Things Must Pass,Leng, p. 209. with American musician Gary Wright on New Year's Day 1978 at Friar Park.Harrison, p. 384. Harrison then met with Warner's staff producers Lenny Waronker, Russ Titelman and Ted Templeman in Los Angeles to discuss the new album and play them demos of his latest songs.Harry, p. 347.Kahn, p. 270. He recalled that Templeman's appreciation of his 1971 B-side "Deep Blue" inspired him to begin writing what became "Soft-Hearted Hana".Harrison, p. 376.
Harrison wrote or finished writing the album's songs while holidaying on the Hawaiian island of Maui in February 1978, soon after he and Arias learned of Arias's pregnancy.Snow, p. 58. The holiday was a highly creative time for HarrisonRodriguez, p. 365. and influenced the mood of the album.Huntley, p. 161. He wrote "Dark Sweet Lady" there as a Spanish-style love song for Arias. "Your Love Is Forever" started as a guitar instrumental to which Harrison added lyricsMacFarlane, p. 118. that, furthering a common trait in his songwriting, expressed love to both a woman and his deity.Allison, pp. 127, 160.
In addition to revisiting "Not Guilty", a song he had first recorded with the Beatles in 1968,Hertsgaard, pp. 253, 273. Harrison wrote "Here Comes the Moon" as a lyrical successor to his 1969 Abbey Road composition "Here Comes the Sun". As with "Here Comes the Moon", his inspiration for the lyrics to "Soft-Hearted Hana" was a psychedelic mushroom experience he had on Maui.Tillery, p. 121. The song's title references the Tin Pan Alley standard "Hard Hearted Hannah"Inglis, p. 68. and the town of Hana on Maui.Harry, p. 225. "Soft Touch" was a song that Harrison started writing in March 1976,Madinger & Easter, p. 453. while holidaying with Arias in the Virgin Islands.Allison, p. 155. Harrison said the melody originated from him playing the horn line from the All Things Must Pass track "Run of the Mill" on acoustic guitar, after which he sought to convey the atmosphere around him: "the wind, the cool breeze blowing, the palm trees, the new moon rising".Harrison, p. 366.
Recording
Harrison decided to work with Titelman as his co-producer on George Harrison. The project marked the first time that Harrison had shared the producer's role on one of his albums since working with Phil Spector in the early 1970s.Woffinden, p. 106. While in Los Angeles in mid March, Harrison filmed his role as the narrator in Ringo Starr's TV special Ringo,Madinger & Easter, pp. 457, 515. a modern-day adaptation of Mark Twain's The Prince and the Pauper. He and Arias returned to England on 4 AprilHarry, pp. 81–82. and recording for the album began at Harrison's home studio, FPSHOT,MacFarlane, pp. 115–16. later that month.Huntley, pp. 156, 164.Kahn, p. 268. Although the album credits list only FPSHOT, Titelman has said that they first recorded "Dark Sweet Lady" at Amigos Studios in Los Angeles.Richard Havers, "Exploring the Expert Popcraft of George Harrison's Self-Titled Album", uDiscoverMusic, 17 March 2021 (retrieved 15 May 2021). In a 1996 interview, Titelman recalled that he initially had to get past his awe of Harrison, as an ex-Beatle, and that while making the album he came to appreciate the precision and craft Harrison had applied to the band's music, and the "unique" quality of his guitar styles and sounds. He recognised Harrison's "fluid approach" in the guitar parts on "Dark Sweet Lady", "Love Comes to Everyone" and "Blow Away" as a legacy of his immersion in Indian music.Timothy White, "'Please Don't Wake Me': Producer Russ Titelman Recalls 35 Years in the Service of a California Dream", Billboard, 22 June 1996, p. 48 (retrieved 15 May 2021).
Among the first songs recorded at FPSHOT, on 11 April, was "Flying Hour", although it did not appear on the album.MacFarlane, p. 124. Another outtake was "Circles", a song that Harrison wrote in 1968. The core group of musicians on the album included keyboard player Neil Larsen, who had recently worked on Titelman's production of Rickie Lee Jones' self-titled debut album, and Harrison's rhythm section from his 1974 North American tour, Andy Newmark and Willie Weeks.Leng, pp. 200, 201. Newmark recalled a far "mellower" Harrison in 1978, compared with his demeanour during the sessions for Dark Horse.Greene, p. 228.Leng, p. 200. Steve Winwood also contributed, on keyboards and backing vocals, and Ray Cooper played percussion. Leng says that the participation of these two English musicians reflected the apparent waning of American musical influences on Harrison, as suggested by the minimal presence of horns, previously a staple of the artist's sound since 1970. Special guests at the sessions included Gary Wright (on "If You Believe") and Eric Clapton, who contributed the lead guitar intro to "Love Comes to Everyone".Rodriguez, p. 72. In September, a month after the birth of their son, Harrison and Arias were married in a private ceremony in Henley.Tillery, p. 120.Huntley, pp. 156, 158.
In Leng's description, the album departs further from Harrison's recent works through its preference for both warm acoustic-based guitar arrangements and using electric guitars as "smooth, ringing purveyors of elegance".Leng, pp. 200, 202. In the latter regard, he views the selection of "Love Comes to Everyone" to open the album as a statement declaring: "This is not a rock 'n' roll record."Leng, p. 202. Inglis writes that, furthering the approach introduced on Thirty Three & ⅓, the arrangements convey a "less aggressive, more subtle, musical philosophy that saw music and words as complementary rather than competing ingredients"; he cites "Soft Touch" as especially indicative of this trait.Inglis, pp. 70–71. Harrison augmented the rag-time atmosphere of "Soft-Hearted Hana" with sounds and conversation captured at his local Henley pub, The Row Barge.Womack, p. 292. At the end of the track, the recording was subjected to heavy varispeeding, creating dramatic changes in pitch; Leng views the song as the first example of Harrison evoking Monty Python in his music.Leng, p. 226. He added Formula 1 sounds throughout "Faster"; the track opens with the cars revving up and then starting the race.Clayson, p. 367. String and horn overdubs were added to some of the songs at London's AIR Studios in late 1978.