"So Sad" is a song by the English rock musician George Harrison that was released on his 1974 album Dark Horse. Harrison originally recorded the song for his previous album, Living in the Material World, before giving it to Alvin Lee, the guitarist and singer with Ten Years After. Lee recorded it – as "So Sad (No Love of His Own)" – with gospel singer Mylon LeFevre for their 1973 album On the Road to Freedom. The latter recording includes contributions from Harrison and marked the first of several collaborations between him and Lee.
Harrison began writing "So Sad" in New York in 1972 about the failure of his first marriage, to Pattie Boyd. The lyrics present a stark winter imagery that contrasts with the springtime optimism of his Beatles composition "Here Comes the Sun". Harrison recorded his version of the song during a period of romantic intrigue surrounding his marriage and those of fellow musicians Ron Wood and Ringo Starr. The main recording session took place at Harrison and Boyd's home, Friar Park, in November 1973, eight months before she left him for Eric Clapton. Aside from Harrison's extensive contributions on vocals, guitars and keyboards, the musicians on the recording include Starr, Nicky Hopkins and Jim Keltner.
Several reviewers have highlighted "So Sad" as a standout track on the otherwise disappointing Dark Horse album. While commenting on its bleak depiction of lost love, author Simon Leng describes the song as "the temporary death of [Harrison's] Krishna dream", reflecting the singer's surrender to human sorrow over his spiritual resolve.
Background and inspiration
In his 1980 autobiography, I, Me, Mine, George Harrison recalls that he started writing "So Sad" in 1972 while in New York. He reproduces his original lyrics in the book, written on stationery from the Park Lane Hotel in Manhattan.Harrison, pp. 240, 242. Harrison identifies this period as when he was breaking up with his first wife, Pattie Boyd,Harrison, p. 240. although the couple did not formally separate until July 1974, when Boyd left him for Eric Clapton.Tillery, p. 94.
Al Aronowitz, a New York-based journalist and a friend of the Harrisons, later expressed his surprise at the failure of their marriage, saying: "I never saw the breakup coming … around them everything seemed magical."Greene, p. 198. Harrison and Boyd met on the set of the Beatles' film A Hard Day's Night in 1964 and were married two years later.Tillery, pp. 29, 160. By the late 1960s, however, they had begun to grow apart due to Harrison's preoccupation with meditation and other spiritual pursuits.Greene, p. 197.O'Dell, pp. 140–41. In an effort to regain her husband's attention, in 1970,Huntley, pp. 99–100. Boyd responded to Clapton's long-held infatuation with her, only to reject his advances at that time.Snow, p. 44. Unable to conceive a child, and with Harrison averse to adoption,Harry, p. 36. Boyd resumed her career as a fashion model in May 1971, an activity that sat at odds with his spiritual convictions.Greene, pp. 197–98.Huntley, pp. 87–88. According to Harrison biographer Elliot Huntley, the first public signs of a rift in the marriage came in August 1972. That month, Harrison travelled alone through Europe to Portugal to visit Gary Wright,Badman, p. 79. who then "played the diplomat" by fending off press speculation regarding Boyd's absence.Huntley, pp. 85, 87.
Author Ian Inglis describes "So Sad" as the first Harrison composition to "explicitly address the collapse of his marriage". The song was copyrighted to HarrisongsHarrison, p. 386. in November 1973 as "So Sad (No Love of His Own)", a title that recalls that of the Everly Brothers' hit "So Sad (To Watch Good Love Go Bad)".Kevin Howlett's liner notes, Dark Horse CD booklet (Apple Records, 2014; produced by George Harrison), pp. 3–4. Along with his song "So Sad", Harrison's 1974 album Dark Horse included a version of the Everly Brothers' "Bye Bye, Love",Richard S. Ginell, "George Harrison Dark Horse", AllMusic (retrieved 11 July 2016). the lyrics of which he altered to sarcastically address Boyd's eloping with Clapton.Schaffner, p. 178.Clayson, p. 343. While expressing confusion over the motivation behind this reworking of "Bye Bye, Love", Inglis views "So Sad" as a reflection of the profound sense of loss that Harrison genuinely felt.Inglis, pp. 45–46. Among other examples of the depth of the couple's shared experiences, Inglis cites Boyd's role as Harrison's companion at the height of Beatlemania, their joint embrace of Indian spirituality, and her presence throughout his emergence as a solo artist.
Composition
"So Sad" is in time throughout, while its musical key changes from C major in the verses to D major over the choruses."So Sad", in George Harrison Dark Horse: Sheet Music for Piano, Vocal & Guitar, Charles Hansen (New York, NY, 1974). The song opens and closes with a descending, eight-bar instrumental passage. In between these two passages, it comprises three combinations of verse and chorus.
While Clapton has commented on Harrison's "cavalier" attitude to his pursuit of Boyd in 1970,Eric Clapton, in George Harrison: Living in the Material World DVD (Village Roadshow, 2011; directed by Martin Scorsese; produced by Olivia Harrison, Nigel Sinclair & Martin Scorsese), disc 2; event occurs between 31:30 and 33:15. and Boyd has described her husband's behaviour as "cold and indifferent",Boyd, p. 178. the song conveys his despair at the failure of their relationship.Inglis, p. 45. In his lyrics, Harrison revisits the weather-themed imagery of his late-period Beatles compositions "All Things Must Pass" and "Here Comes the Sun".Leng, pp. 96, 151. Whereas the latter song conveyed optimism and rejuvenation, however, "So Sad" reflects the onset of winter and, in author Simon Leng's description, "hope replaced with tiredness, sunshine supplanted by gloom". Author Bruce Spizer writes that the opening lines alone – "Now the winter has come / Eclipsing the sun / That has lighted my love for some time" – evoke "the opposite emotions of [Harrison's] uplifting 'Here Comes the Sun'".
The singer's viewpoint changes between the first and third person during the song.Leng, p. 152. At the start of the choruses, Harrison describes himself as the protagonist who "feels so alone / With no love of his own". These words accompany a chord sequence – comprising D major, D augmented, D6 and E7 – over which the melody ascends, creating musical tension. The ensuing refrain provides what Leng terms "cathartic release" with the repeated phrase "So sad / So bad".Leng, p. 151.
While he expresses sorrow throughout the song, Harrison avoids detailing the reasons for the end of the relationship. In the second verse, he sings of "the problem of just being there"Harrison, p. 244. – a line that theologian Dale Allison interprets as central to Harrison's philosophical outlook, which espoused striving to transcend the mundane aspects of human existence.Allison, p. 118.
Author Joshua Greene describes "So Sad" as a song that tells of "cold winds, lost love, and dreams abandoned".Greene, p. 209. In the final verse, Harrison urges his lover to give "the dawn of the day" to someone who can rekindle their shared dream. He concludes with a lyric that Inglis deems poignant in its revelation of the singer's feelings of loss: "It's too late for to make a new start."
Pre-Dark Horse recording history Living in the Material World sessions Harrison initially recorded "So Sad" for Living in the Material World (1973), his most overtly religious album,Paul Trynka, "George Harrison The Apple Years 1968–75", Classic Rock, November 2014, p. 105. but did not include the track on that release.Huntley, p. 109. The recording sessions took place between October 1972 and February 1973, at the Beatles' Apple Studios in London and at Harrison's home studio, FPSHOT, in Henley-on-Thames.Leng, pp. 124–26. The personnel at the sessions were Harrison, keyboard players Wright and Nicky Hopkins, drummers Ringo Starr and Jim Keltner, and bass player Klaus VoormannBadman, p. 83. – many of whom later played on Harrison's official version of the song.
Among other unreleased recordings from the Material World sessions,Spizer, p. 306. Harrison and Starr taped a version of their joint composition "Photograph" in December 1972.Rodriguez, pp. 35, 261. Another song about lost love,Huntley, p. 97. "Photograph" presents a similarly bleak picture of a failed romance, sharing with "So Sad" the theme that any possibility of a reunion between the two protagonists has long passed.Inglis, pp. 45, 55.
Alvin Lee and Mylon LeFevre version
Harrison became friends with Ten Years After frontman Alvin Lee after the two guitarists met in Henley's Row Barge pub.Badman, p. 110. Hearing that Lee was recording a solo album with American gospel singer Mylon LeFevre, Harrison offered him "So Sad",Harry, pp. 244, 347. which they recorded together in August 1973.Castleman & Podrazik, p. 129. Also playing on the session was drummer Mick Fleetwood, who was married to Boyd's sister Jenny at the time,Harry, p. 38. and Faces guitarist Ron Wood.Castleman & Podrazik, pp. 206–07. According to Ten Years After biographer Herb Staehr, Lee, Harrison and Wood were part of "the Thames Valley Gang" of English rock musicians, who met regularly at Lee's Hook End Manor propertyHerb Staehr, "The George Harrison/Alvin Lee connection", Goldmine, 25 January 2002, p. 63. in Woodcote, close to Harrison's Friar Park estate in Henley.Harry, p. 244.
As well as including the parenthetical "No Love of His Own" in the title,Harry, p. 347. the Lee–LeFevre version of "So Sad" differs from Harrison's in mood. Performed in the country style, with a dobro part by Harrison, the recording highlights the song's "heartbreak aspects", according to Leng, who likens it to "'Jolene' and other country tearjerkers".Leng, p. 151. Among several further collaborations between Lee and Harrison, Lee made a guest appearance on the debut album by Splinter,Bruce Eder, "Splinter The Place I Love", AllMusic (retrieved 12 July 2016). which Harrison was producing for his new Dark Horse record label.Snow, p. 48. In addition, Lee, together with Wood, played on Harrison's Dark Horse track "Ding Dong, Ding Dong".Spizer, p. 264.
The song was released on Lee and LeFevre's On the Road to Freedom album in November 1973, and as the A-side of a single the following month.Castleman & Podrazik, pp. 129, 130. The album was critically well received,Chris Welch's liner notes, On the Road to Freedom CD booklet (Repertoire Records, 2003; produced by Alvin Lee), p. 6. and Billboard included "So Sad" among its recommended singles for the week of 22 December 1973.Eliot Tiegel (ed.), "Top Single Picks", Billboard, 22 December 1973, p. 58 (retrieved 26 June 2016). Writing in Rolling Stone, Bud Scoppa paired the track with the Wood-composed "Let 'Em Say What They Will" as "two non-originals [that] are beauties", adding: "George Harrison's 'So Sad (No Love of His Own)' sounds to me like one of his best songs."Bud Scoppa, "Alvin Lee: On the Road to Freedom", Rolling Stone, 11 April 1974; available at Rock's Backpages (subscription required).
Dark Horse recording