Concerts - Concert For George
In this article we're going to briefly review one of the most
touching concerts that was ever held for another person, The
Concert For George.
There are very few people in history who you can mention their
first name, say the word concert and know exactly who that
concert was for. The Concert For George was one of those
concerts. George of course being the late George Harrison of the
Beatles.
George Harrison died of brain cancer on November 29, 2001. One
year later the memorial concert for this great musician was held
at the Royal Albert Hall in London. It is only fitting that this
was the place as Harrison was 100% English from the top of his
head to the tips of his magical guitar fingers. Many feel he was
the overlooked Beatle. Everything was about John and Paul. But
most critics feel that George Harrison was the heart and soul of
the Beatle's guitar sound which has since be copied by so many
artists.
The idea for the concert was George's good friend Eric
Clapton's. Clapton and Harrison had actually been friends for a
long time and first played together on the White Album. The
song, of course, was "While My Guitar Gently Weeps." Clapton put
together a memorial that Harrison himself would have smiled at.
The concert began with the daughter of one of Harrison's great
friends, Ravi Shankar, singing "Your Eyes." After this song the
daughter, who's name is Anoushka, teamed with another one of
Harrison's friends, Jeff Lynne of ELO fame, to sing "The Inner
Light" which was one of George Harrison's own tunes.
The concert itself was a mixture of music and comedy, which is
very unusual for a concert. The comedy was handled mostly by the
ensemble of Monty Python who, along with Tom Hanks, performed
"Sit On My Face" and "The Lumberjack Song" which was one of
Monty Python's funniest and most famous tunes.
The rest of the concert featured more of George's friends and
the remaining members of the Beatles, Paul and Ringo. Also there
were Tom Petty, Billy Preston, and Gary Brooker from Procal
Harem. George's son Dhani was also on hand. If you watch the
video of the concert you would swear that Dhani was George
Harrison if you didn't know better.
The remainder of the concert featured mostly songs that were
either done by The Beatles or songs that George had done solo or
with other performers such as when he was with Tom Petty during
his stint with The Traveling Willburys.
The songs are a who's who of some of the greatest tunes these
people ever did together or separately. They included such
classics as George's signature song "Something," the Beatles'
like "Isn't It A Pity," "Here Comes The Sun," a Ringo tune that
George played on, "Photograph," "All Things Must Pass," "My
Sweet Lord," and finishing with "I'll See You In My Dreams,"
which was an appropriate ending for the concert.
George Harrison may be gone but he will never be forgotten.