George Harrison

Guitarist and youngest member of The Beatles, George Harrison showed glimpses of his songwriting potential before putting it to good use in the solo career that followed, notably with the triple album All Things Must Pass and its hit "My Sweet Lord". Born in Liverpool on February 25, 1943, he joined the most famous band of the Sixties on the strength of a guitar solo on the instrumental "Raunchy " (Bill Justis), and took part in the band's laborious beginnings, punctuated by concerts between Hamburg and the Liverpool Cavern, and then in the glory days of Beatlemania. Although he proposed his own compositions early on, the "shy Beatle" remained somewhat overshadowed by the Lennon-McCartney tandem, and it was with songs like "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", "Something" and "Here Comes the Sun" that his talent was recognized, as was his highly honed solo style and use of the sitar from "Norwegian Wood " (1965) onwards. Attracted by Indian culture, whose music he imported on the albums Revolver (1966) and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967), he converted the three other musicians to meditation and initiated their stay in the Rishikesh ashram in 1968. The same year, he was the first to break free as a solo artist with the soundtrack to the film Wonderwall, followed by the experimental album Electronic Sound (1969). In 1970, the triple album All Things Must Pass brought him consecration, thanks in particular to the worldwide success of the ballad "My Sweet Lord", No. 1 in many countries, including the UK and the USA. On this occasion, he was sued for "subconscious" plagiarism of The Chiffons' "He's So Fine ". In 1971, he teamed up with Ravi Shankar for The Bangladesh Concert at New York's Madison Square Garden, with guests Bob Dylan and Eric Clapton. He repeated his success with the album Living in the Material World (1973) and the single "Give Me Love", launched his own label Dark Horse and his film production company HandMade Films, which financed the Monty Python film Life of Brian and others. John Lennon's assassination inspired the nostalgic song "All Those Years Ago" (1981), featured on the album Somewhere in England, while in 1987 Jeff Lynne co-produced "Got My Mind Set on You" (#2 in the UK, #1 in the US) and the album Cloud Nine. Both join the Traveling Wilburys supergroup, which also includes Bob Dylan and Tom Petty, as well as Roy Orbison for the first of the two albums, released before his death. He takes part with Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr in the retrospective Anthology project, consisting of a series of alternative compilations, a documentary and a book, before facing throat cancer. In December 1999, George Harrison was the victim of a near fatal mugging at home. He then worked on his last album, Brainwashed, released in 2002, a year after his death from a brain tumor on November 29, 2001, at the age of 58.

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