Anorak

George Harrison

Posts Tagged ‘George Harrison’

George Harrison: why everyone should play a ukelele

george harrison ukele note 1999

 

“You can pick up a ukulele and anybody can learn to play a couple of tunes in a day or even a few hours.,” said Joe Brown,  mainstay of the UK’s skiffle sound in 1962 the man NME readers thought the ‘Top UK Vocal Personality’. “And if you want to get good at it, there’s no end to what you can do.” George Harrison, famously of the Beatles loved the instrument. “[George] He loved music, not just rock and roll…. He’d go crackers, he’d phone me up and say ‘I’ve got this great record!’ and it would be Hoagy Charmichael and all this Hawaiian stuff he used to like. George was not a musical snob.”

In 1999, Harrison wrote a small tribute to the ukelele. “Everyone I know who is into the ukulele is ‘crackers,’” said George, “you can’t play it and not laugh!”

Joe Brown closed the Harrison tribute concert at Royal Albert Hall with a uke version of “I’ll See You In My Dreams,” and Paul McCartney remembered his friend in 2009 by playing Something on a ukulele at New York’s Citi Field. He told the audience: “Whenever you went round George’s house, after dinner the ukuleles would come out and you’d inevitably find yourself singing all these old numbers.”

 

 

 

Spotter: Open Culture

Posted: 17th, July 2017 | In: Celebrities, Music | Comment


Christmas hits: those Seventies seasonal smashes

Seventies seasonal smashes

From the time when Christmas records ruled the Earth

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted: 20th, December 2012 | In: Flashback, Key Posts, Music | Comment


Harrison: Living in the Material World – Scorcese’s Focus On The Quiet Beatle Is A Joy

WAS George Harrison the best of The Beatles? Was he a better singer than Paul McCartney and better songwriter,than John Lennon? Could he play the drums better than Ringo Starr. Ok, the last one’s a given – but was Harrison the true star? Paul McCartney said The Beatles were “four corners of a square – without any of those corners, you collapse”. The square is a perfect shape, but it also confining and dull. As Harrison wrote in his diary one year before the Fab Four broke up:

“Got up went to Twickenham rehearsed until lunchtime — left The Beatles — went home, and in the evening did King of Fuh at Trident studio, had chips later.”

Rock and roll, people, for the biggest squares in pop.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted: 2nd, October 2011 | In: Film | Comment


In Pictures: Music In The Decade Of The X Factor, American Idol, Jay Z, Michael Jackson And Amy Winehouse

Music In The Decade Of X Factor, American Idol, Jay Z, Michael Jackson And Amy Winehouse.

The decade was shaped by the arrival of popstar parvenus, those not genuine popstars who had crooned someone else’s song on The X Factor, Fame Academy, American Idol, Pop Idol or Fame Academy. There were authentic pop stars, like Amy Winehouse and Pete Doherty, the former who could sing and both who could live the live of excess. Eminem rocked, Britney Spears melted, Jay Z grew the brand and we wept for George Harrison, Diana and another Live Aid. And Michael Jackson died. In pictures:

8025816

Image 53 of 55

Robbie Williams and Take That's Gary Barlow join stars on stage for a special performance at the BBC Children in Need Rocks concert, at the Royal Albert Hall in west London.

Posted: 22nd, November 2009 | In: Celebrities, Key Posts | Comment


Ronald McDonald Puts Paul McCartney’s Hair In A Bun

“WHAT sort of morons do McDonald’s think Beatles’ fans are,” asks Paul McCartney’s spokesman Geoff Baker.

The sort of morons who listen to records backwards, write their names on walls and think crossing the road is photo opportunity?

Says a PETA spokesman, the voice of dumb animals:

“He became a vegetarian after watching lambs play in field outside his home and surely would not want to use his likeness to promote meat.”

The Sun says that Macca “hit the roof” after a branch of McDonald’s in his native Liverpool put pictures of The Beatles on the walls “to attract customers”.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted: 8th, October 2008 | In: Celebrities | Comments (4)