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... Dark Horse, Harrison insisted that the Ravi Shankar Orchestra play a long opening set and then lashed out at bored audiences and weak notices. Before one of the concerts, Shapiro writes, Harrison ranted, You know, I didnt force... anybody at gunpoint to come and see me... And I dont care if nobody comes to see me. I dont give a shit.
There would be later musical successes, most notably 1987 s Cloud Nine. But by then, Harrison's output had been indifferent and erratic for long enough that he was viewed more as a nostalgia act than as a thriving artist, a sentiment furthered by his participation in the high-end novelty group the Traveling Wilburys and various Beatle-related projects. Sometimes, Harrison sounded just like the sort of old fart who had all those years ago declaimed the Fab Four as a passing fancy. He seemed both threatened by and hostile toward the world around him, feelings that had worked to undermine his solo offerings. The man who had once sung all things must pass might have been writing his own musical obituary. Harrison is a coffee table book put out by the editors of Rolling Stone as a tribute to the late Beatles guitarist.
What you have here is mostly pictures but there is text in the form of a short biography that scans over Georges whole career. It features photographs from the 60 s when Beatlemania was at its height and even offers commentary by the people who took those pictures. It also has pictures of his post Beatle career. It also has musical documentation of all of Harrison's output on his and other artist recordings.
All of his interviews in Rolling Stone magazine are compiled in this book. The picture of George that emerges after reading this book is of a man who ideally lives his life according to certain religious precepts but nevertheless has to live in the material world. Left to himself, George would have painted himself as a purely spiritual being. The pettiness of the Beatles in their breakup and how shamefully they all acted, including George himself, shows that no divine being can exist in human flesh. It seems he was always conflicted between being an entertainer and being somewhat of a divine monk.
An especially poignant moment is when an interviewer asks him about his relationship with John Lennon right before he was shot to death. George says that he felt John was trying to reconnect with him. He went to see him in New York and he could tell John wanted so badly to restart a relationship with him but because of his circumstances, probably Yokos possessiveness of him, he could not communicate what he wanted to say. It was also apparent that time heals most wounds and that George was at peace with his Beatles past, a past, which at one time he hated. He seemed resentful that all his life was judged by a span of 7 short years. Remember, he was only 27 years old at the time the Beatles broke up.
Paradoxically, he missed his old band, just like John, Paul, and Ringo did. Beneath all their spats in later years, they knew they had a good situation. Of course, the 231 page hardcover, released only months after Harrison's death from cancer in November 2001, is chock full of the kind of dumb factual errors - the first Plastic Ono Band album is called The Primal Scream Therapy Album - and slightly irregular timelines that could tend to invalidate the whole work. However, the book is not about facts, but it is rather one of impressions and analysis of feelings and reactions and scrutinized intent.
So it should come as no surprise, therefore, that Shapiro finds a deeply flawed and damaged ex-Beatle and solo performer, who had a downright pathological personality that confounded and confused friend and foe alike. While George seemed to take the high road, there was much in his actions that, perhaps deliberately, was destined to cause his wife and best friend the maximum amount of pain and discomfort - revenge, if you will - in a way that only a quiet man like George Harrison could inflict. And while clearly this is only Shapiro's opinion based on the observed situation from afar, it would appear to jibe with Harrison's famous I don't care anymore, mind-set when it came to anything that fundamentally frustrated and stalled him. Shapiro says that after the monster - and totally un-expected - smash success of All Things Must Pass, George grew more withdrawn and bitter about the music business after Harrison was sued for copyright infringement on My Sweet Lord.
When Harrison dabbled in films with his own Hand Made Films, an ill-fated team-up with Sean Penn and Madonna turned him off film making. When he got pissed off at A&M Records when they first rejected his late 70 s album, Somewhere In England, he sort of said screw the whole thing and the album came out and went nowhere in the world. Then George has substantial hit with All Those Years Ago in 1981, a tribute to John Lennon, but followed it up with perhaps the worst piece of tripe ever released by an ex-Beatle, the universally panned, Gone Troppo. It would not be until 1987 s Cloud Nine, Traveling Willburys and a well-received tour of Japan that George would awaken. And Shapiro says that while George was preaching Krishna consciousness throughout the 60 s and 70 s and even 80 s, he was also getting loaded a lot and chasing women, two very un-Krishna-like hobbies.
Although I think this would tend to indicate that George was only human, rather than theological shyster. But by the early 90 s, Shapiro paints a picture of a man who has been so psychically damaged by the rigors of fame that he would rather garden than rock. Shapiro then says that Georges wife, Olivia, held Harrison together and that George appeared to be really happy for the first time in his life. George had survived a first cancer scare in 1988 and then contributed well to the Threats reunion on the Anthology Series in 1995. However, by 1997, the cancer had returned and George would be dead within 4 years, despite a spirited fight against the disease. Perhaps, Shapiro's short mention of the Rules parody of the Beatles deserved more examination.
Of course, George always loved a chance to skewer the Fabs, especially Paul McCartney, and Harrison readily endorsed Eric Idles vision of him as Stig, the quiet Beatle who had not said anything since 1963. George even had a cameo in the film playing an interviewer who asks, Who hurt Stig? Stig is played by one time Beach Boy Ricky Father with such a dopey, deadpan, quietness, that maybe this was the real George Harrison. The passing of George Harrison, late last year, awoke many a Beatles fan to the passing of time and to our own mortality. John Lennon's death was the work of a lunatic gunman, but Georges death was due to natural causes. The image of Paul McCartney (now Sir Paul) on tour again, receiving more cheers for the old songs than for the new; and the excitement his tour has generated when taken in context with the fact that only he and Ringo remain, gives one pause.
Behind Sad Eyes is a beautiful volume, well-designed, filled with pictures and flush with remembrances of a very special man who was George Harrison. Tom Petty, Yoko Ono, Paul Simon, Jim Keltner, and others recall their time with George. Readers learn about his guitar collection, about his faith, his songs and recordings, and about his obsession with the ukulele. McCartney drew attention to this fact during his ongoing tour, when he played Georges Something on the uke that George had given him.
It was a tender moment in a room filled with many thousands of people. Behind Sad Eyes sounded good in the pre-publication promotions. St. Martins Press claimed that this book would not only [pay] homage to the man behind the music, but that author Marc Shapiro would [depict] a side of the private and compelling legend that has never been seen before.
What that means is that he talks about drug abuse and spousal infidelities. Shapiro seems to be aiming for a Harrison version of Albert Goldman's John Lennon biography, which stripped away the veneer and purported to reveal the truth, including heroin use and other shocking items. Unfortunately, all Shapiro was able to come up with are rumors of some strange behavior. He never really captures the real man behind the music because Harrison kept that part of his life so private. Where Harrison focuses on Georges achievements, Behind Sad Eyes has to struggle to prove Shapiro's theory that George was never happy, that there was no joy in his life. It is possible that the truth is more like the story Shapiro tells.
Georges friends and associates may be attempting to let their friend pass quietly from the material world. People would rather remember George Harrison that way. Shapiro's book does have some interesting details, especially the story about Delaney Bramlett showing George the chords to Hes So Fine, which led to the controversial court case over My Sweet Lord, but on the whole the Rolling Stone book is a fuller, more finely tuned look at the Quiet Beatle. Bibliography: BEHIND SAD EYES: The Life of George Harrison, Marc Shapiro, St. Martins Press, Biography, ISBN: 0312309937 My sweet bore: explaining a former beatle's artistic slide. (Behind Sad Eyes: The Life of George Harrison) (book review) Reason, August, 2002, by Nick Gillespie
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