George Harrison in 1974: Why Did He Decide To Tour?

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Panther, Oct 22, 2019.

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  1. DrBeatle

    DrBeatle The Rock and Roll Chemist

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    Midwest via Boston
    Sadly, :agree:
     
  2. mercuryvenus

    mercuryvenus Forum Resident

    Location:
    Maryland, USA
    I mean, would you really want to stand on a roof in January in England to play music? I sure as hell wouldn't. I hate playing music when I'm cold.
     
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  3. Sidewinder43

    Sidewinder43 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Lavaca County, TX
    I
    I was there too in real time and completely agree with your assessment.
     
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  4. Naughty Chord

    Naughty Chord Hole in my Socrates

    Location:
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    George's voice sounded like Louis Armstrong and he wishes he could sing like he did on "Dark Horse" more often. Put that in your pipe and smoke it "Dark Horse" detractors. :uhhuh:

    From a 1979 press conference...

     
  5. Darrin L.

    Darrin L. Forum Resident

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    Golden, CO
    Wow..."What is Life" is God awful, but the "Dark Horse" performance looks and sounds great, but then it was more suited for his voice at the time.
     
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  6. majorlance

    majorlance Forum Resident

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    Yep. I'll bet Bob Dylan loves the voice he's had for the last several years. :doh:
     
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  7. Spencer R

    Spencer R Forum Resident

    Location:
    Oxford, MS
    His voice is clearly hurting during What Is Life, but Billy Preston pitches in to cover for that, the band sounds good, in my opinion, and when the camera cuts to a shot from behind the stage, you see many people in the audience dancing and clapping in the aisles. The surviving footage from the tour shows the audiences enjoying themselves.
     
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  8. kwhisperer

    kwhisperer Forum Resident

    Location:
    Toronto
    That makes sense - what they thought was a heart attack was flu. I just wish my appreciation for Indian music was more developed back in those days because, even minus Ravi, his musicians were absolute giants. All I remember distinctly is the Alla Rakha tabla solo.
     
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  9. jmxw

    jmxw Fab Forum Fan

    That's cool, but I think I like the studio version better... :shrug:
     
  10. bewareofchairs

    bewareofchairs Forum Resident

    It's not as simple as playing music though. It's The Beatles playing live for the first time in years, in January, when they mentally would rather be somewhere else. The Delaney & Bonnie tour was fun for him precisely because it was like going back to the pre-fame Beatle days. The high expectations of being a Beatle weren't there.
     
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  11. Spencer R

    Spencer R Forum Resident

    Location:
    Oxford, MS
    Which is the same approach Paul took with the first Wings university tour.
     
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  12. Oatsdad

    Oatsdad Oat, Biscuits, Abbie & Mitzi: Best Dogs Ever

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    George was always kind of a curmudgeon - it was just his personality even from childhood. I think he enjoyed a lot of Beatledom more than he wanted to let on.

    John was hot and cold - he'd get very enthusiastic about projects and then turn sour. Also just the way he was!

    I do love that John tosses out an "Any Time At All" reference at the end of that clip! :D
     
  13. stanlove

    stanlove Forum Resident


    Everybody else wanted too.
     
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  14. Oatsdad

    Oatsdad Oat, Biscuits, Abbie & Mitzi: Best Dogs Ever

    Location:
    Alexandria VA
    That's because he recorded "Dark Horse" when his voice was already shot, whereas "Life" comes from when his voice was good.

    Back in 2004 or so, my friend and I saw Dylan. She prepped with some then-recent albums, I prepped with the 60s/70s stuff.

    I thought Dylan sounded horrible, she thought he sounded fine - all because she was prepared for 2000s Dylan's voice and I wasn't.

    Same with those 2 songs. If GH's voice wasn't already in a precarious state when he did "DH", it'd have sounded like crap, too! :)
     
  15. Oatsdad

    Oatsdad Oat, Biscuits, Abbie & Mitzi: Best Dogs Ever

    Location:
    Alexandria VA
    Dunno how people viewed it at the time, but Macca's approach to live performing was brilliant.

    Build slowly - and borderline anonymously - with smaller shows before you attempt major tours.

    Clearly that worked well, as by the time Wings came to the US, they were a well-oiled machine and Paul had tons of frontman experience.

    George threw himself into big US shows right off the bat. Good for $$$ - those university shows didn't pay! :D - but not so good for the experience and his legacy...
     
  16. Oatsdad

    Oatsdad Oat, Biscuits, Abbie & Mitzi: Best Dogs Ever

    Location:
    Alexandria VA
    George also did that brief Japan tour in 1991 and then the one-off 1992 show at the RAH.

    No, he didn't play a lot, but he played more than just those 4 times...
     
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  17. beatleroadie

    beatleroadie Forum Resident

    George was recently divorced, and probably needed an immediate pay day from something to which Pattie was not eligible to benefit from at all.

    Maybe he also viewed his music career in need of a fresh start post-divorce and thought he'd get some inspiration from being on the road briefly with Billy etc.

    The one live George show I'm shocked never happened was a Wilburys show. One concert, in LA? How did they not pull that off. Could have been for charity. Maybe it was one of those things they thought "we'll get around to it someday" but then Roy died, and Bob seemed to lose interest, so that was that. Still, a Live Wilburys album in 1991/92 could have been amazing, even without Roy—Maybe even with Ringo and some of the Heartbreakers in the backing band.
     
    Last edited: Oct 23, 2019
  18. bewareofchairs

    bewareofchairs Forum Resident

    There was also a gig he did in Henley in the late 1970s, the 1986 Birmingham show, and several gigs with his friends where he popped up. There are many documented instances of George playing in front of a crowd of people, but they weren't "official" gigs.
     
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  19. kwadguy

    kwadguy Senior Member

    Location:
    Cambridge, MA
    If you want to hear what the song Dark Horse would have sounded like if George had recorded before his voice went down the toilet:



    (You can hear his voice is starting to go, but it's OK here).
     
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  20. Rfreeman

    Rfreeman Senior Member

    Location:
    Lawrenceville, NJ
    If we were going to have only 2 surviving ex Beatles for a period a lot longer than The Beatles' run, it is a blessing that we have 2 that have been more consistently psyched about making music, both live and in the studio, than the others were during th eir time as ex-Beatles.
     
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  21. canadian73

    canadian73 Forum Resident

    Location:
    California
    I was both in awe with first seeing my first Beatle, and quite underwhelmed by the show itself. I liked the new album and single though.

    Same with me
     
  22. AnalogJ

    AnalogJ Hearing In Stereo Since 1959

    Location:
    Salem, MA
    It was NOT a good show. GH's voice was in poor shape, the show lacked urgency, he occasionally exhorted us to chant "Hari Krishna". And Billy Preston's incredible numbers only highlighted the mediocrity of the rest of the show. It was only the last song of the main set, "What Is Life?", when Harrison really seemed to sound inspired.
     
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  23. kwadguy

    kwadguy Senior Member

    Location:
    Cambridge, MA

    Yeah, I don't know why people have such a problem believing that the '74 tour was craptastic. By pretty much every contemporary account, it was.

    I knew people who went to the concert. At the time, we were all big Beatles fans. The next day I asked how it was: "It kind of sucked, and it was really long."
     
  24. DrBeatle

    DrBeatle The Rock and Roll Chemist

    Location:
    Midwest via Boston
    Hah, that would suck. In my younger days when I was a in a band playing outside was the WORST with cold hands, just brutal. I was referencing more George's almost perpetually grumpy persona toward everything, especially during that period.
     
  25. DrBeatle

    DrBeatle The Rock and Roll Chemist

    Location:
    Midwest via Boston
    Fair point. Those happen to be the two Beatles I've seen in concert, too (Paul in 2013 and 2016, Ringo in 2014...all three shows were great).
     
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