Saturday, May 10, 2008

42. George Harrison - What Is Life

Found on: All Things Must Pass (1970)
Picked by: PA, JG

Harrison wrote more than just his two or three song allotment on every Beatles album, so when the time came to make his first solo record, he had a treasure trove to choose from. What Is Life is an especially shiny and valuable bauble. It's driven by surprisingly muscular horns and a locked-in rhythm section. It also may have single-handedly inspired the Christian rock genre, with lyrics that could refer to a lover or Jesus himself.

5 comments:

Lyric4Verse said...

But if the Beatles had stayed together even for a couple more years- which would have made great Beatle songs off of this album? "Isn't It A Pity?" for sure.

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Paul V. Allen said...

Rex, I often wonder about that myself. If you take all the great solo songs The Beatles put out in '70 and '71, you'd have one hell of a Beatles album.

Lennon: Power to the People, Instant Karma, Love
McCartney: Maybe I'm Amazed, That Would Be Something
Harrison: My Sweet Lord, What Is Life, Isn't It a Pity, Wah-Wah
Starr: It Don't Come Easy, Early 1970

Of course there's no way that Harrison would have been allowed more songs than Macca and Lennon, even though he deserved it.

MODARTIST said...

No less a genius than Lennon, Mac, Dylan, or Hendrix, et al. If you have a heart and soul, these songs have to lift you up into the heights of euphoria, and the depths of melancholia...Beware Of Darkness...many were played live so brilliantly at The Concert For Bangladesh.

Anonymous said...

Thanks to Phil Spector for the muscular horns and rhythm section.

( Yes, he is a dangerous whacko with a bad toupee notwithstanding.)