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Songs by George Harrison

October 15, 2023

For a list of his sound recordings, see George Harrison discography.

Songs by George Harrison is a book of song lyrics and commentary by English musician George Harrison, with illustrations by New Zealand artist Keith West. It was published in February 1988, in a limited run of 2500 copies, by Genesis Publications, and included an EP of rare or previously unreleased Harrison recordings. Intended as a luxury item, each copy was hand-bound and boxed, and available only by direct order through Genesis in England. The book contains the lyrics to 60 Harrison compositions, the themes of which West represents visually with watercolour paintings. Starting in 1985, Harrison and West worked on the project for two years, during which Harrison returned to music-making with his album Cloud Nine, after focusing on film production for much of the early 1980s. The book includes a foreword by his Cloud Nine co-producer, Jeff Lynne, and a written contribution from Elton John.

Songs by George Harrison
Cover of the book
AuthorGeorge Harrison
IllustratorKeith West
GenreMusic, art
PublisherGenesis Publications
Publication date
15 February 1988
Media typeBook with musical disc (vinyl or CD; running time: 17:10)
Pages176
ISBN0-904351-36-X
Followed bySongs by George Harrison 2 

The musical disc contains three songs that Warner Bros. Records had rejected in 1980 for inclusion on Harrison's album Somewhere in England, together with a live version of his Beatles track "For You Blue". This last song was recorded during Harrison's controversial 1974 North American tour, when his singing was marred by the effects of laryngitis; it remains the only vocal performance from that tour to have been made available outside of concert bootlegs. While "Lay His Head" was issued as the B-side to his 1987 single "Got My Mind Set on You", the Songs by George Harrison EP remains the sole official release for this live version of "For You Blue" and for the studio tracks "Sat Singing" and "Flying Hour".

Genesis undertook a single print run for the book, after which Songs by George Harrison became a highly priced collector's item. It was followed by a second volume, published in 1992. AllMusic describes the EP as "remarkable" and "classic Harrison".[1]

Background Edit

George Harrison first worked with Genesis Publications on his 1980 autobiography, I Me Mine, for which his friend Derek Taylor served as editor and narrator.[2] Harrison subsequently edited Taylor's memoir, Fifty Years Adrift,[3] which Genesis published in its customary, limited-edition, deluxe format in 1984.[4] That year, Brian Roylance, the owner of Genesis Publications,[5] met a New Zealand-based botanical artist named Keith West, whose work Roylance considered might be suitable for a proposed illustrated book of Harrison's songs.[6]

Since 1982, when he released the little-promoted Gone Troppo album, Harrison had minimised his musical activities in favour of a role as a film producer,[7] with the success of his company HandMade Films.[8][9] The content of his previous album, Somewhere in England, had been the subject of scrutiny by Warner Bros. Records,[10] the distributor of Harrison's Dark Horse record label;[11] as a result, Harrison was obliged to replace four of the songs intended for that album with more commercial-sounding recordings for its eventual release, in mid 1981.[12] On the musical disc accompanying the Songs by George Harrison book, Harrison decided to include three of the tracks that Warner Bros. had rejected.[13][14] The fourth of those 1980 recordings, "Tears of the World", would appear on the EP accompanying Harrison and West's 1992 illustrated book, Songs by George Harrison 2.[15][16]

Production Edit

Having relocated to north Wales by 1985, West met with Harrison regularly over a period of two years at the latter's Oxfordshire estate, Friar Park.[17] The pair discussed the images required for all of Harrison's songs, in order to ensure empathy between the illustrations and the message behind the lyrics. West worked up pencil sketches, which he would submit to Harrison, before completing the final watercolour illustrations.[18]

Songs by George Harrison contains the lyrics to 60 of Harrison's compositions,[19] for each of which West hand-lettered the words.[14] Harrison provided text commenting on the story behind some of the songs, along with facsimiles of his original lyric sheets.[20] The book was bound inside a black leather cover,[6] and ran to 176 pages, measuring 175 by 250 millimetres.[18]

During the two-year period of production, Harrison resumed a more active musical career, which included working with producer Jeff Lynne on the soundtrack to HandMade Films' Shanghai Surprise in 1986 before recording his first album in five years, Cloud Nine.[21] The book includes a foreword by Lynne, a "middleword" by Elton John, and a "backword" by Harrison.[6] The accompanying EP was offered in either vinyl or CD format,[22] with the disc housed beside the book in a handmade Solander box.[18]

Musical content Edit

"Sat Singing" Edit

The opening track on the EP, the 1979-copyright "Sat Singing", was recorded at Harrison's Friar Park studio, FPSHOT,[23] in March 1980.[24] Among Harrison biographers, Simon Leng views the song as a "pivotal composition" in the artist's career,[25] while Dale Allison considers it to be "a crucial song for interpreting George's religiosity".[26] The lyrics document an afternoon spent immersed in meditation,[27][28] during which the singer surrenders the distractions of the physical world for a communion with his deity.[29][30] The title references the Sanskrit term sat-sang,[31] which means time spent in the company of "the highest truth", such as with one's guru.[28] Leng describes the song as "a companion piece" to the Beatles' "Tomorrow Never Knows", in that "Sat Singing" represents the "attainment" of John Lennon's earlier exhortation to "Turn off your mind, relax and float downstream".[25]

"Lay His Head" Edit

Like "Sat Singing", "Lay His Head" was recorded during the sessions for Somewhere in England, in April 1980.[32] The title refers to a phrase from the gospels of St Matthew and St Luke[33] that Harrison had taken to quoting when referring to the lack of privacy afforded him and his Beatles bandmates during the 1960s.[34] In his adaptation, the phrase became: "Foxes have holes and birds have nests, but Beatles have nowhere to lay their heads."[35] Leng views the song as a reflection on "what a man loses when he becomes a media entity: a connection with other people that everyone else takes for granted".[34]

Harrison carried out further work on the recording in August 1987.[36] In October that year, "Lay His Head" was released as the B-side to "Got My Mind Set on You",[37] the lead single from Cloud Nine.[13] The version on Songs by George Harrison used the same mix as that issued on the single, which differed from the 1980 recording through the increased presence of percussion and drums.[38] Percussionist Ray Cooper was credited as co-producer with Harrison.[39]

"For You Blue" Edit

Originally recorded by the Beatles and released on their 1970 album Let It Be,[40] "For You Blue" was one of the relatively few Beatles songs that Harrison chose to perform on his 1974 North American tour with Ravi Shankar.[41][42] The live version issued on Songs by George Harrison was the first recording from these 1974 concerts to receive an official release,[43][44] despite Harrison's statements post-tour that a full live album would be made available.[45][46]

Although the EP credits read "Live in Washington DC", the song was recorded in nearby Largo, Maryland, on 13 December 1974.[47] The performance features solos from Robben Ford (on electric guitar), Emil Richards (marimba) and Willie Weeks (bass).[48] During the tour, many reviewers had criticised Harrison for, variously, giving over stage-time to his fellow musicians, being scornful of his audience's nostalgia for the Beatles, and performing with a voice ravaged by the effects of laryngitis.[49][50] In response, Leng writes that this live version of "For You Blue" contradicts the "'given' view" espoused by Rolling Stone magazine that Harrison's 1974 concerts were a "calamity".[51] In 2001, Record Collector editor Peter Doggett similarly commented on the track, with regard to the singer's vocal issues: "Thankfully, the solitary official evidence of the tour ... showed little evidence of the strain."[52]

"Flying Hour" Edit

Although Harrison had intended it for inclusion on Somewhere in England, "Flying Hour" dated from the sessions for his previous album, George Harrison (1979),[53] and was recorded in April 1978.[54] He wrote the song with Bad Company guitarist Mick Ralphs, who was among a coterie of local rock musicians, known informally as "the Henley Music Mafia",[55][56] with whom Harrison played and socialised from the late 1970s onwards.[57] The lyrics recall the theme of Harrison's 1973 track "Be Here Now", by advocating focusing only on the present.[58][59] He adapted part of the words from an inscription on a clock tower[60] at Friar Park, a legacy of the property's original owner, Frank Crisp.[61] According to Harrison's wife, Olivia, each time they walked past the clock tower, he made a point of reading the inscription aloud:[60]

Past is gone, thou canst not that recall
Future is not, may not be at all
Present is, [so] improve the flying hour
Present only is within thy power.

Among the changes carried out when Harrison revisited "Flying Hour" in 1987, the track has a longer running time than the 1980 mix, partly through the reinstating of a 20-second instrumental break late in the song, and Harrison's slide guitar features less prominently.[38] The track is driven by Weeks' bassline and includes Polymoog synthesizer soloing from Steve Winwood.[57] In Leng's opinion, "Flying Hour" typifies Harrison's predicament with Warner's in 1980, in that the song would have been "a sure-fire hit in 1973" but was deemed unsuitable for commercial release seven years later.[25]

Publication Edit

[The book] could only be done in a limited edition because if you printed it cheap, you'd lose the value of it ... It's expensive, yes, but in a world of crass, disposable junk, it's meant to be a lovely thing.[62]

– George Harrison, 1987

Songs by George Harrison was published on 15 February 1988,[22] with the Genesis Publications catalogue number SGH 777.[63] The print run was limited to 2500,[18] with each copy signed by Harrison and West.[64][65] The book was priced at £235[66] and available via mail order only.[22] Genesis also offered the book as a limited-edition series of enlarged prints.[18]

The release coincided with Harrison's uncharacteristically high-profile publicity for Cloud Nine,[67][68] which was a critical and commercial success when issued in November 1987.[65] In an interview published in Musician magazine that same month, Harrison spoke of a planned second volume with West,[62] and he defended the exclusivity of Songs by George Harrison by saying, "in a world of crass, disposable junk, it's meant to be a lovely thing."[69]

Harrison and his wife returned to England from California for the book's publication.[22] He subsequently promoted Songs by George Harrison during his Cloud Nine publicity activities in Europe.[70]

Reception and legacy Edit

Despite its high price, Songs by George Harrison sold well.[71] Typically for a Genesis title, however,[72] the publication's availability was confined to its initial print run.[48][73]

In a four-star rating for the EP, J.T. Griffith of AllMusic describes it as "one of the essential additions to any serious Beatles or George Harrison collection" and he concludes: "Songs By George Harrison is remarkable ... the songs are classic Harrison."[1] Writing for Rolling Stone in 2002, Greg Kot highlighted "Sat Singing" and "Lay His Head" among the "gems" offered on the disc.[74] That same year, Dave Thompson of Goldmine similarly admired the 1980-recorded tracks; he said that their rejection had been "a criminal decision on the label's part" since otherwise Somewhere in England "could easily have taken its place among the elite of solo Beatledom".[75]

While lamenting that Songs by George Harrison was "an heirloom-quality item (with a price to match)", and so prohibitive to the majority of Harrison's audience, author Robert Rodriguez considers that Warner Bros. "displayed appalling judgment" in overlooking "Sat Singing" and particularly "Flying Hour", which he describes as "a breezy tune filled to the brim with hooks".[76] Simon Leng admires the reinterpretation of "For You Blue" as a rhythm and blues "jam track" and praises "Sat Singing" for its "melody of some beauty, colored by warm, golden slide guitar".[77] Leng adds that "As a musical essay on serenity and joy, ['Sat Singing'] is one of Harrison's best", yet he also identifies an isolationist perspective on the three 1980 recordings that reflected the singer's failure to appreciate the market forces with which Warner's had to contend.[78]

The 1988 Genesis publication remains the only formal release for "Sat Singing", "Flying Hour" and the live "For You Blue",[79] although all four tracks from the EP became available in 1995 on the bootleg compilation Pirate Songs.[38] While a live version of the instrumental "Hari's on Tour (Express)" from Harrison's 1974 tour appeared on the Songs by George Harrison 2 EP,[47][80] "For You Blue" remains the only vocal track from that tour to receive an official release.[81][82]

In December 2006, Record Collector magazine ranked Songs by George Harrison 122nd in its list of "The 250 Most Valuable Records of Our Time", with an estimated value of £800 for the book and disc set.[73] Dale Allison describes it as "obscure, hard-to-get, and very expensive".[83]

Track listing Edit

All songs written by George Harrison, except where noted. All track-list information per CD label.[84]

  1. "Sat Singing" – 4:30
  2. "Lay His Head" – 3:50
  3. "For You Blue" [live] – 4:08
  4. "Flying Hour" (Harrison, Mick Ralphs) – 4:32

Citations Edit

  1. ^ a b J.T. Griffith, "George Harrison Songs by George Harrison", AllMusic (retrieved 14 December 2014).
  2. ^ Clayson, pp. 382–83.
  3. ^ Harry, p. 172.
  4. ^ Clayson, pp. 395–96.
  5. ^ Badman, p. 344.
  6. ^ a b c "Songs by George Harrison: by George Harrison and Keith West", Snap Galleries (retrieved 12 January 2016).
  7. ^ Larkin, p. 2647.
  8. ^ Madinger & Easter, pp. 462, 463.
  9. ^ Leng, pp. 229–30, 239.
  10. ^ The Editors of Rolling Stone, p. 189.
  11. ^ Harry, pp. 150, 349.
  12. ^ Tillery, pp. 117, 126, 164.
  13. ^ a b Inglis, pp. 93–94, 102.
  14. ^ a b Clayson, p. 423.
  15. ^ Leng, pp. 213–14, 325.
  16. ^ Huntley, pp. 178, 244.
  17. ^ Clayson, p. 396.
  18. ^ a b c d e "Songs by George Harrison Volume One", Genesis Publications (retrieved 12 January 2016).
  19. ^ Huntley, p. 218.
  20. ^ Harry, p. 354.
  21. ^ Clayson, pp. 402–03, 409–10.
  22. ^ a b c d Badman, p. 403.
  23. ^ Madinger & Easter, pp. 459, 637.
  24. ^ Harry, p. 328.
  25. ^ a b c Leng, p. 215.
  26. ^ Allison, p. 153.
  27. ^ Greene, p. 233.
  28. ^ a b Rodriguez, p. 386.
  29. ^ Leng, pp. 215–16.
  30. ^ Allison, pp. 17–18, 125, 153.
  31. ^ Greene, p. 234.
  32. ^ Badman, pp. 247, 248.
  33. ^ Allison, p. 57.
  34. ^ a b Leng, pp. 216–17.
  35. ^ Greene, p. 67.
  36. ^ Madinger & Easter, pp. 462, 469.
  37. ^ Badman, p. 392.
  38. ^ a b c Madinger & Easter, p. 462.
  39. ^ Sleeve and B-side label credits, "Got My Mind Set on You" single, 1987, Dark Horse Records W 8178.
  40. ^ Leng, p. 40.
  41. ^ Ben Fong-Torres, "Lumbering in the Material World", Rolling Stone, 19 December 1974, p. 59.
  42. ^ Schaffner, pp. 177, 178.
  43. ^ Clayson, p. 338.
  44. ^ Madinger & Easter, pp. 447, 637–38.
  45. ^ Leng, p. 170.
  46. ^ Harry, p. 373.
  47. ^ a b Badman, p. 139.
  48. ^ a b Inglis, p. 102.
  49. ^ Rodriguez, pp. 58–60.
  50. ^ Clayson, pp. 337–40.
  51. ^ Leng, pp. 170, 174.
  52. ^ Peter Doggett, "George Harrison: The Apple Years", Record Collector, April 2001, p. 39.
  53. ^ Madinger & Easter, pp. 459, 461–62.
  54. ^ Badman, p. 221.
  55. ^ Clayson, p. 390.
  56. ^ Mark Ellen, "A Big Hand for The Quiet One", Q, January 1988, p. 56.
  57. ^ a b Rodriguez, p. 388.
  58. ^ Allison, pp. 84–85, 142.
  59. ^ Inglis, pp. 102–03.
  60. ^ a b Harrison, p. 388.
  61. ^ Allison, p. 142.
  62. ^ a b Timothy White, "George Harrison – Reconsidered", Musician, November 1987, p. 58.
  63. ^ Madinger & Easter, p. 637.
  64. ^ Huntley, p. 244.
  65. ^ a b Madinger & Easter, p. 469.
  66. ^ Harry, p. 350.
  67. ^ Badman, pp. 403–04.
  68. ^ Clayson, pp. 416–17.
  69. ^ Clayson, pp. 423–24, 474.
  70. ^ Harry, p. 95.
  71. ^ Clayson, pp. 423–24.
  72. ^ Clayson, p. 383.
  73. ^ a b Ian Shirley & Alan Lewis, "250 Rarest Records", Record Collector, December 2006, p. 34.
  74. ^ The Editors of Rolling Stone, p. 190.
  75. ^ Dave Thompson, "The Music of George Harrison: An album-by-album guide", Goldmine, 25 January 2002, pp. 18, 53.
  76. ^ Rodriguez, pp. 386–87, 433.
  77. ^ Leng, pp. 171, 216, 296.
  78. ^ Leng, pp. 213, 215–17.
  79. ^ Inglis, pp. 101–02.
  80. ^ Allison, p. 144.
  81. ^ Leng, pp. 170, 325.
  82. ^ Huntley, pp. 116, 244.
  83. ^ Allison, p. 17.
  84. ^ "Songs by George Harrison: by George Harrison and Keith West" > "Additional images", Snap Galleries (retrieved 16 January 2016).

Sources Edit

  • Dale C. Allison Jr., The Love There That's Sleeping: The Art and Spirituality of George Harrison, Continuum (New York, NY, 2006; ISBN 978-0-8264-1917-0).
  • Keith Badman, The Beatles Diary Volume 2: After the Break-Up 1970–2001, Omnibus Press (London, 2001; ISBN 0-7119-8307-0).
  • Alan Clayson, George Harrison, Sanctuary (London, 2003; ISBN 1-86074-489-3).
  • The Editors of Rolling Stone, Harrison, Rolling Stone Press/Simon & Schuster (New York, NY, 2002; ISBN 0-7432-3581-9).
  • Joshua M. Greene, Here Comes the Sun: The Spiritual and Musical Journey of George Harrison, John Wiley & Sons (Hoboken, NJ, 2006; ISBN 978-0-470-12780-3).
  • Olivia Harrison, George Harrison: Living in the Material World, Abrams (New York, NY, 2011; ISBN 978-1-4197-0220-4).
  • Bill Harry, The George Harrison Encyclopedia, Virgin Books (London, 2003; ISBN 978-0-7535-0822-0).
  • Elliot J. Huntley, Mystical One: George Harrison – After the Break-up of the Beatles, Guernica Editions (Toronto, ON, 2006; ISBN 1-55071-197-0).
  • Ian Inglis, The Words and Music of George Harrison, Praeger (Santa Barbara, CA, 2010; ISBN 978-0-313-37532-3).
  • Colin Larkin, The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (5th edn), Omnibus Press (London, 2011; ISBN 978-0-85712-595-8).
  • Simon Leng, While My Guitar Gently Weeps: The Music of George Harrison, Hal Leonard (Milwaukee, WI, 2006; ISBN 1-4234-0609-5).
  • Chip Madinger & Mark Easter, Eight Arms to Hold You: The Solo Beatles Compendium, 44.1 Productions (Chesterfield, MO, 2000; ISBN 0-615-11724-4).
  • Robert Rodriguez, Fab Four FAQ 2.0: The Beatles' Solo Years, 1970–1980, Backbeat Books (Milwaukee, WI, 2010; ISBN 978-1-4165-9093-4).
  • Nicholas Schaffner, The Beatles Forever, McGraw-Hill (New York, NY, 1978; ISBN 0-07-055087-5).
  • Gary Tillery, Working Class Mystic: A Spiritual Biography of George Harrison, Quest Books (Wheaton, IL, 2011; ISBN 978-0-8356-0900-5).

October 15, 2023
songs, george, harrison, list, sound, recordings, george, harrison, discography, book, song, lyrics, commentary, english, musician, george, harrison, with, illustrations, zealand, artist, keith, west, published, february, 1988, limited, 2500, copies, genesis, . For a list of his sound recordings see George Harrison discography Songs by George Harrison is a book of song lyrics and commentary by English musician George Harrison with illustrations by New Zealand artist Keith West It was published in February 1988 in a limited run of 2500 copies by Genesis Publications and included an EP of rare or previously unreleased Harrison recordings Intended as a luxury item each copy was hand bound and boxed and available only by direct order through Genesis in England The book contains the lyrics to 60 Harrison compositions the themes of which West represents visually with watercolour paintings Starting in 1985 Harrison and West worked on the project for two years during which Harrison returned to music making with his album Cloud Nine after focusing on film production for much of the early 1980s The book includes a foreword by his Cloud Nine co producer Jeff Lynne and a written contribution from Elton John Songs by George HarrisonCover of the bookAuthorGeorge HarrisonIllustratorKeith WestGenreMusic artPublisherGenesis PublicationsPublication date15 February 1988Media typeBook with musical disc vinyl or CD running time 17 10 Pages176ISBN0 904351 36 XFollowed bySongs by George Harrison 2 The musical disc contains three songs that Warner Bros Records had rejected in 1980 for inclusion on Harrison s album Somewhere in England together with a live version of his Beatles track For You Blue This last song was recorded during Harrison s controversial 1974 North American tour when his singing was marred by the effects of laryngitis it remains the only vocal performance from that tour to have been made available outside of concert bootlegs While Lay His Head was issued as the B side to his 1987 single Got My Mind Set on You the Songs by George Harrison EP remains the sole official release for this live version of For You Blue and for the studio tracks Sat Singing and Flying Hour Genesis undertook a single print run for the book after which Songs by George Harrison became a highly priced collector s item It was followed by a second volume published in 1992 AllMusic describes the EP as remarkable and classic Harrison 1 Contents 1 Background 2 Production 3 Musical content 3 1 Sat Singing 3 2 Lay His Head 3 3 For You Blue 3 4 Flying Hour 4 Publication 5 Reception and legacy 6 Track listing 7 Citations 8 SourcesBackground EditGeorge Harrison first worked with Genesis Publications on his 1980 autobiography I Me Mine for which his friend Derek Taylor served as editor and narrator 2 Harrison subsequently edited Taylor s memoir Fifty Years Adrift 3 which Genesis published in its customary limited edition deluxe format in 1984 4 That year Brian Roylance the owner of Genesis Publications 5 met a New Zealand based botanical artist named Keith West whose work Roylance considered might be suitable for a proposed illustrated book of Harrison s songs 6 Since 1982 when he released the little promoted Gone Troppo album Harrison had minimised his musical activities in favour of a role as a film producer 7 with the success of his company HandMade Films 8 9 The content of his previous album Somewhere in England had been the subject of scrutiny by Warner Bros Records 10 the distributor of Harrison s Dark Horse record label 11 as a result Harrison was obliged to replace four of the songs intended for that album with more commercial sounding recordings for its eventual release in mid 1981 12 On the musical disc accompanying the Songs by George Harrison book Harrison decided to include three of the tracks that Warner Bros had rejected 13 14 The fourth of those 1980 recordings Tears of the World would appear on the EP accompanying Harrison and West s 1992 illustrated book Songs by George Harrison 2 15 16 Production EditHaving relocated to north Wales by 1985 West met with Harrison regularly over a period of two years at the latter s Oxfordshire estate Friar Park 17 The pair discussed the images required for all of Harrison s songs in order to ensure empathy between the illustrations and the message behind the lyrics West worked up pencil sketches which he would submit to Harrison before completing the final watercolour illustrations 18 Songs by George Harrison contains the lyrics to 60 of Harrison s compositions 19 for each of which West hand lettered the words 14 Harrison provided text commenting on the story behind some of the songs along with facsimiles of his original lyric sheets 20 The book was bound inside a black leather cover 6 and ran to 176 pages measuring 175 by 250 millimetres 18 During the two year period of production Harrison resumed a more active musical career which included working with producer Jeff Lynne on the soundtrack to HandMade Films Shanghai Surprise in 1986 before recording his first album in five years Cloud Nine 21 The book includes a foreword by Lynne a middleword by Elton John and a backword by Harrison 6 The accompanying EP was offered in either vinyl or CD format 22 with the disc housed beside the book in a handmade Solander box 18 Musical content Edit Sat Singing Edit The opening track on the EP the 1979 copyright Sat Singing was recorded at Harrison s Friar Park studio FPSHOT 23 in March 1980 24 Among Harrison biographers Simon Leng views the song as a pivotal composition in the artist s career 25 while Dale Allison considers it to be a crucial song for interpreting George s religiosity 26 The lyrics document an afternoon spent immersed in meditation 27 28 during which the singer surrenders the distractions of the physical world for a communion with his deity 29 30 The title references the Sanskrit term sat sang 31 which means time spent in the company of the highest truth such as with one s guru 28 Leng describes the song as a companion piece to the Beatles Tomorrow Never Knows in that Sat Singing represents the attainment of John Lennon s earlier exhortation to Turn off your mind relax and float downstream 25 Lay His Head Edit Like Sat Singing Lay His Head was recorded during the sessions for Somewhere in England in April 1980 32 The title refers to a phrase from the gospels of St Matthew and St Luke 33 that Harrison had taken to quoting when referring to the lack of privacy afforded him and his Beatles bandmates during the 1960s 34 In his adaptation the phrase became Foxes have holes and birds have nests but Beatles have nowhere to lay their heads 35 Leng views the song as a reflection on what a man loses when he becomes a media entity a connection with other people that everyone else takes for granted 34 Harrison carried out further work on the recording in August 1987 36 In October that year Lay His Head was released as the B side to Got My Mind Set on You 37 the lead single from Cloud Nine 13 The version on Songs by George Harrison used the same mix as that issued on the single which differed from the 1980 recording through the increased presence of percussion and drums 38 Percussionist Ray Cooper was credited as co producer with Harrison 39 For You Blue Edit Originally recorded by the Beatles and released on their 1970 album Let It Be 40 For You Blue was one of the relatively few Beatles songs that Harrison chose to perform on his 1974 North American tour with Ravi Shankar 41 42 The live version issued on Songs by George Harrison was the first recording from these 1974 concerts to receive an official release 43 44 despite Harrison s statements post tour that a full live album would be made available 45 46 Although the EP credits read Live in Washington DC the song was recorded in nearby Largo Maryland on 13 December 1974 47 The performance features solos from Robben Ford on electric guitar Emil Richards marimba and Willie Weeks bass 48 During the tour many reviewers had criticised Harrison for variously giving over stage time to his fellow musicians being scornful of his audience s nostalgia for the Beatles and performing with a voice ravaged by the effects of laryngitis 49 50 In response Leng writes that this live version of For You Blue contradicts the given view espoused by Rolling Stone magazine that Harrison s 1974 concerts were a calamity 51 In 2001 Record Collector editor Peter Doggett similarly commented on the track with regard to the singer s vocal issues Thankfully the solitary official evidence of the tour showed little evidence of the strain 52 Flying Hour Edit Although Harrison had intended it for inclusion on Somewhere in England Flying Hour dated from the sessions for his previous album George Harrison 1979 53 and was recorded in April 1978 54 He wrote the song with Bad Company guitarist Mick Ralphs who was among a coterie of local rock musicians known informally as the Henley Music Mafia 55 56 with whom Harrison played and socialised from the late 1970s onwards 57 The lyrics recall the theme of Harrison s 1973 track Be Here Now by advocating focusing only on the present 58 59 He adapted part of the words from an inscription on a clock tower 60 at Friar Park a legacy of the property s original owner Frank Crisp 61 According to Harrison s wife Olivia each time they walked past the clock tower he made a point of reading the inscription aloud 60 Past is gone thou canst not that recall Future is not may not be at all Present is so improve the flying hour Present only is within thy power Among the changes carried out when Harrison revisited Flying Hour in 1987 the track has a longer running time than the 1980 mix partly through the reinstating of a 20 second instrumental break late in the song and Harrison s slide guitar features less prominently 38 The track is driven by Weeks bassline and includes Polymoog synthesizer soloing from Steve Winwood 57 In Leng s opinion Flying Hour typifies Harrison s predicament with Warner s in 1980 in that the song would have been a sure fire hit in 1973 but was deemed unsuitable for commercial release seven years later 25 Publication Edit The book could only be done in a limited edition because if you printed it cheap you d lose the value of it It s expensive yes but in a world of crass disposable junk it s meant to be a lovely thing 62 George Harrison 1987 Songs by George Harrison was published on 15 February 1988 22 with the Genesis Publications catalogue number SGH 777 63 The print run was limited to 2500 18 with each copy signed by Harrison and West 64 65 The book was priced at 235 66 and available via mail order only 22 Genesis also offered the book as a limited edition series of enlarged prints 18 The release coincided with Harrison s uncharacteristically high profile publicity for Cloud Nine 67 68 which was a critical and commercial success when issued in November 1987 65 In an interview published in Musician magazine that same month Harrison spoke of a planned second volume with West 62 and he defended the exclusivity of Songs by George Harrison by saying in a world of crass disposable junk it s meant to be a lovely thing 69 Harrison and his wife returned to England from California for the book s publication 22 He subsequently promoted Songs by George Harrison during his Cloud Nine publicity activities in Europe 70 Reception and legacy EditDespite its high price Songs by George Harrison sold well 71 Typically for a Genesis title however 72 the publication s availability was confined to its initial print run 48 73 In a four star rating for the EP J T Griffith of AllMusic describes it as one of the essential additions to any serious Beatles or George Harrison collection and he concludes Songs By George Harrison is remarkable the songs are classic Harrison 1 Writing for Rolling Stone in 2002 Greg Kot highlighted Sat Singing and Lay His Head among the gems offered on the disc 74 That same year Dave Thompson of Goldmine similarly admired the 1980 recorded tracks he said that their rejection had been a criminal decision on the label s part since otherwise Somewhere in England could easily have taken its place among the elite of solo Beatledom 75 While lamenting that Songs by George Harrison was an heirloom quality item with a price to match and so prohibitive to the majority of Harrison s audience author Robert Rodriguez considers that Warner Bros displayed appalling judgment in overlooking Sat Singing and particularly Flying Hour which he describes as a breezy tune filled to the brim with hooks 76 Simon Leng admires the reinterpretation of For You Blue as a rhythm and blues jam track and praises Sat Singing for its melody of some beauty colored by warm golden slide guitar 77 Leng adds that As a musical essay on serenity and joy Sat Singing is one of Harrison s best yet he also identifies an isolationist perspective on the three 1980 recordings that reflected the singer s failure to appreciate the market forces with which Warner s had to contend 78 The 1988 Genesis publication remains the only formal release for Sat Singing Flying Hour and the live For You Blue 79 although all four tracks from the EP became available in 1995 on the bootleg compilation Pirate Songs 38 While a live version of the instrumental Hari s on Tour Express from Harrison s 1974 tour appeared on the Songs by George Harrison 2 EP 47 80 For You Blue remains the only vocal track from that tour to receive an official release 81 82 In December 2006 Record Collector magazine ranked Songs by George Harrison 122nd in its list of The 250 Most Valuable Records of Our Time with an estimated value of 800 for the book and disc set 73 Dale Allison describes it as obscure hard to get and very expensive 83 Track listing EditAll songs written by George Harrison except where noted All track list information per CD label 84 Sat Singing 4 30 Lay His Head 3 50 For You Blue live 4 08 Flying Hour Harrison Mick Ralphs 4 32Citations Edit a b J T Griffith George Harrison Songs by George Harrison AllMusic retrieved 14 December 2014 Clayson pp 382 83 Harry p 172 Clayson pp 395 96 Badman p 344 a b c Songs by George Harrison by George Harrison and Keith West Snap Galleries retrieved 12 January 2016 Larkin p 2647 Madinger amp Easter pp 462 463 Leng pp 229 30 239 The Editors of Rolling Stone p 189 Harry pp 150 349 Tillery pp 117 126 164 a b Inglis pp 93 94 102 a b Clayson p 423 Leng pp 213 14 325 Huntley pp 178 244 Clayson p 396 a b c d e Songs by George Harrison Volume One Genesis Publications retrieved 12 January 2016 Huntley p 218 Harry p 354 Clayson pp 402 03 409 10 a b c d Badman p 403 Madinger amp Easter pp 459 637 Harry p 328 a b c Leng p 215 Allison p 153 Greene p 233 a b Rodriguez p 386 Leng pp 215 16 Allison pp 17 18 125 153 Greene p 234 Badman pp 247 248 Allison p 57 a b Leng pp 216 17 Greene p 67 Madinger amp Easter pp 462 469 Badman p 392 a b c Madinger amp Easter p 462 Sleeve and B side label credits Got My Mind Set on You single 1987 Dark Horse Records W 8178 Leng p 40 Ben Fong Torres Lumbering in the Material World Rolling Stone 19 December 1974 p 59 Schaffner pp 177 178 Clayson p 338 Madinger amp Easter pp 447 637 38 Leng p 170 Harry p 373 a b Badman p 139 a b Inglis p 102 Rodriguez pp 58 60 Clayson pp 337 40 Leng pp 170 174 Peter Doggett George Harrison The Apple Years Record Collector April 2001 p 39 Madinger amp Easter pp 459 461 62 Badman p 221 Clayson p 390 Mark Ellen A Big Hand for The Quiet One Q January 1988 p 56 a b Rodriguez p 388 Allison pp 84 85 142 Inglis pp 102 03 a b Harrison p 388 Allison p 142 a b Timothy White George Harrison Reconsidered Musician November 1987 p 58 Madinger amp Easter p 637 Huntley p 244 a b Madinger amp Easter p 469 Harry p 350 Badman pp 403 04 Clayson pp 416 17 Clayson pp 423 24 474 Harry p 95 Clayson pp 423 24 Clayson p 383 a b Ian Shirley amp Alan Lewis 250 Rarest Records Record Collector December 2006 p 34 The Editors of Rolling Stone p 190 Dave Thompson The Music of George Harrison An album by album guide Goldmine 25 January 2002 pp 18 53 Rodriguez pp 386 87 433 Leng pp 171 216 296 Leng pp 213 215 17 Inglis pp 101 02 Allison p 144 Leng pp 170 325 Huntley pp 116 244 Allison p 17 Songs by George Harrison by George Harrison and Keith West gt Additional images Snap Galleries retrieved 16 January 2016 Sources EditDale C Allison Jr The Love There That s Sleeping The Art and Spirituality of George Harrison Continuum New York NY 2006 ISBN 978 0 8264 1917 0 Keith Badman The Beatles Diary Volume 2 After the Break Up 1970 2001 Omnibus Press London 2001 ISBN 0 7119 8307 0 Alan Clayson George Harrison Sanctuary London 2003 ISBN 1 86074 489 3 The Editors of Rolling Stone Harrison Rolling Stone Press Simon amp Schuster New York NY 2002 ISBN 0 7432 3581 9 Joshua M Greene Here Comes the Sun The Spiritual and Musical Journey of George Harrison John Wiley amp Sons Hoboken NJ 2006 ISBN 978 0 470 12780 3 Olivia Harrison George Harrison Living in the Material World Abrams New York NY 2011 ISBN 978 1 4197 0220 4 Bill Harry The George Harrison Encyclopedia Virgin Books London 2003 ISBN 978 0 7535 0822 0 Elliot J Huntley Mystical One George Harrison After the Break up of the Beatles Guernica Editions Toronto ON 2006 ISBN 1 55071 197 0 Ian Inglis The Words and Music of George Harrison Praeger Santa Barbara CA 2010 ISBN 978 0 313 37532 3 Colin Larkin The Encyclopedia of Popular Music 5th edn Omnibus Press London 2011 ISBN 978 0 85712 595 8 Simon Leng While My Guitar Gently Weeps The Music of George Harrison Hal Leonard Milwaukee WI 2006 ISBN 1 4234 0609 5 Chip Madinger amp Mark Easter Eight Arms to Hold You The Solo Beatles Compendium 44 1 Productions Chesterfield MO 2000 ISBN 0 615 11724 4 Robert Rodriguez Fab Four FAQ 2 0 The Beatles Solo Years 1970 1980 Backbeat Books Milwaukee WI 2010 ISBN 978 1 4165 9093 4 Nicholas Schaffner The Beatles Forever McGraw Hill New York NY 1978 ISBN 0 07 055087 5 Gary Tillery Working Class Mystic A Spiritual Biography of George Harrison Quest Books Wheaton IL 2011 ISBN 978 0 8356 0900 5 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Songs by George Harrison amp oldid 1148513077, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, 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