‘Marwa Blues’: Everything great about George Harrison’s guitar in one song
Any guitarist is usually concerned with making their voice come through every time they pick up their instrument. No one necessarily has to be the best guitarist in the world to have their voice be heard, but whenever someone hears their solo coming in, it’s usually best if they know someone within the first few notes rather than having to be told who it was afterwards. But for George Harrison, his guitar playing was as important to any of his songs as his singing voice was half the time.
That’s not to say that he didn’t have years of practice. The amount of times that he played second fiddle to John Lennon and Paul McCartney was going to do a number on his guitar chops, and by the time that he reached Abbey Road, the guitar fills that he played throughout the album were among the finest in rock history, whether that was the solo on ‘Something’ or the different bluesy licks that he filled in on his turns on ‘The End’.
But the real definitive sound of Harrison was something that he never fully mastered until he branched out to his solo career: the slide guitar. While he was first given a slide by Delaney and Bonnie, hearing his guitar talk in a different way was the perfect way for him to convey the kind of emotions that he couldn’t do through lyrics, especially when playing those gorgeous harmonised guitar parts on ‘My Sweet Lord’.
If anything, this approach went back to Harrison’s view of how all great Eastern musicians played their instruments. He knew there was no way that he was going to be a better sitarist than some of the greatest people that he saw, but he could always find a way to get a tune out of a great slide lick, whether that was something groovy like ‘Woman Don’t You Cry For Me’ or going back to The Beatles on ‘Free As A Bird’.
If we’re talking about the performance that sums him up the best, though, that came from ‘Marwa Blues’ off of his album Brainwashed. Even though the entire album wasn’t finished by the time Harrison passed away in 2001, this instrumental is a core piece of his musical farewell by combining both the Eastern and Western styles of music under one roof for a few minutes of magic.
Many of Harrison’s greatest Beatles compositions had hinted at Eastern philosophies like ‘Within You Without You’, but this may as well be a prayer set to music, getting its name from the traditional tunes that would be played at sunset. From the gentle touch of his slide to the arrangement by Jeff Lynne, it’s enough for anyone to picture a massive sunset, not unlike what Harrison’s widow, Olivia, had talked about him doing in Living in the Material World.
And despite the title track ending with Harrison going out singing his final mantra in unison with his son, ‘Marwa Blues’ is a better indication of what his spiritual side was all about. The teachings that Harrison followed throughout his life were always about building one relationship in order to get closer to God, but even though he had his wife and his fellow bandmates, it’s safe to say that one of those foundational relationships was between him and his guitar.
Beyond the scenic sounds of his guitar, the fact that Harrison never strays away from the melody line and only plays subtle extensions on the tune is one of the reasons why he should be so revered in the musical community. He didn’t play flashy solos. He didn’t play massive scales, either. He played what was in his heart first, and when someone opens themselves up that much, there’s hardly anyone on this planet who can touch them.
