George Harrison: the most lyrical guitarist who ever lived
No musician should start writing a song based on one hook. Every single instrument has the chance to play its own infectious melodic line, and even though it’s easy to let the singer take centre stage, it’s not hard for the drummer or even the bassist to come up with something that wows the people every now and again. But even though George Harrison was the ‘Quiet Beatle’ compared to his fellow Fabs, what he did with his guitar is still some of the most understated beauty of any lead guitar player.
This is strange because Harrison was never cut out to be a lead guitarist the same way that Eric Clapton or Jimi Hendrix were. Both of them started with blues and made the kind of solos that made people gawk at how fast they were going, but Harrison was more interested in the slow and steady approach throughout his career.
Even from early on in The Beatles’ career, he was far more interested in making something that was a bit more singable than the average guitar solo. Every break in their songs may have been Harrison’s chance to shine, but listening to a track like ‘All My Loving’, it’s easier to sing every lead line that he pumped out than trying to keep up with every single lick of Hendrix’s ‘Red House’ from a few years later.
That kind of playing also goes hand-in-hand with the way that Harrison wrote a lot of his melodies. He had started as a songwriter completely on his own, and while not every one of his songs was on the same level as John Lennon and Paul McCartney, he made sure all of his solos on them sounded exactly right, whether that was getting the most out of Clapton on ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’ or hearing him soar above the band on ‘Something’.
If we’re talking about lyrical guitar playing, though, Harrison’s true power was reserved for when he whipped out his slide during his solo career. He still had his trademark penchant for Chuck Berry licks every now and again, but those years of playing sitar and getting in touch with Eastern harmony gave him a touch on slide guitar that no one has really matched, always making the guitar sound like it was laughing, crying, or emoting in any other way depending on the song’s mood.
It only takes one look at other guitar players to see what makes Harrison a true master. Someone like Randy Rhoads had a great way of going through the sound barrier when playing with Ozzy Osbourne, but it’s unfair to compare the virtuosos with what Harrison was doing. Anyone can learn all the scales they want to and become the next Yngie Malmsteen, but that’s the equivalent of having a full knowledge of the English language but still not being to form a coherent sentence.
Even if some people tried to take it further, they are still living in the shadows of what Harrison had built during his time with The Beatles and his solo career. David Gilmour had a unique approach that made you want to cry every time he hit the right bend, but even if he followed in the footsteps of artists like Jeff Beck and even Harrison himself, the art of being able to sing a guitar solo was invented by what Harrison did when serving the song. Gilmour is still fantastic, but a solo like ‘Something’ walked so ‘Comfortably Numb’ could run.
While All Things Must Pass is normally looked at as Harrison’s true masterpiece, some of his playing didn’t even come close to perfection until he had more years under his belt, whether that was the harmony lines on ‘Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth)’ or any Traveling Wilbirys album. And even if he had a muted role in The Beatles Anthology, the collaboration wouldn’t hold any water if ‘Free As A Bird’ didn’t start off with that slide riff.
However, the best example of Harrison using his guitar as a voice came on his final album, Brainwashed. Since the whole record is about him saying goodbye, ‘Marwa Blues’ was the last time he let his soul speak through his guitar, taking the basic melody idea and penning a song that is both a devotional ode to his beliefs and a look into his soul for an all-too-brief three minutes.
Then again, Harrison always knew that some emotions were much better served when played rather than said. He always wanted to make music on his own terms, and despite many of his Beatles classics and solo hits giving us food for thought, it’s easy to see the shape of his heart whenever he stepped away from the mic to play.
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