“That was good music”: The only 1980s album George Harrison loved
Most seasoned artists don’t need to worry about keeping up with the charts whenever they perform. For them, they had already conquered the world, and it was no use in them trying to go along with what the new kids in town were doing if it meant that they would sound like they were selling out. George Harrison wasn’t going to begin to make anything that wasn’t from the heart, but he did admit to having a soft spot for these 1980s hitmakers back in the day.
By the end of The Beatles, though, Harrison seemed to have had his fill of the pop charts. Looking at the music he made during the 1970s, he was far more interested in following his muse, whether that meant learning from his idols like Bob Dylan or Smokey Robinson or trying his hand at delving into Indian music again with Ravi Shankar.
When that started having diminishing returns, though, Harrison had no time to try to fit in with what the kids wanted. Only one listen of a song like ‘Unconsciousness Rules’ off of Somewhere in England will tell you that this was not someone who was going to roll over and make a pop smash because someone in a suit told him that it was the tried-and-true formula.
And when he finally decided to get back in touch with his roots, Harrison still managed to sound as vibrant as ever on Cloud Nine. Granted, it also didn’t hurt that Harrison’s brand of unassuming rock and roll was something that was becoming much more popular now that acts like Dire Straits were dominating the charts.
Even though Mark Knopfler was keen to write hits for knockout stars like Tina Turner, the lion’s share of their material was always about the song before anything else, and with Knopfler’s signature approach to the guitar, there was no way that they could lose when tearing through songs like ‘Romeo and Juliet’ or ‘Money for Nothing’.
Although Dire Straits were the furthest thing from hip, even at the best of times, Harrison could appreciate a great groove when he heard one, saying, “I can’t say I’ve really heard anything that gives me the same buzz like some of that stuff we did in the Fifties and Sixties. The last band I really enjoyed was Dire Straits on the Brothers in Arms album. That was good music played well, without any of the bullshit.”
That kind of unassuming approach to rock wasn’t lost on Harrison, either. Throughout his time in the Traveling Wilburys around that same era, it feels like Knopfler could have fit in right alongside those fellow legends, especially considering his work with Bob Dylan during his born-again Christian period.
Because as far as Harrison was concerned, rock wasn’t a genre built on flashiness. It was about artists who had something to say, and even if Dire Straits weren’t the most interesting guys in the world, it didn’t matter as long as they let their music do the talking.
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