LiveMusicBlog

In this article we’re going to briefly review one of the most touching shows that was ever held for another person, The Concert For George.

There are extraordinarily few people in history who you can mention their 1st name, say the word concert and know exactly who that concert was for. The Concert For George was one of those concerts. George of course being the late George Harrison of the Beatles.

George Harrison died of brain cancer on November 29, 2001. One year later the memorial concert for this exceptional performer has been held at the Royal Albert Hall in London. It’s only fitting that this has been the place as Harrison has been 100 % English from the top of his head to the ideas of his magical guitar fingers.  Many feel he has been the overlooked Beatle. Everything has been about John and Paul. But most critics feel that George Harrison has been the heart and soul of the Beatle’s guitar sound which has since be copied by so a lot of performers.

The idea for the concert was George’s nice friend Eric Clapton’s. Clapton and Harrison had actually been companions for a long time and first played together on the White Album. The song, of course, was “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.” Clapton put together a memorial that Harrison himself would have smiled at.

The concert began with the daughter of one of Harrison’s exceptional companions, Ravi Shankar, singing “Your Eyes.” After this song the daughter, who’s name is Anoushka, teamed with another one of Harrison’s companions, Jeff Lynne of ELO fame, to sing “The Inner Light” which has been one of George Harrison’s own tunes.

The performance itself has been a mixture of music and comedy, which is unusually unusual for a performance. The comedy has been handled mostly by the ensemble of Monty Python who, along with Tom Hanks, performed “Sit On My Face” and “The Lumberjack Song” which has been one of Monty Python’s funniest and the majority famous tunes.

The rest of the concert featured more of George’s companions and the remaining members of the Beatles, Paul and Ringo. additionally there were Tom Petty, Billy Preston, and Gary Brooker from Procal Harem. George’s son Dhani has been additionally on hand. If you watch the video of the concert you would swear that Dhani has been George Harrison if you didn’t know better.

The remainder of the concert featured mostly songs that were either done by The Beatles or songs that George had done solo or with other performers such as when he has been with Tom Petty during his stint with The Traveling Willburys.

The songs are a who’s who of some of the greatest tunes these people ever did together or separately. They included such classics as George’s signature song “Something,” the Beatles’ like “Is not It A Pity,” “Here Comes The Sun,” a Ringo tune that George played on, “Photograph,” “All Things Must Pass,” “My Sweet Lord,” and finishing with “I’llSee You In My Dreams,” which was an appropriate ending for the performance.