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 |   Enga mellom fjella: where from across the meadow, poems sing from mountains and molehills. |
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Enga mellom Fjella  Sentinel Marked as if you own me I bow before the Bitterroots and just like you my rocky soil, my withered grass lays prey to the empty sky. © Kåre Enga 2007 "Sentinel"   Reader's Choice of Poems: "Sentinel" "Glice" "Tales told over scones and hot tea" "Boise City" "Wheat penny" Reader's Choice of blog entries from my old blog "L'aura del Campo" :"Death of Jeannie New Moon" "Doing and don'ting. A scene in 2nd person." "Even in chaos ... More hockey poems." "Holy day. Autumn in November. A mole." "James Doohan, Scotty. Ombra mai fu. Eutin Guitar Orchestra" FACES     PLACES            Kåre  Enga~ until everything was rainbow, rainbow, rainbow! And I let the fish go. ~ Elizabeth Bishop The Fish |
 Orange Dawn of My Deception 2 a.m. and a full moon tugging at my thoughts, caffeine not allowing me to dream, this screen winking at me as if it knows. I'll never get this story done in time. Nerves shot but heart still beating? Well, maybe. I want to move to Norway, some place snow covered, peaceful. My friend in Tromsø teases me with photos of pristine white on pine. Winter's sun is already waning there. Soon... only a false dawn, faint in the south. I want to nap but an orange glow enters my two rooms. I'm startled, check for fire. Did I leave the pot boiling on the stove? No. But the strange light still glows. Ah... the neon sign telling me gasoline is $2.29 per gallon. As if I care. I don't have a car. Snuggling under my blanket on this cold night, I struggle to sleep. I may as well get up and pee. That glow... it's brighter. I go into the hallway and look out the north facing windows, look to the east, go back in my rooms, crank my neck to look southeast. The clouds take the form of a beast. I smile. It's Halloween. Odd though. No rain was forecast. I look again. It's as if it has a grin. A jack-o'-lantern in the sky. My Muse laughs. I don't. It looks too real. And it's looking at me. Mesmerized I can't look away. White clouds become the skulls of Death Eaters, the black wisps becomes a bad hairdo, a tatter of robes. That grin — becomes wider. It looks like a nightmare. I laugh. I'm not afraid of monsters. It's humans I fear. If they ever should find me. So many years cloaked by their incuriosity. So easy to fool humans. The glow becomes brighter, oranger. What's that globe in its hand? I begin to shake. Full Moon, protect me! Full Moon banish this ungodly glow! It approaches without a sound. Now I see a halo, a globe, a string of pearls. No, a spaceship, my sun, the planets that revolve around it. NO! I am being summoned. They have come to retrieve me. My blue screen blinks. I grab a pencil, it breaks. Books burn as my thoughts go blank. The Dawn is so far away. It rises orange in the south in Tromsø in October. Too bad I will never return after today. © Kåre Enga [177.273] (30.oktober.2020) For:
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Jerry Jeff Walker (born Ronald Clyde Crosby; March 16, 1942 – October 23, 2020) was an American country music singer and songwriter. He was a leading figure in the outlaw country music movement. He was best known for having written the 1968 song "Mr. Bojangles".[3] LYRICS I knew a man Bojangles and he danced for you In worn out shoes Silver hair, a ragged shirt and baggy pants The old soft shoe He jumped so high He jumped so high Then he'd lightly touched down Mr Bojangles Mr Bojangles Mr Bojangles Dance I met him in a cell in New Orleans I was Down and out He looked to me to be the eyes of age As he spoke right out He talked of life He talked of life He lightly slapped his leg instead He said the name Bojangles and he danced a lick Across the cell He grabbed his pants for a better stance He jumped so high He clicked his heels He let go a laugh He let go a laugh Shook back his clothes all around Mr Bojangles Mr Bojangles Mr Bojangles Dance We danced for those at minstrel shows and county fairs Throughout the south We spoke in tears of fifteen years How his dog and him They travelled about His dog up and died He up and died After twenty years he still grieves They said I dance now at every chance and honky tonks For drinks and tips But most the time I spend behind these county bars Cause I drinks a bit He shook his head and as he shook his head I heard someone ask please Mr Bojangles Mr Bojangles Mr Bojangles Dance Mr Bojangles Mr Bojangles Mr Bojangles REDACTED I knew a man in worn out shoes, a ragged shirt and baggy pants. I met him in a cell I was down and out The eyes of age spoke right out. He talked of life across the cell let go a laugh. All around we danced county fairs throughout fifteen years travelled about. I dance now at every chance for drinks and tips behind these county bars cause I drinks a bit. I heard someone ask, please dance. |
Woody Guthrie: Woodrow Wilson Guthrie (July 14, 1912 – October 3, 1967) was an American singer-songwriter, who is considered one of the most significant figures in American western folk music including "This Land Is Your Land" (1944). LYRICS This land is your land, and this land is my land From the California, to the New York Island From the Redwood Forest, to the Gulf stream waters This land was made for you and me As I went walking that ribbon of highway I saw above me that endless skyway Saw below me the golden valley This land was made for you and me I roamed and rambled, and I've followed my footsteps To the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts All around me a voice was sounding This land was made for you and me When the sun come shining, then I was strolling And the wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling A voice was chanting as the fog was lifting This land was made for you and me This land is your land, and this land is my land From California to the New York Island From the Redwood Forest, to the Gulf stream waters This land was made for you and me When the sun come shining, then I was strolling And the wheat fields waving, the dust clouds rolling The voice come in chanting and the fog was lifting This land was made for you and me REDACTION This land is my land from the Redwood Forest, to the Gulf stream waters This land was made for me As I went walking I saw above me that endless skyway Saw below me the golden valley This land was made for me I roamed and rambled the sparkling sands of diamond deserts All around me a voice was sounding This land was made for me. When sun come shining, dust clouds rolling, a voice chanting as the fog was lifting This land was made for me. Then I was strolling, dust clouds rolling, chanting. This land was made for me. |
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0CeFX6E2yI "A true musician never dies, he just stops performing live. Manu Dibango, the Lion of Africa." I am at peace, my soul at rest There are no need for tears For with your love I was so blessed For all those many years. December 12, 1933 – March 24, 2020 With deep sadness and this world's loss, Manu Dibango (the Lion of Africa), has made his transition into the Light at 86 years of age to covid 19," in a hospital near Paris, according to his Facebook post. RIP Manu and thank you for the gift of your music. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ManuDibangoO... Soul Makossa meaning: "I will dance." The lyrics are written phonetically and not in the actual language intended. OBIT Emmanuel N'Djoké "Manu" Dibango (12 December 1933 – 24 March 2020)[2] was a Cameroonian musician and songwriter who played saxophone and vibraphone. He developed a musical style fusing jazz, funk, and traditional Cameroonian music. His father was a member of the Yabassi ethnic group, while his mother was a Duala. He was best known for his 1972 single "Soul Makossa". He died from COVID-19 on 24 March 2020.[3][4] Contents 1 Early life 2 Career 3 Discography 3.1 As leader 4 Citations 5 General sources 6 Further reading 7 External links Early life Emmanuel "Manu" Dibango was born in Douala, Cameroon in 1933. His father, Michel Manfred N'Djoké Dibango,[5] was a civil servant. Son of a farmer, he met his wife travelling by pirogue to her residence, Douala.[6] Emmanuel's mother was a fashion designer, running her own small business.[7] Both her ethnic group, the Douala, and his, the Yabassi, viewed this union of different ethnic groups with some disdain.[6] Dibango had only a stepbrother from his father's previous marriage,[8] who was four years older than him.[9] In Cameroon, one's ethnicity is dictated by one's father, though Dibango wrote in his autobiography, Three Kilos of Coffee, that he had "never been able to identify completely with either of [his] parents".[8] Dibango's uncle was the leader of his extended family. Upon his death, Dibango's father refused to take over, as he never fully initiated his son into the Yabassi's customs. Throughout his childhood, Dibango slowly forgot the Yabassi language in favour of the Douala. However, his family did live in the Yabassi encampment on the Yabassi plateau, close to the Wouri River in central Douala.[8] While a child, Dibango attended Protestant church every night for religious education, or nkouaida. He enjoyed studying music there, and reportedly was a fast learner.[7] In 1941, after being educated at his village school,[10] Dibango was accepted into a colonial school, near his home, where he learned French. He admired the teacher, whom he described as "an extraordinary draftsman and painter".[11] In 1944, French president Charles de Gaulle chose this school to perform the welcoming ceremonies upon his arrival in Cameroon.[12] In 1949, at age 15, Dibango was sent to college in Saint-Calais, France. After that he attended the lycée de Chartres where he learned the piano.[13] Career He was a member of the seminal Congolese rumba group African Jazz and has collaborated with many other musicians, including Fania All Stars, Fela Kuti, Herbie Hancock, Bill Laswell, Bernie Worrell, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, King Sunny Adé, Don Cherry, and Sly and Robbie. He achieved a considerable following in the UK with a disco hit called "Big Blow", originally released in 1976 and re-mixed as a 12" single in 1978 on Island Records. In 1998, he recorded the album CubAfrica with Cuban artist Eliades Ochoa. At the 16th Annual Grammy Awards in 1974, he was nominated in the categories Best R&B Instrumental Performance and Best Instrumental Composition for "Soul Makossa".[14] The song "Soul Makossa" on the record of the same name contains the lyrics "makossa", which means "(I) dance" in his native tongue, the Cameroonian language Duala. It has influenced popular music hits, including Kool and the Gang's "Jungle Boogie".[15] The 1982 parody song "Boogie in your butt" by comedian Eddie Murphy interpolates Soul Makossa's bassline and horn charts while "Butt Naked Booty Blues" by 1990s hip-hop group Poor Righteous Teachers heavily samples its musical bridge and drum patterns.[citation needed] He served as the first chairman of the Cameroon Music Corporation, with a high profile in disputes about artists' royalties. Dibango was appointed a UNESCO Artist for Peace in 2004.[16][17] His song, "Reggae Makossa", is featured on the soundtrack to the 2006 video game Scarface: The World Is Yours. In August 2009, he played the closing concert at the revived Brecon Jazz Festival. In 1982, Michael Jackson used the "Ma ma-se, ma ma-sa, ma ma-kossa" hook from Dibango's 1972 single "Soul Makossa" without his permission and without credit for the song "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'" from his superhit 1982 album Thriller. When Dibango found out he considered to sue the megastar but Jackson was fast to admit that he borrowed the line and the matter was settled out of court.[18] In 2007, Rihanna sampled the same hook from Jackson's song for her track "Don't Stop the Music" and did not credit Dibango. When Rihanna had asked Jackson for permission to sample the line, he allegedly approved the request without contacting Dibango beforehand. In 2009, Dibango sued both singers. Dibango's attorneys brought the case before a court in Paris, demanding €500,000 in damages and asking for Sony BMG, EMI and Warner Music to be "barred from receiving 'mama-se mama-sa'-related income until the matter is resolved".[19] The judge ruled that Dibango's claim was inadmissible: a year earlier, a different Paris-area judge had required Universal Music to include Dibango's name in the liner notes of future French releases of "Don't Stop the Music", and, at the time of this earlier court appearance, Dibango had withdrawn legal action, thereby waiving his right to seek further damages.[20][21] In July 2014, he made an 80th anniversary concert at Olympia, France[22] which was broadcast by TV5Monde. On 8 September 2015, Michaëlle Jean, Secretary General of the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie, honoured Manu Dibango with the title of Grand Témoin de la Francophonie aux Jeux Olympiques et Paralympiques de Rio 2016[23] (Special Representative of Francophonia to the Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games).[citation needed] On 24 March 2020, Dibango died from COVID-19 in Paris.[2][24] |
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrTMc2i6Lzc George Harrison[nb 1] MBE (25 February 1943 – 29 November 2001) was an English musician, singer, songwriter, and music and film producer who achieved international fame as the lead guitarist of the Beatles. Sometimes called "the quiet Beatle", Harrison embraced Indian culture and helped broaden the scope of popular music through his incorporation of Indian instrumentation and Hindu-aligned spirituality in the Beatles' work.[2] Although the majority of the band's songs were written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, most Beatles albums from 1965 onwards contained at least two Harrison compositions. His songs for the group include "Taxman", "Within You Without You", "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", "Here Comes the Sun" and "Something". Harrison's earliest musical influences included George Formby and Django Reinhardt; Carl Perkins, Chet Atkins and Chuck Berry were subsequent influences. By 1965, he had begun to lead the Beatles into folk rock through his interest in Bob Dylan and the Byrds, and towards Indian classical music through his use of the sitar on "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)". Having initiated the band's embracing of Transcendental Meditation in 1967, he subsequently developed an association with the Hare Krishna movement. After the band's break-up in 1970, Harrison released the triple album All Things Must Pass, a critically acclaimed work that produced his most successful hit single, "My Sweet Lord", and introduced his signature sound as a solo artist, the slide guitar. He also organised the 1971 Concert for Bangladesh with Indian musician Ravi Shankar, a precursor to later benefit concerts such as Live Aid. In his role as a music and film producer, Harrison produced acts signed to the Beatles' Apple record label before founding Dark Horse Records in 1974 and co-founding HandMade Films in 1978. Harrison released several best-selling singles and albums as a solo performer. In 1988, he co-founded the platinum-selling supergroup the Traveling Wilburys. A prolific recording artist, he was featured as a guest guitarist on tracks by Badfinger, Ronnie Wood and Billy Preston, and collaborated on songs and music with Dylan, Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr and Tom Petty, among others. Rolling Stone magazine ranked him number 11 in their list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time". He is a two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee – as a member of the Beatles in 1988, and posthumously for his solo career in 2004.[3] Harrison's first marriage, to model Pattie Boyd in 1966, ended in divorce in 1977. The following year he married Olivia Arias, with whom he had a son, Dhani. Harrison died from lung cancer in 2001 at the age of 58, two years after surviving a knife attack by an intruder at his Friar Park home. His remains were cremated and the ashes were scattered according to Hindu tradition in a private ceremony in the Ganges and Yamuna rivers in India. He left an estate of almost £100 million. Contents 1 Early years: 1943–1958 2 The Beatles: 1958–1970 3 Solo career: 1968–1987 3.1 Early solo work: 1968–1969 3.2 All Things Must Pass: 1970 3.3 The Concert for Bangladesh: 1971 3.4 Living in the Material World to George Harrison: 1973–1979 3.5 Somewhere in England to Cloud Nine: 1980–1987 4 Later career: 1988–1996 4.1 The Traveling Wilburys and return to touring: 1988–1992 4.2 The Beatles Anthology: 1994–1996 5 Later life and death: 1997–2001 6 Musicianship 6.1 Guitar work 6.2 Sitar and Indian music 6.3 Songwriting 6.4 Collaborations 6.5 Guitars 7 Film production and HandMade Films 8 Humanitarian work 9 Personal life 9.1 Hinduism 9.2 Family and interests 9.3 Relationships with the other Beatles 10 Legacy 11 Discography 12 Notes 13 References 13.1 Citations 13.2 Sources 14 Further reading 14.1 Documentaries 15 External links Early years: 1943–1958 Harrison's first home, a red brick building Harrison's place of birth and first home – 12 Arnold Grove Harrison was born at 12 Arnold Grove in Wavertree, Liverpool on 25 February 1943.[4] He was the youngest of four children of Harold Hargreaves (or Hargrove) Harrison (1909–1978) and Louise (née French;[5] 1911–1970). Harold was a bus conductor who had worked as a ship's steward on the White Star Line,[6] and Louise was a shop assistant of Irish Catholic descent.[7] He had one sister, Louise (born 16 August 1931), and two brothers, Harold (born 1934) and Peter (20 July 1940 – 1 June 2007).[8][9] According to Boyd, Harrison's mother was particularly supportive: "All she wanted for her children is that they should be happy, and she recognized that nothing made George quite as happy as making music."[10] Louise was an enthusiastic music fan, and she was known among friends for her loud singing voice, which at times startled visitors by rattling the Harrisons' windows.[11] When Louise was pregnant with George, she often listened to the weekly broadcast Radio India. Harrison's biographer Joshua Greene wrote, "Every Sunday she tuned in to mystical sounds evoked by sitars and tablas, hoping that the exotic music would bring peace and calm to the baby in the womb."[12] Harrison lived the first four years of his life at 12 Arnold Grove, a terraced house on a cul-de-sac.[13] The home had an outdoor toilet and its only heat came from a single coal fire. In 1949, the family was offered a council house and moved to 25 Upton Green, Speke.[14] In 1948, at the age of five, Harrison enrolled at Dovedale Primary School.[15] He passed the eleven-plus exam and attended Liverpool Institute High School for Boys from 1954 to 1959.[16][17] Though the institute did offer a music course, Harrison was disappointed with the absence of guitars, and felt the school "moulded [students] into being frightened".[18] Harrison's earliest musical influences included George Formby, Cab Calloway, Django Reinhardt and Hoagy Carmichael;[19] by the 1950s, Carl Perkins and Lonnie Donegan were significant influences.[20] In early 1956, he had an epiphany: while riding his bicycle, he heard Elvis Presley's "Heartbreak Hotel" playing from a nearby house, and the song piqued his interest in rock and roll.[21] He often sat at the back of the class drawing guitars in his schoolbooks, and later commented, "I was totally into guitars."[22] Harrison cited Slim Whitman as another early influence: "The first person I ever saw playing a guitar was Slim Whitman, either a photo of him in a magazine or live on television. Guitars were definitely coming in."[23] At first, Harold Harrison was apprehensive about his son's interest in pursuing a music career. However, in 1956, he bought George a Dutch Egmond flat-top acoustic guitar, which according to Harold, cost £3.10 (equivalent to £100 in 2020[24]).[25][26] One of his father's friends taught Harrison how to play "Whispering", "Sweet Sue", and "Dinah". Inspired by Donegan's music, Harrison formed a skiffle group, the Rebels, with his brother Peter and a friend, Arthur Kelly.[27] On the bus to school, Harrison met Paul McCartney, who also attended the Liverpool Institute, and the pair bonded over their shared love of music.[28] The Beatles: 1958–1970 Main article: The Beatles Harrison became part of the Beatles with McCartney and John Lennon when the band were still a skiffle group called the Quarrymen. In March 1958, he auditioned for the Quarrymen at Rory Storm's Morgue Skiffle Club, playing Arthur "Guitar Boogie" Smith's "Guitar Boogie Shuffle", but Lennon felt that Harrison, having just turned 15, was too young to join the band.[29] McCartney arranged a second meeting, on the upper deck of a Liverpool bus, during which Harrison impressed Lennon by performing the lead guitar part for the instrumental "Raunchy".[30] He began socialising with the group, filling in on guitar as needed,[31] and then became accepted as a member.[32] Although his father wanted him to continue his education, Harrison left school at 16 and worked for several months as an apprentice electrician at Blacklers, a local department store.[33] During the group's first tour of Scotland, in 1960, Harrison used the pseudonym "Carl Harrison", in reference to Carl Perkins.[34] A young man is seated in front of a microphone near the centre of the picture, smoking a cigarette. Behind him, partially visible, stand several young women. Harrison at a Beatles press conference in Amsterdam in 1964 In 1960, promoter Allan Williams arranged for the band, now calling themselves the Beatles, to play at the Indra and Kaiserkeller clubs in Hamburg, both owned by Bruno Koschmider.[35] Their first residency in Hamburg ended prematurely when Harrison was deported for being too young to work in nightclubs.[36] When Brian Epstein became their manager in December 1961, he polished up their image and later secured them a recording contract with EMI.[37] The group's first single, "Love Me Do", peaked at number seventeen on the Record Retailer chart, and by the time their debut album, Please Please Me, was released in early 1963, Beatlemania had arrived.[38] Often serious and focused while on stage with the band, Harrison was known as "the quiet Beatle".[39][40] That moniker arose when the Beatles arrived in the United States in early 1964, and Harrison was ill with a case of Strep throat and a fever and was medically advised to limit speaking as much as possible until he performed on The Ed Sullivan Show as scheduled. As such, the press noticed Harrison's apparent laconic nature in public appearances on that tour and the subsequent nickname stuck, much to Harrison's amusement.[41] He had two lead vocal credits on the LP, including the Lennon–McCartney song "Do You Want to Know a Secret?", and three on their second album, With the Beatles (1963).[42] The latter included "Don't Bother Me", Harrison's first solo writing credit.[43] Harrison (left) and Ringo Starr (right) performing at the King's Hall in Belfast, 1964 Harrison served as the Beatles' scout for new American releases, being especially knowledgeable about soul music.[44] By 1965's Rubber Soul, he had begun to lead the other Beatles into folk rock through his interest in the Byrds and Bob Dylan, and towards Indian classical music through his use of the sitar on "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)".[45][nb 2] He later called Rubber Soul his "favourite [Beatles] album".[47] Revolver (1966) included three of his compositions: "Taxman", selected as the album's opening track, "Love You To" and "I Want to Tell You".[48] His drone-like tambura part on Lennon's "Tomorrow Never Knows" exemplified the band's ongoing exploration of non-Western instruments,[49] while the sitar- and tabla-based "Love You To" represented the Beatles' first genuine foray into Indian music.[50] According to the ethnomusicologist David Reck, the latter song set a precedent in popular music as an example of Asian culture being represented by Westerners respectfully and without parody.[51] Author Nicholas Schaffner wrote in 1978 that following Harrison's increased association with the sitar after "Norwegian Wood", he became known as "the maharaja of raga-rock".[52] Harrison continued to develop his interest in non-Western instrumentation, playing swarmandal on "Strawberry Fields Forever".[53] By late 1966, Harrison's interests had moved away from the Beatles. This was reflected in his choice of Eastern gurus and religious leaders for inclusion on the album cover for Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band in 1967.[54][nb 3] His sole composition on the album was the Indian-inspired "Within You Without You", to which no other Beatle contributed.[56] He played sitar and tambura on the track, backed by musicians from the London Asian Music Circle on dilruba, swarmandal and tabla.[57][nb 4] He later commented on the Sgt. Pepper album: "It was a millstone and a milestone in the music industry ... There's about half the songs I like and the other half I can't stand."[59] The Beatles in a scene from their 1967 television film Magical Mystery Tour In January 1968, he recorded the basic track for his song "The Inner Light" at EMI's studio in Bombay, using a group of local musicians playing traditional Indian instruments.[60] Released as the B-side to McCartney's "Lady Madonna", it was the first Harrison composition to appear on a Beatles single.[60] Derived from a quotation from the Tao Te Ching, the song's lyric reflected Harrison's deepening interest in Hinduism and meditation.[61] During the recording of The Beatles that same year, tensions within the group ran high, and drummer Ringo Starr quit briefly.[62] Harrison's four songwriting contributions to the double album included "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", which featured Eric Clapton on lead guitar, and the horn-driven "Savoy Truffle".[63] Dylan and the Band were a major musical influence on Harrison at the end of his career with the Beatles.[64] While on a visit to Woodstock in late 1968, he established a friendship with Dylan and found himself drawn to the Band's sense of communal music-making and to the creative equality among the band members, which contrasted with Lennon and McCartney's domination of the Beatles' songwriting and creative direction. This coincided with a prolific period in his songwriting and a growing desire to assert his independence from the Beatles.[65] Tensions among the group surfaced again in January 1969, at Twickenham Studios, during the filmed rehearsals that became the 1970 documentary Let It Be.[65] Frustrated by the cold and sterile film studio, by Lennon's creative disengagement from the Beatles, and by what he perceived as a domineering attitude from McCartney, Harrison quit the group on 10 January. He returned twelve days later, after his bandmates had agreed to move the film project to their own Apple Studio and to abandon McCartney's plan for making a return to public performance.[66] Relations among the Beatles were more cordial, though still strained, when the band recorded their 1969 album Abbey Road.[67] The LP included what Lavezzoli describes as "two classic contributions" from Harrison – "Here Comes the Sun" and "Something" – that saw him "finally achieve equal songwriting status" with Lennon and McCartney.[68] During the album's recording, Harrison asserted more creative control than before, rejecting suggestions for changes to his music, particularly from McCartney.[69] "Something" became his first A-side when issued on a double A-side single with "Come Together"; the song was number one in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and West Germany,[70] and the combined sides topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the United States.[71] In the 1970s Frank Sinatra recorded "Something" twice (1970 and 1979) and later dubbed it "the greatest love song of the past fifty years".[72] Lennon considered it the best song on Abbey Road, and it became the Beatles' second most covered song after "Yesterday".[73][nb 5] In May 1970 Harrison's song "For You Blue" was coupled on a US single with McCartney's "The Long and Winding Road" and became Harrison's second chart-topper when the sides were listed together at number one on the Hot 100.[75] His increased productivity meant that by the time of their break-up he had amassed a stockpile of unreleased compositions.[76] While Harrison grew as a songwriter, his compositional presence on Beatles albums remained limited to two or three songs, increasing his frustration, and significantly contributing to the band's break-up.[77] Harrison's last recording session with the Beatles was on 4 January 1970, when he, McCartney and Starr recorded his song "I Me Mine" for the Let It Be soundtrack album.[78] Solo career: 1968–1987 Early solo work: 1968–1969 Trade ad for Wonderwall Music Before the Beatles' break-up, Harrison had already recorded and released two solo albums: Wonderwall Music and Electronic Sound, both of which contain mainly instrumental compositions. Wonderwall Music, a soundtrack to the 1968 film Wonderwall, blends Indian and Western instrumentation, while Electronic Sound is an experimental album that prominently features a Moog synthesizer.[79] Released in November 1968, Wonderwall Music was the first solo album by a Beatle and the first LP released by Apple Records.[80] Indian musicians Aashish Khan and Shivkumar Sharma performed on the album, which contains the experimental sound collage "Dream Scene", recorded several months before Lennon's "Revolution 9".[81] In December 1969, Harrison participated in a brief tour of Europe with the American group Delaney & Bonnie and Friends.[82] During the tour that included Clapton, Bobby Whitlock, drummer Jim Gordon and band leaders Delaney and Bonnie Bramlett, Harrison began to play slide guitar, and also began to write "My Sweet Lord", which became his first single as a solo artist.[83] All Things Must Pass: 1970 Main article: All Things Must Pass For many years, Harrison was restricted in his songwriting contributions to the Beatles' albums, but he released All Things Must Pass, a triple album[84] with two discs of his songs and the third of recordings of Harrison jamming with friends.[76][85] The album was regarded by many as his best work, and it topped the charts on both sides of the Atlantic.[86][87][nb 6] The LP produced the number-one hit single "My Sweet Lord" and the top-ten single "What Is Life".[89] The album was co-produced by Phil Spector using his "Wall of Sound" approach,[90] and the musicians included Starr, Clapton, Gary Wright, Preston, Klaus Voormann, the whole of Delaney and Bonnie's Friends band and the Apple group Badfinger.[76][91][nb 7] On release, All Things Must Pass was received with critical acclaim;[93] Ben Gerson of Rolling Stone described it as being "of classic Spectorian proportions, Wagnerian, Brucknerian, the music of mountain tops and vast horizons".[94] Author and musicologist Ian Inglis considers the lyrics of the album's title track "a recognition of the impermanence of human existence ... a simple and poignant conclusion" to Harrison's former band.[95] In 1971, Bright Tunes sued Harrison for copyright infringement over "My Sweet Lord", owing to its similarity to the 1963 Chiffons hit "He's So Fine".[96] When the case was heard in the United States district court in 1976, he denied deliberately plagiarising the song, but lost the case, as the judge ruled that he had done so subconsciously.[97] In 2000, Apple Records released a thirtieth anniversary edition of the album, and Harrison actively participated in its promotion. In an interview, he reflected on the work: "It's just something that was like my continuation from the Beatles, really. It was me sort of getting out of the Beatles and just going my own way ... it was a very happy occasion."[98] He commented on the production: "Well, in those days it was like the reverb was kind of used a bit more than what I would do now. In fact, I don't use reverb at all. I can't stand it ... You know, it's hard to go back to anything thirty years later and expect it to be how you would want it now."[99] The Concert for Bangladesh: 1971 Main article: The Concert for Bangladesh Trade ad for Harrison's "Bangla Desh" single Harrison responded to a request from Ravi Shankar by organising a charity event, the Concert for Bangladesh, which took place on 1 August 1971. The event drew over 40,000 people to two shows in New York's Madison Square Garden.[100] The goal of the event was to raise money to aid starving refugees during the Bangladesh Liberation War.[101] Shankar opened the show, which featured popular musicians such as Dylan, Clapton, Leon Russell, Badfinger, Preston and Starr.[101] A triple album, The Concert for Bangladesh, was released by Apple in December, followed by a concert film in 1972.[nb 8] Credited to "George Harrison and Friends", the album topped the UK chart and peaked at number 2 in the US,[104] and went on to win the Grammy Award for Album of the Year.[105] Tax troubles and questionable expenses later tied up many of the proceeds, but Harrison commented: "Mainly the concert was to attract attention to the situation ... The money we raised was secondary, and although we had some money problems ... they still got plenty ... even though it was a drop in the ocean. The main thing was, we spread the word and helped get the war ended."[106] Living in the Material World to George Harrison: 1973–1979 Harrison's 1973 album Living in the Material World held the number one spot on the Billboard albums chart for five weeks, and the album's single, "Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth)", also reached number one in the US.[107] In the UK, the LP peaked at number two and the single reached number 8.[89] The album was lavishly produced and packaged, and its dominant message was Harrison's Hindu beliefs.[108] In Greene's opinion it "contained many of the strongest compositions of his career".[109] Stephen Holden, writing in Rolling Stone, felt the album was "vastly appealing" and "profoundly seductive", and that it stood "alone as an article of faith, miraculous in its radiance".[110] Other reviewers were less enthusiastic, describing the release as awkward, sanctimonious and overly sentimental.[111] In November 1974, Harrison became the first ex-Beatle to tour North America when he began his 45-date Dark Horse Tour.[112] The shows included guest spots by his band members Billy Preston and Tom Scott, and traditional and contemporary Indian music performed by "Ravi Shankar, Family and Friends".[113] Despite numerous positive reviews, the consensus reaction to the tour was negative.[114] Some fans found Shankar's significant presence to be a bizarre disappointment, and many were affronted by what Inglis described as Harrison's "sermonizing".[115] Further, he reworked the lyrics to several Beatles songs,[115] and his laryngitis-affected vocals led to some critics calling the tour "dark hoarse".[116] The author Robert Rodriguez commented: "While the Dark Horse tour might be considered a noble failure, there were a number of fans who were tuned-in to what was being attempted. They went away ecstatic, conscious that they had just witnessed something so uplifting that it could never be repeated."[117] Simon Leng called the tour "groundbreaking" and "revolutionary in its presentation of Indian Music".[118] In December, Harrison released Dark Horse, which was an album that earned him the least favourable reviews of his career.[119] Rolling Stone called it "the chronicle of a performer out of his element, working to a deadline, enfeebling his overtaxed talents by a rush to deliver a new 'LP product', rehearse a band, and assemble a cross-country tour, all within three weeks".[120] The album reached number 4 on the Billboard chart and the single "Dark Horse" reached number 15, but they failed to make an impact in the UK.[121][nb 9] The music critic Mikal Gilmore described Dark Horse as "one of Harrison's most fascinating works – a record about change and loss".[122] Harrison leaving the Hilton Hotel in Amsterdam, and signing an album for a fan, February 1977 Harrison's final studio album for EMI and Apple Records, the soul music-inspired Extra Texture (Read All About It) (1975),[123] peaked at number 8 on the Billboard chart and number 16 in the UK.[124] Harrison considered it the least satisfactory of the three albums he had recorded since All Things Must Pass.[125] Leng identified "bitterness and dismay" in many of the tracks; his long-time friend Klaus Voormann commented: "He wasn't up for it ... It was a terrible time because I think there was a lot of cocaine going around, and that's when I got out of the picture ... I didn't like his frame of mind".[126] He released two singles from the LP: "You", which reached the Billboard top 20, and "This Guitar (Can't Keep from Crying)", Apple's final original single release.[127] Thirty Three & 1/3 (1976), Harrison's first album release on his own Dark Horse Records label, produced the hit singles "This Song" and "Crackerbox Palace", both of which reached the top 25 in the US.[128][nb 10] The surreal humour of "Crackerbox Palace" reflected Harrison's association with Monty Python's Eric Idle, who directed a comical music video for the song.[131] With an emphasis on melody and musicianship, and a more subtle subject matter than the pious message of his earlier works, Thirty Three & 1/3 earned Harrison his most favourable critical notices in the US since All Things Must Pass.[131] The album peaked just outside the top ten there, but outsold his previous two LPs.[132][133] As part of his promotion for the release, Harrison performed on Saturday Night Live with Paul Simon.[134] In 1979, Harrison released George Harrison, which followed his second marriage and the birth of his son Dhani.[135] Co-produced by Russ Titelman,[136] the album and the single "Blow Away" both made the Billboard top 20.[137] The album marked the beginning of Harrison's gradual retreat from the music business, with several of the songs having been written in the tranquil setting of Maui in the Hawaiian archipelago.[138] Leng described George Harrison as "melodic and lush ... peaceful ... the work of a man who had lived the rock and roll dream twice over and was now embracing domestic as well as spiritual bliss".[139] Somewhere in England to Cloud Nine: 1980–1987 Harrison and Eric Clapton performing "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" at the 1987 Prince's Trust Concert in London The murder of John Lennon on 8 December 1980 disturbed Harrison and reinforced his decades-long concern about stalkers.[140] The tragedy was also a deep personal loss, although Harrison and Lennon had little contact in the years before Lennon was killed.[141][nb 11] Following the murder, Harrison commented: "After all we went through together I had and still have great love and respect for John Lennon. I am shocked and stunned."[140] Harrison modified the lyrics of a song he had written for Starr in order to make the song a tribute to Lennon.[143] "All Those Years Ago", which included vocal contributions from Paul and Linda McCartney, as well as Starr's original drum part, peaked at number two in the US charts.[144][145] The single was included on the album Somewhere in England in 1981.[146] Harrison did not release any new albums for five years after 1982's Gone Troppo received little notice from critics or the public.[147] During this period he made several guest appearances, including a 1985 performance at a tribute to Carl Perkins titled Blue Suede Shoes: A Rockabilly Session.[148][nb 12] In March 1986 he made a surprise appearance during the finale of the Birmingham Heart Beat Charity Concert, an event organised to raise money for the Birmingham Children's Hospital.[150] The following year, he appeared at The Prince's Trust concert at London's Wembley Arena, performing "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" and "Here Comes the Sun".[151] In February 1987 he joined Dylan, John Fogerty and Jesse Ed Davis on stage for a two-hour performance with the blues musician Taj Mahal.[152] Harrison recalled: "Bob rang me up and asked if I wanted to come out for the evening and see Taj Mahal ... So we went there and had a few of these Mexican beers – and had a few more ... Bob says, 'Hey, why don't we all get up and play, and you can sing?' But every time I got near the microphone, Dylan comes up and just starts singing this rubbish in my ear, trying to throw me."[153] In November 1987 Harrison released the platinum album Cloud Nine.[154][155] Co-produced with Jeff Lynne of Electric Light Orchestra (ELO), the album included Harrison's rendition of James Ray's "Got My Mind Set on You", which went to number one in the US and number two in the UK.[156][157] The accompanying music video received substantial airplay,[158] and another single, "When We Was Fab", a retrospective of the Beatles' career, earned two MTV Music Video Awards nominations in 1988.[159] Recorded at his estate in Friar Park, Harrison's slide guitar playing featured prominently on the album, which included several of his long-time musical collaborators, including Clapton, Jim Keltner and Jim Horn.[160] Cloud Nine reached number eight and number ten on the US and UK charts respectively, and several tracks from the album achieved placement on Billboard's Mainstream Rock chart – "Devil's Radio", "This Is Love" and "Cloud 9".[156] Later career: 1988–1996 The Traveling Wilburys and return to touring: 1988–1992 Main article: Traveling Wilburys In 1988, Harrison formed the Traveling Wilburys with Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison, Bob Dylan and Tom Petty. The band had gathered in Dylan's garage to record a song for a Harrison European single release.[161] Harrison's record company decided the track, "Handle with Care", was too good for its original purpose as a B-side and asked for a full album. The LP, Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1, was released in October 1988 and recorded under pseudonyms as half-brothers, supposed sons of Charles Truscott Wilbury, Sr.[162] It reached number 16 in the UK and number 3 in the US, where it was certified triple platinum.[163] Harrison's pseudonym on the album was "Nelson Wilbury"; he used the name "Spike Wilbury" for their second album.[164] In 1989, Harrison and Starr appeared in the music video for Petty's song "I Won't Back Down".[165] In October that year, Harrison assembled and released Best of Dark Horse 1976–1989, a compilation of his later solo work.[166] The album included three new songs, including "Cheer Down", which Harrison had recently contributed to the Lethal Weapon 2 film soundtrack.[167] Following Orbison's death in December 1988, the Wilburys recorded as a four-piece.[168] Their second album, issued in October 1990, was mischievously titled Traveling Wilburys Vol. 3. According to Lynne, "That was George's idea. He said, 'Let's confuse the buggers.'"[169] It peaked at number 14 in the UK and number 11 in the US, where it was certified platinum.[163] The Wilburys never performed live, and the group did not record together again following the release of their second album.[170] In December 1991, Harrison joined Clapton for a tour of Japan.[171] It was Harrison's first since 1974 and no others followed.[172][nb 13] On 6 April 1992, Harrison held a benefit concert for the Natural Law Party at the Royal Albert Hall, his first London performance since the Beatles' 1969 rooftop concert.[174] In October 1992, he performed at a Bob Dylan tribute concert at Madison Square Garden in New York City, playing alongside Dylan, Clapton, McGuinn, Petty and Neil Young.[175] The Beatles Anthology: 1994–1996 Main article: The Beatles Anthology In 1994 Harrison began a collaboration with McCartney, Starr and producer Jeff Lynne for the Beatles Anthology project. This included the recording of two new Beatles songs built around solo vocal and piano tapes recorded by Lennon as well as lengthy interviews about the Beatles' career.[176] Released in December 1995, "Free as a Bird" was the first new Beatles single since 1970.[177] In March 1996, they released a second single, "Real Love". Harrison refused to participate in the completion of a third song.[178] He later commented on the project: "I hope somebody does this to all my crap demos when I'm dead, make them into hit songs."[179] Later life and death: 1997–2001 Following the Anthology project, Harrison collaborated with Ravi Shankar on the latter's Chants of India. Harrison's final television appearance was a VH-1 special to promote the album, taped in May 1997.[180] Soon afterwards, Harrison was diagnosed with throat cancer;[181] he was treated with radiotherapy, which was thought at the time to be successful.[182] He publicly blamed years of smoking for the illness.[183] In January 1998, Harrison attended Carl Perkins' funeral in Jackson, Tennessee, where he performed a brief rendition of Perkins' song "Your True Love".[184] In May, he represented the Beatles at London's High Court in their successful bid to gain control of unauthorised recordings made of a 1962 performance by the band at the Star-Club in Hamburg.[185][186] The following year, he was the most active of his former bandmates in promoting the reissue of their 1968 animated film Yellow Submarine.[185][187] The entrance and gatehouse at Harrison's Friar Park estate. In December 1999, he and his wife Olivia were the victims of a knife attack by an intruder. On 30 December 1999, Harrison and his wife were attacked at their home, Friar Park. Michael Abram, a 34-year-old man suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, broke in and attacked Harrison with a kitchen knife, puncturing a lung and causing head injuries before Olivia Harrison incapacitated the assailant by striking him repeatedly with a fireplace poker and a lamp.[182][188] Harrison later commented, "I felt exhausted and could feel the strength draining from me. I vividly remember a deliberate thrust to my chest. I could hear my lung exhaling and had blood in my mouth. I believed I had been fatally stabbed."[189] Following the attack, Harrison was hospitalised with more than 40 stab wounds, and part of his punctured lung was removed.[190] He released a statement soon afterwards regarding his assailant: "He wasn't a burglar, and he certainly wasn't auditioning for the Traveling Wilburys. Adi Shankara, an Indian historical, spiritual and groovy-type person, once said, 'Life is fragile like a raindrop on a lotus leaf.' And you'd better believe it."[191][nb 14] In May 2001, it was revealed that Harrison had undergone an operation to remove a cancerous growth from one of his lungs,[195] and in July, it was reported that he was being treated for a brain tumour at a clinic in Switzerland.[196] While in Switzerland, Starr visited him but had to cut short his stay in order to travel to Boston, where his daughter was undergoing emergency brain surgery. Harrison, who was very weak, quipped: "Do you want me to come with you?"[197] In November 2001, he began radiotherapy at Staten Island University Hospital in New York City for non-small cell lung cancer that had spread to his brain.[198] When the news was made public, Harrison bemoaned his physician's breach of privacy, and his estate later claimed damages.[nb 15] On 12 November in New York, Harrison, Starr and McCartney came together for the last time.[204] On 29 November 2001, Harrison died at Paul McCartney's property on Heather Road in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles. He was 58 years old.[205][206] He was cremated at Hollywood Forever Cemetery and his funeral was held at the Self-Realization Fellowship Lake Shrine in Pacific Palisades, California.[207] His close family scattered his ashes according to Hindu tradition in a private ceremony in the Ganges and Yamuna rivers near Varanasi, India.[208] He left almost £100 million in his will.[209] Harrison's final album, Brainwashed (2002), was released posthumously after it was completed by his son Dhani and Jeff Lynne.[210] A quotation from the Bhagavad Gita is included in the album's liner notes: "There never was a time when you or I did not exist. Nor will there be any future when we shall cease to be."[211] A media-only single, "Stuck Inside a Cloud", which Leng described as "a uniquely candid reaction to illness and mortality", achieved number 27 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart.[212][213] The single "Any Road", released in May 2003, peaked at number 37 on the UK Singles Chart.[157] "Marwa Blues" went on to receive the 2004 Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance, while "Any Road" was nominated for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance.[214] Musicianship Guitar work Harrison's burgundy Les Paul Harrison's guitar work with the Beatles was varied and flexible. Although not fast or flashy, his lead guitar playing was solid and typified the more subdued lead guitar style of the early 1960s. His rhythm guitar playing was innovative, for example when he used a capo to shorten the strings on an acoustic guitar, as on the Rubber Soul album and "Here Comes the Sun", to create a bright, sweet sound.[215][216] Eric Clapton felt that Harrison was "clearly an innovator" as he was "taking certain elements of R&B and rock and rockabilly and creating something unique".[217] Rolling Stone founder Jann Wenner described Harrison as "a guitarist who was never showy but who had an innate, eloquent melodic sense. He played exquisitely in the service of the song".[218] The guitar picking style of Chet Atkins and Carl Perkins influenced Harrison, giving a country music feel to many of the Beatles' recordings.[219] He identified Chuck Berry as another early influence.[220] In 1961 the Beatles recorded "Cry for a Shadow", a blues-inspired instrumental co-written by Lennon and Harrison, who is credited with composing the song's lead guitar part, building on unusual chord voicings and imitating the style of other English groups such as the Shadows.[221] Harrison's liberal use of the diatonic scale in his guitar playing reveals the influence of Buddy Holly, and his interest in Berry inspired him to compose songs based on the blues scale while incorporating a rockabilly feel in the style of Perkins.[222][nb 16] Another of Harrison's musical techniques was the use of guitar lines written in octaves, as on "I'll Be on My Way".[224] By 1964, he had begun to develop a distinctive personal style as a guitarist, writing parts that featured the use of nonresolving tones, as with the ending chord arpeggios on "A Hard Day's Night".[222] On this and other songs from the period, he used a Rickenbacker 360/12 – an electric guitar with twelve strings, the low eight of which are tuned in pairs, one octave apart, with the higher four being pairs tuned in unison.[224] His use of the Rickenbacker on A Hard Day's Night helped to popularise the model, and the jangly sound became so prominent that Melody Maker termed it the Beatles' "secret weapon".[225][nb 17] In 1965 Harrison used an expression pedal to control his guitar's volume on "I Need You", creating a syncopated flautando effect with the melody resolving its dissonance through tonal displacements.[227] He used the same volume-swell technique on "Yes It Is", applying what Everett described as "ghostly articulation" to the song's natural harmonics.[222] In 1966, Harrison contributed innovative musical ideas to Revolver. He played backwards guitar on Lennon's composition "I'm Only Sleeping" and a guitar counter-melody on "And Your Bird Can Sing" that moved in parallel octaves above McCartney's bass downbeats.[228] His guitar playing on "I Want to Tell You" exemplified the pairing of altered chordal colours with descending chromatic lines and his guitar part for Sgt Pepper's "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" mirrors Lennon's vocal line in much the same way that a sarangi player accompanies a khyal singer in a Hindu devotional song.[229] "Old Brown Shoe" MENU0:00 Harrison's guitar solo from "Old Brown Shoe", April 1969 "Something" MENU0:00 An excerpt from Harrison's guitar solo to "Something", May 1969 "How Do You Sleep?" MENU0:00 An excerpt from Harrison's slide guitar solo from Lennon's "How Do You Sleep?", 1971 Problems playing these files? See media help. Everett described Harrison's guitar solo from "Old Brown Shoe" as "stinging [and] highly Claptonesque".[230] He identified two of the composition's significant motifs: a bluesy trichord and a diminished triad with roots in A and E.[231] Huntley called the song "a sizzling rocker with a ferocious ... solo".[232] In Greene's opinion, Harrison's demo for "Old Brown Shoe" contains "one of the most complex lead guitar solos on any Beatles song".[233] Harrison's playing on Abbey Road, and in particular on "Something", marked a significant moment in his development as a guitarist. The song's guitar solo shows a varied range of influences, incorporating the blues guitar style of Clapton and the styles of Indian gamakas.[234] According to author and musicologist Kenneth Womack: "'Something' meanders toward the most unforgettable of Harrison's guitar solos ... A masterpiece in simplicity, [it] reaches toward the sublime".[235] After Delaney Bramlett inspired him to learn slide guitar, Harrison began to incorporate it into his solo work, which allowed him to mimic many traditional Indian instruments, including the sarangi and the dilruba.[236] Leng described Harrison's slide guitar solo on Lennon's "How Do You Sleep?" as a departure for "the sweet soloist of 'Something'", calling his playing "rightly famed ... one of Harrison's greatest guitar statements".[237] Lennon commented: "That's the best he's ever f***ing played in his life."[237] A Hawaiian influence is notable in much of Harrison's music, ranging from his slide guitar work on Gone Troppo (1982) to his televised performance of the Cab Calloway standard "Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea" on ukulele in 1992.[238] Lavezzoli described Harrison's slide playing on the Grammy-winning instrumental "Marwa Blues" (2002) as demonstrating Hawaiian influences while comparing the melody to an Indian sarod or veena, calling it "yet another demonstration of Harrison's unique slide approach".[239] Harrison was an admirer of George Formby and a member of the Ukulele Society of Great Britain, and played a ukulele solo in the style of Formby at the end of "Free as a Bird".[240] He performed at a Formby convention in 1991, and served as the honorary president of the George Formby Appreciation Society.[241] Harrison played bass guitar on a few tracks, including the Beatles songs "She Said She Said", "Golden Slumbers", "Birthday" and "Honey Pie".[242] He also played bass on several solo recordings, including "Faster", "Wake Up My Love" and "Bye Bye Love".[243] Sitar and Indian music Ravi Shankar, who taught Harrison the sitar (taken in 1969) During the Beatles' American tour in August 1965, Harrison's friend David Crosby of the Byrds introduced him to Indian classical music and the work of sitar maestro Ravi Shankar.[244][245] Harrison described Shankar as "the first person who ever impressed me in my life ... and he was the only person who didn't try to impress me."[246] Harrison became fascinated with the sitar and immersed himself in Indian music.[247] According to Lavezzoli, Harrison's introduction of the instrument on the Beatles' song "Norwegian Wood" "opened the floodgates for Indian instrumentation in rock music, triggering what Shankar would call 'The Great Sitar Explosion' of 1966–67".[248] Lavezzoli recognises Harrison as "the man most responsible for this phenomenon".[249][nb 18] In June 1966 Harrison met Shankar at the home of Mrs Angadi of the Asian Music Circle, asked to be his student, and was accepted.[251] Before this meeting, Harrison had recorded his Revolver track "Love You To", contributing a sitar part that Lavezzoli describes as an "astonishing improvement" over "Norwegian Wood" and "the most accomplished performance on sitar by any rock musician".[252] On 6 July, Harrison travelled to India to buy a sitar from Rikhi Ram & Sons in New Delhi.[251] In September, following the Beatles' final tour, he returned to India to study sitar for six weeks with Shankar.[251] He initially stayed in Bombay until fans learned of his arrival, then moved to a houseboat on a remote lake in Kashmir.[251] During this visit, he also received tutelage from Shambhu Das, Shankar's protégé.[253][254] Harrison studied the instrument until 1968, when, following a discussion with Shankar about the need to find his "roots", an encounter with Clapton and Jimi Hendrix at a hotel in New York convinced him to return to guitar playing. Harrison commented: "I decided ... I'm not going to be a great sitar player ... because I should have started at least fifteen years earlier."[255] Harrison continued to use Indian instrumentation occasionally on his solo albums and remained strongly associated with the genre.[256] Lavezzoli groups him with Paul Simon and Peter Gabriel as the three rock musicians who have given the most "mainstream exposure to non-Western musics, or the concept of 'world music'".[257] Songwriting Harrison wrote his first song, "Don't Bother Me", while sick in a hotel bed in Bournemouth during August 1963, as "an exercise to see if I could write a song", as he remembered.[258] His songwriting ability improved throughout the Beatles' career, but his material did not earn full respect from Lennon, McCartney and producer George Martin until near the group's break-up.[259] In 1969, McCartney told Lennon: "Until this year, our songs have been better than George's. Now this year his songs are at least as good as ours".[260] Harrison often had difficulty getting the band to record his songs.[261][77] Most Beatles albums from 1965 onwards contain at least two Harrison compositions; three of his songs appear on Revolver, "the album on which Harrison came of age as a songwriter", according to Inglis.[262] "Within You Without You" MENU0:00 An audio sample of Harrison's "Within You Without You", 1967 Problems playing this file? See media help. Harrison wrote the chord progression of "Don't Bother Me" almost exclusively in the Dorian mode, demonstrating an interest in exotic tones that eventually culminated in his embrace of Indian music.[263] The latter proved a strong influence on his songwriting and contributed to his innovation within the Beatles. According to Mikal Gilmore of Rolling Stone, "Harrison's openness to new sounds and textures cleared new paths for his rock and roll compositions. His use of dissonance on ... 'Taxman' and 'I Want to Tell You' was revolutionary in popular music – and perhaps more originally creative than the avant-garde mannerisms that Lennon and McCartney borrowed from the music of Karlheinz Stockhausen, Luciano Berio, Edgard Varèse and Igor Stravinsky ..."[264] Of the 1967 Harrison song "Within You Without You", author Gerry Farrell said that Harrison had created a "new form", calling the composition "a quintessential fusion of pop and Indian music".[265] Lennon called the song one of Harrison's best: "His mind and his music are clear. There is his innate talent, he brought that sound together."[266] In his next fully Indian-styled song, "The Inner Light", Harrison embraced the Karnatak discipline of Indian music, rather than the Hindustani style he had used in "Love You To" and "Within You Without You".[267] Writing in 1997, Farrell commented: "It is a mark of Harrison's sincere involvement with Indian music that, nearly thirty years on, the Beatles' 'Indian' songs remain the most imaginative and successful examples of this type of fusion – for example, 'Blue Jay Way' and 'The Inner Light'."[268] Beatles biographer Bob Spitz described "Something" as a masterpiece, and "an intensely stirring romantic ballad that would challenge 'Yesterday' and 'Michelle' as one of the most recognizable songs they ever produced".[269] Inglis considered Abbey Road a turning point in Harrison's development as a songwriter and musician. He described Harrison's two contributions to the LP, "Here Comes the Sun" and "Something", as "exquisite", declaring them equal to any previous Beatles songs.[69] Collaborations See also: Apple Records § Artists, and George Harrison discography § Collaborations and other appearances From 1968 onwards, Harrison collaborated with other musicians; he brought in Eric Clapton to play lead guitar on "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" for the 1968 Beatles' White Album,[270] and collaborated with John Barham on his 1968 debut solo album, Wonderwall Music, which included contributions from Clapton again, as well as Peter Tork from the Monkees.[271] He played on tracks by Dave Mason, Nicky Hopkins, Alvin Lee, Ronnie Wood, Billy Preston and Tom Scott.[272] Harrison co-wrote songs and music with Dylan, Clapton, Preston, Doris Troy, David Bromberg, Gary Wright, Wood, Jeff Lynne and Tom Petty, among others.[273] Harrison's music projects during the final years of the Beatles included producing Apple Records artists Doris Troy, Jackie Lomax and Billy Preston.[274] Harrison co-wrote the song "Badge" with Clapton, which was included on Cream's 1969 album, Goodbye.[275] Harrison played rhythm guitar on the track, using the pseudonym "L'Angelo Misterioso" for contractual reasons.[276] In May 1970 he played guitar on several songs during a recording session for Dylan's album New Morning.[277] Between 1971 and 1973 he co-wrote and/or produced three top ten hits for Starr: "It Don't Come Easy", "Back Off Boogaloo" and "Photograph".[278] Aside from "How Do You Sleep?", his contributions to Lennon's 1971 album Imagine included a slide guitar solo on "Gimme Some Truth" and dobro on "Crippled Inside".[279] Also that year, he produced and played slide guitar on Badfinger's top ten hit "Day After Day", and a dobro on Preston's "I Wrote a Simple Song".[280][nb 19] He worked with Harry Nilsson on "You're Breakin' My Heart" (1972) and with Cheech & Chong on "Basketball Jones" (1973).[282] In 1974 Harrison founded Dark Horse Records as an avenue for collaboration with other musicians.[283] He wanted Dark Horse to serve as a creative outlet for artists, as Apple Records had for the Beatles.[284] Eric Idle commented: "He's extremely generous, and he backs and supports all sorts of people that you'll never, ever hear of."[285] The first acts signed to the new label were Ravi Shankar and the duo Splinter. Harrison produced and made multiple musical contributions to Splinter's debut album, The Place I Love, which provided Dark Horse with its first hit, "Costafine Town".[286] He also produced and played guitar and autoharp on Shankar's Shankar Family & Friends, the label's other inaugural release.[287] Other artists signed by Dark Horse include Attitudes, Henry McCullough, Jiva and Stairsteps.[288] Harrison collaborated with Tom Scott on Scott's 1975 album New York Connection, and in 1981 he played guitar on "Walk a Thin Line", from Mick Fleetwood's The Visitor.[289] His contributions to Starr's solo career continued with "Wrack My Brain", a 1981 US top 40 hit written and produced by Harrison,[290] and guitar overdubs to two tracks on Vertical Man (1998).[291] In 1996 Harrison recorded "Distance Makes No Difference With Love" with Carl Perkins for the latter's album Go Cat Go!, and in 1990 he played slide guitar on the title track of Dylan's Under the Red Sky album.[292] In 2001 he performed as a guest musician on Jeff Lynne and Electric Light Orchestra's comeback album Zoom, and on the song "Love Letters" for Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings.[293] He also co-wrote a new song with his son Dhani, "Horse to the Water", which was recorded on 2 October, eight weeks before his death. It appeared on Jools Holland's album Small World, Big Band.[294] Guitars Harrison's Harptone L-6 acoustic guitar, which he played at the Concert for Bangladesh When Harrison joined the Quarrymen in 1958 his main guitar was a Höfner President Acoustic, which he soon traded for a Höfner Club 40 model.[295] His first solid-body electric guitar was a Czech-built Jolana Futurama/Grazioso.[296] The guitars he used on early recordings were mainly Gretsch models, played through a Vox amplifier, including a Gretsch Duo Jet that he bought secondhand in 1961 and posed with on the album cover for Cloud Nine.[297] He also bought a Gretsch Tennessean and a Gretsch Country Gentleman, which he played on "She Loves You", and during the Beatles' 1964 appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show.[298][299] In 1963 he bought a Rickenbacker 425 Fireglo, and in 1964 he acquired a Rickenbacker 360/12 guitar, which was the second of its kind to be manufactured.[300] Harrison obtained his first Fender Stratocaster in 1965 and first used it during the recording of the Help! album that February; he also used it when recording Rubber Soul later that year, most notably on the song "Nowhere Man".[301] In early 1966 Harrison and Lennon each purchased Epiphone Casinos, which they used on Revolver.[302] Harrison also used a Gibson J-160E and a Gibson SG Standard while recording the album.[303] He later painted his Stratocaster in a psychedelic design that included the word "Bebopalula" above the pickguard and the guitar's nickname, "Rocky", on the headstock.[304] He played this guitar in the Magical Mystery Tour film and throughout his solo career.[305] In July 1968, Clapton gave him a Gibson Les Paul,[306] which Harrison nicknamed "Lucy".[307] Around this time, he obtained a Gibson Jumbo J-200 acoustic guitar,[308] which he subsequently gave to Dylan to use at the 1969 Isle of Wight Festival.[309] In late 1968 Fender Musical Instruments Corporation gave Harrison a custom-made Fender Telecaster Rosewood prototype, made especially for him by Philip Kubicki.[310][311][nb 20] In August 2017, Fender released a "Limited Edition George Harrison Rosewood Telecaster" modelled after a Telecaster that Roger Rossmeisl originally created for Harrison.[314] Film production and HandMade Films Main article: HandMade Films Harrison helped finance Ravi Shankar's documentary Raga and released it through Apple Films in 1971.[315] He also produced, with Apple manager Allen Klein, the Concert for Bangladesh film.[316] In 1973, he produced the feature film Little Malcolm,[317] but the project was lost amid the litigation surrounding the former Beatles ending their business ties with Klein.[318] In 1973 Peter Sellers introduced Harrison to Denis O'Brien. Soon after, the two went into business together.[319] In 1978, in an effort to produce Monty Python's Life of Brian, they formed the film production and distribution company HandMade Films.[320] Their opportunity for investment came after EMI Films withdrew funding at the demand of their chief executive, Bernard Delfont.[321] Harrison financed the production of Life of Brian in part by mortgaging his home, which Idle later called "the most anybody's ever paid for a cinema ticket in history".[322][285] The film grossed $21 million at the box office in the US.[319] The first film distributed by HandMade Films was The Long Good Friday (1980), and the first they produced was Time Bandits (1981), a co-scripted project by Monty Python's Terry Gilliam and Michael Palin.[323] The film featured a new song by Harrison, "Dream Away", in the closing credits.[322][324] Time Bandits became one of HandMade's most successful and acclaimed efforts; with a budget of $5 million, it earned $35 million in the US within ten weeks of its release.[324] Harrison served as executive producer for 23 films with HandMade, including A Private Function, Mona Lisa, Shanghai Surprise, Withnail and I and How to Get Ahead in Advertising.[316] He made cameo appearances in several of these films, including a role as a nightclub singer in Shanghai Surprise, for which he recorded five new songs.[325] According to Ian Inglis, Harrison's "executive role in HandMade Films helped to sustain British cinema at a time of crisis, producing some of the country's most memorable movies of the 1980s."[326] Following a series of box office bombs in the late 1980s, and excessive debt incurred by O'Brien which was guaranteed by Harrison, HandMade's financial situation became precarious.[327][328] The company ceased operations in 1991[322] and was sold three years later to Paragon Entertainment, a Canadian corporation.[329] Afterwards, Harrison sued O'Brien for $25 million for fraud and negligence, resulting in an $11.6 million judgement in 1996.[330][322] Humanitarian work Harrison was involved in humanitarian and political activism throughout his life. In the 1960s, the Beatles supported the civil rights movement and protested against the Vietnam War. In early 1971, Ravi Shankar consulted Harrison about how to provide aid to the people of Bangladesh after the 1970 Bhola cyclone and the Bangladesh Liberation War.[331] Harrison hastily wrote and recorded the song "Bangla Desh", which became pop music's first charity single when issued by Apple Records in late July.[332][333] He also pushed Apple to release Shankar's Joi Bangla EP in an effort to raise further awareness for the cause.[104] Shankar asked for Harrison's advice about planning a small charity event in the US. Harrison responded by organising the Concert for Bangladesh, which raised more than $240,000.[334] Around $13.5 million was generated through the album and film releases,[335] although most of the funds were frozen in an Internal Revenue Service audit for ten years, due to Klein's failure to register the event as a UNICEF benefit beforehand.[336] In June 1972, UNICEF honoured Harrison and Shankar, and Klein, with the "Child Is the Father of Man" award at an annual ceremony in recognition of their fundraising efforts for Bangladesh.[337] From 1980, Harrison became a vocal supporter of Greenpeace and CND.[338] He also protested against the use of nuclear energy with Friends of the Earth,[339][340] and helped finance Vole, a green magazine launched by Monty Python member Terry Jones.[341][nb 21] In 1990, he helped promote his wife Olivia's Romanian Angel Appeal[343] on behalf of the thousands of Romanian orphans left abandoned by the state following the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe.[344] Harrison recorded a benefit single, "Nobody's Child", with the Traveling Wilburys, and assembled a fundraising album with contributions from other artists including Clapton, Starr, Elton John, Stevie Wonder, Donovan and Van Morrison.[345][346] The Concert for Bangladesh has been described as an innovative precursor for the large-scale charity rock shows that followed, including Live Aid.[347] The George Harrison Humanitarian Fund for UNICEF, a joint effort between the Harrison family and the US Fund for UNICEF, aims to support programmes that help children caught in humanitarian emergencies.[348] In December 2007, they donated $450,000 to help the victims of Cyclone Sidr in Bangladesh.[348] On 13 October 2009, the first George Harrison Humanitarian Award went to Ravi Shankar for his efforts in saving the lives of children, and his involvement with the Concert for Bangladesh.[349] Personal life Hinduism Harrison with two Hare Krishna devotees, 1996 Harrison, with Hare Krishna devotees Shyamasundar Das and Mukunda Goswami, in Vrindavan, India, in 1996 By the mid-1960s Harrison had become an admirer of Indian culture and mysticism, introducing it to the other Beatles.[350] During the filming of Help! in the Bahamas, they met the founder of Sivananda Yoga, Swami Vishnu-devananda, who gave each of them a signed copy of his book, The Complete Illustrated Book of Yoga.[351] Between the end of the last Beatles tour in 1966 and the beginning of the Sgt Pepper recording sessions, he made a pilgrimage to India with his wife Pattie; there, he studied sitar with Ravi Shankar, met several gurus, and visited various holy places.[352] In 1968 he travelled to Rishikesh in northern India with the other Beatles to study meditation with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.[352][nb 22] Harrison's use of psychedelic drugs encouraged his path to meditation and Hinduism. He commented: "For me, it was like a flash. The first time I had acid, it just opened up something in my head that was inside of me, and I realized a lot of things. I didn't learn them because I already knew them, but that happened to be the key that opened the door to reveal them. From the moment I had that, I wanted to have it all the time – these thoughts about the yogis and the Himalayas, and Ravi's music."[134] In line with the Hindu yoga tradition, Harrison became a vegetarian in the late 1960s.[354] After being given various religious texts by Shankar in 1966, he remained a lifelong advocate of the teachings of Swami Vivekananda and Paramahansa Yogananda – yogis and authors, respectively, of Raja Yoga and Autobiography of a Yogi.[355] In mid-1969, he produced the single "Hare Krishna Mantra", performed by members of the London Radha Krishna Temple.[356] Having also helped the Temple devotees become established in Britain, Harrison then met their leader, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, whom he described as "my friend ... my master" and "a perfect example of everything he preached".[357] Harrison embraced the Hare Krishna tradition, particularly japa-yoga chanting with beads, and became a lifelong devotee.[356][nb 23] Regarding other faiths he once remarked: "All religions are branches of one big tree. It doesn't matter what you call Him just as long as you call."[359] He commented on his beliefs: Krishna actually was in a body as a person ... What makes it complicated is, if he's God, what's he doing fighting on a battlefield? It took me ages to try to figure that out, and again it was Yogananda's spiritual interpretation of the Bhagavad Gita that made me realise what it was. Our idea of Krishna and Arjuna on the battlefield in the chariot. So this is the point – that we're in these bodies, which is like a kind of chariot, and we're going through this incarnation, this life, which is kind of a battlefield. The senses of the body ... are the horses pulling the chariot, and we have to get control over the chariot by getting control over the reins. And Arjuna in the end says, "Please Krishna, you drive the chariot" because unless we bring Christ or Krishna or Buddha or whichever of our spiritual guides ... we're going to crash our chariot, and we're going to turn over, and we're going to get killed in the battlefield. That's why we say "Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna", asking Krishna to come and take over the chariot. Before his religious conversion, Cliff Richard had been the only British performer known for similar activities; Richard's conversion to Christianity in 1966 had gone largely unnoticed by the public. "By contrast," wrote Inglis, "Harrison's spiritual journey was seen as a serious and important development that reflected popular music's increasing maturity ... what he, and the Beatles, had managed to overturn was the paternalistic assumption that popular musicians had no role other than to stand on stage and sing their hit songs."[361] Family and interests Kinfauns, a white house Harrison and Pattie Boyd lived in Kinfauns in Surrey from 1964 to 1970 Harrison married model Pattie Boyd on 21 January 1966, with McCartney serving as best man.[362] Harrison and Boyd had met in 1964 during the production of the film A Hard Day's Night, in which the 19-year-old Boyd had been cast as a schoolgirl.[363] They separated in 1974 and their divorce was finalised in 1977.[364] Boyd said her decision to end the marriage was due largely to George's repeated infidelities. The last infidelity culminated in an affair with Ringo's wife Maureen, which Boyd called "the final straw".[365] She characterised the last year of their marriage as "fuelled by alcohol and cocaine", and she stated: "George used coke excessively, and I think it changed him ... it froze his emotions and hardened his heart."[366] She subsequently moved in with Eric Clapton, and they married in 1979.[367][nb 24] Harrison married Dark Horse Records' secretary Olivia Trinidad Arias on 2 September 1978. They had met at the A&M Records offices in Los Angeles in 1974, and together had one son, Dhani Harrison, born on 1 August 1978.[369] He restored the English manor house and grounds of Friar Park, his home in Henley-on-Thames, where several of his music videos were filmed including "Crackerbox Palace"; the grounds also served as the background for the cover of All Things Must Pass.[370][nb 25] He employed ten workers to maintain the 36-acre (15 ha) garden.[374] Harrison commented on gardening as a form of escapism: "Sometimes I feel like I'm actually on the wrong planet, and it's great when I'm in my garden, but the minute I go out the gate I think: 'What the hell am I doing here?'"[375] His autobiography, I, Me, Mine, is dedicated "to gardeners everywhere".[376] The former Beatles publicist Derek Taylor helped Harrison write the book, which said little about the Beatles, focusing instead on Harrison's hobbies, music and lyrics.[377] Taylor commented: "George is not disowning the Beatles ... but it was a long time ago and actually a short part of his life."[378] Harrison had an interest in sports cars and motor racing; he was one of the 100 people who purchased the McLaren F1 road car.[379] He had collected photos of racing drivers and their cars since he was young; at 12 he had attended his first race, the 1955 British Grand Prix at Aintree.[379][380] He wrote "Faster" as a tribute to the Formula One racing drivers Jackie Stewart and Ronnie Peterson. Proceeds from its release went to the Gunnar Nilsson cancer charity, set up after the Swedish driver's death from the disease in 1978.[381] Harrison's first extravagant car, a 1964 Aston Martin DB5, was sold at auction on 7 December 2011 in London. An anonymous Beatles collector paid £350,000 for the vehicle that Harrison had bought new in January 1965.[382] Relationships with the other Beatles The Beatles in New York City in 1964, waving to a large crowd Lennon, McCartney, Harrison and Starr on arrival in New York City at the height of Beatlemania, February 1964 For most of the Beatles' career the relationships in the group were close. According to Hunter Davies, "the Beatles spent their lives not living a communal life, but communally living the same life. They were each other's greatest friends." Harrison's ex-wife Pattie Boyd described how the Beatles "all belonged to each other" and admitted, "George has a lot with the others that I can never know about. Nobody, not even the wives, can break through or even comprehend it."[383] Starr said, "We really looked out for each other and we had so many laughs together. In the old days we'd have the biggest hotel suites, the whole floor of the hotel, and the four of us would end up in the bathroom, just to be with each other." He added, "there were some really loving, caring moments between four people: a hotel room here and there – a really amazing closeness. Just four guys who loved each other. It was pretty sensational."[384] Lennon stated that his relationship with Harrison was "one of young follower and older guy ... [he] was like a disciple of mine when we started."[385] The two later bonded over their LSD experiences, finding common ground as seekers of spirituality. They took radically different paths thereafter with Harrison finding God and Lennon coming to the conclusion that people are the creators of their own lives.[386] In 1974 Harrison said of his former bandmate: "John Lennon is a saint and he's heavy-duty, and he's great and I love him. But at the same time, he's such a bastard – but that's the great thing about him, you see?"[387] Harrison and McCartney were the first of the Beatles to meet, having shared a school bus, and often learned and rehearsed new guitar chords together.[388] McCartney stated that he and Harrison usually shared a bedroom while touring.[389] McCartney has referred to Harrison as his "baby brother".[390] In a 1974 BBC radio interview with Alan Freeman, Harrison stated: "[McCartney] ruined me as a guitar player".[391] Perhaps the most significant obstacle to a Beatles reunion after the death of Lennon was Harrison and McCartney's personal relationship, as both men admitted that they often got on each other's nerves.[392] Rodriguez commented: "Even to the end of George's days, theirs was a volatile relationship".[393] Legacy Main article: List of awards and nominations received by George Harrison In June 1965, Harrison and the other Beatles were appointed Members of the Order of the British Empire (MBE).[394] They received their insignia from the Queen at an investiture at Buckingham Palace on 26 October.[395] In 1971 the Beatles received an Academy Award for the best Original Song Score for the film Let It Be.[396] The minor planet 4149 Harrison, discovered in 1984, was named after him,[397] as was a variety of Dahlia flower.[398] In December 1992 he became the first recipient of the Billboard Century Award, an honour presented to music artists for significant bodies of work.[399] The award recognised Harrison's "critical role in laying the groundwork for the modern concept of world music" and for his having "advanced society's comprehension of the spiritual and altruistic power of popular music".[400] Rolling Stone magazine ranked him number 11 in their list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time". He is also in number 65 in the list of "100 greatest songwriters of all time" by the same magazine.[401] In 2002, on the first anniversary of his death, the Concert for George was held at the Royal Albert Hall. Eric Clapton organised the event, which included performances by many of Harrison's friends and musical collaborators, including McCartney and Starr.[402] Eric Idle, who described Harrison as "one of the few morally good people that rock and roll has produced", was among the performers of Monty Python's "Lumberjack Song".[403] The profits from the concert went to Harrison's charity, the Material World Charitable Foundation.[402] In 2004, Harrison was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist by his former bandmates Lynne and Petty, and into the Madison Square Garden Walk of Fame in 2006 for the Concert for Bangladesh.[404] On 14 April 2009, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce awarded Harrison a star on the Walk of Fame in front of the Capitol Records Building. McCartney, Lynne and Petty were present when the star was unveiled. Harrison's widow Olivia, the actor Tom Hanks and Idle made speeches at the ceremony, and Harrison's son Dhani spoke the Hare Krishna mantra.[405] A documentary film entitled George Harrison: Living in the Material World, directed by Martin Scorsese, was released in October 2011. The film features interviews with Olivia and Dhani Harrison, Klaus Voormann, Terry Gilliam, Starr, Clapton, McCartney, Keltner and Astrid Kirchherr.[406] Harrison was posthumously honoured with The Recording Academy's Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award at the Grammy Awards in February 2015.[407][408] Discography Main articles: George Harrison discography and List of songs recorded by George Harrison See also: The Beatles discography and Traveling Wilburys § Discography Wonderwall Music (1968) Electronic Sound (1969) All Things Must Pass (1970) Living in the Material World (1973) Dark Horse (1974) Extra Texture (Read All About It) (1975) Thirty Three & 1/3 (1976) George Harrison (1979) Somewhere in England (1981) Gone Troppo (1982) Cloud Nine (1987) Brainwashed (2002) Notes Some published sources give Harold as Harrison's middle name;[1] others dispute that, based on the absence of any middle name on his birth certificate. Harrison also contributed the songs "If I Needed Someone" and "Think for Yourself" to Rubber Soul.[46] The Self-Realization Fellowship gurus Mahavatar Babaji, Lahiri Mahasaya, Sri Yukteswar and Paramahansa Yogananda appear on the Sgt Pepper cover at his request.[55] Further examples of Indian instrumentation from Harrison during his Beatles years include his tambura parts on McCartney's "Getting Better" (1967) and Lennon's "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" (1967), and sitar and tambura on Lennon's "Across the Universe" (1968).[58] |
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUML-ieKRpQ obit (m. 1980; sep 1981) Karen Anne Carpenter (March 2, 1950 – February 4, 1983) was an American singer and drummer who, along with her elder brother Richard, was part of the duo The Carpenters. She was praised for her 3-octave contralto vocal range. Her drumming abilities were viewed positively by other musicians and critics. Her struggles with eating disorders would later raise awareness of anorexia and body dysmorphia. Carpenter was born in New Haven, Connecticut, and moved to Downey, California, in 1963 with her family. She began to study the drums in high school and joined the Long Beach State choir after graduating. After several years of touring and recording, Carpenters were signed to A&M Records in 1969, achieving commercial and critical success throughout the 1970s. Initially, Carpenter was the band's full-time drummer, but gradually took the role of frontwoman as drumming was reduced to a handful of live showcases or tracks on albums. While Carpenters were on hiatus in the late 1970s, she recorded a solo album, which was released years after her death. Briefly married in the early 1980s, Carpenter suffered from anorexia nervosa, which was little-known at the time. Her death from heart failure at age 32, related to complications of her illness, led to increased visibility and awareness of eating disorders. Her work continues to attract praise, including being listed among Rolling Stone's 100 greatest singers of all time. Contents 1 Early life 2 Career 2.1 The Carpenters 2.2 Solo 3 Personal life 4 Illness and death 5 Legacy 6 Biographies 7 Discography 7.1 Studio albums 7.2 Posthumous albums 7.3 Solo albums 8 References 8.1 Notes 8.2 Citations 8.3 Sources 9 External links Early life Karen Anne Carpenter was born on March 2, 1950, at Grace New Haven Hospital in New Haven, Connecticut, the daughter of Agnes Reuwer (née Tatum, March 5, 1915 – November 10, 1996) and Harold Bertram Carpenter (November 8, 1908 – October 15, 1988).[2] Harold was born in Wuzhou, China, where his parents were missionaries. He was educated at boarding schools in England before finding work in the printing business.[3] Carpenter's only sibling, Richard, the elder by three years, developed an interest in music at an early age, becoming a piano prodigy. Karen's first words were "bye-bye" and "stop it", the latter spoken in response to Richard. She enjoyed dancing and by age four was enrolled in tap dancing and ballet classes.[4] The family moved in June 1963 to the Los Angeles suburb of Downey after Harold was offered a job there by a former business associate.[5] Carpenter entered Downey High School in 1964 at age 14 and was a year younger than her classmates.[6] She joined the school band, initially to avoid gym classes. Bruce Gifford, the conductor (who had previously taught her elder brother), gave her the glockenspiel, an instrument she disliked, and after admiring the performance of her friend and classmate, drummer Frankie Chavez (who had been playing from an early age and idolized jazz drummer Buddy Rich), she asked if she could play those instead.[7] Carpenter wanted a Ludwig drum set because it was used by her favorite drummers, Joe Morello and Ringo Starr. Chavez persuaded her family to buy her a $300 (the equivalent of $2,500 in 2019) Ludwig kit, and he began to teach her how to play.[8] Her enthusiasm for drumming led to teaching herself how to play complicated lines and studying the difference between traditional and matched grip.[9] Within a year, she could play in complex time signatures, such as the 5 4 in Dave Brubeck's "Take Five".[10] Carpenter was initially nervous about performing in public, but said she "was too involved in the music to worry about it".[11] She graduated from Downey High School in the spring of 1967, receiving the John Philip Sousa Band Award, and enrolled as a music major at Long Beach State where she performed in the college choir with Richard. The choir's director, Frank Pooler, said that Karen had a good voice that was particularly suited to pop and gave her lessons in order for her to develop a three-octave range.[12][13] Career The Carpenters Main article: The Carpenters Carpenter drumming on stage, early 1970s Carpenter's first band was Two Plus Two, an all-girl trio formed with friends from Downey High. They split up after she suggested that her brother Richard join the group.[14] In 1965, Karen, Richard, and his college friend Wes Jacobs, a bassist and tuba player, formed the Richard Carpenter Trio.[15] The band rehearsed daily, played jazz in nightclubs, and also appeared on the TV talent show Your All-American College Show.[7] Richard was immediately impressed with his sister's musical talent, saying that she would "speedily maneuver the sticks as if she had been born in a drum factory".[16] She did not sing at this point; instead, singer Margaret Shanor guested on some numbers.[15] The trio signed a contract with RCA Records and recorded two instrumentals, but they were not released.[16] In April 1966, the Carpenters were invited to audition at a session with bassist Joe Osborn, well-known for being part of the studio-musician collective the Wrecking Crew. Though she was initially expected to just be the drummer, Karen tried singing and impressed everyone there with her distinctive voice.[17] Osborn signed a recording contract with her for his label, Magic Lamp Records; he was not particularly interested in Richard's involvement.[18] In 1967, Jacobs left the trio to study at the Juilliard School, and the Carpenter siblings were keen to try out other musical styles.[8] Along with other musicians, including Gary Sims and John Bettis, the siblings formed the group Spectrum, which focused on a harmonious vocal sound and recorded many demo tapes in Osborn's garage studio, working out how to overdub voices onto multitrack tape. Many of those tapes were rejected by record companies.[19][20] The group had difficulty attracting a live following, as their sound was too dissimilar from the hard rock and psychedelic rock then popular in clubs.[21][a] A&M Records finally signed the Carpenters to a recording contract in 1969.[23][24] Karen started out as both the group's drummer and co-lead singer, and she originally sang all of her vocals from behind the drum set.[25] She sang most of the songs on the band's first album, Offering (later retitled Ticket to Ride); her brother wrote ten of the album's thirteen songs and sang on five of them. The opening and concluding tracks were sung by both siblings in unison. As well as drumming, Karen played bass guitar on two songs, "All of My Life" and "Eve", under Osborn's guidance.[26][b] On "All I Can Do", she played in 5/4 time, while "Your Wonderful Parade" featured multiple snare and bass drum overdubs to emulate the sound of a marching band.[10] The track "Ticket to Ride", a Beatles cover song that later became the album's title track, was released as the Carpenters' first single; it reached No. 54 on the Billboard Hot 100.[28] Their next album, 1970's Close to You, featured two hit singles: "(They Long to Be) Close to You" and "We've Only Just Begun". They peaked at No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, on the Hot 100.[29] Because she was just 5 feet 4 inches (1.63 m) tall, it was difficult for people in the audience to see Karen behind her kit.[25] After reviews complained that the group had no focal point in live shows, Richard and manager Sherwin Bash persuaded her to stand at the microphone to sing the band's hits while another musician played the drums (former Disney Mouseketeer Cubby O'Brien served as the band's other drummer for many years).[25][30] She initially struggled in live performances singing solo, as she felt more secure behind the drum kit.[31] After the release of Now & Then in 1973, the albums tended to have Carpenter singing more and drumming less, and she did become the focal point of all records and live performances; Bash said "she was the one that people watched."[32] Starting with the Carpenters' 1976 concert tour and continuing thereafter, she would perform a showcase in which she moved around the stage playing various configurations of drums.[33] Her studio performances benefited from close miking that captured the nuances of her voice well. Though she had a three-octave range, many of the duo's hits prominently feature her lower contralto singing, leading her to quip, "The money's in the basement."[30][33] A promotional photograph of Carpenter from 1973 Carpenter always considered herself a "drummer who sang."[34] She preferred Ludwig Drums, including the Ludwig SuperSensitive snare, which she favored greatly.[35] However, she did not drum on every Carpenters recording. She was the only featured drummer on Ticket to Ride and on Now & Then, except for "Jambalaya".[10][34] According to Hal Blaine, Karen played on many of the album cuts[30] and he played on most of the Carpenters' studio sessions when she did not play drums herself, but Karen was informed about Blaine's involvement and she approved on the basis that she and Richard wanted hit singles.[36][37] The duo were happy for Blaine to take the role in the studio, as he was a respected session musician and it was easier to record Carpenter's guide vocal without it spilling onto the drum mics.[30] Blaine complimented Karen's drumming skills, but believed her greatest strength was as a vocalist and thought himself more adept at working in a recording studio, which required a different approach from that of an onstage performance.[38] On Made in America, Karen provided percussion on "Those Good Old Dreams" in tandem with Paulinho da Costa, and played drums on the song "When it's Gone (It's Just Gone)" in unison with Larrie Londin.[23] In the mid-1970s, Richard Carpenter developed an addiction to Quaaludes. The Carpenters frequently canceled tour dates, and they stopped touring altogether after their September 4, 1978, concert at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. In 1980, Karen performed a medley of standards in a duet with Ella Fitzgerald on the Carpenters' television program Music, Music, Music.[39] In 1981, after release of the Made in America album (which turned out to be their last), the Carpenters returned to the stage and went on some promotional tours, including an appearance for the BBC program Nationwide.[40][41] "Now" was the last song Carpenter recorded, in April 1982. Though Richard was concerned about her health, he still thought her voice sounded as good as ever.[42][43] Solo Carpenter released her first solo record, "Looking for Love" / "I'll Be Yours", in 1967 on Osborn's Magic Lamp label. Only 500 copies were pressed, and the label folded shortly afterwards.[44] In 1979, while Richard took a year off to treat his addiction, Karen made a solo album with producer Phil Ramone.[45] The sessions produced music that was different from the usual Carpenters material, tending more toward disco and up-tempo numbers, with more mature lyrics and taking full advantage of Karen's upper vocal register. The album met with a tepid response from Richard and A&M executives in early 1980 and was shelved by A&M Records co-owner Herb Alpert, in spite of attempts by producer Quincy Jones to convince him to release the solo record after a remix.[46] A&M subsequently charged Carpenter $400,000 to cover the cost of recording her unreleased album, to be paid out of the duo's future royalties.[47] A portion of the solo album was commercially released in 1989, when some of its tracks (as remixed by Richard) were included on the album Lovelines, the final album of previously unreleased material from the Carpenters. In 1996, the complete solo album, titled Karen Carpenter, was finally released.[48][49] Personal life Carpenter had a complicated relationship with her parents. They had hoped that Richard's musical talents would be recognized and that he would enter the music business, but were not prepared for Karen's success.[18] She continued to live with them until 1974.[50] In 1976, Carpenter bought two Century City apartments that she combined into one; the doorbell chimed the opening notes of "We've Only Just Begun".[51] She collected Disney memorabilia and liked to play softball and baseball.[52][53] Growing up, she had played baseball with other children on the street and was picked before her brother for games.[54] She studied baseball statistics carefully and became a fan of the New York Yankees.[55] In the early 1970s she would become the pitcher on a celebrity all-star softball team.[52] Petula Clark, Olivia Newton-John and Dionne Warwick were her close friends.[53][56][57] While she was enjoying success as a female drummer in what was primarily an all-male occupation, Carpenter was not supportive of the women's liberation movement, saying she believed a wife should cook for her husband and that when married, this was what she planned to do.[58] In early interviews, Carpenter showed no interest in marriage or dating, believing that a relationship would not survive constant touring, adding "as long as we're on the road most of the time, I will never marry".[59] In 1976, she said the music business made it hard to meet people and that she refused to just marry someone for the sake of it.[60] Carpenter admitted to Olivia Newton-John that she longed for a happy marriage and family.[61] She later dated several notable men, including Mike Curb, Tony Danza, Terry Ellis, Mark Harmon, Steve Martin and Alan Osmond.[46] After a whirlwind romance, she married real-estate developer Thomas James Burris on August 31, 1980, in the Crystal Room of The Beverly Hills Hotel. Burris, divorced with an 18-year-old son, was nine years her senior. A new song she performed at the ceremony, "Because We Are in Love", was released in 1981. The couple settled in Newport Beach.[62] Carpenter desperately wanted children, but Burris had undergone a vasectomy and refused to get an operation to reverse it. Their marriage did not survive this disagreement and ended after 14 months.[63][64] Burris was living beyond his means, borrowing up to $50,000 (the equivalent of $141,000 in 2019) at a time from his wife, to the point where reportedly she had only stocks and bonds left. Carpenter's friends also indicated he was abusive towards her, often being impatient; they stated she remained fearful when he would occasionally lose his temper.[63] Karen Kamon, a close friend, recounted an incident in which she and Carpenter went to their normal hangout, Hamburger Hamlet, and Carpenter appeared to be distant emotionally, sitting not at their regular table but in the dark, wearing large dark sunglasses, unable to eat and crying. According to Kamon, the marriage was "the straw that broke the camel's back. It was absolutely the worst thing that could have ever happened to her".[65] In September 1981, Carpenter revised her will and left her marital home and its contents to Burris, but left everything else to her brother and parents, including her fortune estimated at 5–10 million dollars (between $14,000,000 and $28,000,000 in 2019).[65] Two months later, following an argument after a family dinner in a restaurant, Carpenter and Burris broke up.[66] Carpenter filed for divorce on October 28, 1982, while she was in Lenox Hill Hospital.[67] Illness and death Carpenter began dieting while in high school. Under a doctor's guidance, she began the Stillman diet, eating lean foods, drinking eight glasses of water a day, and avoiding fatty foods. She reduced her weight to 120 pounds (54 kg; 8 st 8 lb) and stayed approximately at that weight until around 1973, when the Carpenters' career reached its peak.[68] That year, she saw a concert photo of herself in which her outfit made her appear heavy. She hired a personal trainer, who advised her to change her diet. The new diet caused her to build muscle, which made her feel heavier instead of slimmer. Carpenter fired the trainer and began her own weight-loss program using exercise equipment and counting calories. She lost about 20 pounds (9 kg) and intended to lose another five pounds. Her eating habits also changed around this time; she would try to remove food from her plate by offering tastes to others with whom she was dining.[69] By September 1975, Carpenter weighed 91 pounds (41 kg; 6 st 7 lb).[70] At live performances, fans reacted with gasps to her gaunt appearance, and many wrote to the pair to inquire what was wrong.[43] She refused to declare publicly that she was in ill health; on her 1981 Nationwide appearance, she simply said she was "pooped".[71] Richard later stated that he and his parents did not know how to help Karen. In 1981, she told Richard that there was a problem and that she needed help with it.[43] Carpenter spoke with Cherry Boone, who had recovered from anorexia, and contacted Boone's doctor for help. She was hoping to find a quick solution to her problem, as she had performing and recording obligations, but the doctor told her treatment could take from one to three years.[72] She then chose to be treated in New York City by psychotherapist Steven Levenkron.[43][73] By late 1981, Carpenter was using thyroid replacement medication, which she obtained using the name of Karen Burris, to increase her metabolism. She used the medication in conjunction with increased consumption of the laxatives (up to 80–90 tablets per night) upon which she had long relied, which caused food to pass quickly through her digestive tract. Despite Levenkron's treatment, including confiscation of medications that Karen had misused, her condition continued to deteriorate, and she lost more weight. Carpenter told Levenkron that she felt dizzy and that her heart was beating irregularly. Finally, in September 1982, she was admitted to Lenox Hill Hospital in New York, where she was placed on intravenous parenteral nutrition. The procedure was successful, and she gained some weight in a relatively short time, but this put a strain on her heart, which was already weak from years of improper diet.[74] She maintained a relatively stable weight for the rest of her life.[75][76] Carpenter returned to California in November 1982, determined to reinvigorate her career, finalize her divorce and begin a new album with Richard.[74] On December 17, 1982, she gave her last singing performance in the multi-purpose room of the Buckley School in Sherman Oaks, California, singing Christmas carols for her godchildren, their classmates and other friends.[77] On January 11, 1983, she made her last public appearance at a gathering of past Grammy Award winners, who were commemorating the awards show's 25th anniversary.[78][79] She seemed somewhat frail and worn out, but according to Dionne Warwick, was vibrant and outgoing, exclaiming, "Look at me! I've got an ass!"[78] She had also begun to write songs after returning to California and told Warwick that she had "a lot of living left to do."[72] On February 1, 1983, Carpenter saw her brother for the last time and discussed new plans for the Carpenters and resuming touring.[c] Three days later, on February 4, Carpenter was scheduled to sign final papers making her divorce official. Shortly after waking up on that day, she collapsed in her bedroom at her parents' home in Downey. Paramedics found her heart beating once every 10 seconds.[80] She was pronounced dead at PIH Health Hospital - Downey at 9:51 a.m.[81][82] Carpenter's funeral was held February 8, 1983, at Downey United Methodist Church. Approximately one thousand mourners attended, including her friends Dorothy Hamill,[83] Olivia Newton-John, Petula Clark[84] and Dionne Warwick.[85][86] Her estranged husband, Thomas Burris, also attended and placed his wedding ring into her casket.[46] Carpenter was buried at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Cypress, California.[85] In 2003 her body was moved in order to be placed with her parents in a mausoleum at the Pierce Brothers Valley Oaks Memorial Park in Westlake Village, California.[87] An autopsy released on March 11, 1983, ruled out drug overdose,[88] attributing death to "emetine cardiotoxicity due to or as a consequence of anorexia nervosa".[74] Carpenter was discovered to have a blood sugar level of 1,110 milligrams per decilitre, more than ten times the average.[89] Two years later, the coroner told colleagues that Carpenter's heart failure was caused by repeated use of ipecac syrup, an over-the-counter emetic often used to induce vomiting in cases of overdosing or poisoning.[74][d] This was disputed by Levenkron, who said that he had never known her to use ipecac and that he had not seen evidence that she had been vomiting.[91] Carpenter's friends were convinced that she had abused laxatives and thyroid medication to maintain her low body weight and thought this had started after her marriage began to crumble.[73] Legacy "This is a sad day, but at the same time a very special and beautiful day to my family and me. My only regret is that Karen is not physically here to share it with us, but I know that she is very much alive in our minds, and in our hearts". Richard Carpenter speaking at the Hollywood Walk of Fame, 1983[92] The Carpenters' star at the Hollywood Walk of Fame Carpenter's singing has attracted critical praise and influenced several significant musicians and singers, including Madonna, Sheryl Crow, Pat Metheny, Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon, Shania Twain, Natalie Imbruglia, and k.d. lang.[30][93] Paul McCartney has said that she had "the best female voice in the world: melodic, tuneful and distinctive."[64] She has been called "one of the greatest voices of our lifetime" by Elton John.[1] Her drumming has been praised by fellow musicians Hal Blaine, Cubby O'Brien and Buddy Rich[94] and by Modern Drummer magazine. In 1975, she was voted the best rock drummer in a poll of Playboy readers, beating Led Zeppelin's John Bonham.[30] On October 12, 1983, shortly after her death, the Carpenters received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.[92][95] In 1999, VH1 ranked Carpenter at No. 29 on its list of the 100 Greatest Women of Rock and Roll.[96] In 2010, Rolling Stone ranked Carpenter No. 94 on its list of the 100 Greatest Singers of All Time, calling her voice "impossibly lush and almost shockingly intimate", adding "even the sappiest songs sound like she was staring directly into your eyes."[1] Carpenter's death brought media attention to conditions such as anorexia nervosa;[97] the condition had not been widely known beforehand.[98] Her family started the Karen A. Carpenter Memorial Foundation, which raised money for research on anorexia nervosa and other eating disorders.[99] Carpenter is known to fans as "Lead Sister". This originated from a mispronunciation of "lead singer" by a Japanese journalist in 1974, and she later wore a T-shirt with the nickname during live shows.[100] Biographies A 43-minute film titled Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story, directed by Todd Haynes, was released in 1987, and featured Barbie dolls as the characters. It was withdrawn from circulation in 1990 after Haynes lost a copyright infringement lawsuit filed by Richard Carpenter.[101][102][103] The film's title is derived from the Carpenters' 1971 hit song "Superstar". Over the years, it has developed into a cult film and was included in Entertainment Weekly's 2003 list of the top 50 cult movies.[104] On January 1, 1989, the similarly titled made-for-TV movie The Karen Carpenter Story aired on CBS with Cynthia Gibb in the title role. Gibb lip-synched the songs to Carpenter's recorded voice, with the exception of "The End of the World." Both films use the song "This Masquerade" in the background while showing Carpenter's marriage to Burris.[105][106] The movie helped revive the Carpenters' critical standing and increased their music's popularity.[107][108] Richard Carpenter helped in the production of the documentaries Close to You: Remembering the Carpenters (1997)[109] and Only Yesterday: The Carpenters Story (2007).[110] Randy Schmidt wrote a biography about Carpenter entitled Little Girl Blue, published in 2010, which included a foreword by Warwick.[111] It provides a different perspective than those of the other officially endorsed biographies, and it was based on interviews with other friends and associates. The New York Times said that the book was "one of the saddest tales in pop."[112] |
Kirsten Malfrid Flagstad (12 July 1895 – 7 December 1962) was a Norwegian opera singer and a highly regarded Wagnerian soprano. OPera was at death's doorstep when "this dire outlook changed quite suddenly on February 2, 1935 when, unheralded and all but unknown outside her native Norway, soprano Kirsten Flagstad made her American debut as Sieglinde in a Saturday matinee of Wagner’s Die Walküre. The performance was broadcast live. She is famous for “Du bist der Lenz,” "Våren"; Edvard Grieg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dqdRwX136c Våren Language: Norwegian (Nynorsk) Available translation(s): FRE Enno ein Gong fekk eg Vetren at sjaa for Vaaren at røma; Heggen med Tre som der Blomar var paa eg atter saag bløma. Enno ein Gong fekk eg Isen at sjaa fraa Landet at fljota, Snjoen at braana, og Fossen i Aa at fyssa og brjota. Graset det grøne eg enno ein Gong fekk skoda med blomar [eg seier hei]1 enno eg høyrde at Vaarfuglen song mot Sol og mot Sumar. [Enno ein Gong den Velsignad eg fekk, at Gauken eg høyrde, enno ein Gong ut paa Aakren eg gjekk, der Plogen dei kjøyrde. Enno ein Gong fekk eg skoda meg varm paa Lufti og Engi; Jordi at sjaa som med lengtande Barm at sukka i Sængi. Vaarsky at leika der til og ifraa, og Skybankar krulla, so ut av Banken tok Tora til slaa og kralla og rulla. Saagiddren endaa meg unntest at sjaa paa Vaarbakken dansa. Fivreld at floksa og fjuka ifraa, der Blomar seg kransa. Alt dette Vaarliv eg atter fekk sjaa, som sidan eg miste. Men eg er tungsam og spyrja meg maa: tru det er det siste? Lat det so vera: Eg myket av Vænt i Livet fekk njota. Meire eg fekk en eg havde fortent, og Alting maa trjota.]1 Eingong eg sjølv i den vaarlege Eim, som mettar mit Auga, eingong eg der vil meg finna ein Heim og symjande lauga. Alt det som Vaaren imøte meg bar, og Blomen eg plukkad', Federnes Aander eg trudde det var, som dansad' og sukkad'. Derfor eg fann millom Bjørkar og Bar i Vaaren ei Gaata; derfor det Ljod i den Fløyta eg skar, meg tyktest at graata. Footnote: #1 omitted by Grieg. Written by Aasmund Olavsson Vinje (1818 - 1870), "Våren", written 1859 Yes, once again winter’s face would I see to Spring’s glory waning, whitethorn outspreading its clusters so free in beauty enchaining. Once more behold from the earth day by day the ice disappearing, snow melting fast and in thunder and spray the river, careering. Emerald meadows, your flow’rets I’ll spy and hail each new comer; listen again to the lark in the sky who warbles of summer. Glittering sunbeams how fain would I watch on bright hillocks glancing, butterflies seeking from blossoms to snatch their treasures while dancing. Spring’s many joys once again would I taste ere fade they forever. But, heavy-hearted, I feel that I haste from this world to sever. So be it then! yet in Nature so fair much bliss I could find me; over and past is my plentiful share, I leave all behind me. My translation: Once more I got the winter to see for the spring to escape; The hedge with the tree that where plums were on I stern saw bloom. Once more I got the ice to see from the land that floated, the snow that burned, and the waterfall that flowed and broke. Grass the green I once again got the shows with plums [I say hello] 1 yet I heard the warbler sing against the sun and against the summer. [Once again the blessing I received, that the cuckoo I heard, once more out in the field I went, where the plow they drove. Once again I got my eyes warm in the air and the meadow; earth to see as with longing bosom that sighs in bed. our cloud that play where to and from, and cloud banks curled, then out of the bank took the tora to beat and rattle and rolled. The sawmill still me except to see on the spring hill danced. butterfly that flocks and flies from, where the wreath plums. All this spring life I got to see again, as since I lost. But I am melancholy and I have to ask myself: do you think that is the last thing? Let it be so: I was full of love in life to enjoy. More I got one I deserved, and everything must trjota.] 1 Once upon a time I myself the springy mist, which satisfies my eye, once I go there I want to find a home and swimming pool. All that spring met me bore, and the flower I picked ', the spirits of the fathers I thought it was, like dancing 'and sighing'. Therefore I found between birches and in the spring carried a riddle; therefore it sounded in the whistle I cut myself, thickest to cry. OBIT Skip to main content What do you want to learn today? EXPLORE Women Encyclopedias almanacs transcripts and maps Flagstad, Kirsten (1895–1962) Flagstad, Kirsten (1895–1962) Views 1,305,127 Updated Oct 23 2020 Flagstad, Kirsten (1895–1962) Norwegian singer who was the greatest Wagnerian soprano of the mid-20th century. Pronunciation: KEER-sten. Born Kirsten Malfrid Flagstad on July 12, 1895, in Hamar, near Oslo, Norway; died of cancer in Oslo on December 7, 1962; daughter of Michael (a violinist and conductor) and Marie (Nielsen) Flagstad (an organist, pianist, and operatic coach, known as the "musical momma of Norway"); sister of Karen Marie Flagstad Orkel, an opera singer; graduated from the ninth grade; took private singing lessons from Ellen Schytte-Jacobsen in Oslo and Dr. Gillis Bratt in Stockholm; married Sigurd Hall, in May 1919 (divorced 1930); married Henry Johansen, in 1930; children: (first marriage) Else-Marie Hall (b. 1920). Made her debut as Nuri in d'Albert's Tiefland at the National Theater in Oslo (1913), where she also sang her first Isolde (1932); sang in Bayreuth (1933–34); made U.S. debut at the Metropolitan Opera (February 1935); returned to America after the war; gave farewell performance at Covent Garden with Tristan (1951), at the Met in Gluck's Alceste (1952), at the Mermaid Theater in London (1953) and at Oslo (December 1953); made numerous recordings with Edwin McArthur and Gerald Moore; served as director of the Norwegian State Opera (1958–60). Opera appearances: Tiefland, Les Choches de Corneville, En hellig Aften, Vaarnat, Der Evangelimann, I Pagliacci, Der Zigeunerbaron, Die Schöne Galathee, Die Nürnberger Puppe, Abu Hassan, La Belle Hélène, Die Lustigen Weiber von Windsor, Die Zauberflöte, Otello, Un Ballo in maschera, Das höllisch Gold, La Fanciulla del West, Orphée aux enfers, Boccaccio, Carmen, Die Fledermaus, Les Brigands, Sjömandsbruden, Faust, Orfeo ed Euridice, Der Freischütz, Saul og David, Aïda, La Bohème, Tosca, Lohengrin, La Rondine, Die Meistersinger, Jonny spielt auf, Schwanda der Dudelsackpfeifer, Rodelinda, Tristan und Isolde, Die Walküre, Götterdämmerung, Tannhauser, Fidelio, Parsifal, Siegfried, Der fliegender Holländer, Oberon, Alceste, and Dido and Aneas. Kirsten Flagstad grew up as the eldest child of four in a very musical family. To put food on their table, her father Michael worked as a Parliament stenographer, but he was also engaged as a violinist and later a conductor at the Central Theater in Oslo. Her mother Marie Nielsen Flagstad played the piano in the orchestra, besides coaching the chorus and giving private voice and piano lessons. Her brothers played the violin and cello, and, her sister, Karen (Flagstad Orkel ), who as the youngest was unable to eke out her turn at the piano, sang. Kirsten started playing the piano at six. Though she quickly became skilled, it occurred to no one, including herself, that she would make either playing or singing a career. Her mother wanted her to become a doctor, and she dutifully enrolled in high school as a preparatory step towards university studies. Always a hard worker, Flagstad tried to complete the course in two rather than three years but fell ill and had to discontinue her schooling temporarily. Though she made a brief return, she did not graduate. Content to think of herself as someone's future wife, she remained at home, helping her mother with the housework. From the age of ten, she had taken charge of the household when Marie Flagstad was on tour with the theater company. At ten, Kirsten also had her first introduction to Wagner, given the score of Lohengrin as a birthday present. Having been taught French, English, and German in school, she knew German fairly well; so, she memorized the role of Elsa to sing and play for her own amusement and for the pleasure of her father. From time to time, her mother also asked her daughter to sing duo with one of her voice pupils. At 11, when Kirsten was asked to sing Senta for a man who was studying Wagner's Fliegender Holländer, she did so from score and, in that way, "slowly came to work with opera," she said. "It came as naturally as breathing, with no conscious effort on my part." At 16, Flagstad started voice lessons with Ellen Schytte-Jacobsen , who had heard her sing and offered to coach her free of charge. With Madame Schytte-Jacobsen, Flagstad would do exercises, while studying a variety of roles by herself, though not planning to bring them to a stage. She paid little attention to her teacher's prediction that she would be ready to sing in public within three years, but she beat that prophecy by a year. On December 12, 1913, only two years after she had started her training, Flagstad made her debut in Eugen d'Albert's Tiefland at the Oslo National Theater, beginning a career that would span 40 years and make her famous worldwide as one of the greatest Wagnerian singers ever. The outbreak of World War I prevented Flagstad from following the traditional course of those pursuing a singing career, going to Germany for further studies. Instead, she went to Stockholm. Acknowledged as having a promising, nice little voice, she had been offered a private donation to use as she wished. She invested her funds in four years of study with Dr. Gillis Bratt, a famous Stockholm throat specialist who taught singing as a sideline. He immediately diagnosed Flagstad's "little" voice to be a result of her vocal cords not closing and thus letting air pass between them. Bratt taught her to close those cords, and in three months her voice had tripled in size. In March 1918, she sang her first recital in Oslo, planning to make her debut at the Stockholm Opera the following spring. Plans changed when she married a businessman not especially interested in music on May 14, 1919. Instead of returning to Stockholm, Flagstad joined the newly opened Opera-Comique in Oslo, singing operettas by Lehar and Offenbach. Soon pregnant, she gave up singing and stayed home to await the birth of her baby. Else-Marie Hall arrived on May 17, 1920. Life as a wife and mother so contented Kirsten that she did not sing the entire summer, despite her mother's protestations and repeated urgings that she return to the Opera-Comique. Almost desperate on behalf of her daughter's lost opportunities, Marie Flagstad brought her the score of Lehar's Zigeunerliebe, insisting she sing it. Flagstad did as directed, then suddenly stopped, staring in disbelief at her mother. Her voice had doubled in volume. At that discovery, she accepted the role and went back to her career at the Opera-Comique where she would sing light soprano parts for the next eight years. Kirsten Flagstad"> I am not an artist except when I am dealing with art, and when I am not dealing with art, I am the most commonplace person in the world. —Kirsten Flagstad In the spring of 1928, after Flagstad and her husband separated, she accepted an invitation to sing in Finland for the summer and spent the season there in the company of her daughter. Together they departed for Gothenburg, Sweden, where, that autumn, Flagstad was engaged to sing in Aïda, La Bohème, and Tosca. She was an unqualified success; Else, however, found it difficult to adjust to school in another country and returned to Norway to stay with her aunt and uncle. In June of 1929, Flagstad was booked to sing in Lohengrin at the Theater in Oslo, an engagement that would yield a real life counterpart to her role as Lohengrin's bride. A friend introduced her to Norwegian business magnate Henry Johansen, who was in the audience. It was love at first sight for both, and, though she may not have been conscious of her feelings, Flagstad wrote her husband that night requesting a divorce. About the same time, the first inquiries from the Metropolitan Opera in America arrived. Eric Simon, the Met's European representative, invited her to send reviews, lists of roles, and photos. As before, Flagstad was not sufficiently interested to renounce her marriage plans and did not bother to answer Simon. The Metropolitan seemed as far away as the moon, and she had work to do in Norway. Above all, she was engaged to marry a man she loved. On a spring day in 1930, she became Mrs. Johansen in the office of the Norwegian consul general in Antwerp. The couple had been touring Germany, Austria, and Belgium and among other events had seen Tristan and Isolde at the Vienna Opera. At the end of that performance, Johansen had told his future bride, "This is something you could never sing." She agreed. "It's much too big for me." Both would eat their words some four months later when she sang in Handel's Rodelinda in Gothenburg, and they recognized a potential Isolde. Flagstad had not planned to go to Gothenburg. Happily married, she felt she had earned a long rest and saw no need to go on singing. She was content to be Mrs. Henry Johansen who accompanied her husband on business trips. But a frantic call had come from Gothenburg. They were in a pinch, could she come and sing in Weinberger's Schwanda within a week. Rodelinda followed it, and two weeks later, by some strange coincidence, the National Theater in Oslo invited her to sing Isolde there the following June. With her mother for a coach, Flagstad learned the part, "plunging into it like an exciting adventure." Her sister and sister-in-law acted as prompters, and together the four of them rehearsed in the Johansen home. In the evening, her husband would return from the world of business, and they would entertain friends and family, sitting around talking or playing music. Her daughter Else and Henry Johansen's daughter from a previous marriage studied together in Oslo, so for a short while Flagstad had everyone she loved within reach. She found life "complete and satisfying in every way" and could "easily have done without the singing." But her response to the frantic call from Gothenburg had set her feet on a path she would follow for another 23 years. One role led to another. After one of the Isolde performances, Ellen Gulbranson , who for 18 years had been singing Brunnhilde at Bayreuth, approached Flagstad, insisting that she audition there. Thus, in July of 1932, with the urging of her husband, Flagstad tried out for Bayreuth and was engaged for the following two summers. The world of Wagner opened to her. Nor did Henry Johansen object when an offer to sing came from the Metropolitan. Together they left for America at the end of December 1934, and Flagstad made her American debut on February 2, 1935, as Sieglinde in Die Walküre. Her next role was the Walküre Brunnhilde followed by the Götterdämmerung Brunnhilde, a total of 125 performances. On April 21, she made her first radio debut before a live audience of 4,000. By the summer of 1935, she was so overworked she had to cancel her engagements in South America, but she had sung to full houses and rave reviews. Flagstad had been deeply moved by the kindness and cooperation of her colleagues: at a flower show at the Grand Central Palace in New York, a flower had been named after her. Her first season in America, she felt, had been worth the price of exhaustion. Rested after a summer in Norway, she returned to America on September 26 to commence a series of concerts. Thousands attended her performances, even in smaller cities; she found her audiences enthusiastic and receptive to unfamiliar songs, which encouraged her to make increasingly bolder choices for her repertoire. Only one thing troubled her: the American habit of turning celebrities into public property. Shy, with a deep need for privacy, Flagstad felt haunted by the attention. She refused to meet members of the audience backstage and frequently left the opera house with applause still ringing in her ears. After five years of touring America, Australia, and Europe, she experienced a severe bout of homesickness and longed to return to Norway. She was concerned, too, about losing her daughter to another country. Else had accompanied her mother on her second trip to the States and had fallen in love with an American whom she wanted to marry. Hoping she would reconsider, Flagstad persuaded her daughter to return with her to Kristiansand, and Else agreed. They packed their bags and set their departure date for April 20, 1940. On the morning of April 9, however, they learned that the Germans had invaded Norway and Denmark, and the Bergensfjord on which they were to sail remained at dockside. Her husband cabled around April 18 to tell her to stay where she was, so she made herself available for bookings through the next twelvemonth. In the middle of her tour, she received a different message: "Why don't you come home? I am waiting for you." She cabled back that her commitments demanded she stay, but she was growing exceedingly anxious about conditions in Norway and worried about every move she made, fearful of what the Germans would do to her family, all of whom had received notoriety due to her success. Flagstad was torn between her duty to go home and her obligation to honor her contracts running through April of 1941. In October of 1940, her stepdaughter arrived in San Francisco, bringing with her the devastating truth that not only were Germans in command of her country, but Norwegians were arrayed against Norwegians in a war as serious as the one between them and the Nazis. Americans, among them Herbert Hoover, urged her to stay rather than return to a country occupied by Germans, but Flagstad could bear the agony of un-certainty no longer. She thought it her duty as a wife and a Norwegian to return to her homeland and made plans for leaving on April 19, 1941. Her journey home took a circuitous route, involving visas and permits at every stage of the road through Portugal, Spain, France, Germany, and Sweden. At her hotel in Portugal, she had her first intimation of something being terribly wrong. There she learned, in the company of three Norwegian businessmen, that Henry Johansen, as a member of Quisling's political party, was thought to be keeping very strange company. Vidkun Quisling was vaguely familiar to Flagstad as a man who had formed his own political party, the National Union, ten years earlier. She also knew that, as a political conservative, her husband had joined the party some years before, believing it was a businessman's best defense against radicalism in Norway. What she did not know was that Quisling, who was friendly with the Nazis, had collaborated in the German invasion of her country and become head of the only party permitted in wartime Norway, Nasjonal Samling. When she finally reached Oslo after numerous delays, she decided to stay until the war was over. The Johansens moved to their home in Kristiansand to live quietly together with friends and family. Again the issue of Henry Johansen's membership in Quisling's party surfaced when his daughter asked Flagstad to plead with her father to leave the party. Flagstad did, and her husband allowed that he was waiting for an opportunity to do so, realizing the danger connected with resigning at this time. He nonetheless ventured his resignation and bought them some quiet years at Kristiansand, interrupted only by Flagstad's performances in Stockholm and Zurich. The Norwegians in Stockholm protested her presence there—a privilege they interpreted as a signifier of her collaboration with the enemy—by boycotting her performance. So she sang to a half-empty house and an audience that gradually and finally enthusiastically let themselves be won over. In Switzerland, her audiences were supportive and appreciative from the start, and she returned there in the summers of 1942 and 1943, after which traveling became prohibitive. Though she sang at home, the times were getting increasingly difficult. Norwegians were seized and sent to concentration camps, reprisals for slaying of members of the Quisling party were conducted, and finally Henry Johansen was arrested and kept a prisoner for eight days before being released. The end of the war brought only a few days of respite for the Johansens. Henry Johansen was again arrested, this time by Norwegian patriots, and taken to a detention camp. He fell ill there and was refused hospital care until it was too late. He died in June of 1945. Tied no longer with bonds of love and matrimony, Flagstad was free to leave and resume her career. She discovered she still had a voice—more voluminous than ever for the enforced rest—and she sang in Cannes, Paris, London, and Milan before returning to America on March 14, 1947. After a press conference on March 15, she went straight to her daughter in Bozeman, Montana. Else had married her American and, six months before, had made Kirsten Flagstad a grandmother, "the nicest thing that could happen to me," as she put it. Her first concert was in Boston on April 6. Flagstad had been told to expect picket lines protesting the performance of an alleged collaborator, but there were none, and the response of those who lent their presence to the half-full house was a welcome so encompassing it threw her "completely off balance." Two weeks later, she appeared in Carnegie Hall, looking regal in a black gown and a white lace collar, and received a standing ovation from a crowd of loyal friends and music lovers. As the great singer Elisabeth Rethberg commented afterwards, she had on that afternoon experienced perfection. "The audience, the artist, the gown she wore, the way she walked on the stage, the way she acted, the applause, the program and the way she sang it—it was the whole thing." But the newspapers were cool, carrying references to her husband's arrest. Flagstad thus felt under constant scrutiny, but she made up her mind to sing as she had never sung before. She knew she was innocent of betrayals, or she could not have faced her public or sung at all. So she said nothing about the "Kirsten Flagstad case"—she just sang. Putting up with booing and picket lines, she kept on singing. She was sought-after everywhere but the Metropolitan Opera. In 1948, she returned to England to sing at London's Covent Garden, then on to Paris, Switzerland, Italy, and South America. Finally in July of 1949 came the coveted invitation. The Metropolitan cabled: could she do the Brunnhildes and Kundry there in 1950 and on tour in Boston and Cleveland. Flagstad, however, had to refuse because she was fully booked for the 1950 season. Her reply resulted in furious letters from friends and admirers wondering how she dare say no to such an institution, but she felt she had no choice. Ahead of her she had a season with the San Francisco Opera, whose management had replied to objections over her appearance from war veterans: "If we cannot have Kirsten Flagstad, we won't have any opera season at all." She sang to "packed houses" both there and three times at Carnegie Hall as well. In December, she was approached again by the Metropolitan and agreed to do Tristan, Fidelio and the Ring Cycle. She appeared there for the last time in Gluck's Alceste on April 1, 1952. Flagstad's last public appearance prior to her retirement as a singer was on December 12, 1953, at the National Theater of Oslo where she had made her debut 40 years earlier. Five years later, in 1958, she opened her first season as director of the Norwegian State Opera with d'Albert's Tiefland. She had come full circle. Returned home both as an artist-director and a daughter of Norway, she gave the State Opera's official welcome to King Olav V whose father, back in 1937, had honored her with his country's highest distinction, the St. Olav decoration. Flagstad's voice of gold had thrilled audiences worldwide and brought her vast acclaim; yet, she would write in her memoirs that "fame, glory—they are empty meaningless words. One does what one can." Her "doing" was of gargantuan proportions, too great for the conventional life she so craved of wife-mother. Flagstad accepted that, but she never ceased blaming herself for the accusations levelled against "Flagstad's husband." Kirsten Flagstad died of cancer in Oslo on December 7, 1962. In his tribute to the famous singer, Edwin McArthur, her American accompanist for 17 years, calls her a "great lady—a great artist—a simple woman—a complex individual—sweet and bitter like all human beings—but above all, a true personification of uncompromising integrity." On December 12, 1963, 50 years to the day after Flagstad made her first appearance on stage, he presented her life-size portrait to the Metropolitan Opera Association. She had bequeathed it to her grandson Sigurd, who in turn donated it to the Association and thus ensured his grandmother a place in the company of other greats who together record the history of music on the walls of New York's Lincoln Center. © 2019 Encyclopedia.com | All rights reserved. |
Kyu Sakamoto 10 December 1941 – 12 August 1985) was a Japanese singer and actor, best known outside Japan for his international hit song "Ue o Muite Arukō" #1 in the USA, June 1963. Sakamoto, along with 519 others on board the flight, died in the crash of Japan Airlines Flight 123 on 12 August 1985. I chose this video because it shows his charisma. I look up when I walk So that the tears won’t fall Remembering those happy spring days But tonight I am all alone I look up when I walk Counting the stars with tearful eyes Remembering those happy summer days But tonight I am all alone Happiness lies beyond the clouds Happiness lies above the sky I look up when I walk So that the tears won’t fall Though my heart is filled with sorrow Though the tears well up For tonight I am all alone (whistling) (whistling) Remembering those happy autumn days But tonight I’m all alone Sadness hides in the shadow of the stars Sadness lurks in the shadow of the moon I look up when I walk So that the tears won’t fall Though my heart is filled with sorrow/Thought the tears well up But tonight I am all alone But tonight I am all alone (whistling) (whistling) Anothr video with subtitles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C35DrtPlUbc 上を向いて歩こう 涙がこぼれないように 思い出す 春の日 一人ぽっちの夜 上を向いて歩こう にじんだ星をかぞえて 思い出す 夏の日 一人ぽっちの夜 幸せは 雲の上に 幸せは 空の上に 上を向いて歩こう 涙がこぼれないように 泣きながら 歩く 一人ぽっちの夜 思い出す 秋の日 一人ぽっちの夜 悲しみは星のかげに 悲しみは月のかげに 上を向いて歩こう 涙がこぼれないように 泣きながら 歩く 一人ぽっちの夜 一人ぽっちの夜 |
Lucille Ball (1911-1989) is buried in Lake View Cemetery in Jamestown, New York, where her parents and grandparents are buried. Her brother's remains were also interred there in 2007. My Swedish family is also from Jamestown and my grandparents and many members of my family are buried in Lake View. Lucy may have been the Queen of B's but she was more than a comedienne; she could also dance and sing (this is her real voice, not dubbed): (From the 1940 movie Dance, Girl, Dance) I am just a sweet young thing of 22 Or so. I never sink to smoke or drink My life is one long... "No." I finish at Ms. Sniffing's school A model debutante I know each fork and spoon and rule I don't say "can't," but "cahn't" My etiquette is "ooh, mais oui" I pour a proper pot of tea And even when I need a nip I never, never, never slip Well, almost never Oh, cut it out fellas! Note: the above is an introduction the following is danced and sung: Try to be a lady Morning, noon and night But when I hear music, Get the Jitterbug Bite. Over tea and crumpets Gee, but I'm polite But when I hear trumpets Get the Jitterbug Bite. I'm quite the quiet type Poised in every move But, boy, do I get noisy When the boys get in the groove Yeah! How can I be highbrow? What an awful plight Gotta say goodbye now You'll pardon me, I gotta blow I gotta a slight twitch in my toe My feet are just itching to go Got the Jitterbug Bite Ouch! Got the Jitterbug Bite, yeah, yeah! Got a Jitterbug Bite! Try to be a lady Morning, noon and bite. Over tea and crumpets Gee, but I'm polite But when I hear trumpets boy, do I get noisy What an awful plight You'll pardon me, gotta twitch in my toe My feet are just itching to go Ouch! yeah! Got a Jitterbug Bite! |
| Someone's watching? For "48-HOUR CHALLENGE: Media Prompt". I jump when I hear odd noises through the walls. Years ago I woke up with someone in my room (at 1 a.m.). I don't think my body has ever forgotten. I jump and then think... how silly. I was part of the generation that was traumatized by "Psycho" and "Birds" but showers don't bother me. Neither does the dark nor cemeteries. Odd isn't it, what triggers a response... or not. I don't feel 'watched' here where I live. If I did my anxiety might get too high for me to stay. I do not surround myself with practical jokers nor do I hang out with people I can't trust. I trust no one. That's an issue. So no, I won't be watching you nor try to play with your mind. If I think you're ill or need help? I'll ask or keep my eyes open (and hopefully my mouth shut) Somebody's Watching Me by Rockwell. Who's watching Tell me who's watching Who's watching me I'm just an average man with an average life I work from 9 to 5, hey hell, I pay the price All I want is to be left alone, in my average home But why do I always feel Like I'm in the Twilight Zone? I always feel like somebody's watchin' me And I have no privacy I always feel like somebody's watchin' me Is it just a dream? When I come home at night I bang the door real tight People call me on the phone I'm trying to avoid Or can the people on TV see me, Or am I just paranoid? When I'm in the shower, I'm afraid to wash my hair Cause I might open my eyes and find someone standing there! People say I'm crazy, just a little touch But maybe showers remind me of Psycho too much That's why... I always feel like… Sung by Kennedy William Gordy aka Rockwell (1984) My redaction-'poem' [tweaked]: [untitled Redaction Song] Tell me who's watching. Who's watching just an average man who wants to be left alone in the Twilight Zone. No privacy. Is it just a dream? I bang People call me I avoid me... Am I paranoid? When I'm afraid to open my eyes and find someone standing there! I'm crazy, just... maybe. Showers remind me of... Tell me, WHO'S WATCHING ME? © Kåre Enga [177.241] (8.oktober.2020) Original redaction before revision just to show how it can work: Who's watching Tell me who's watching Who's watching me I'm just an average man with an average life I work from 9 to 5, hey hell, I pay the price All I want is to be left alone, in my average home But why do I always feel Like I'm in the Twilight Zone? I always feel like somebody's watchin' me And I have no privacy I always feel like somebody's watchin' me Is it just a dream? When I come home at night I bang the door real tight People call me on the phone I'm trying to avoid Or can the people on TV see me, Or am I just paranoid? When I'm in the shower, I'm afraid to wash my hair Cause I might open my eyes and find someone standing there! People say I'm crazy, just a little touch But maybe showers remind me of Psycho too much That's why... I always feel like… |
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