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THE BEATLES RE-MANIA
By John Uhl
The legacy of the enigmatic George Harrison will always be linked with the Beatles. The overlooked "quiet" Beatle who wrote such great songs as "Something," "Here Comes the Sun," and "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," which are among the band's most popular works, never quite attained the songwriting reputation of Lennon and McCartney while the Beatles were still together. However, once freed from the confines of Beatledom, he amassed a significant oeuvre as a solo artist, releasing ten albums over three decades. George Harrison was the first of the former Fab Four to top the charts, with his song "My Sweet Lord" from his Grammy-nominated debut album, ALL THINGS MUST PASS; the first to tour as a solo artist; and the first to start his own record label, the aptly named Dark Horse Records. In 2002, BRAINWASHED, his final album, was released posthumously to critical acclaim, and his face graced prominent magazine covers. Fans and commentators took the opportunity of his untimely death from cancer in 2001 to wonder at the impact of one musician in particular and of the Beatles in general.
This is the darker side of what may be referred to as Beatle Re-Mania, those subtle new waves of Beatlemania-style media saturation that have periodically washed over America ever since the Fab Four first landed at New York's JFK Airport early in 1964. More recently, a less burdensome Beatle memorial took place as February 9, 2004 marked the 40th anniversary of the band's first trip to America, and THE ED SULLIVAN SHOW appearance that triggered the original stateside Beatlemania and launched the first surge of the British Invasion. Accordingly, the date was met with no small amount of Beatle-related commemoration: newspapers across the country included articles highlighting the anniversary; David Letterman played their original ED SULLIVAN SHOW performance in its entirety on his late night show; and the 46th Annual Grammy Awards, which was telecast live on the evening of February 9, featured a Beatles musical tribute.
Beatle Re-Mania has existed for years, but there was a decidedly contemporary feel to this latest trend in nostalgia, perhaps most evident at Beatles.com, the band's official Web site. Now, it may seem counterintuitive for a band that broke up three decades before the advent of the World Wide Web to have a site, especially since current musical groups generally use the Internet to post tour dates and notify their fans of release dates for their latest recordings ... but this is the Beatles, after all. And, as it turns out, Beatles.com has no shortage of recently released music to promote.
Top banner photos: George Harrison; Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr, and Dhani Harrison perform at the tribute concert at the Royal Albert Hall (photo by Richard Young - Oops Publishing Ltd. 2002). |
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Paul McCartney performs Harrison's "Something," which was originally featured on the Beatles album ABBEY ROAD. |
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Billy Preston was among the musicians who played with Harrison on his first solo U.S. tour in 1974. |
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This program is available on DVD and music from the concert is available on CD. |
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