- The quiet Beatle, the spiritual Beatle, the reluctant Beatle, the dark horse.

George Harrison was all of these things and so much more.

As a guitarist and vocalist, his contributions to The Beatles were indispensable.

But as a songwriter, Harrison was a late bloomer, working in the shadows of one of the greatest songwriting duos in history, John Lennon and Paul McCartney.

Yet Harrison grew quickly as a composer, and in a different way than his band mates.

He crafted songs with unusual chord progressions, philosophical lyrics, and a curiosity that pushed The Beatles to incorporate new sounds and new instruments.

Along the way he helped to create what we now know as World Music.

Welcome to, "Here Come the Songs: The Evolution of George Harrison".

(rhythmic music) Hi, I'm Scott Freiman.

I've been in love with The Beatles for decades, and for the past 20 years I've been taking a deep dive into their creative process.

George Harrison was the youngest of the four Beatles, born in 1943.

Like his band mates, he fell in love with American rock and roll in the late '50s.

He spent his early teenage years sketching guitars in his school books, dreaming of the real thing, until he finally got a guitar of his own.

Harrison joined John Lennon's group, The Quarrymen, not long after Paul McCartney.

He played a key role in promoting the group, helping to get them their first significant residency at the Casbah Coffee Club in 1959.

A year after that the group, now called The Beatles, left for a four-month stint, playing in the Red Light District of Hamburg.

At the time, George was only 17 years old, yet he managed to hold his own, keeping up with their intense performance schedule and constantly improving as a guitarist and a performer.

By 1962, The Beatles were signed to Parlophone Records by George Martin, and Ringo Starr joined as their drummer.

By then, Harrison was already a skilled and versatile guitarist, able to come up with fills and solos that elevated The Beatles' performances.

But although he was appreciated for his guitar chops, he hadn't yet become a songwriter.

It was in 1963 that Harrison took his first stab at songwriting.

The result was "Don't Bother Me".

With its minor key feel and moody lyrics, it stood apart from the upbeat love songs of Lennon and McCartney.

It showed that Harrison would pave his own way as a songwriter, learning from his band mates but taking his music in new directions.

In this clip, we can hear Harrison working on the song, despite suffering from the flu, and then we'll see how The Beatles brought the song to life, with John, Paul, and Ringo all contributing percussion.

(gentle whistling) (rhythmic guitar music) And here is the final version, highlighting the percussion.

(upbeat guitar music) ♪ Don't come around, leave me alone ♪ ♪ Don't bother me ♪ Don't bother me ♪ Don't bother me ♪ Don't bother me ♪ Don't bother me - "Don't Bother Me" would appear on The Beatles' 1963 album, "With The Beatles".

But no Harrison originals appeared on their next two albums, 1964's "A Hard Day's Night" and "Beatles for Sale".

That changed in 1965.

By then, Harrison's writing had progressed and The Beatles included four Harrison songs across the two albums of that year.

"I Need You" and "You Like Me Too Much" on the album, "Help!"

And "Think for Yourself" and "If I Needed Someone" on "Rubber Soul".

But Harrison's most significant contribution that year came on a Lennon and McCartney composition, "Norwegian Wood".

During the production of The Beatles' second film, "Help!"

a scene was filmed at the Rajahama Indian restaurant.

The restaurant was recreated at Twickenham Studios, complete with a group of uncredited professional Indian musicians.

Harrison was transfixed by the sitarist in the group.

He had never seen or heard anything like the sitar.

The Beatles' guitarist discussed his new interest with David Crosby, who toured the U.K.

with The Byrds in August, 1965.

Crosby gave Harrison an album of Ravi Shankar, a sitar virtuoso who became the world's best-known expert of North Indian classical music in the second half of the 20th century.

It wasn't long after that Harrison bought his first sitar.

The sitar is a large, complex string instrument that was invented in medieval India, but became popular in the 18th century.

It contains between 18 and 21 strings, and all of them have to be tuned.

Some of the strings are used for playing a drone, others are used for playing melodies, or are sympathetic strings that resonate when the other strings are played.

You play the sitar sitting down with the instrument wedged between a foot and a knee, while you use a pick or plectrum to strum the strings.

John had written "Norwegian Wood" about an extramarital affair, and McCartney helped Lennon finish the song.

George thought that his new sitar could add an unusual color to the song.

- [George] When we were working on "Norwegian Wood" it just needed something.

I just picked the sitar up and kind of found the notes, and I just kind of played it and it just seemed to hit the spot.

- Here's an early take of "Norwegian Wood" with George's sitar accompaniment.

- [Producer] This Bird Has Flown, take one.

(rhythmic sitar music) ♪ I once had a girl ♪ Or should I say, she once had me ♪ ♪ She showed me her room ♪ Isn't it good, Norwegian wood ♪ ♪ She asked me to stay ♪ And she told me to sit anywhere ♪ ♪ So I looked around and I noticed there wasn't a chair ♪ - [Scott] And here's the final version, now in a higher key.

♪ And when I awoke I was alone, this bird has flown ♪ ♪ So I lit a fire, isn't it good, Norwegian wood ♪ (rhythmic sitar music) - The final recording of "Norwegian Wood", which appeared on the album "Rubber Soul", featured a simpler sitar part in lieu of a guitar solo.

Nothing like it had been heard before on a Western pop record.

The impact was immediate.

Soon after it was released, The Rolling Stones used a sitar on "Paint it Black", and Traffic added it to "Paper Sun" and "Hole in My Shoe".

Eastern sounds had entered Western pop culture, expanding the musical vocabulary of rock and laying the groundwork for what would later be known as World Music.

But for Harrison, Eastern music wasn't a gimmick.

It was a calling.

He immersed himself in Indian music, signing up for sitar lessons at London's Asian music circle and attending recitals.

He also got a chance to see Ravi Shankar live, when the sitarist appeared at the Royal Festival Hall on June 1st, 1966.

Not long after the concert, Shankar agreed to take Harrison on as a student.

On September 14th, 1966, a few weeks after The Beatles performed their last concert, Harrison and his wife Pattie took their first trip to India together.

George had been in India before, albeit briefly, when The Beatles stopped there on their way back from the Philippines.

The purpose of the visit was for George to take sitar lessons with Ravi Shankar, and for the couple to study yoga.

Not long after the trip, Harrison wrote his second Indian flavored track for a Beatles album, "Within You, Without You".

For this song, The Beatles would take another huge step in blending Eastern and Western music, with some help from the other George, producer George Martin.

"Within You, Without You" features Indian string instruments, including the sitar, the dilruba, and the tambura.

"Within You, Without You" had lyrics based around Eastern philosophy, and used the scales and rhythms of Indian music.

But what was different about this track was the orchestration.

Martin arranged the song for Western string instruments and had the Western musicians playing with and in counterpoint to their Eastern counterparts.

He also instructed the Western players to slur their notes in the style of the Eastern players.

This was revolutionary stuff.

Listen to the dialogue between the Eastern and Western musicians, in this excerpt from, "Within You, Without You".

(rhythmic Indian music) (rhythmic Indian music continues) "Within You, Without You" created a dramatic opening to side two of The Beatles' groundbreaking 1967 album, "Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band".

Although polarizing when it was released, Harrison's song is now considered bold and ahead of its time.

On the next Beatles album, simply titled "The Beatles", but commonly known as "The White Album", Harrison put the sitar aside in favor of his first love, the guitar.

He was allowed four songs on the album, including one that became one of his best known, "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", a song of disillusionment and longing.

Even though Harrison set the sitar aside, Indian music still informed his writing.

Especially rhythmically.

A perfect example of this is one of Harrison's standout tracks, "Here Comes the Sun", from The Beatles' 1969 album, "Abbey Road".

"Here Comes the Sun" features phrasing inspired by Indian music.

Take a listen to the end of the song's verse.

The way many songwriters would've written it would be something like this.

(rhythmic keyboard music) But Harrison uses four groups of three notes and two groups of two notes, which sounds like this.

(rhythmic keyboard music) Let me play it in context.

♪ Here comes the sun, do do do do ♪ ♪ Here comes the sun, and I say ♪ ♪ It's all right (rhythmic keyboard music) - Similar phrasing occurs in the bridge of the song.

It's the same chord pattern that was used to join John and Paul's sections of "A Day in the Life".

Here's how it sounded in that song.

(gentle keyboard music) For "Here Comes the Sun", Harrison uses the same chords, but with an Eastern inspired rhythmic pattern consisting of two bars of three-eighth notes, one bar of five-eighth notes, six quarter notes, and three more eighth notes.

Now, it sounds complicated, but it works wonderfully in the song.

Here is what it sounds like.

(upbeat keyboard music) ♪ Sun, sun, sun here it comes - Even though George Harrison was no longer playing the sitar, Eastern music was still finding its way into his compositions, as with the Eastern rhythms in "Here Comes the Sun".

"Here Comes the Sun" also marked the debut of another Harrison inspiration, the Moog synthesizer.

He had first encountered the instrument in California while producing an album by soul singer Jackie Lomax.

Enchanted with its sonic possibilities, he bought one and used it as the sole instrument on his second solo album, "Electronic Sound".

It was one of the first synthesizer albums made by a rock musician.

"Here Comes the Sun" showed Harrison writing more uplifting and optimistic lyrics.

His other song on "Abbey Road", "Something", showed his ability to write a love song of stunning clarity and sincerity.

Harrison began working on the song during "The White Album" sessions, with Lennon and McCartney offering suggestions.

Ultimately, Harrison finished the song on his own.

The final version features one of popular music's most iconic guitar solos, beautifully constructed and perfectly executed by Harrison on Lucy, his 1957 Gibson Les Paul.

(gentle guitar music) If you listen carefully, you can hear Paul McCartney singing along with Harrison's guitar solo.

(Paul humming gently) And here is George Martin's orchestral arrangement for the song.

(uplifting orchestral music) When The Beatles split in 1970, Harrison had a backlog of songs that had not made it onto a Beatles album.

He recorded many of them for a three album set called, "All Things Must Pass", recorded with producer Phil Spector, and a large band.

Among the tracks was "My Sweet Lord", a spiritual anthem blending gospel, pop, and a Hare Krishna mantra.

It became the first number one from a Beatle since their breakup.

The album also topped the charts, becoming the second triple album to do so, just months after the Woodstock soundtrack, and several years ahead of McCartney's "Wings Over America", the next triple album to hit number one.

In the years that followed, Harrison continued to release albums and singles, with some faring better than others.

He also organized one of the first large-scale benefit concerts, the Concert for Bangladesh, while pursuing interests in motor racing and gardening.

He even formed a movie production company releasing films like "Monty Python's Life of Brian", "Time Bandits", and "Mona Lisa".

After Lennon's untimely death in 1980, Harrison reunited with McCartney and Starr to record George's song, "All Those Years Ago".

In 1987, George Harrison helped form one of the most unexpected and delightful super groups in rock history.

Teaming up with Tom Petty, Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison, and Jeff Lynne, Harrison launched The Traveling Wilburys, a band that began almost by accident and turned into a full-fledged creative force.

The group released two joyful and unpretentious albums, filled with humor, warmth, and catchy songwriting.

Harrison, under the Wilbury pseudonym Nelson Wilbury, found renewed energy in the collaborative spirit, as did the others.

Each member contributed songs and vocals, but the group's chemistry allowed Harrison's playfulness to shine in a way rarely seen since The Beatles.

A great example is "Handle With Care", a perfect blend of the group's voices and styles, that reached the top 10 in the U.S.

♪ Reputation's changeable ♪ Situation's tolerable ♪ But baby you're adorable ♪ Handle me with care - Several of the Wilburys guested on Harrison's 1987 album, "Cloud Nine".

The album included a cover of a song Harrison had purchased on his first trip to America in 1963.

James Ray's, "I've Got My Mind Set On You".

George's cover reached the top of the charts, becoming the last number one single by a solo Beatle.

Since his death in 2001, Harrison's stature as a guitarist and songwriter has only grown.

He even won a 2004 Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance for "Marwa Blues", from his posthumous album, "Brainwashed".

Over his lifetime, Harrison broke free from Lennon and McCartney's shadow, becoming a powerful musical and spiritual voice.

He expanded The Beatles' musical palette, with his embrace of new guitars, Eastern music and synthesizers.

His life after The Beatles was marked by continued exploration, reflection, and creative growth.

Harrison pursued a spiritual journey until his death, and left behind a body of work that continues to inspire.

(rhythmic music) (upbeat music)