George Harrison

From the premiere Beatles biographer—the author of the million-copy selling Shout!: The Beatles in Their Generation and the bestselling John Lennon: The Life—a revealing portrait of George Harrison, the most undervalued and mysterious Beatle.

Sometimes referred to as the ‘Quiet Beatle’, George Harrison never considered himself more than ‘an okay player’ and, toward the end of his life, took to referring to himself as ‘the economy-class Beatle’. He was often ridiculed by his bandmates for his low-class background and, typically, was allotted only one song per Beatles album despite writing dozens. Yet modern music critics place him in the pantheon of 1960s guitar gods alongside Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Keith Richards, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page.
 
In George Harrison: The Reluctant Beatle, acclaimed Beatles biographer Philip Norman examines Harrison through the lens of his numerous self-contradictions. While with the Beatles, George was considered a minor talent as compared with songwriting luminaries John Lennon and Paul McCartney, yet he composed such masterpieces as ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’, ‘Here Comes The Sun’, ‘Twist and Shout’ and ‘Something’. His solo debut album ‘All Things Must Pass’ - with hits like ‘My Sweet Lord’ and ‘What Is Life’ - achieved enormous sales and has appeared on many lists of the 100 best rock albums ever.  He spent years lovingly restoring his Friar Park estate, site of many of his efforts to become a more spiritual being, yet in a heartbeat he mortgaged the property to help rescue a film project that would be widely banned as sacrilegious (Monty Python’s ‘The Life of Brian’). Harrison could be fiercely jealous, yet he not only stayed friends with Eric Clapton, the man who fell in love with his wife, but, after Clapton walked away with her, grew even closer to him.
 
This book shows George Harrison at his most multi-faceted: devoted friend, loyal son, seeker of guitar-playing mastery, brilliant songwriter, cocaine addict, serial philanderer, global philanthropist, student of Indian mysticism, self-deprecating comedian and, ultimately, the man beloved by millions.