May 1, 2023
Author of the million-copy-selling Shout!: The Beatles in Their Generation and a biographer of numerous Sixties rock stars, Norman turns to George Harrison, the least flashy Beatle. He was not considered a composer on par with the powerhouse Lennon-McCartney team but wrote enduring classics like "While My Guitar Gently Weeps"; his solo debut album, All Things Must Pass, has appeared on multiple 100 Best Rock Albums Lists; and he's ranked among the best Sixties guitarists. Norman examines his contradictions and ultimately generous nature. Prepub Alert.
Copyright 2023 Library Journal
Copyright 2023 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
September 1, 2023
The author of biographies of John Lennon and Paul McCartney turns his attention to George Harrison (1943-2001). "Fuck off...can't you see I'm meditating?" Thus quoth George--never Sir George, for unlike bandmates Sir Paul and Sir Ringo, Harrison was never knighted. That fact, reports longtime Beatle-watcher Norman, seems to have rankled, for if Harrison seemed to be bucking for sainthood throughout much of his too-short life, he was also all too human. His wife, Pattie Boyd Harrison, once asked George's assistant, "What's he got his hands in today, the prayer-beads or the cocaine?" Norman is no mean-spirited, character-assassinating biographer in the Albert Goldman vein, but he does seem to take a certain pleasure in catching Harrison out doing things he shouldn't have, such as seducing Ringo's wife--no secret, and present in other Harrison bios, but lingered over all the same. The author makes a few things clear: Harrison was a nimble guitarist, one of the best in the business, but he was undervalued by both Lennon and McCartney as a songwriter, which resulted in his long-pent-up solo effort, All Things Must Pass, a dark horse that charted higher than any of their solo efforts. Regrettably, its biggest hit was legally proven to have been inadvertently plagiarized. A creature of "endless self-contradictions," Harrison was the one Beatle who grew up in true poverty, and while he claimed to renounce the material world, he also spent fortunes on the creature comforts of his British estates and Hawaiian getaway. Given to bad puns ("Vengeance Is Mine Saith the Chord") and occasional clunkiness--e.g., Tom Petty was "the blondest man in Country rock"; after the Beatles broke up, "Beatleness still ran through him like the grain in old oak"--Norman nonetheless knows his subject and the soulful torments Harrison endured. The quiet Beatle turns out to have feet of clay--a surprise to some, perhaps. A well-informed, serviceably written biography of an enigmatic musician.
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September 18, 2023
Following up biographies of two of the Fab Four (Paul McCartney and John Lennon), Norman turns his attention to George Harrison in this uneven and exhausting account. Self-described as “the quiet Beatle,” Harrison was a musician with a keen ear rather than a penchant for flashy guitar solos—an understated quality that sometimes left him devalued by the group and its fans, according to Norman. After the band met with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the head of the Spiritual Regeneration movement, in 1967, Harrison grew enamored with meditation and began to feel the Beatles were holding him back spiritually. Once the group split, he became famously reclusive—gardening and meditating, but also producing solo albums, including 1970’s All Things Must Pass, that sold better than those of John and Paul. Norman rushes through Harrison’s solo career, his divorce from Pattie Boyd, and his later marriage to Olivia Arias, while rehashing familiar stories and piling on laborious detail (as when describing the apartment that John shared with Stu Sutcliffe, where “ ‘college band’ rehearsal would often turn into one of John’s informal tutorials from Stu on anything from van Gogh and Benvenuto Cellini to Jack Kerouac, James Joyce, Kierkegaard or Sartre, and George, with his abhorrence of book learning, would feel himself excluded in yet another way”). This bloated biography is nonessential for all but the most devoted Beatles fans.
September 22, 2023
After writing two 800-page biographies of Paul McCartney and John Lennon, Norman turns to their fellow Beatle George Harrison (1943-2001). The book chronicles his life from childhood and early days in the nightclubs of Liverpool, England, and Hamburg, Germany, to the frantic heights of Beatlemania, the band's creation of increasingly complex studio works, and their protracted breakup and its repercussions. Consistently in the shadow of two of the century's greatest songwriters, Harrison ultimately received artistic and commercial triumph with his first post-breakup solo album, All Things Must Pass; the 1971 Concert for Bangladesh benefit; movies he produced for HandMade Films; and some musical peaks in the late 1980s. The book presents Harrison's life and personality with its complications and contradictions, his deep spiritual beliefs, and his skepticism and aversion to fame. Much of the story will be familiar to those who have read previous works about the Beatles. This book is short on immersive musical analysis of specific songs and recordings, and it's somewhat cursory in dealing with some of Harrison's later years. VERDICT Readers who are not extremely familiar with Beatles history or who are seeking a Harrison-focused biography will want this. They'll gain more insight into the most enigmatic member of the Beatles.--James Collins
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Starred review from October 15, 2023
Reluctant, indeed. Harrison was known as the Quiet Beatle. He was also referred to as the Invisible Man, since he was the most private of the Fab Four. (He once said he would have much preferred to be a gardener than a rock star.) Norman has written about the Beatles as a band and authored individual biographies of Lennon and McCartney. Now he focuses on Harrison, his early years, the wild times in Hamburg, the crazy roller-coaster ride with the world's most famous band, his solo years, his career as a movie producer, and his stint as a Traveling Wilbury. Norman praises the man who never quite received the same share of the limelight as his fellow band members, even though he wrote "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," "Here Comes the Sun," "Something," "My Sweet Lord," and more. Norman praises Harrison's guitar playing, which was also underappreciated. He points out paradoxes. Harrison was at times sacred and profane, loyal and disloyal, and Norman acknowledges the fate of the reserved rock star who almost died in 1999 when "an obsessive Beatles fan" invaded his home, then died of cancer two years later. Norman captures the creativity, the humanity, and the great humor of the man in this keen and lovely tribute.
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