Looking back at George Harrison’s accomplishments, it becomes obvious that his low key nature obscured the magnitude of his impact on culture. Pick almost any Beatles song at random, and you will find his stamp on it. In some cases, like “A Hard Day’s Night”, his playing, both from the technical and creative standpoint, was incredible. Even if he had never written a song, he deserves a substantial share of the credit for the band’s greatness.

Harrison was a man of vision, whether it was exploring the guitar or the sitar or absorbing himself in Eastern spirituality (and really singlehandedly opening the door for its penetration into contemporary Western culture), performing charity work or producing films, George was dedicated to making both himself and society better. What is most striking is that he did so without any pretension - George, in many ways, was the ultimate teammate - he could lurk in the background and make subtle contributions, but never shied away from leading when necessary. There’s a Native American saying (oft-quoted by basketball coach Phil Jackson): the strength of the wolf is in the pack; the strength of the pack is in the wolf. This aphorism could easily be applied to Harrison’s life - he was defiantly an individual, yet was so aware of being part of something larger and contributing to that, whether that was a band, or humanity in general.

One thing that struck me in accounts over the years is that Harrison never seemed to lose touch with his working class Liverpool origins. Yeah, he was rich, and reclusive as a means of self-protection. But he was not about putting on airs. Tom Petty, in USA Today, related that when a pre-fame Petty worked for Leon Russell (presumably tending to Russell’s beard grooming and beverage needs), Harrison was a sometime guest at Russell’s crib and he treated Tom splendidly. Which brings me to a story I got from e-buddy James Baumann, of the fab music site swizzle-stick.com. I think it exemplifies some of what I said above - and it’s a fun little anecdote - so take it away James:

It was 15-20 years ago and my grandmother was visiting England. Her college roommate, Peg, had married a minister, Dustin, and he had exchanged parsonages for the summer so they were in England as well. The steeple had been blown off of Dustin's church and so he advertised in the paper looking for anyone who could help with the restoration effort.

The day that my grandmother was visiting, George Harrison called on the phone in response to the ad and said he wanted to come over, look at the church and see about making a donation. Peg scrambled, making tea and a batch of cookies, as well as making the decision that no one was to ask dumb Beatle questions. Anyway, George arrived and they all sat down for tea and cookies and pleasant conversation.

My grandmother - the mother of a Baby Boomer - got to have tea with a Beatle! She remembers him being exceedingly pleasant and some of the conversation made its way around to the Eastern religions among other topics. When George and Dustin left to go look at the church (he ended up donating a couple thousand pounds to the restoration effort) my grandmother took a half-eaten cookie of George's and wrapped it in a napkin. Somewhere in her house, in an old jewelry box, there is a cookie that George took a bite of. (Perhaps a DNA sample remains. Forget Beatlemania. How about Beatle-Cloning?)

Do I get to count this when I play Six Degrees of Separation?

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