Customer Reviews

George Harrison, Second Edition (Beatles)

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4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Tree murderer!

Why is this such a wretched waste of trees? A few reasons.

Since George Harrison shunned celebrity, and his loyal friends and family (with the exception of sister Louise, who hadn't much to say) chose not to speak to the author, this is a cut and paste job. To get around the great big holes in the narrative, and a total lack of insight into-or even interest in--what made George tick, the author fills in this 400+ page book with excruciatingly dull and irrelevant details about every act that ever came out of Liverpool. He also pads with lots of self-serving details about himself (could his bad attitude toward Harrison be due to the fact that George didn't go to see the author's band in 1980 when Clayson was performing in Henley and sent George a free ticket?, as noted on p. 388)and lots of nasty barbs that teach us nothing but what Alan Clayson's opinion is on rhythm and blues improvisation, Leon Russell, and Krishna consciousness. To put it nicely, he despises them all. Do you really care? I didn't.
And though I suppose the author was trying to be droll like the self-depracating Mr. Harrison, his attitude toward his subject is so derisive and so hostile that anyone who has any admiration at all for Harrison will be at best depressed reading this and feel like a total dweeb by the time they finish. The author snickers at all of Harrison's religious beliefs and makes snide comments about just about every song Harrison ever wrote or recorded (and is quick to find quotes from others, such as George Martin, to back up his low opinion of Harrison's talent). Clayson even sneers at George and Olivia's choice to send Dhani to a Montessori school ("a slap-up, fee-paying seat of learning"), as if that were the height of rock star self-indulgence. And though this was written late enough in George's life that the author was able to slip in an account of the attack on George by a crazed burglar and a mention of Harrison's cancer (which Harrison died of after publication), apparently Clayson felt no urge to excise such exceedingly cruel statements as: "any worries he may have had for his own safety in 1980 were unfounded. Like McCartney, Steve Winwood and Jeff Lyne, he didn't appear to be in the same vulnerable league then as Lennon, Dylan and other posseors of original genius rather than anything as common as mere talent." (p. 380) and "Yet if he'd never been seen again after Cloud Nine, George Harrison would still have continued to preoccupy countless devotees, despite certain of them considering that it was his misfortune not to have died after shedding what they could presume to be the bulk of his creative load." What can one possibly say about such gratuitous mean-spiritedness?
I wish I'd waited until the new posthumous bios due out soon were published instead of putting myself through this unpleasant experience, just to glean a few new facts on George. Don't make my mistake!

Alan Clayson's book on George Harrison is a thoughtful and well-documented biography of the "quiet" Beatle, whose song writing abilities were always overshadowed by the talents of John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Clayson details Harrison's evolution as a musical force within the Beatles and his steady progress as an individual within the personality maelstrom of that animal called the Beatles. Touching and challenging in its insights, Clayson evokes a spirit in Harrison that struggled to transcend being simply the Beatles' lead guitarist.

Donald Gallinger is the author of The Master Planets

A respected music journalist's excellent, thorough biography of George Harrison from childhood through his 1999 attack and 2000-2001 cancer treatments. There are considerable inside details of his Beatle and post-Beatle days, his relationships with the other Beatles and others, and critical assessments of his commercial successes and failures and personal, spiritual, and artistic accomplishments. Comprehensive index, no illustrations. A first-class addition to anyone's rock and roll bookshelf.

This intense biography of the youngest Beatle is rich in facts and information. This work traces George Harrison's life from his youth in Liverpool to his meteoric rise in fame as a musician and his tragic demise in 2001. People who knew George Harrison as well as the backdrop of events and issues of the times are richly expounded upon, thus making this work exceptional.

I like the way many details are included in this work because it gives readers a multi-faceted look at the man who would set new standards among lyricists and guitarists. This unique individual, George Harrison stood out among his peers including the other Beatles. Clayson does him justice in portraying him in his natural state. He has a rich supply of sources and is able to account for each documentation. I really like the chapter Clayson included about George's 1963 trip to America to visit his sister, brother-in-law and their children. The impact the young Beatle had on the people he met in Benton, Illinois is well chronicled in this work.

This is work well worth the read and I am the proud owner of it. Try Some, Buy Some and enjoy this book. It is very riveting and intense.

This book is fairly well written, but the ending chapters and appendicies appear to have been assembled in haste and are somewhat of a letdown. I agree with the reviewer who wrote that Clayson often seemed unaccountably mean-spirited toward Harrison. Come to think of it, he gets in digs at James Taylor, Eric Clapton, Bruce Springsteen and several others mentioned in the book, all with very little explanation. Clayson also fails to tie up many threads in Harrison's life, including his relationship with Paul McCartney, who of course brought George into the Quarrymen. George's friendship with Ravi Shankar is also slighted (Shankar described this quite well - including their work together in the 1990s - in the book Raga Mala). The book needs a summing up of Harrison's life, but instead ends with an intriguing but perhaps unverified story of George meeting & jamming with some country and western musicians during his first visit to the U.S. Perhaps a better accounting of George Harrison's life will be possible after some of his unreleased recordings become available and his family and friends have opened up to someone better suited than Alan Clayson to tell George's story.

I'm surprised at the negativity and hatred this book spawns. ... I enjoyed this book. So much of Beatles literature is paved with the same regurgitated facts. This book in no way adds a tremendous amount of knowledge, but at least it paints a fairly unique portrait of George, unlike the Guiliano book. The book is often cumbersome in its Britishness, but I appreciate the author's take on a guy who might as well be St. George ... This book isn't the bible, but a perspective.

All i can say is that this author is some bitter hack, who tries to reduce George Harrison to the level of mediocrity. Very boring with no real insight or focus. Also it just left me with a bad taste in my mouth, brain, & heart.

This book has useless info on other rock stars he didn't work with, too much of his beatle days and Clayson disses him for putting Dhani in the Montessori school system. Try and get Harrison, which is a book on his life by Rolling Stone.

Thankfully I received this book as a gift - I would be upset had I paid money for this drivel.

Clayson's knowledge of George Harrison's life is comprised mostly of information that has been hashed over a million times and recollections of people who had nominal contact with Harrison. However, write-arounds are not unusual in journalism; what is unusual is that a book with this little substance coupled with an alarming number of inaccuracies was published at all.

My favorite "error," as such it is? Clayson refers to Robbie Robertson of The Band as "Jaime Robertson." Now why, I ask, would someone who knows enough about Robbie Robertson to know that his first name is indeed Jaime refer to him as Jaime, also knowing that few but the most rabid fans of The Band would even recognize Jaime Robertson as Robbie Robertson?

Pass this up. I wish I had a recommendation for a better Harrison biography, but alas. Guiliano's (spelling?) "Dark Horse" is no better, and in fact may be worse.

Not The best George Harrison book out there. Very tough read due to a lot of meaningless detail.