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American Morning
Music Fans All Over World Remembering Life and Music of George Harrison
Aired November 30, 2001 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE HARRISON: Here comes the sun, here comes the sun and I say it's all right. Little darling, it's been a long, long lonely winter.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Rock legend and former Beatle George Harrison dies at the age of 58.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HARRISON: It feels like years since it's been here. comes the sun. Here comes the sun.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZAHN: And good morning, everyone. Thanks so much for being with us as we wrap up the week here. It is, of course, Friday, November 30. From New York, I'm Paula Zahn.
Music fans all over the world today are remembering the life and the music of George Harrison. The former Beatle died yesterday in Los Angeles of cancer at the age of 58.
CNN's Michael Okwu takes a look at Harrison's prolific and influential career.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ED SULLIVAN: The Beatles!
THE BEATLES: Close your eyes and I'll kiss you.
MICHAEL OKWU, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): He was and forever will be known as the quiet Beatle. But George Harrison's impact on pop music resounded through generations of rock fans. His journey to superstardom began in 1943 in Liverpool, England. At age 15, he joined the Quarrymen, a local group founded by John Lennon. His friend, Paul McCartney, was also a member. The band honed their playing skills in bars from England to Hamburg, Germany. In 1962, with Harrison on lead guitar and Ringo Starr on drums, the band become The Beatles. Lennon and McCartney's influences were Chuck Berry and Buddy Holly. But Harrison loved the country rockabilly sounds of Carl Perkins. Combined, they started making their own music and Beatle mania was born.
In the first week of April, 1964, the Beatles had the top five best selling singles in the U.S. and took the country by storm with their appearances on "The Ed Sullivan Show." They cemented their image as the fab four in 1964 with the motion picture comedy musical "A Hard Day's Night" and then "Help," which featured one of Harrison's first songs, "I Need You."
THE BEATLES: Just what you mean to me. I need you.
OKWU: While often dwarfed by the writing team of Lennon and McCartney, Harrison developed into a prolific composer with protest songs like "Tax Man" and "Piggies" from The Revolver album. He picked up the Indian instrument the sitar, studying with master Ravi Shankar, and incorporated its sounds into The Beatles' music on songs like "Within You And Without You," on "Sergeant Pepper's" and "Blue Jay Wave" from Magical Mystery Tour.
HARRISON: Something in the way she moves.
OKWU: His song "Something" from Abbey Road became a standard, one of the most recorded songs in history.
PAUL MCCARTNEY: Speaking words of wisdom, let it be. Let it be, let it be...
OKWU: The movie "Let It Be," which chronicled their break-up, highlighted some of his best work. After the break-up of the Beatles, Harrison launched a solo career with the hit album "All Things Must Pass," which spawned the hit "My Sweet Lord," a song he was later sued for because of its similarity to the Phil Specter hit "He's So Fine."
HARRISON: I really want to see you lord, but it takes so long, my lord.
OKWU: He set the tone for future benefit concerts like Live Aid when, in 1971, he threw rock's first major charity event, The Concert for Bangladesh.
HARRISON: Here comes the sun.
OKWU: Harrison independently found success as a movie producer with his HandMade Films production company, which he originally founded to help the Monty Python movie "Life Of Brian" secure a release. In 1987, Harrison returned to the top of the charts with his album "Cloud Nine," which featured the number one hit, "Got My Mind Set On You."
HARRISON: I got my mind set on you. I got my mind set on you.
OKWU: One year later, Harrison, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne and Roy Orbison formed the Traveling Wilburys.
HARRISON: I've been roughed up and I've been fooled. I've been robbed and ridiculed.
OKWU: In the early 1990s, Harrison's health made headlines. A lifelong smoker, he was diagnosed with throat cancer and was successfully treated. By 1996, Beatles music was making news again. Harrison collaborated with McCartney and Ringo Starr to create a retrospective, which included a television documentary and three volumes of previously unavailable recordings, "The Beatles Anthology."
Like his murdered colleague, John Lennon, Harrison had to deal with violent stalkers. An intruder broke into Harrison's Oxfordshire mansion in 1999. He fought and detained the intruder for the police. He received life threatening stab wounds in the scuffle.
Cancer returned in 2001. The former Beatle received treatment for a brain tumor at a hospital in Switzerland.
Harrison's work touched the hearts of millions of fans, but for him there was no master plan. He just wanted to make good music.
HARRISON: Most people plan out careers and records and tours like a military campaign. You know, mine's always been haphazard. I just make a record if I feel like it. I mean I don't really, you know, look at it from that point of view, as a career.
Something in the way she moves, attracts me like no other lover.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ZAHN: And we will have more reflections of George Harrison's life later on this morning.
In a moment, we'll be talking with Alan Light of "Spin" magazine, a man who has been covering him for years, and then a little bit later on we will also talk with one of his biographers, Michael Lewis.
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