Posthumous George Harrison Album Finally Released
LONDON (Reuters) – The album ex-Beatle George Harrison recorded in the last months of his life as he fought a losing battle with cancer will be released in North America today.
“Brainwashed,” the first release of new solo material from the Beatles’s former lead guitarist since his 1987 album “Cloud Nine,” features 11 new Harrison compositions and a cover of “Between The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea.”
The record was produced by Harrison in collaboration with his son, Dhani, and longtime friend and fellow musician Jeff Lynne. Put out by Harrison’s own Dark Horse label in conjunction with EMI.
Harrison, known as the “Quiet Beatle,” died on November 29, 2001, at the age of 58 after a long battle with cancer.
“We started working on the album in 1999,” said Lynne. “George would come round my house and he’d always have a new song with him. He would strum them on a guitar or ukulele. The songs just knocked me out.”
Dhani Harrison and Lynne have spent much of this year completing the album. “George talked about how he wanted the album to sound,” added Lynne, who performed with Harrison as part of the Grammy-winning Traveling Wilburys in the 1980s.
“He told Dhani a lot of things he would like to have done to the songs and left us little clues. There was always that spiritual energy that went into the lyrics as well as the music.”
During the final months of his life, Harrison was reported to have been quietly working on 25 previously unreleased tracks for a final album then provisionally titled “Portrait of a Leg End.”
The first anniversary of Harrison’s death is to be marked by an all-star benefit concert — organized by his wife Olivia and Eric Clapton — at London’s Royal Albert Hall, with Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Lynne, Jools Holland, Joe Brown, Ravi Shankar and Tom Petty all slated to appear.
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