I've been thinking a lot about George of late, and the 1974 tour ever since I found this:
[
www.youtube.com]
I was at that daytime show (and the one the night before--the one panned in Rolling Stone where he lectured the audience when they cried out requests for "Bangla Desh.") Oddly enough--and this is crazy now when you think about it--the early show
wasn't even a sell out! Maybe they scheduled too many shows (George did three shows at the Forum and one at the nearby Long Beach Arena) But considering that it was the first time a BEATLE had toured America since 1966, and only a year since "Give Me Love" hit #1, you would think that they would have all been SRO.
At the day show there were so many open seats on the floor that when the lights went down, people from the high loge section rushed down to fill them (I was one of them!)
Hearing this show now, his voice wasn't as shot as I remember, certainly not as bad as he sounds on the "Dark Horse" single. (I wish he had re-recorded that one, like he did with "My Sweet Lord" on a CD reissued many years later, but he might have enjoyed the obvious "Dark Hoarse" joke too much to mess with it).
The fact that he played around with the arrangements--like Dylan does-- is something I appreciate more now than I did then. But messing with the words ("While My Guitar Gently
Smiles" or on "In My Life" he sang "I loved
God more") was unnecessary, and ruined the moment.
What blows me away now is the Ravi Shankar & Co. portion. Incredible stuff--you just get lost in it. It's too bad that George didn't use the opportunity to perform "Within You, Without You," "Love You To" "The Inner Light" with them. You have to give the audience credit for going along with it, because I'm sure 99% came to see George, not Ravi.
George played new songs like "Maya Love" that no one really warmed to, and that would have been OK if he had played more of his own recent solo work or Beatle songs. Billy Preston kicked up the energy with his hits. And while he sort of "saved" the show while George faltered, I remember thinking how dare he upstage a Beatle!
Eight months later on the same stage, Billy's mid-show solo set had the Stones as his backup band. Perhaps at that point he had really gone too far...
A few months after that Billy would be the first musical guest on NBC's Saturday Night (later Saturday Night Live). That twelve-month period was really the peak of his career.
I recently met a guy who was also at that matinee show who had very close seats on the floor, and sat right behind Bob Dylan--who brought his kids! Before the show this guy respectfully told Bob he was a fan and thanked him, and soon thereafter when people started approaching Dylan for autographs and all kinds of requests, Dylan would turn back to this guy like a confidant and offer a running commentary on the absurdity of what people wanted from him.
One more thought about Harrison in the 70's: What's forgotten now is how many Hare Krishna's used to be on city streets and airports (lampooned in the movie
Airplane!) who would push literature at you with the line,
"George Harrison told me to give you this!" While that wasn't his fault, as far as perceptions go, for awhile there George was like the Weird Holy Man of Rock n Roll, out of step with '70's popular culture.
Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 2018-02-26 18:51 by loog droog.