George Harrison RIP

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Cancer of the liver

― anthony, Friday, 30 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

cor. rest in peace, george.

― katie, Friday, 30 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

He was always my favourite B. Understated and the bestlooking one. And 'Here comes the Sun' never fails to cheer me up.

― Laetitia, Friday, 30 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Two to go!

― DG, Friday, 30 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Oh, DG. Go and join the Manics or something.

― Nick, Friday, 30 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

The unabashedly rockist ILM thread

― Nick, Friday, 30 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I loved George. I made a paper mache George to dance with when I was about 8. It was a bit floppy. While My Guitar Gently Weeps is really beautiful. I pilfered the original single of it from my aunt a couple of decades ago and used to listen to it over and over.

― toraneko, Friday, 30 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I can see that today is going to be a very lonely ILE day for me.

― DG, Friday, 30 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

When I expressed great disinterest in this my colleagues told me I had no heart and that I should imagine how I'd feel if Ronan Keating or H from Steps snuffed it. Yet again I worry about the image I am portraying in the office.

― Emma, Friday, 30 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Dont worry DG and Emma the rockist ILM thread has already descended into jokes and bitching.

― Tom, Friday, 30 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Not entirely, though. ;-)

― Ned Raggett, Friday, 30 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Hoorah for DG! Bluarrrrgrh.

― Sarah, Friday, 30 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

This really sucks. :(

― Samantha, Friday, 30 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I, like DG, do not like the Beatles.

― Ally, Friday, 30 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Can somebody please PLEASE tell me where I can get one of those T- Shirts with the moveable velcro letters, like fridge magnets?

I really wanted I HATE THE BEATLES today (obviously if anyone got offended I could say it's a typo and meant to say HEART, (thankyou ILE Department If Slang And Nonsense))

I do seriously want one actually, even if it does slowly turn me into Dave Q/DG Lite. Somebody must know.

― Graham, Friday, 30 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

i hate paul, am indifferent to ringo, like george and adore john. I really hate paul and his wives and his smug progeny.

― anthony, Friday, 30 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Graham, they have them in House of Fraser on Oxford St in the downstairsy bit where they sell nice clothes but it is mostly a girls' section. Oh I forgot that doesn't matter. Anyway it is a concession but I cannot remember its name.

― Emma, Friday, 30 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Thanks to my parents I've listened to the Beatles since the womb. So therefore I have a huge soft spot for them and still enjoy much of their music. Anytime there is a death of someone or something that has dear childhood memories associated with it, it is sad. I'm very bummed about this. Besides, I think George was the nicest Beatle.

― Samantha, Friday, 30 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Thanks, Emma. And I can actually go there on my way to/from the ILE party. I shall buy you a drink, or perhaps give you a big sloppy kiss. Any preference?

― Graham, Friday, 30 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

A large drink will suffice so long as it is not spiked with Rohypnol. Vodka please.

― Emma, Friday, 30 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Surely I am not as evil as Dave Q?

― DG, Friday, 30 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

See above

― Graham, Friday, 30 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

And what happened about that Atari Jaguar you said I could have?

― DG, Friday, 30 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Wasn't it cancer of the throat? Anyway, never met the man, seemed nice enough. Good guitarist. Sometimes-good songwriter. Harsh, at 58.

― Ally C, Friday, 30 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I think his throat cancer spread to his lungs as cancer is wont to do. 58 is very harsh.

― Samantha, Friday, 30 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

It does seem to be going all a bit Diana though. A nation mourns, only more so. Some bloke on BBC2 was saying he was practically God.

I've been tempted to pop round the corner to Abbey Road studios - apparently they're playing his tunes out of the windows, but that'd mean leaving the flat and I'm feeling somewhat hermit-like today.

― ogden, Friday, 30 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

It's been pretty low-key here. One strange thing though. . The syndicated NPR show, Fresh Air, has been advertising all week a re- run of their Paul McCartney interview today. However they played snippets of old interviews with Ringo Starr and Ravi Shankar. No Macca. What could have Paulie have said that wouldn't have been appropriate to air on George's death day?

― Samantha, Friday, 30 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Maybe they just thought this was a bigger story and cancelled el macca's programme. often happens.
I watched the news special on bbc2 this afternoon and you are right, going incredibly diana, so cringeworthy I couldn't watch the bloody thing. I doubt he would have wanted such mass (and sometimes crass) attention but this is what happens when you are (still) one of the most famous people in the world. Although, funnily enough, people pointing out his strong spirirtuality is a good thing - at least the man wasn't afraid to have and stand up for his beliefs and was able to die at peace. (And apparently, he was a very nice man: my grandfather met him as he worked for the company he helped him refurbish his mansion in Henley).
I wasn't around when Lennon died (just under 2 years before my time I think) but am fairly sure it got pretty ridiculous then (in fact still is) but does anyone think this could go that far? I don't think he had quite the command over people John did. (Plus, rather cynically, assasination virtually made Lennon a martyr).

― Bill, Friday, 30 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I don't want to seem like a Diana Week-style emotion fascist, but I do feel that DG got in too quick and too sharp here. Nothing wrong with the idea of staying in good taste, at least on the first day.

― Robin Carmody, Friday, 30 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Yeah, those damn Beatles. They really don't deserve to live, what with all the pain and suffering they've caused everyone. Duh. On a less sarcastic note, I think George Harrison wrote the best Beatles songs, actually, and stands as a pretty good role model for celebrities; humble, with conscience, trying to better himself and uplift people, rather than snorting coke off a hooker's ass and laundering money.

― Nude Spock, Friday, 30 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

What a square!

― Nude Spock, Friday, 30 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

a pretty good role model for celebrities

I am taken by this idea that instead of celebrities needing to be role models, celebrities themselves need one. ;-)

― Ned Raggett, Friday, 30 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I've just been for a walk down to Abbey Road studios, and I almost take back my comment about being like the Diana thing.

It's really cool down there atm - the studio have got music playing through the open windows and stuff - just seems to be an air of reflection rather than media-induced mourning.

That said, they've only had 24 hours or so to hype it up. Tomorrow will be another day entirely...

― ogden, Friday, 30 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I think its definitely the media that makes things like this unbearable. What could motivate a media feeding frenzy: its not 9/11. What could prevent one: his death was expected due to illness and he was pretty non-controversial. Being shot to death and dying in car chase are far more conducive to sensationlism than a quiet death amongst family.

― Samantha, Friday, 30 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I happened to be at home from college when lennon was shot: my dad woke me up — unusual in itself, he usually cooked breakfast while mum did the roust-out — and said, "John Lennon's been shot dead." First words from me: "Gracious me!" (which i remember cuz among other things it's the ONLY time that phrase ever passed my lips, proof i guess of surprise). Mum and dad were Beatles fans together, as young marrieds: they were I think very shaken. A few days later I was cornered in a bookshop by the woman who had lived in our house before us — v.formidable (and tall) old matron of the Raj, who had seen Abel Gance's Napoleon in Paris in the week of its release. She lectured me on how terrible it was my generation thought so much of Lennon as he took drugs. I was then DG's age (but less) and VERY sardonic abt Lennon (and drugs): this baseless accusation probably swung me into the skindeep Glad-He's-Dead camp for heartless punx; actually I'd been interested in solo Lennon w/o being stuck on him, but as usual buried any genuine feelings about it ("I love it, I'll lose it": my usual pathology).

As I said on ILM, George had been my favourite Beatle as a kid because he seemed sad somehow, and (again as a kid) I loved the "Indian" tracks (and still like em). I can remember aged 10 watching the news (BBC I guess) about the Beatles splitting up, and thinking how silly it was for the Beatles to be split up — it was against nature and normality — and they must have misunderstood something and would soon not be split up again.

I find the blanket coverage quite strange: alienating certainly, though hardly surprising.

As I sit here thinking and writing, I realise that my null response to Lennon's and now Harrison's deaths is identical to my 10-yr-old response. How silly: that makes no sense. The Beatles are vast figures across my childhood cosmos, beyond like and dislike really: beyond youth and age and death and decay. Almost as if — for my small self — they had ALL died along with Paul in 1968 and were replaced with lookalikes until such time… and we live in unreal time until they are restored to full Beatleness.

I genuinely didn't until now realise that this utterly-believed myth-stuff was still churning round deep inside me. I'll be more gorunded about it tomorrow, when I phone my mum, and she tells me she cried.

― mark s, Friday, 30 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I think I'm with you Mark S: The first records I ever listened to were my mum's and they were the Beatles and they have just been implanted into my subconscious for ever. I know some of it is poor but I could never admit that without feeling guilty. I suspect this is true for a lot of people - the Beatles are no longer just a band, they seem to be this immense 'thing', almost now verging on concept, is the only way that I can describe it, that have transcended pop stardom. Everyone knows what happened then could never happen again as it kickstarted global superstardom really (that is, of course, forgetting Elvis and God knows who else). Hence, this is really the end of an era. It just seems flabbergasting to me that absoloutely billions of people will be thinking the same thing but I think the above is why. I'm not sure if it's rockist but in the case of the Beatles I'd be prepared to let that go - when would it ever happen again?

― Bill, Friday, 30 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I was a mere child when Lennon was murdered but the memories are very clear to me. My mother woke me with the news, crying. The first person I called when i heard about George was my mother but I suppose time has rendered her beatlemania a quaintness of youth. She commisserated and commented, "He was so young." Before moving on to news of my grandmother's progressing recovery from hip surgery. I was still stuck on George.

― Samantha, Friday, 30 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I admit this is all interesting because my parents were not Beatles fans per se outside of owning an album or two, or not even...no, they're definitely music listeners and appreciators, but they're not *fans*, not in the sense of tracking every release and chasing down things or all that. That's not the way they look at art in general, actually. It's interesting in that I didn't inherit that quality from them...

Point being, news of this won't phase my parents any. They were there, they were in the time, they will probably reflect instead on how time goes on rather than weeping. Will I be like that in the future?

― Ned Raggett, Friday, 30 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

As for Lennon dying, when I was nine -- I remember it well but don't remember the household being fraught or upset about it. Again, that's very much like my parents. (They are indeed passionate people in their beliefs and appreciations, I should say, but I think they were surprised above all else rather than shocked, if you catch my drift -- and my dad wasn't exactly fond of him anyway.)

― Ned Raggett, Friday, 30 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Perhaps Ned, note the post I was making as you made yours.

My mother saw the Beatles play Shea Stadium and remembers seeing Hard Day's Night at the theater six times in a single day. I don't know what happened to her LP collection. I've got some, my brother has a few but who knows what happened to her butcher cover. I don't think she even owns a turntable anymore.

― Samantha, Friday, 30 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Perhaps Ned, note the post I was making as you made yours.

*reads* Could be. But even if I don't have a turntable, I'll have something. "Oh yeah, the file with the Cure's one-time performance of "Ariel," I've got it here somewhere on the laptop..."

― Ned Raggett, Friday, 30 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

beatles = beyond good and rockism, bill

― mark s, Friday, 30 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Goeorge Harrison, the man behind Handmade Films, is dead. In his time, he was entirely responsible for Withnail And I. Also, as a consequence, for the entire career of Richard E Grant.

He did music too, I understand.

― Al, Friday, 30 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

So I'm at the office and working away, radio volume really low and muddy, haven't noticed the sound of a specific song in hours, but then they're playing 'All Those Years Ago' and suddenly the sound is pure and distilled clairty. Suddenly all I can think of is how I used to scratch up my Mom's records with my reckless child hand's needle drops, and then I realized my eyes were betraying my mind because I just wanted to go back home.

― Kim, Friday, 30 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

My earlier prediction has held - apart from having an unlikely ally in Ally (DO YOU SEE WHAT I'VE DONE THERE?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!), I seem to be pretty alone over here. I was being a bit cheeky (er) with my initial post on this thread, but to be totally brutally honest I'm really quite indifferent to The Quiet One's passing. Obviously I didn't know him personally, so it's not like I've lost a close friend or anything. And well, you should now my feelings for the Beatles by now. My parents weren't big fans (my dad preferred the Rolling Stones and the Beach Boys, my mum wuvved the Doors) so they weren't on the stereo when I was little, I developed a slight interest in them at the height of OASISMANIA (be quiet, I was only 15) but wasn't convinced even then. As an associate of mine would say, I R not caring. Sorry.

― DG, Friday, 30 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Your initial reaction was rather gleeful, DG.

― Nicole, Friday, 30 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

That's because I was being NAUGHTY.

― DG, Friday, 30 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

DG = cheeky monkey = eats bananas.

I'm hearing "Something" burbling from the TV in the other room. Whee, I guess.

― Ned Raggett, Friday, 30 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I guess we'll have to spank DG.

― Maria, Friday, 30 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Paul McCartney is underrated. He had the best tunes (as opposed to songs).

I'm not sure my parents could recognize a Beatles song.

― sundar subramanian, Saturday, 1 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

My dad used to listen to stuff from the 1930's in his teens - not the Beatles - what kind of ism is that, then?

― Bill, Saturday, 1 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

My mum is dead upset to have lost her favourite Beatle. She is also one of those people who favours the phrase 'battle with cancer' (which I always visualise as having a light sabre fight - vvvttt, vvvttt - with a particularily gross piece of tumour) so we had a fight on the phone about it: 'oh, every day is a fight when you've got that.'

But she did also point out that the Beatles stadium tour failed to sell out in Minneapolis because the town had already gravitated towards the Rolling Stones.

― suzy, Saturday, 1 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

george doesn't offend me the way gormless paul does, but i don't feel particularly heartbroken about his passing. and the beatles are over-rated.

― di, Saturday, 1 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

You people are all sick fucks. George Harrison was a great guy. Paul McCartney is a low class whore who's pumping himself off on us again with this "Freedom" disaster. The Traveling Wilburys stuff is what I've been really into these past few days. All that's left is Bob Dylan, Petty, & Jeff what's his name, and that's a shame.

― reggie, Sunday, 2 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I found his tourism as spiritual awakening quite nasty .

― anthony, Sunday, 2 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I found his colonial tourism as spiritual awakening quite nasty .

― anthony, Sunday, 2 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

oh poot anthony it's no difft from you switching to be a catholic

― mark s, Sunday, 2 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Found one in Kendalls (= Housama bin Frazen) here. They had crap bloke's versions in the men's section, but I continued my cross dressing and got a girl's version, as they are wuvlier (called an Alpha-T if anyone is interested).

― Graham, Friday, 7 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

If you don't care, I don't give a fuck if you don't care. If you care that little, fuck off and take your sophisticated and fascinating lack of care off somewhere else.

McCartney is a copper-bottomed, gold-plated genius, a national - not to say global - treasure, and presumably the Greatest Living Englishman after, maybe, let's say, Tony Benn. If I haven't said that before, it might as well be said now.

― the pinefox, Saturday, 8 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

three years pass...

Hear hear.

Die Haterz.

― ahmed shagalampost, Thursday, 10 February 2005 22:32 (nineteen years ago) link

ten years pass...

RIP

― Capybara (big rat) @ Sea World, San Diego, California, USA (nakhchivan), Friday, 1 January 2016 00:50 (eight years ago) link

Hh
DH

― probably.tasteful.forever (imago), Friday, 1 January 2016 00:51 (eight years ago) link

five years pass...

20 years ago today

― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Monday, 29 November 2021 19:54 (two years ago) link

Live slide solo!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VI4xzwvaTWU

― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 30 November 2021 01:55 (two years ago) link

All things must pass? He nailed it!

― more difficult than I look (Aimless), Tuesday, 30 November 2021 02:07 (two years ago) link

And 'Here comes the Sun' never fails to cheer me up.

yeah this

― Ste, Tuesday, 30 November 2021 11:17 (two years ago) link

It’s alright

― Mark G, Tuesday, 30 November 2021 15:43 (two years ago) link

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