Publisher's Weekly Review
Drawing on many new interviews with Harrison's close friends and musical collaborators, music journalist Thomson (Kate Bush: Under the Ivy) challenges the image of George Harrison as "the quiet Beatle," portraying the guitarist as a complex person trying to navigate a middle course between materiality and spirituality, and fame and reclusivity. In tedious and tiresome fashion, Thomson chronicles Harrison's life from his rather run-of-the mill childhood and his early days of making music with The Quarrymen to the beginnings of The Beatles, their rapid ascent to fame and their just as speedy descent. He explores Harrison's embrace of Eastern philosophy, his retirement to his Friar Park estate in England, and with meticulous detail, traces the making of each of Harrison's solo albums. Thomson shows that "Harrison didn't grow up wanting to be a pop star, or a singer, or a songwriter. He just wanted to play guitar." As Thomson observes, many of his friends and many music critics point out that in 1971, with the release of All Things Must Pass, Harrison was already at the top of the musical mountain and his career would move downhill from there. In the end, Thomson reveals very little new information about Harrison, but he succeeds in showing that the guitarist's greatest accomplishment was finding fulfillment every day in the simple joys of being "somewhere" in his life. (Jan.) c Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
New biography of the youngest, gloomiest Beatle.It may come as news to some fans of the spiritually minded Harrison that, by Thomson's (Under the Ivy: The Life and Music of Kate Bush, 2010, etc.) account, he was as sexually promiscuous as many of his fellow musicians: "He seduced one young woman days before the Concert for Bangladesh, and even made overtures to another in the wings during the concert itself." It may come as news to others that Harrison, once pioneering in his blend of Eastern and Western musical traditions, was a sonic fuddy-duddy in his later years: "Rap stinks," he pronounced, "and techno is humanless music coming out of computers that bring you to madness." That seems stern for someone who introduced Moogs to Beatlemaniacs and had no qualms about setting Hare Krishna chants against pop backgrounds, but though Harrison never advertised himself as a saint, Thomson seems always surprised that Harrison was, from the earliest age, a smoker, drinker and druggerin other words, a rock musician. The author covers his subject from cradle to grave, a span of time that has been thoroughly covered by other writers, on some of whom he relies too heavily. The result is a plethora of old news, including the well-worn observation that it was George who taught John Lennon how to tune a guitar. The writing is seldom distinguished, too often pockmarked by forced observations that the refrain of Bob Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone" "seemed to capture something of Harrison's growing ambivalence as The Beatles dragged themselves around the United States for the second summer in a row" and that "like an alcoholic with the bottle, no Beatle was ever freed from the grip of the Fab Four." Indifferent writing and tut-tutting and shallow criticism conspire to make this of interest mostly to completist collectors. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* He was known as the Quiet One, a shallow and simplistic label, as journalist and music biographer Thomson rightly notes. But George Harrison, the youngest Beatle, was a complicated fellow, the least flashy, the least brash, asserts Thomson; the Beatle who was least drawn to the glare of fame. Indeed, Harrison, who had a serious green thumb, seemed happier tending his garden than playing the role of the rock star. Many critics thought he would disappear from the spotlight after the Beatles officially split in April 1970. Instead, he enjoyed his most fertile period with the release of a triple album, All Things Must Pass, and the symbolic pinnacle of his career, the Concert for Bangladesh in 1971, the first benefit music concert. Thomson looks at Harrison's normal upbringing in Liverpool; his joining the Beatles and the chaos that followed; his forging a solo career as well as his stint with the Traveling Wilburys; his role as a movie producer; and his final years, including a violent attack in his home and his death in 2001 in Beverly Hills at 58. Thomson is especially compelling in his illumination of Harrison's inner life, his robust spirituality, and his deep love of Indian culture. A must for all Beatles collections and for fans of the quiet man himself.--Sawyers, June Copyright 2015 Booklist
Library Journal Review
Starred Review. Thomson, a prolific contributor to various music magazines and author of a well-received Kate Bush biography (2010's Under the Ivy), adds to the mountain of Beatles bios with this long and thorough telling of the life of George Harrison (1943-2001). Eschewing Geoffrey Giuliano's mud-slinging approach in Dark Horse (1989) and Gary Tillery's overly subjective emphasis on Harrison's spirituality in Working Class Mystic (2011), Thomson instead delivers an extensive, evenhanded account of the former Beatles guitarist, covering his youth, his years in the Beatles, and a sporadically successful solo career. The author draws from both previously published interviews and new conversations with insiders, including wives, employees, and collaborators to craft an intimate portrait of a gifted and usually reclusive musician whose life followed two contradictory paths, one humble and spiritual and the other luxurious and entitled, as Harrison enjoyed the spoils of fame while mostly shunning the limelight. Thomson explores this fascinating dichotomy at length in prose that is both richly detailed and clearly written. VERDICT Fans of either the Beatles or Harrison the solo artist will find much to relish in this thorough and accessible account that, when paired with Harrison's I Me Mine (1981), gives a well-rounded picture of both the man and the musician.-Douglas King, Univ. of South Carolina Lib., Columbia (c) Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
