While many automatically think of the Lennon/McCartney partnership when considering the Beatles’ songwriting achievements, it’s also important to recognise the huge creative milestones that George Harrison expertly helmed. Particularly those songs he penned near the end of the group’s lifespan.
Harrison, who went on to be a prolific solo artist throughout the ensuing decades, first dipped his toe into the songwriting waters with 1963’s Don’t Bother Me (which appeared on the band’s second LP, With The Beatles), before going on to write some of the Fab Four’s most recognisable and beloved material.
His most beloved work ranges from the fractured, pained beauty of While My Guitar Gently Weeps on 1968's eponymous 'White' album, to his pair of 1969 masterworks - Here Comes the Sun and Something. Highlights of the Beatles' final LP, Abbey Road.
The former remains The Beatles’ biggest streamed song, and the latter was pointed to as the greatest love song of the last fifty years by one Frank Sinatra. Not bad for a songwriter who'd just turned 26.
A year on, and Harrison's 1970 studio album All Things Must Pass revealed that this was no fluke, and that the Beatles lead guitarist had grown into a considerable songwriting powerhouse, channeling his spiritual beliefs into his creative mindset.
Sadly, George passed away in November 2001, leaving behind a musical legacy that we're still poring over to this day.
Here we’ve collated some of George’s most insightful wisdom into his songwriting process over the years, and added our own perspective on how we can interpret words beneath.
