Harry Georgeson

To dispel the miasmatic pall I have spread over my own blog, I'd like to talk about a video I found on youtube by the most spiritual of the Beatles, George Harrison--or Harry Georgeson, as he was cutely called to hide his participation in friends' music-making. This video reminds me once again that while Harrison was the most spiritual Beatle, he was also the most likely to mention mundane matters such as money and lawsuits.

The video is for Harrison's song "This Song"--which I had totally forgotten about, even though I loved it when it was released, that is, as far as the music goes. I can understand the emotions behind the lyrics, which were inspired by Harrison's losing a plagiarism lawsuit over "My Sweet Lord" to the writers of "He's So Fine." I'm sure Harrison unconsciously adopted the melody (unlike, say the writers of [CENSORED] did when they stole the melody of [CENSORED]--references deleted upon advice of legal counsel).

"This Song" is the result, and the song is bubbly, happy, and Beatleish in the best sense, and the video is good-natured for all the bitterness that inspired it. I particularly like the expression on George's face as he mimes, "This song is in E." The other participants in the video are on the edge of being recognizable--the vampiric lawyer looks like Eric Idle, but isn't, I don't think: same with the second rock star in drag (Ronnie Wood?). Are the horn players supposed to be droogs? The court stenographer is an actual piano player, I think--she's in Pete Townshend's video for "Slit Skirts."

Silly stuff--but [CENSORED] 'em if they can't take a joke.