On Thursday, November 29, 2001, Mr. George Harrison, the man who gave us THE BIG 3: "Here Comes The Sun," "Something," 

which Sinatra called one of the greatest love songs to have been written in the last 50 years, "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," 

and so many more, has gone on to meet his maker... If he never wrote ANY MORE songs, THOSE 3 would be sufficient -- 

would be GENIUS ENOUGH.

His passing rings premature, it seems for us - almost selfish it makes me feel...as each Beatles gets a little older and 

leaves this planet (even by the senseless, unthinkable act that robbed John Lennon of his life), it forces all of us that 

grew up with the Fab Four's music pouring over the airwaves in that once-vital phenomenon known as Rock n' Roll Radio, 

to hear our mortality clocks ticking ever more loudly.

Tucked away in a corner of our Beatle-ific minds, we have always wondered if a reunion of the remaining 3 would be possible...

there was even talk about it transpiring at the Concert for New York City at the Garden, when Paul performed. Maybe 

we thought, as writers had theorized, with Julian Lennon standing in for his Dad...just once -- maybe for "a good cause." 

In a sense, it really is the end of a dream.

George Harrison, the Quiet One, the Mystic, the Other Writer, the Family Man, 

the One Who Taught John Lennon How To Play Guitar, did not have it easy as a Rock n' Roll Star.

As George's good friend, Bob Geldof said on BBC radio yesterday, "All the way back, he measured up...maybe because 

of the necessary competition between the other two (John & Paul), his standard of songwriting was incomparably 

better than most other contemporaries anyway. As he said himself, how do you compare with the genius of John and Paul? 

But he did, very well."

A few months back I bought the remastered reissue of All Things Must Pass, and I am listening to it as I write this. 

I was (am) struck by the songwriting on that album all over again. "My Sweet Lord", "What Is Life?" "Isn't It A Pity?" 

"Beware Of Darkness." There are just SO MANY wonderful songs on that album that have stood the test of time.
George's voice, had an achingly-beautiful quality to it, almost a SADNESS....come to think of it, his slide guitar artistry 

had the same quality...it truly did seem like his guitar was weeping as he stepped in to color a song, 'though, 

interestingly enough, Eric Clapton, not George was the one who soloed and captured the feeling of that seminal gem,

"While My Guitar Gently Weeps"...a rather unselfish nod to his Guitar Guru pal, wouldn't you say? As a young musician,

figuring out chords to "My Sweet Lord," I gotta say, the way he would strum those FAT (that's fat with an "f", 'member

that spelling?) CHORDS, it thrilled my youthful, hairless hands...giving me even more of a reason to help me elevate my own

musicianship. Not only that, but the WAY he and his team recorded those chords, they sounded like they were dripping from

my EJ Korvettes-bought stereo speakers with a dense earthcore, dark magic, that I had to know the essence of.

How different it'll be looking at "A Hard Day's Night," "Help!," or any other footage of the Fab Four. With each passing

life and year, it seems we are looking back on a distant chapter of a book we read when we were "so much younger than today."
As driven to the ground as this next sentence is,
it still smacks of utter truth:

George and the Beatles music will live on.

Long after the short-lived starbursts of teen pop, cartoon rock, and
hedonistic, gluttonous hip-hop rap, there will be the music of the Beatles.
The Beatles "One" is the greatest kids' album of all time. If you're a parent, and you haven't seen it work it's magic

on your little ones, as many a parent has expressed to me, go out, buy it, put it on, and let it do it's thing.

In closing, I can't help thinking of George on the Ed Sullivan show, looking so damn excited, pumped-up.....one of the

4 New Princes of the New America...strumming that big ol' Gretsch guitar, and doin' that Harrison shuffle-dance with

his right foot -- getting a high-pitched squeal from the wide-eyed, New York/New Jersey theatre audience, every time he did it.

Then I think of my friend's sister saying she was going to see George at the Bangla Desh concert at the Garden in '71.

My friend & I were too damn young to go, she said. But when that glorious album came out, it was as if we were IN the concert...

we learned (struggled) every song, even mimicked/memorized the onstage patter like, "That's eveyone, everybody onstage...

did we forget anyone? We forgot Mr. Billy Preston!"
We'd go 'round saying that in our best mock-British accent.

Today I cherish life a little bit more. Listen to my Beatles a bit more.
(as some of you who know me, nothin' new there.)

Today I thank George Harrison, who gave me some of the reasons, the inspirations

that shaped the kind of musician I am today.
Through his voice, his guitar-playing and his songwriting -- his honesty
is what touched me, without pretense, ever, giving me the strength to endure and stick to my initial dream-of-life,

which was, and will always be....to be the 5th Beatle.
As trite as it sounds, to live up to that highest of all musical standards, has kept me waking up every day since

I was 5, wondering where my musical journey will take me....

God Bless You, George.

-Ray Andersen
November 2001

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