YMMV / George Harrison

• Fridge Brilliance: Eric Clapton was the musical director and MC for the above Concert for George, but for some inexplicable reason he rarely plays lead guitar. Then they come to a truly epic rendition of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" and you realize they've been saving Eric for this moment!
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: Harrison's efforts for Bangladesh, politically and musically, were deeply appreciated there. His death made front page news.
• Growing the Beard: While he was always considered to be a good guitarist, it's generally agreed that he found his unique voice on the instrument once he picked up a slide for his solo career.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • His songs about death, such as "The Art of Dying" and "All Things Must Pass", after his death.
  • Ringo Starr even said at the Concert For George that "Photograph", which he and George wrote together, had taken on new meaning after the latter's death.
  • In one of his songs, "Writing's on the Wall", he sings about how one thought friends would last, until they were drunk away, shot away, or died away. The second part took on new meaning after John Lennon was shot and killed. The song was released in 1981 for the Somewhere in England album, but was written and recorded before that in 1980. And if that wasn't enough, the song was also the B-side to "All Those Years Ago"
    • Additionally, if you keep in mind Ringo's problems with alcoholism, then George was almost three for three in predicting how former Beatles would die if you include George himself as having "died away".
  • Any picture of him smoking is obviously this as it ultimately lead to him developing the throat cancer that took his life.
• Memetic Mutation: Among The Simpsons fans, a "Harrison" is an idea that has already been done.
• Older Than They Think: The 2021 video for "My Sweet Lord", despite being officially approved by Harrison's estate (with his son Dhani co-credited as executive producer and with "concept", and his widow Olivia making a cameo along with Dhani) was criticized for having a surreal comedy tone with little apparent connection to the song's lyrics and for being an excuse for a bunch of gratuitous celebrity cameos. However, some fans pointed out that "surreal comedy with little apparent connection to the song's lyrics" ("Crackerbox Palace", "Blow Away", the stuffed animal version of "Got My Mind Set on You") and "gratuitous celebrity cameos" ("The Wilbury Twist") were both approaches George had taken for videos when he was alive.
• Paranoia Fuel: The successful lawsuit against "My Sweet Lord" has caused many a songwriter to fear they too might be committing "unconscious plagiarism" of someone else's musical idea without realizing until it's too late.
• Posthumous Popularity Potential: While not as beatified in popular culture as John, George's own contributions to rock music, charity, religion and film have certainly have been more appreciated after his death.
• Signature Song: "My Sweet Lord" as a solo artist; with the Beatles, "Here Comes the Sun", "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" and "Something".
• Suspiciously Similar Song: After "My Sweet Lord" was released, its similarity to The Chiffons' earlier hit "He's So Fine" led to a huge copyright infringement lawsuit, in which Harrison ultimately had to pay $1.6 million in damages for "subconscious plagiarism;" the case infamously set the still-intact legal precedent in which cryptomnesia-based plagiarism is treated identically to deliberate plagiarism. He later wrote "This Song" on 33 and 1/3 as a rebuttal to the claims.
  • The similarity in the two songs was noted not long after "My Sweet Lord" was released. Jody Miller had a hit on the Country Music charts in 1971 with a version of "He's So Fine" that freely borrowed elements from "My Sweet Lord".
  • It's also been pointed out that both songs are suspiciously similar to the traditional gospel song "O Happy Day", as recorded by The Edwin Hawkins Singers, which Billy Preston had played for George as an introduction to Gospel Music.
• Tear Jerker:
  • "My Sweet Lord". The lyrics are depressing considering he has passed away, and the rest of the song is chanting "Hallelujah" before shifting to Vaishnava mantra and Vedic prayer to the sound of tambourines, and an acoustic guitar.
    My lord...
    I really wanna know you,
    really wanna be with you,
  • Harrison's tribute song to John Lennon: "All Those Years Ago". It's sung as if from the point of view of someone giving an apology, albeit too little too late (made Harsher in Hindsight by reports suggesting that Harrison and Lennon had been somewhat distant in the years prior to Lennon's death). To add, this was as close as Harrison got to reuniting with the Beatles; Paul McCartney, his then-wife Linda and Ringo Starr joined him for the effort, marking the first time those three former Beatles recorded together after the band broke up.
  • "Isn't It a Pity", his rumination on the breakup of the Beatles, can be very, very moving, particularly given the Dark Reprise of "Hey Jude" at the end of Version One. However, as tear-inducing as Harrison's recordings of the song are, Nina Simone's cover is ten times more so.
  • Similar to "All Those Years Ago", "When We Was Fab" is a more tongue-in-cheek yet wistful eulogy to his time in The Beatles. It even features Ringo on drums and backing vocals.
• Wangst: While it can't be denied that being a Beatle probably wasn't the easiest thing in the world and that Celebrity Is Overrated was quick to take hold, some of Harrison's later comments about how much he hated being in the band could take on this edge; he was still in a pretty enviable position compared to a lot of people, after all. This was a common criticism of his post-All Things Must Pass material in the '70s.

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