I agree with Doom. There are many factors that lead to my liking George. You hit a ton of them here. His songs retained multiple qualities about them. He had a strong sense of irony, sarcasm, and yet hope and fun all ravelled together in his tunes. I remember as a kid watching the Terry Gilliam cult movie "Time Bandits." George's film company Hand Made Films produced the flick. It was great. But as a boy, one of the highlights for me was the theme song at the end of the movie, a George Harrison tune called "Dream Away." It had such a whimsical, sky's-the-limit joy about it with an almost Irish limrick mixed with Welsh music tone to it. Another song I loved from George was "Cheer Down," a song he did for the Lethal Weapon 2 soundtrack. It was sarcastic and playful, hopeful and yet pessimistic, just fun.
Most people will tell you that George Harrison is NOT the greatest guitar player in the world by a longshot in music history....but the truth is, few guitarists will argue that he wasn't the greatest SLIDE guitarist ever. His ability to manipulate a guitar slide is haunting, impeccable, penetrating, and overall powerful. I'm a decent amateur guitarist. I can play a little of everything, but never have been good at slide. And I don't know many guitarists who really are either!
With the Beatles, "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," "Something," are my favorite songs for sure. But I also love "Tax Man" and "Here Comes the Sun," et al.
George was very experimental and thought outside of the box. How many guitarists ripped off his slide playing, the mixture of dark and somber and hopeful, and his sitar fascinations became a whole 1960's thing.
You can hear a dark and mystical Harrison on "Something" or "Weeps," and then hear "Blow Away" and it's this sound of a lovely English spring morning. Songs like "That's What it Takes" "Poor Little Girl," are fun, too.
As a guitarist, a humble one, I'm a big Fender fan. Everyone has their preferences, like Ford vs. Chevy vs. Dodge kind of thing. I'm a Fender man. I've played Gibson and a bunch of other brands and appreciate stuff like the Gibson ES 335, but I prefer a good Fender. I own two. I own a Stratocaster and Telecaster. Both are legendary if you ask me. And George Harrison, though he played a lot of different guitars, made it clear that he was always more of a Fender man, strats and teles mostly. So I have to admit I love that.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CWwJrcTmcgAs far as The Traveling Wilbury's, I'm in love with that band. They epitomize EVERYTHING I like in good music. I'm a raging Jeff Lynn fan. Love ELO and all his stuff. He and George have a synergy about them that I find riveting. Handle with Care, End of the Line, Inside Out, and a ton of others I love.
I can't get enough of George and Jeff.
Don't get me started on Jeff Lynn. I love that cat....I could talk about him all day.
I always wish I could have the guitar chops of Steve Lukather of Toto, the vocals and songwriting ability of George and Jeff, the versatility of Steve Howe of Yes, the producing talents of George Martin and Jeff Lynn, I'd be in business!