I don't know if I would say expert but the Fab Four are one my main hobbies.

I've been playing guitar for around 24 or 25 years now. The Beatles were a HUGE influence on me....love 'em. I'm kind of an oddball in that George Harrison is my favorite Beatle by a mile...love all the collaborations between he and Jeff Lynn from ELO. Those two had such a cool synergy together. I'd say Revolver, Magical Mystery Tour, and Abby Road are my faves. I like 'em all though.

in this you are at odds with a couple of folks on the board ... but i shall let them speak for themselves...if they wish to join in

at odds with which, my favorite Beatle or album?

that the beatles are your favorite and most influential...i.e., they believe that the beatles were overrated .... hopefully i'm not putting words in their mouths

Nah, not THE most influential, one of my influences. I only said "influential." I was a big Rush, Yes, Steely Dan, Zeppelin, Toto, Pink Floyd, Rainbow, Iron Maiden, Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, ELO, Queen fan. I liked a ton of stuff. I just enjoyed the Beatles as one influence among many. Guitar-wise, Adrian Smith of Iron Maiden, Alex Lifeson of Rush, Steve Lukather of Toto, and Steve Howe from Yes were and are my big heroes of the axe.

ok...the fact that you love the beatles puts you at loggerheads with some others...

Whether or not a band is 'influential' is a question of objective fact and not at all a matter of opinion.

while that is true in general, in the broad meaning, it is a matter of opinion when it pertains to the "influence" of a band on one person...in this case gurney... which is what i was talking about

I rediscovered my love of Rush these past couple of months while gearing up for a trip to Canada.

Dittos! Arthur Spooner is my hero.

Oh, and The Lamb's Supper by Scott Hahn. My priest loaned it to me. Has anyone else read it?

This is extremely creepy and scary, as I am on record many times here on this board as arguing that George Harrison was the most talented of the Beatles as well as the best songwriter.

The other thing is, George Harrison is the only one of the Beatles who eventually found a way out of the Beatles spotlight and made a career for himself as something other than 'an ex-Beatle'.

All four Beatles had, to various degrees, a successful solo career, and they all had their own post-Beatles bands....but George Harrison is the only one to belong to a band which was truly a 'band' in its own right and not just 'a formed Beatle and his backup band'.

Paul MacCartney had Wings (which was just 'Paul MacCartney and some other guys')

John Lennon had the Plastic Ono Band (which was just 'John Lennon and some other guys')

Ringo Starr still has his 'All Star Band', which as the name implies is just 'Ringo Starr and some other guys'

And all three of these bands produced the same kind of music as the Beatles, one could easily see songs like 'Baby, I'm Amazed', 'Instant Karma', 'Imagine', 'It Don't Come Easy' or 'Photograph' as being a Beatles song....and indeed many people think that these songs ARE Beatles songs...ans there's nothing wrong with that, if you know that you are really good at a particular genre or style of song, then you keep making songs in that style, nothing wrong with that.....Eric Clapton is going to continue guitar rock that is heavily influenced by the blues because that's what he's goof at....nothing wrong with that.

But what I liked about George Harrsion is that he is the only Beatles who really experimented with radically different sounds and styles in his solo career....as well as radically different subject matters....

Where just about any Paul MacCartney or John Lennon solo song could fit on a Beatles album, many George Harrison songs simply could not....they are too different.


And George Harrison had the Travelling Wilburys.....a band which was truly a band in which all 5 members were equals, all 5 producing writing and singing their own songs, each band member having a unique identity within the group, and the band itself being a true collaboration and not just 'a former Beatle and his back up band'.....and another way of thinking of the Wilbury's is that George was finally able to achieve so much stature and ability within his own right that he was considered 'worthy' to be on equal footing with both Bob Dylan and Roy Orbison, Bob and Roy were people that the Beatles grew up listening to, they were performers that the Beatles themselves adored since before they were famous, and they were the people whom the Beatles would look at being so amazing that they didn't regard themselves as being 'worthy' to be in their presence, and George was able to form a band with them AND hold his own against them in said band....which is quite an accomplishment.

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=7CWwJrcTmcg

As 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!

How about BTO or the Guess Who?

Rolling Stone magazine recently published a list of the '100 greatest guitarists of all time' and George Harrison was listed at number 7 on the list....a more than respectable position, and unlike a lot of Rolling Stone lists, this one wasn't compiled by a bunch of rock journalists who might love music but don't know the technical details, this list was in fact compiled by a group of more than 200 professional rock and blues guitarists, people who KNOW how to judge a guitar player....it was a list compiled by George Harrison's peers, and they judged him to be among the very best....he was not a flashy or showboating guitarist, he wasn't the kind of guitarist who felt the need to give himself a 5 minute guitar solo in every solo, he knew that he was only one band member of four, and that his place was not to try to steal attention from the other four, George only gave himself a guitar solo in a song only when it was appropriate for the song, and even then he didn't make the solo more flashy or showboaty than was necessary, but people are wrong to confuse his low key approach and modesty with a lack of talent....

As much as I adore G.H. there is no way he should be even in the top twenty guitarists. He had nowhere the range, ability, depth, or insane understanding of the instrument that guys like Jimmy Page, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Steve Howe, Steve Lukather, Jimmy Hendrix, Ritchie Blackmore, Alex Lifeson, Brian May, Steve Vai, Randy Rhoads, Eddie Van Halen, Eric Johnson, Ynwie Malmsteen, Adrian Smith, etc.

I put George Harrison in the same category of amazing guitar player as Andy Summers from the Police and David Gilmour....they're slower guitarists who have a masterful art of songwriting and choosing the right melodies and emotive playing. They're not shreders, they don't know the neck to the insane extent of someone like Randy Rhoads or Jimmy Page, and they can't keep up with those guys. But they have this melodic gift. David Gilmour, of Pink Floyd fame, was able to hit notes on the register that were phenomenal and his slow, yet powerful solos were very moving. Harrison is the same way. He has this haunting sound to him. I give him five stars for sound, songwriting, and depth, but as an overall guitarist, he's not a top ten or top twenty imho. Andy Summers with the Police is the same type of guitarist, only, imho, his chords are far more complex and interesting than Harrison's. I'm a huge Summers fan.

I think Harrison's peers would rate him high because, well, duh, he was a Beatle! People think guys like Elvis and Buddy Holly invented rock. Boloney! The Beatles did. Multi-track recording, concept albums, experimental themes, lots of dubbing, pursuing dark themes and bright ones, throwing out a hard edge and having guts with their ideas, the Beatles will always be THE forerunner. Therefore, a solid guitarist who pioneered so much as Harrison, plus his amazing slide-playing, I don't begrudge them rating him high. He was their inspiration. Anyone will always rate a forerunner and inspiration high.

But with regard to pure overall mastery of the instrument and prowess, how anyone in their right mind could think Harrison is even in the same league as Jimmy Page, they'd have to be on meth....

RS top 10 guitarists .. harrison was #11 on this list, srv was #12



10 p townshend
9 d allman
8 e van halen
7 c berry
6 bb king
5 j beck
4 k richards
3 j page
2 e clapton
1 j hendrix

http://www.nowpublic.com/culture/rollin ... 62991.html

hehe...finally found the list in numerical order...got bad news for ya gurney... lifeson came in at #98

was also a little surprised to see rhoades as far down as #36