Rating: Summary: I WANT TO TELL YOU Review: ...that this is something most Beatles' fans and others will enjoy. The one drawback is that it does contain a lot of minutiae.This author has done an excellent job of chronicling the late former Beatle's life, from his boyhood days in Liverpool to his cancer treatments in 2001. This author does a good job of detailing people who knew George well, e.g. relatives and other musical colleagues. He provides a fresh and objective look at the Beatle most known for his nonpareil guitar playing and spirtuality. It is interesting to note that George, the youngest of four children would, one day, grow up to be the youngest of 4 Beatles and one quarter of the world's most infuential band. The parallels contained therein are numerous and this author does a good job of alluding to them. I like the way this author treats his subjects with respect. This is a book that will certainly be an asset to any Beatle fans' collection. This is a book that would, I think, have an endorsement by George himself from his timeless 1966 classic, "I Want to Tell You."
Rating: Summary: I WANT TO TELL YOU Review: ...that this is something most Beatles' fans and others will enjoy. The one drawback is that it does contain a lot of minutiae. This author has done an excellent job of chronicling the late former Beatle's life, from his boyhood days in Liverpool to his cancer treatments in 2001. This author does a good job of detailing people who knew George well, e.g. relatives and other musical colleagues. He provides a fresh and objective look at the Beatle most known for his nonpareil guitar playing and spirtuality. It is interesting to note that George, the youngest of four children would, one day, grow up to be the youngest of 4 Beatles and one quarter of the world's most infuential band. The parallels contained therein are numerous and this author does a good job of alluding to them. I like the way this author treats his subjects with respect. This is a book that will certainly be an asset to any Beatle fans' collection. This is a book that would, I think, have an endorsement by George himself from his timeless 1966 classic, "I Want to Tell You."
Rating: Summary: SLOW READ ! Review: All i can say is that this author is some bitter hack, who tries to reduce George Harrison to the level of mediocrity. Very boring with no real insight or focus. Also it just left me with a bad taste in my mouth, brain, & heart.
Rating: Summary: Skip this one if you're not a great George fan Review: Having read the 1996 and updated 2001 editions of this book, I think it's the worst book on George Harrison I've ever read (and there are more books about him out there than you would think). It just never seemed to talk directly about him, but around him and at times seemed very negative towards him. The only part I really enjoyed was Appendix 1 in both editions about George's sister. "Behind Sad Eyes", "Harrison", "Dark Horse", and even George's "I Me Mine" (even though he doesn't give a lot of personal information) are better books. Of course, if you are a great George fan (like me) you may still want to own it (again, like me) in order to have all the books written about him.
Rating: Summary: Geez, guys, lighten up... Review: I'm surprised at the negativity and hatred this book spawns. ... I enjoyed this book. So much of Beatles literature is paved with the same regurgitated facts. This book in no way adds a tremendous amount of knowledge, but at least it paints a fairly unique portrait of George, unlike the Guiliano book. The book is often cumbersome in its Britishness, but I appreciate the author's take on a guy who might as well be St. George ... This book isn't the bible, but a perspective.
Rating: Summary: SLOW READ ! Review: Not The best George Harrison book out there. Very tough read due to a lot of meaningless detail.
Rating: Summary: Hoping something better comes along... Review: The book is essentially "The Quiet One" which Mr. Clayson wrote in 1991 with a few extra chapters tacked on. I find it appalling that the price of this book has nearly doubled since the tragic loss of George Harrison. This book is a thorough telling of Mr. Harrison's life, although while reading the book it struck me that the author was not a fan as he is condescending to the subject several times (most often in comparing his talent to that of John Lennon or Paul McCartney). Unfortunately there are very few decent biographies of Mr. Harrison and this one is about as good as it gets.
Rating: Summary: Too much useless info Review: This book has useless info on other rock stars he didn't work with, too much of his beatle days and Clayson disses him for putting Dhani in the Montessori school system. Try and get Harrison, which is a book on his life by Rolling Stone.
Rating: Summary: Hoping something better comes along... Review: This book is fairly well written, but the ending chapters and appendicies appear to have been assembled in haste and are somewhat of a letdown. I agree with the reviewer who wrote that Clayson often seemed unaccountably mean-spirited toward Harrison. Come to think of it, he gets in digs at James Taylor, Eric Clapton, Bruce Springsteen and several others mentioned in the book, all with very little explanation. Clayson also fails to tie up many threads in Harrison's life, including his relationship with Paul McCartney, who of course brought George into the Quarrymen. George's friendship with Ravi Shankar is also slighted (Shankar described this quite well - including their work together in the 1990s - in the book Raga Mala). The book needs a summing up of Harrison's life, but instead ends with an intriguing but perhaps unverified story of George meeting & jamming with some country and western musicians during his first visit to the U.S. Perhaps a better accounting of George Harrison's life will be possible after some of his unreleased recordings become available and his family and friends have opened up to someone better suited than Alan Clayson to tell George's story.
Rating: Summary: Scholarly Work Review: This intense biography of the youngest Beatle is rich in facts and information. This work traces George Harrison's life from his youth in Liverpool to his meteoric rise in fame as a musician and his tragic demise in 2001. People who knew George Harrison as well as the backdrop of events and issues of the times are richly expounded upon, thus making this work exceptional. I like the way many details are included in this work because it gives readers a multi-faceted look at the man who would set new standards among lyricists and guitarists. This unique individual, George Harrison stood out among his peers including the other Beatles. Clayson does him justice in portraying him in his natural state. He has a rich supply of sources and is able to account for each documentation. I really like the chapter Clayson included about George's 1963 trip to America to visit his sister, brother-in-law and their children. The impact the young Beatle had on the people he met in Benton, Illinois is well chronicled in this work. This is work well worth the read and I am the proud owner of it. Try Some, Buy Some and enjoy this book. It is very riveting and intense.
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