Rating: 
Summary: If you're a Beatles or Harrison fan, save your money..
Review: And if you aren't already a fan, I can't imagine you'd be interested in this quick gloss over of Harrison's life.
Honestly, I was given this book as a present. And I read it over two days when I was home sick. The book is an easy read, and isn't poorly written. It doesn't sensationalize or gossip either. Thus the second star on the rating.
But there was almost nothing in this book that I didn't already know. It was same as watching the show "Biography".
If you need this book for your Harrison collection, then look for it in the bargain bin. Otherwise, I'd stay away.
Rating:
Summary: MEDIOCRE - ALL THINGS MUST PASS THIS BOOK
Review: As an inveterate Beatles' fan, I was naturally interested in reading one of, if not the first biography of former Beatle George Harrison shortly after his untimely death in 2001.Instead of being a comprehensive work that focused on the man's artistic accomplishments, this book fell back on tired cliches such as "The Quiet Beatle," and "The Youngest Beatle." Very little new material is provided in this book. I did not feel it ranked among the better Beatle biographies. The selection of photographs were good and I liked the few tidbits about Olivia Arias, the late artist's widow. Since this book came out just a scant few months after the late Beatle's demise, one cannot help but wonder if the timing of its publication is yet another way to cash in on the Beatles' fame. Since George Harrison is no longer living in the material world, his input remains unknown. This work is certainly not one I would give a ringing endorsement, but it did hold my interest because of the subject. At best this is a good starter book for people who want a "quick fix" in learning the basics of George Harrison's life. At worst, it is a mediocre work with little news to offer.
Rating: 
Summary: HARRISON: SAD EYES IS TOTAL RUBBISH!
Review: FULL OF GRAMMAR ERRORS & WRONG HISTORY DATES. THE BOOK CO. & AUTHOR SHOULD BE IN DISGRACE!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Run of the mill.
Review: George Harrison (1943-2001) was my favorite Beatle, and because he spent much of his life "trying to hide from us" (p. xi), few would disagree that he was also the most elusive Beatle. In the first biography published after Harrison's November 29, 2001 death, Marc Shapiro attempts to "discover the real George Harrison in all his varying shades of light and dark" (p. xi), but it don't come easy. Shapiro's 205-page biography of "The Quiet Beatle" manages to follow Harrison's life from his birth in Wavertree, England during World War Two (p. 13), to his obsession with guitars at age twelve (p. 21), to his first encounter with Paul McCartney at the Liverpool Institute, where they were both students (p. 23), to joining the Quarrymen with Paul and John Lennon in 1958 (p. 28), to playing music to Hamburg audiences of "drunken sailors, street thugs, prostitutes, and college students" in strip clubs as the Beatles (pp. 37-8), to the Beatles' first visit to America in 1964 (p. 55), to his marriage to model Pattie Boyd in 1966 (p. 72), to his first LSD experience (pp. 69-70), to his search for spiritual enlightenment in India, to the "growing personal and legal entanglements" that brought the Beatles to an end in 1970 (p. 93), to losing his wife, Pattie, to his friend, Eric Clapton (p. 111), to the Concerts for Bangladesh in 1971, to his affair with Ringo's wife, Maureen, which led to the breakup of Ringo's marriage (p. 121), to Harrison's bouts with drugs and depression (p. 136), to his marriage to his "soulmate," Olivia Arias (pp. 147; 159) and the birth of their son, Dhani in 1978, to the 1999 knife attack that punctured his lung (p. 190), and to his unsuccessful fight with cancer. Ultimately, however, Shapiro not only fails to bring his subject to life in this book, but he also fails to reveal exactly what made Harrison tick, the two requirements for a good biography. Isn't it a pity. To be fair, Shapiro's book is very readable. Although Harrison's fans will undoubtedly find this biography interesting, they won't find anything new here. My real criticism of Shapiro's biography, however, involves his inadequate research. He acknowledges that "no Beatle was . . . interviewed in the writing of this book." Nor did Shapiro interview either of Harrison's wives, his siblings, or friends in writing his book. In fact, the only person Shapiro interviewed was musician, Delaney Bramlett. "The real story," Harrison once said, "is the one that only we can tell from our point of view, and we know all the little intimate details" (pp. 179-80). Much to my disappointment, the "real story" of George Harrison isn't told here. G. Merritt
Rating:
Summary: George, (...)
Review: I have always liked Harrison, and his great songs! He was always the Beatle that I prefered in most contexts, though McCartney is certainly the the ranking genuis of the genre. But, Harrison was the one that intrigued my curiosity during those wonderful years when music was created, & rated, by merit, rather than hype.
But this book was not as informative as I had hoped prior to the read. It would be a good starting text for the novice, but for those of us that have followed the fabs since the sixties, this work lacks any surprises.
I did enjoy the photos, and the cover shot is the best of the group of biographical works that have come to the market since November 29, 2001. But, read this only if it is among your first books on the subject of George Harrison.
Rating:
Summary: The Eyes are not the only "SAD" thing here!
Review: I have always liked Harrison, and his great songs! He was always the Beatle that I prefered in most contexts, though McCartney is certainly the the ranking genuis of the genre. But, Harrison was the one that intrigued my curiosity during those wonderful years when music was created, & rated, by merit, rather than hype.
But this book was not as informative as I had hoped prior to the read. It would be a good starting text for the novice, but for those of us that have followed the fabs since the sixties, this work lacks any surprises.
I did enjoy the photos, and the cover shot is the best of the group of biographical works that have come to the market since November 29, 2001. But, read this only if it is among your first books on the subject of George Harrison.
Rating:
Summary: DON'T BOTHER ME with this book!
Review: I read this book over the weekend. It is very easy reading. But it is FILLED with spelling errors and grammatical errors. Also, as another reviewer pointed out, who did this guy interview to write this book? It reads like he got his information from other uncited sources...? He tries to be humorous in his introduction by saying "No Beatle was harmed in the making of this book." Except for George!
SKIP IT!
Rating:
Summary: Yeccccccccccccccccccccccccchhhhhhhh........
Review: I wrote a review of this book a few weeks ago and it was never posted. I guess I was so harsh the censor trashed it. That in itself should indicate clearly how little I think of this book. I'd give "Behind Sad Eyes" a negative 4 rating if it were allowed. Beyond the odd title--everyone I've mentioned it too assumed it was a book about Pete Townshend--the book is just slapped together. It is filled with factual inaccuracies, it is poorly written and, frankly, it is boring. 'Nuff said.
Rating:
Summary: Just the facts..
Review: It seemed like a noble effort, but when the biographer loses track of his subject's age more than once, one tends to question the validity of other "facts" as well--especially when the usual "credits" for quotations and statements are lacking. We're never quite certain if a quote is from an honest, personal interview, or salvaged from some previously published work.
Rating:
Summary: This might bug you.
Review: My favorite part of this book is the word *guitar*, which is closely associated with the name George Harrison in the George Harrison Discography on pages 212-231. The Discography actually starts on page 207, with his solo albums in 1968, 1969, 1970, "The Concert for Bangladesh (1971)," 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1979, 1981, 1982, 1987, "Traveling Wilburys: Volume One (1988)," 1989, 1990, and "George Harrison Live in Japan (1992)." There was no need to mention that he played guitar on those albums, or in the famous Beatles group before that, because almost everybody thought that mainly he was there to play guitar. There were a few surprises for me after that: "James Taylor (1969) George sang harmony on the song `Carolina on My Mind,' GOODBYE Cream (1969) George co-wrote and played guitar on the song `Badge.' " (p. 212). Somehow I never noticed that on DONOVAN RISING (1973), "George wrote a verse for the song `Hurdy Gurdy Man' that was not in the original version of the song." (p. 220). Most of the things that I remember from the book BEHIND SAD EYES were events in the personal life of George Harrison that I hadn't thought much about before. The thing about George and Pattie, Pattie and Eric, with George thinking, "I thought that was the best thing to do, for us to split, and we should have just done it much sooner. But I didn't have any problem about it." (p. 110). In a society that tunes in mainly to the psychological needs of each individual, that kind of thinking is much easier for a writer to identify and portray than the kind of temper exhibited by Ringo after George started singing love songs for Maureen one night, when Ringo and Maureen invited George and Pattie to their home for dinner, and "Pattie, totally mortified at this latest embarrassment, burst into tears and locked herself in Ringo's bathroom." (p. 121). There is no index, and the chapter titles are not much good at locating particular incidents that you might be interested in, but the book is a guide to how certain people see life, and the media have grown on a need to find this kind of information.
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