George Harrison: Living in the Material World by Olivia Harrison published by Abrams $49.95
He was the quiet Beatle. The spiritual Beatle. Not as charismatic as the pretty ones, John and Paul, and on stage he would sometimes stare out at the screaming girls and look as though he would rather be elsewhere.
George Harrison's music has endured though, and his songs have a unique sweetness.
This portrait in photographs, letters and diaries, by George's wife Olivia, is released to coincide with Martin Scorsese's documentary; he describes in his foreword how the man who possessed the world at 21 came down on the other side of acclaim and went on to cultivate "harmony, balance, serenity".
Hard to imagine how hard it must have been, but this glossy book gives a whiff of it — the hard-scrabble childhood in Liverpool, the early days at the Cavern, the craziness, and then the life-long search , in India and elsewhere, for a place of peace.
The story is old but most of the material here is new, including handwritten lyrics to the haunting All Things Must Pass. Give it to your boomer friend or loved one, and watch their eyes grow misty.
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