"+ "" var htmlCloser = ""+ "" xMaybeBaby_popup = "
\"Responding to a request from UK comedian and writer Ben Elton to contribute a track to his new film Maybe Baby, Paul employed the services of Jeff Lynne to record Buddy Holly's Maybe Baby while in Los Angeles to perform at the PETA 'Party Of The Century.' For the first time ever, Macca utilized the facilities of his longtime record company's in-house studio, recording at the Capitol Tower on Vine Street. Backing vocals were by Paul's grandson Arthur; shades of Daytime Nightime Suffering! The song was included on the soundtrack album, issued the next year in the UK only. Apparently, that's the way it was going to stay, as the film and album were not scheduled for released in the US as of September of 2000. The track was remixed by JL and Marc Mann (again at Capitol Studios) on February 7th and 8th to 5.1 surround sound for eventual DVD release.\"
Chip Madinger and Mark Easter (October 2000 - Eight Arms To Hold You - The Solo Beatles Compendium)
" xMaybeBaby_popupstats = "
\"Me & Richard [Tandy] having lots of fun in the Wisseloord Studio in Holland. Started in 1982 & finished off in 2000! Richard plays the piano, I play the drums, and be both play GTR.\"
JL (2000 - Flashback)
\"That was just a bit of fun that started when me and Richard Tandy were in the studio in Holland and we just fancied doing a sort of rock and roll version of Grieg, a daft concept but it actually worked out OK. Richard on piano and me on drums and we both played guitar on it.\"
JL (2001 - elomusic.com website)
\"None of [Grieg's Piano Concerto in A Minor] was done specifically for Secret Messages, it was just a fun thing. We walked into the studio to test the acoustics, with the drums down one end and the piano down the other and we just launched into it. You'd walk into a new studio and go 'what's it sound like?' hit the drums, 'oh, that ain't bad', and then we'd just do it. It was down in about ten minutes. Then we worked out what the chords would be on the guitar and did a couple of overdubs on guitar and that was it. It was Jeff doing one of his mad drumming things. It wasn't intended for anything, just to test the studios acoustics.\"
Richard Tandy (November 4, 2002 - Showdown mailing list)
" xGriegsPianoConcertoInAMinor_popupstats = "
\"This is another one recorded in 1982 and finished in 2000. It was originally sung through a vocoder but I decided to sing it in three part harmony instead. Making a few edits on the original track helped a lot.\"
JL (2000 - Flashback)\"Because of the way I'd arranged it originally, I was never able to finish it, as the tune I had in mind for it just didn't fit. So I did some chopping about, changed the sequence of all the instruments and then sang it in three part harmony.\"
JL (2001 - elomusic.com website)
" xTearsInYourLife_popupstats = "
\"A song I wrote for the movie of the same name, sung brilliantly by Olivia Newton-John. I always liked the song, and fancied another go at it.\"
JL (2000 - Flashback)
\"It's a whole new track, really. I re-recorded it because I always liked the song. I really liked Olivia Newton-John's version of it, but I fancied having a go at singing it. I like the chord structure. \"
JL (2001 - elomusic.com website)
\"ELO's Jeff Lynne, who had long distanced himself from the whole miserable [Xanadu] project, released Flashback, featuring his own performance of the infamous title track.\"
Sarah Hepola (November 3, 2003 - The Morning News)
\"The track listing [for All Over The World: The Very Best Of Electric Light Orchestra] was also modified following Jeff's instructions and Showdown, Ma-Ma-Ma Belle, and Xanadu (Flashback version) [were] added.\"
Rob Caiger (May 28, 2005 - Showdown mailing list)
\"[Xanadu was] originally written for the disastrous flop of a film by the same name, the re-recorded version of this dreamy tune benefits from the fact that all the vocals are handled by Lynne, rather than being shared with Olivia Newton-John.\"
David Cheal (December 8, 2005 - The Daily Telegraph)
" xXanaduNewVersion_popupstats = "
\"Another track that's taken 20 years to finish because only now could it be finished.\"
JL (2000 - Flashback)
\"I had this nice backing track finished and I just couldn't get the words and the tune until I did some major upheavals on it. \"
JL (2001 - elomusic.com website)
\"The Xanadu Overture was the basic track, of which JL reworked in Love Changes All in 2000.\"
Rob Caiger (November 30, 2002 - Showdown mailing list)
" xLoveChangesAll_popupstats = "
Jeff inadvertantly copied Paul McCartney's song Jet on this song. A sample demonstating this can be heard HERE.
\"20 years have gone by since I wrote this one too (must try to finish them quicker).\"
JL (2000 - Flashback)
\"I'd just finished the whole backing track, orchestra, 30-piece string section on it and everything, and it's just one of those songs I couldn't finish until now. \"
JL (2001 - elomusic.com website)
" xHelpless_popupstats = "
\"A jolly English dance where everybody wears something.\"
JL (2000 - Flashback)\"That was from the Secret Messages sessions. It's a bit of fun. \"
JL (2001 - elomusic.com website)
" xWhosThat_popupstats = "
This is just Jeff on an acoustic guitar demonstrating how he wrote the song. In it, he sings portions of the song, including the opening verses and several times the chorus. It appeared on the BBC website in April 2003, although it was recorded in 2000 for a future and as yet unreleased documentary.
\"It's a lovely interview, filmed at Jeff's studio, for a BBC series that is still in development. Each programme focused on singer-songwriters. This one was filmed in 2000, just before Flashback, and covered a whole series of topics, with Jeff illustrating his interview by playing guitar and singing his songs - the first time I'd seen him do that. The director is Des Burkinshaw - now ex-BBC - but a musician in his own right, which is why Jeff warmed to him and both sat there talking, guitars in hand. If the series doesn't get broadcast, I'm sure we'll be able to view it at a convention or gathering. Great programmes and exceptional footage.\"
Rob Caiger (April 27, 2003 - Showdown mailing list)
" xLivinThingLiveAcousticVersion_popupstats = "
This is a cover version of the Del Shannon song.
\"This track was started on the Discovery sessions as a tribute to Del Shannon. He was my first musical hero. It was never finished until now.\"
JL (2001 - Discovery Remaster)
\"[Little Town Flirt] was started during the sessions for Discovery and finished off in 2000.\"
Rob Caiger (April 3, 2006 - Showdown mailing list)
" xLittleTownFlirt_popupstats = "
\"Well Alright came about a third of the way through the project and... I just wanted a bouncy one, y'know, 'cause... I know it sounds banal and... You got bouncy ones. You got slow ones. You got fast ones. You got medium ones. Uh, It just came at a time... and the words really are... It is nice to have something to hold onto. I was thinking it's like, whether it be your girlfriend or whatever, y'know, to get you through things. Something that gets you through problems or whatever, y'know, and... There's always something over the horizon that's good so just keep holding on 'til you get it. One of the secrets, Alright always seemed the logical opener [for the Zoom album] and stayed there ever since. I do a lot of shuffling about it, y'know, on the CD player to see if any one would be better to open it and probably, that's the best one to open it.\"
JL (2001 - Sony JL Interview Disc)
\"This is the lead track, because it's... it's sort of upbeat and it's got a nice shuffle to it and , uh, it's got a nice, positive message.\"
JL (June 6, 2001 - Rockline)
\"[I played on] a track called Alright. I think [it was the right single from Zoom], yes. There are lots of great tunes on there. Superb job.\"
RTN (July 5, 2002 - Carl Wayne interview on BBC Radio WM)
\"How much work [did I do on Zoom]? Probably about an hour. They were doing a remix of the [Alright] single and I just played on that. It's a good opening track to the new album, but it's not the most immediate song on there.\"
Richard Tandy (November 4, 2002 - Showdown mailing list)
\"The video footage [for Alright] was to come from the two LA shows - which would have been well after the UK release date [of the single]. So despite changing the artwork to include Richard Tandy's credit (which the US never thought was important enough to acknowledge) Sony's UK office reluctantly decided to cancel the single and use Alright's BBC Radio 2 profile as promo for the album. Alright was never a popular choice for first single [in the UK]. The feedback from the record company and from radio was that there were stronger, 'more ELO-sounding' songs on the album.\"
Rob Caiger (July 19, 2004 - Showdown mailing list)
" xAlright_popupstats = "
\"Well on Moment in Paraside, it was inspired, probably by Rosie and uh... I wanted to get this sound that I'd... y'know... it's a sound that I like... it's like grainy acoustic GTR. I got this old Wurlitzer organ and, uh, I wanted to make it really old fashioned, y'know, almost like a fairground kind of sound, but really intimate at the same time. So, the voice is really dry and close on the mike. It was very meaningful to me, y'know, those words, so I think I actually sang it quite good because I really meant the moment in paradise. I was feeling it.\"
JL (2001 - Sony JL Interview Disc)
\"Uh, this song is kind of inspired by that young lady over there, Rosie [Vela]. And, um, it just, y'know, just... looking at her, uh, I wrote those words and, uh... So that's what it was, it's a tribute to Rosie.\"
JL (June 6, 2001 - Rockline)
\"Ringo is fine drummer, which he proved again on Easy Money and Moment In Paradise.\"
JL (2001 - Unknown source; translated from English to Polish, then back to English again)
\"The best song on new LP Zoom, Moment In Paradise, is dedicated to [Rosie Vela] here.\"
Jim Irvin (August, 2001 - The Bullring Variations article in Mojo)
\"Alright was never a popular choice for first single [in the UK]. The feedback from the record company and from radio was that there were stronger, 'more ELO-sounding' songs on the album. Everyone wanted Moment In Paradise or Ordinary Dream as first single.\"
Rob Caiger (July 19, 2004 - Showdown mailing list)
\"For many, this haunting, beautifully performed song is the finest track on Zoom, made even more special by Ringo Starr laying down the perfect beat: 'And he played live in my living room, which was great fun because we actually played it all live together. It was myself and Marc Mann playing bass and guitar and Ringo playing the drums in his own inimitable style. And he did a really great job of it.'\"
Rob Caiger (October 2007 - liner notes for Ticket To The Moon - The Very Best Of The Electric Light Orchestra Volume 2)
" xMomentInParadise_popupstats = "
\"State of Mind is, um, it's really about like, everything that you do depends on your state of mind. So you might make decisions that you might regret or might be pleased with but only depending upon what your state of mind is then. So you might do the decision and be in one state of mind and then, think it through in another state of mind and neither of them could be right. So I just think what a wild thing a state of mind is, 'cause you could go out and do something really stupid or you do something really simple and... uh, it's an ongoing thing your state of mind, so whatever... However you think about what you did, whether it is stupid or good, it's still your state of mind. So basically, it's like you don't really know what you're doing. So State of Mind is very, very simple and I, uh... I did the drums in me big room, which has got this enormous release time in it, y'know, it's like about 8 seconds of reverb, and... Which I don't use... I never use reverb, only natural reverb, y'know, the room itself and some, y'know, big GTR riffs. It came together real easy, and the words came real simply to me. And I think one thing about Zoom... the words... I think it was this 15 year thing with all these other guys... me heroes and everything and seeing how they worked and how they wrote and how I wrote with them, y'know, occasionally. It made me words better. I had less inhibitions about writing truth, instead of just making up little stories about Horace Wimp and that, y'know. The words on Zoom are really sort about how I feel about things that've gone on in the past or whatever, y'know, that I've never bothered to confront.\"
JL (2001 - Sony JL Interview Disc)
\"Well, I was in a right state of mind! [laughter] What it means really is, y'know, when you make decisions about, uh, whatever. Uh, like tomorrow you might feel the opposite way about what you thought about it what you did the day before. And, so which state of mind do you trust? And which one is the real one? Because, y'know, you might do another thing and not do something because you're in a state of mind and miss out on something really good. So it's kind of like, really, which state of mind is the real one?\"
JL (June 6, 2001 - Rockline)
\"Yeah, my favourite [on Zoom] could be the track State Of Mind. There is a power in it you can rarely hear in other recordings, even of my own authorship.\"
JL (2001 - Unknown source; translated from English to Polish, then back to English again)
" xStateOfMind_popupstats = "
\"This is a song like, it's a little message about, y'know, don't give up, uh, if you haven't found what you, what you got yet-- what you need yet. Uh, just for love, it's just around the corner, coming through space dust, coming to you.\"
JL (June 6, 2001 - Rockline)"
xJustForLove_popupstats = "
\"Well, Stranger On A Quiet Street really is a song about when I met Rosie Vela for the first time and it really has something to do with Wilburys too. 'Cause when we did the Wi-- the second Wilburys album, we, uh, rented this great big house up on the mountain and Jim Keltner came one day because he was playing drums on it and he, uh, he asked if he could bring this girl who lives next door, Rosie Vela. And, uh, we said, 'Yeah, sure.' And so he brought her in and she played us some stuff on a piano, y'know, beautiful music and sang beautifully. And I was going, 'Wow! That's unbelievable!' And, y'know, just generally chatting with 'em. And after that was done, I never saw her for about four years or something like that. ...I bumped into her again and we got to become pals and that's how come she's singing on the record and she's in the group.\"
JL (June 24, 2001 - Off The Record interview with Uncle Joe Benson)
\"Stranger On a Quiet Street was actually a real story when I first met Rosie Vela. And we were doing the Wilburys album up in this place called Wilbury mountain, which is a place not far from here. Well, we rented a house, a great big house, and um... we set up a studio in the library there... the control room. And she lived like a couple of doors away and I kept seeing this beautiful girl and Jim Keltner knew her. He'd done some drumming with her. And, uh, it was this tiny little quiet street. Right in the back of nowhere on the top of a mountain. She came in one day and played the piano for us, for the Wilburys. She said she was really scared and all that, 'cause it was, like all these... Bob Dylan and Tom Petty and George Harrison and everybody. And she played for us and it was fantastic. Played and sang and we all went 'Woo! Fantastic!' Never saw her again for about four or five years or six years or something. And I met her in a restaurant and it reminded me of meeting somebody on a quiet street. And we were both strangers on a quiet street, 'cause we didn't know each other, so that was a true story.\"
JL (2001 - Sony JL Interview Disc)
\"It's got a funny story. That was when I first met Rosie Vela, who is in the group. She was living right next door to The Wilburys house that we'd just rented to record Wilburys' Volume 2 [sic]. It was on a very quiet street actually, I should have said very quiet street. [Laughter]. And there was nobody there except for The Wilburys and Rosie Vela! And she came in and played these beautiful songs, and looking like she did, it was like man, well this is pretty unbelievable! And she's great. She plays the piano like a really gifted player....and now she's me girlfriend! So that was the story of meeting Rosie really.
JL (2001 - MusicWeb Express 3000)"
xStrangerOnAQuietStreet_popupstats = "
Over the course of the song's bridge, Rosie Vela (as the naughty tap-dancing Spanish lady) speaks some lines in Spanish. It's not entirely clear what she is saying, but the last few lines can be made out as \"Y la biblioteca, ¿donde está?\" In English, that translates as \"And the library, where is it?\" What is this supposed to mean? It's a mystery. It's likely Jeff just being cheeky again.
\"After a phenomenally successful 15 years as a solo artist, songwriter and producer of other artists-- and very much in his own time-- Jeff Lynne decided to record again as the Electric Light Orchestra: 'ELO was always my group, so I had no qualms about when or how far between albums you've got to have (laughs). Could be 20 years-- this is only 15!' While 2001's Zoom was 'a more guitar-oriented album', a handful of songs harked back to Lynne's earlier orchestral sound, none more so than In My Own Time which features a string quartet conducted by Marc Mann.\"
Rob Caiger (October 2007 - liner notes for Ticket To The Moon - The Very Best Of The Electric Light Orchestra Volume 2)
" xInMyOwnTime_popupstats = "
As a bit of a joke, just before the GTR solo break, JL says \"Take it, Jeff\" as if he is telling himself to do the GTR solo. Perhaps this is Jeff's way of teasing himself since he did all parts of the song, except for the drums (which were done by Ringo Starr).
\"Ringo is fine drummer, which he proved again on Easy Money and Moment In Paradise.\"
JL (2001 - Unknown source; translated from English to Polish, then back to English again)
" xEasyMoney_popupstats = "
\"Well, It Really Doesn't Matter At All, I wrote that on a beach in the Bahamas actually on a little wooden GTR that Danny Ferrington made... like a travel GTR and it just fits in your suitcase-- about that big-- and it's a lovely, little thing, just made out of scrap wood and it plays really well, and it's... I was just walking down the beach writing it and Rosie was with me. And uh... It's... it's on this nice, little, sandy beach and that's where it came from. And it... What it really means-- really doesn't matter at all-- is... is that if you're alright, it doesn't really matter at all. Y'know, you can moan all you like about everything, but, y'know, if the main things are alright, then you ain't doing too bad. Um, maybe I'm more optimistic than I used to be or pessimistic [garbled]. Zoom has a more optimistic feel, I think, because the words are more real, I think. All related to what's actually going on, or what has gone on in the last twenty years or so. And the fact, y'know, I really enjoyed making it and it was basically fun. Y'know, I don't want to make doom and gloom records all the time. I had a lot of fun. Zoom is a cross section everything you can do, um, and you have.\"
JL (2001 - Sony JL Interview Disc)
\"Danny Ferrington made me this tiny little acoustic [GTR] that he now mass markets as the Rogue GTR. He made mine out of scrap pieces of wood. It's probably about two feet long and six inches at the bottom. I just put it in my suitcase and brought it with me to the Bahamas when I needed a little break from making Zoom. I took it to the beach and wrote It Really Doesn't Matter At All, one of the songs from the new album, on it.\"
JL(2001 - Guitar World Acoustic No. 45)"
xReallyDoesntMatterAtAll_popupstats = "
\"It's basically two part double tracked. Two separate parts double tracked on each one.\"
JL (2001 - MusicWeb Express 3000)
\"I like Ordinary Dream too for its multi threads - it goes from one phase to the other... And I wrote quite good lyrics to it.\"
JL (2001 - Unknown source; translated from English to Polish, then back to English again)
\"I like the slow tunes [on Zoom], like Ordinary Dream. But record companies like the fast bouncy stuff, so.\"
Richard Tandy (November 4, 2002 - Showdown mailing list)
\"Alright was never a popular choice for first single [in the UK]. The feedback from the record company and from radio was that there were stronger, 'more ELO-sounding' songs on the album. Everyone wanted Moment In Paradise or Ordinary Dream as first single. BBC Radio 2 continued to play Ordinary Dream months after the album was released.\"
Rob Caiger (July 19, 2004 - Showdown mailing list)
" xOrdinaryDream_popupstats = "
\"I am glad George played the guitar on [my tracks] A Long Time Gone and All she Wanted, because he is one of my favourite guitarists. He plays very melodic, hitting each note very precisely.\"
JL (2001 - Unknown source; translated from English to Polish, then back to English again)
" xLongTimeGoneA_popupstats = "
\"I tried this experiment which was quite unusual. I got this little cheap walkman tape recorder and I took the mike off and strapped... taped it... walkman on the mike stand and, uh, put it into record and sang into that and, into here [garbled]. I wanted to try and get that old, really old-fashioned rock and roll sound where the mike breaks up, y'know, like Little Richard gets and he's all this 'WAA!' and the mike actually, physically gives... gives in. And it's a fabulous kind of distortion. I couldn't get the exact same distortion, but I got some of it that I'm looking for... uh, of that kind of sound. But I noticed it sounded better when my microphone was in record, not just on pause, so I had to let it run to get the sound to come down into here. So that was just an experiment in weird microphone technique. It's like sunny California, all that, and then there's a bit where it isn't sunny like for a few weeks. I mean, like, on a personal level. And so what you expected of sunny California didn't really come up, but, y'know, something else happened instead. So it's really that.\"
JL (2001 - Sony JL Interview Disc)
\"It was like a picture I had in my mind of California being this golden place under the sun. And then out of the relationship that goes wrong and all your left with is the sun.\"
JL (2001 - MusicWeb Express 3000)"
xMeltingInTheSun_popupstats = "
\"I am glad George played the guitar on [my tracks] A Long Time Gone and All she Wanted, because he is one of my favourite guitarists. He plays very melodic, hitting each note very precisely.\"
JL (2001 - Unknown source; translated from English to Polish, then back to English again)
" xAllSheWanted_popupstats = "
Available as a bonus track on the Japanese version of Zoom." xLongBlackRoad_popupstats = "
The difference between this version and the regular Zoom version is that this early version of the song is missing a subtle background keyboard riff by RTN on keyboards, most notable on the song's bridge. The cymbal crashes are in different places and there is a slightly different vocal take on the last verse, when Jeff sings \"hold on to something, that makes you feel alright.\" On the promo version, Jeff's inflection at the end of the word \"something\" goes up, but goes down on the released Zoom version.
" xAlrightPromoVersion_popupstats = "
The difference between this version and the regular Zoom version is that this version has an extra bit of VCL repeating the \"in too deep\" lyric at the end of the first and second verses." xMeltingInTheSunPromoVersion_popupstats = "
The difference between this version and the regular Zoom version is that the flange vocal effects are missing or greatly reduced over the song's bridge, running from [1:43] to [2:00]. Otherwise, the song is the same as the released version.
" xAllSheWantedPromoVersion_popupstats = "
JL stated in several interviews at the release of Zoom that he recorded 18 songs for the album. Only 14 have been released.
\"[It took me] two and a half years [to complete Zoom. I had worked on it four, sometimes five days a week. In the end 18 tracks were made.\"
JL (2001 - Unknown source; translated from English to Polish, then back to English again)
" xELOZoomUnknownTitles_popupstats = "
For a while JL and Rosie Vela were dating and during the promotion of Zoom, there was talk that Jeff had worked on a few songs with Rosie and she might even release an album of the material. Since then, they have split and it is unlikely this material will ever be released.
" xVelaRosieUnknownTitles_popupstats = "
Guitarist Marc Mann plays the violin intro on his guitar during this performance.
" xLivinThingVH1StorytellersApril202001_popupstats = "
This song was actually performed twice during the performance because the show's producer reported a problem with Rosie Vela's microphone during the first performance, requiring the band to perform the song again.
" xMomentinParadiseVH1StorytellersApril202001_popupstats = "
Listen closely. Instead of singing \"it's so real, the suffering\" on the second verse, Jeff Lynne sings \"It's a real submarine.\" This is the lyric sung by former ELO bassist Michael De Albuquerque, who didn't know all the right lyrics when he had to sing it on some 1974 tour dates after JL took ill and could not sing it. Reports also exist that Jeff sings this because Del Shannon had once told Jeff, when they worked together, that he always thought those were the words, and he thought 'real submarine' sounded so cool. Not sure why Jeff did it on this 2001 version, but it's an interesting fact that he intentionally missung his own song." xShowdownLosAngelesMay2001_popupstats = "
\"One of Jeff Lynne's finest compositions from any stage of the Electric Light Orchestra's long career. [sic] This dreamy, hypnotic 'protest song' from Face The Music, the band's first-ever platinum album in 1975, was performed brilliantly for 2001's in-concert DVD Zoom Tour Live and has since become a firm favourite with a whole new generation of ELO fans.\"
Rob Caiger (October 2007 - liner notes for Ticket To The Moon - The Very Best Of The Electric Light Orchestra Volume 2)
" xOneSummerDreamLosAngelesMay2001_popupstats = "
Listen carefully to this one as there's a blooper! About halfway through the song at the beginning of the second chorus, Jeff is supposed to sing, \"when I looked around,\" he flubs the line and begins to sing the line that begins the third chorus, \"when I closed my eyes.\" As a result, he has a false start on the lyric before quickly correcting himself, thus he ends up singing, \"when I cl-- ooked around\" instead. Oops!
" xTightropeLosAngelesMay2001_popupstats = "
\"[The keyboards used on Can't Get It Out Of My Head in] 2001 was a Kurtzweil, as part of a midi set up, with a Roland RS5, and a Roland Juno.\"
Richard Tandy (March 20, 2004 - Showdown mailing list)
" xCantGetItOutOfMyHeadLosAngelesMay2001_popupstats = "
\"[10538 Overture as played at the PBS show] was just our standard arrangement of it.\"
Richard Tandy (November 4, 2002 - Showdown mailing list)
" x10538OvertureLosAngelesMay2001_popupstats = "
The \"Don't bring me down, no no no no no no no no no no, ooh-ee-hoo\" line of verse 5 at this performance used a very different arrangement with a rock-a-billy beat and different guitar.
" xDontBringMeDownLosAngelesMay2001_popupstats = "
Just as the spaceship begins closing and the taped music plays, the microphones are turned off. However, on the DVD release, Jeff Lynne can still be heard declaring \"Oh, shit!\" as the spaceship set closes up.
" xOutroductionMusicLosAngelesMay2001_popupstats = "
This song is performed with only an acoustic GTR accompaniment.
\"It's kind of a ballad, but it gets loud really, but I'm not going to get very loud.\"
JL (June 6, 2001 - Rockline)"
xOrdinaryDreamLiveAcousticVersion_popupstats = "
This song is performed live on radio with only an acoustic GTR accompaniment." xCantGetItOutOfMyHeadLiveAcousticVersion_popupstats = "
This song was used as part of the 2002/2003 ad campaign for the 2003 Volkswagon convertible Beetle. It's a newly recorded version by JL, with what sounds like Rosie Vela on background vocals. According to the company that made the ad, Arnold Communications, it's a JL, rather than Electric Light Orchestra song. This is backed up by comments from Craig Fruin, JL's manager, who also says that it's a completely new recording, using none of the original 1977 track.
\"Things are looking up for Electric Light Orchestra, whose Mr. Blue Sky is used to promote the convertible Volkswagen Beetle.\"
Author Unknown (November 22, 2002 - Entertainment Weekly)
\"Things are looking up for Mr. Blue Sky. The 1977 ELO hit had faded from view over the years, overshadowed by more enduring JL standards like Don't Bring Me Down. But that all changed when the song showed up in recent TV commercials for the new Volkswagen Beetle convertible (for which Lynne completely rerecorded the tune) and for the film Adaptation. And now Scottish indie band the Delgados have cooked up a killer cover of the track as a B side on their latest single. Perhaps the once-reviled ELO are headed for a critical reevaluation. 'We like to find songs that people really loved when they were younger, before they got too focused on what's cool or not cool' says Arnold Advertising's Alan Pafenbach, who oversaw the VW spot. 'I think this is one of those great songs. It really is a great piece of music. Sometimes it's better not to be so cool'. But why is 'sky' suddenly everywhere all at once? Mere coincidence, apparently. Asked about the VW ad, Delgados singer Emma Pollock pleads ignorance: 'Oh are they doing that over there? That's great. I hope they (air the Mr. Blue Sky commercial) in Britain. Maybe we can get them to use our version.'\"
Rob Brunner (February 21, 2003 - Entertainment Weekly)
\"Q: What's that retro-sounding song in the Beetle convertible ads? A: It's Mr. Blue Sky, a 1977 Electric Light Orchestra song that the band's founder, JL, rerecorded for the commercial. 'We thought it would be cool to introduce ELO to a new generation and at the same time reconnect the band with their fans from the first time around,' says a Volkswagen rep. Mr. Blue Sky has made something of a comeback this year: [The original version] was also used in the trailer for the film Adaptation.\"
Author Unknown (February 23, 2003 - US Weekly)
\"ELO songs are featured in current TV programmes, film soundtracks and ad campaigns throughout the UK and USA: Mr. Blue Sky for Volkswagen's new VW Beetle TV ad campaign (reported in the press as: 'Beetle convertible makes ELO cool')...\"
Author Unknown (March 31, 2003 - website only expanded liner notes for ELO 2 remaster CD)
\"[My most recent creative coup was] convincing JL from ELO to redo Mr. Blue Sky for Bubble Boy. He just liked the commercial. A lot of artists are sensitive about what you're going to do [with their music], but we've had good luck. We do spots that aren't embarrassing. [We chose that song because] it had the right structure, and it was a song that people kind of knew, but it wasn't a big hit. When it's not as well-known, it blends with the commercial better.\"
Alan Pafenbach (April 14, 2003 - Adweek)
\"Over the past few years, Volkswagen's made some of the best ads on television. ...There was the epic Mr. Blue Sky spot, which explored the monotonous life of an office worker with the help of some jumpy edits and an unearthed pop gem from ELO.\"
Seth Stevenson (February 22, 2005 - MSN article At VW, There Are Bad Ads and Good Ads)
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\"The opening track [of Brainwashed], Any Road, finds Harrison re-invoking the Wilburys' cheery folk-rock, with a Zen twist in the chorus: 'If you don't know where you're going/Any road will take you there.'\"
Anthony DeCurtis (October 2002 - The Making of Brainwashed on www.georgeharrision.com)
\"Any Road is skiffley and urgent, with Harrison's wonderful slide guitar playing weaving in and out of the folksy picking. For the most part it evokes REM's Losing My Religion, while the joyous yelps and exuberant strumming at the end recall The Waterboys' downhome Fisherman's Blues sessions.\"
Craig McLean (November 8, 2002 - The Scotsman)
\"Brainwashed begins with a jaunty, Traveling Wilburys-soundalike, Any Road, in which Harrison offers the advice, 'if you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there.'\"
David Bauder (November 13, 2002 - Associated Press article, Posthumous Harrison Album Impresses)
\"'Give me plenty of that guitar!' [George Harrison] cries at the beginning of Any Road, the opening track on the posthumously-released Brainwashed. [...] Any Road, a gentle folk-rocker, might be reminiscent of The Travelling [sic] Wilburys (a touring band that featured Harrison, Lynne, Tom Petty, Roy Orbison and Bob Dylan), but the song immediately casts George as the record's central character, with its jaunty ukelele and slide guitar flourishes.\"
Adrian Thrills (November 15, 2002 - Daily Mail)
Editor's Note: The Traveling Wilburys was not a \"touring band\". They never toured.
\"'Give me plenty of that guitar,' George Harrison cheerfully requests right off the top on his final studio album Brainwashed. [...] Any Road revisits the Traveling Willburys' [sic] jaunty jangle and lyrical wordplay ('If you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there').\"
Darryl Sterdan (November 15, 2002 - Winnipeg Sun)
\"Listeners, no doubt, will pore over the lyrics for allusions to mortality. And Harrison, who died of cancer on Nov. 29 of last year, hasn't made the search at all arduous. Here's a sample verse from Any Road: 'But oh Lord we pay the price/ With the spin of the wheel, with the roll of the dice/ Ah yeah, you pay your fare/ And if you don't know where you're going/ Any road will take you there.' That last bit has a Zen-like quality that is perfectly Harrison. Devoted to Hinduism, he always expressed his spirituality as a form of striving rather than certitude.\"
Vit Wagner (November 16, 2002 - Toronto Star)
\"The 12-track Brainwashed kicks off with Any Road, one of several reminders of Harrison's partnership in the Traveling Wilburys with Lynne, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty and Roy Orbison. Any Road and the Wilburys share a playful attitude and a love of strummed acoustic guitars, as well as a drummer in studio veteran Jim Keltner. Harrison serves up what's either deep Zen wisdom or drivel designed to sound like it: 'If you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there.'\"
Larry Katz (November 17, 2002 - Boston Herald)
\"Any Road, the lead track [on Brainwashed], which opens with Harrison telling the engineer to 'give me plenty of that guitar,' offers a Zen-like maxim -- 'If you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there' -- as its chorus and central thought.\"
Joel Selvin (November 17, 2002 - San Francisco Chronicle)
\"Any Road, would fit snugly in either collection by his later band, the Traveling Wilburys.\"
Christian Toto (November 19, 2002 - Washington Times)
\"'But oooeee it's a game/Sometimes you're cool/Sometimes you're lame,' he sings on the perky Any Road, coining a perfectly serviceable and quietly profound mantra.\"
Tom Sinclair (November 22, 2002 - Dark Victory article in Entertainment Weekly)
\"Any Road, recalls the agreeably pillowy folk-rock melodicism of the Wilburys. But beneath the song's cheery surface and Zen-like hook line ('If you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there') lie undercurrents of world-weariness.\"
Marty Hughley (November 22, 2002 - Brainwashed Shows Harrison's Charms article in The Oregonian)
\"Brainwashed opens with a song that captures everything he did best. A cheerful trot toward eternity, Any Road spins sentiments from Eastern philosophy and T.S. Eliot into a sunny pop song driven by an instrument called the 'banjulele,' which sounds pretty much like its name suggests.\"
Keith Phipps (November, 2002 - Onion AV Club)
\"'Lord, we got to fight/With the thoughts in the head, with the dark and the light,' he sings on the first track, Any Road, with zero irony. He puts real spring into the Zen lesson of Any Road - 'If, you don't know where you're going/Any road'll take you there' - along with long, gleaming curls of slide guitar. It is hard to tell what Harrison did not play on the album: Dhani and Lynne also play guitars. But the quivering tremolo in Pisces Fish and the stair-step jangle in Any Road reflect Harrison's class and touch, regardless of who did the honors.\"
David Fricke (December 12, 2002 - Rolling Stone)
\"Any Road is one of my favorites. Pure George. He use to quote that line all the time, 'If You Don't Know Where You're Going, Any Road Will Take You There.' I love that song so much.\"
Jim Keltner (December, 2002 - moderndrummer.com)
\"[Brainwashed's] opening track, the tropical Any Road, dates back to the heady, healthy days of Cloud Nine, Harrison's 1987 release. [...] On Any Road, he sings about the perils of running through life aimlessly... [JL says,] 'But his instructions were sometimes cryptic, as well. Like at the beginning of Any Road, you can hear him say, Give me plenty of that guitar! Something like that was a clue to how he wanted things to sound.' [Dhani Harrison says,] 'Any Road was written during the video shoot for This Is Love [from Cloud Nine]. He was in Hawaii, sitting in a banyan tree, and waiting for the camera crew to film the video.'\"
Vic Garbarini (January, 2003 - Guitar World)
\"One of the standout tracks from the acclaimed Brainwashed album, Any Road, on Dark Horse/EMI, will be serviced to radio next week. The accompanying promo video includes previously unreleased footage that lovingly celebrates George's life. His humor and spirit are captured in the studio, in concert, casual shots and animated footage. Any Road is the first new George Harrison music video since This is Love from Cloud Nine in 1988. Written by George Harrison, Any Road is produced by George, Jeff Lynne and Dhani Harrison. The track features George on slide and acoustic guitars and banjulele; JL on bass, piano and backing vocals; Dhani Harrison on electric guitar and backing vocals; and Jim Keltner on drums.\"
Author Unknown (April 25, 2003 - Business Wire)
\"Any Road kicks off Brainwashed in buoyant spirit. Joined by Jim Keltner, Dhani, and Lynne, George bangs away on the banjulele, the groove all but unstoppable, and even lets out a few howls of joy in the outro. It sounds like a man in love with making music.\"
Warren Zanes (April 2, 2009 - liner notes for Let It Roll: Songs By George Harrison)
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In the song's bridge, George can be heard talking under the guitar. In the left channel, George plays the role of the sinner and says: \"Hello Father. Father...\" Then in the right channel, he plays the role of the priest and says: \"Stick a little five spot in the box. It'll be all right.\" Also, what does the \"P2\" of the song's title mean? The phrase is not used in the songs lyrics. Some have suggested it refers to \"Part 2\" thinking that it's a reference to the song lyrics repetitious nature of sinning all week, then washing those sins away on Saturday night with a few prayers. Others have suggested that it refers to a connection between the Vatican and a chapterof Freemasonry known as P2... or, Propaganda Due as it's also known.
\"Some of the jokes, it must be said, are not very good. In particular, I could have done without his lazy satire on catholicism P2 Vatican Blues, musically reminiscent of the sort of mundane blues work-outs the Traveling Wilburys often descended into.\"
Neil McCormick (November 7, 2002 - The Daily Telegraph)
\"P2 Vatican Blues (Last Saturday Night) is a rootsy blues song with the motoring glee of Lady Madonna.\"
Craig McLean (November 8, 2002 - The Scotsman)
\"In a similar vein, P2 Vatican Blues is a robust 12-bar workout that would not have sounded out of place on Dylan's Love And Theft.
Adrian Thrills (November 15, 2002 - Daily Mail)
\"P2 Vatican Blues (Last Saturday Night) is a lightly choogling little nugget of 12-bar pop.\"
Darryl Sterdan (November 15, 2002 - Winnipeg Sun)
\"Harrison makes it clear that he didn't lose his sense of humor while losing his health. P2 Vatican Blues finds the ex-Catholic on a wry tour of the Vatican.\"
Larry Katz (November 17, 2002 - Boston Herald)
\"The jaunty P2 Vatican Blues (Last Saturday Night), sounds anything but mournful.\"
Christian Toto (November 19, 2002 - Washington Times)
\"He muses on the elusiveness of truth in the playful, possibly cynical P2 Vatican Blues ('one Our Father, three Hail Marys each Saturday night').\"
Marty Hughley (November 22, 2002 - Brainwashed Shows Harrison's Charms article in The Oregonian)
\"...He makes pointed allusion to his cancer and his sealed fate with both humor - the dry reference to 'my concrete tuxedo' in P2 Vatican Blues (Last Saturday Night)... [...] Harrison had a streak of the preacher in him, too. \"
David Fricke (December 12, 2002 - Rolling Stone)
\"I hope [P2 Vatican Blues (Last Saturday Night)] song doesn't upset a lot of people. George was pretty outspoken about stuff. But he wasn't mean-spirited.\"
Jim Keltner (December, 2002 - moderndrummer.com)
\"In fact, a fish graces the key song on Brainwashed. Pisces Fish sets out George's ambitions and dreams as plainly as any song he's ever written. Dispensing with unnecessarily florid couplets he states, 'Rowers gliding on the river, Canadian geese crap along the bank, back wheel of my bike begins to quiver. The chain is wrapped around the crank', before going on to tell us that he's 'a Pisces fish and the river runs through my soul.' If it sounds quaint, it isn't. It's a simple song about the simple things that meant more to him than a high public profile.\"
Chris Jones (2002 - BBC website Brainwashed review)
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\"[In 1998] it was as if George knew his time in the mortal world was coming to a close and that he was at peace with the prospect. His songs were philosophical and autobiographical, spiritual and powerful. During an interview, George felt so comfortable with his new music that he broke his own code of privacy by playing some demos on the new songs Valentine, Pisces Fish, and Brainwashed, which he told the interviewer, would be on an in-the-works solo album with the title Portrait Of A Leg End.\"
Marc Shapiro (May, 2002 - Behind Sad Eyes: The Life Of George Harrison)
\"On the sweet, dreamy Pisces Fish, Harrison sings, 'Some days my life, it seems like fiction/Some other days, it's really quite serene', lines that Dhani hears as central to the song, as well as to his father's journey in the world.\"
Anthony DeCurtis (October 2002 - The Making of Brainwashed on www.georgeharrision.com)
\"The taking stock is most evident on Pisces Fish, a pastoral Celtic rocker, in which Harrison observes activity along a riverside (in language that is sometimes overly prosaic, with lines such as 'Canadian geese crap along the bank') before returning to matters of the spirit: 'There's a temple on an island/I think of all the gods and what they feel/You can only find them in deepest silence/I got to get off of this big wheel.' The track is reminiscent in style of the Waterboys and hints at what the album might have sounded like if someone like Mike Scott had been present to add some sonic crunch.\"
Neil McCormick (November 7, 2002 - The Daily Telegraph)
\"Much better is Pisces Fish, a hymnal number with Harrison singing 'I'm a Pisces fish, the river runs through my soul'. Woozy and almost sea-shanty like, complete with accordion, it is one of his very best.\"
Craig McLean (November 8, 2002 - The Scotsman)
\"His Hindu beliefs take over on Pisces Fish, but before Harrison goes swimming in search of 'that one unbounded ocean of bliss,' he needs to deal with bird waste and mechanical problems: 'Rowers gliding on the river, Canadian geese crap along the bank, back wheel of my bike begins to quiver, the chain is wrapped around the crank.'\"
Larry Katz (November 17, 2002 - Boston Herald)
\"In the mellow ballad Pisces Fish, amid observations of the mundane, he longs to 'get off this big wheel' so that he might find the divine 'in the deepest silence.'\"
Marty Hughley (November 22, 2002 - Brainwashed Shows Harrison's Charms article in The Oregonian)
\"...A fish graces the key song on Brainwashed. Pisces Fish sets out George's ambitions and dreams as plainly as any song he's ever written. Dispensing with unnecessarily florid couplets he states, 'Rowers gliding on the river, Canadian geese crap along the bank, back wheel of my bike begins to quiver. The chain is wrapped around the crank', before going on to tell us that he's 'a Pisces fish and the river runs through my soul.' If it sounds quaint, it isn't. It's a simple song about the simple things that meant more to him than a high public profile.\"
Chris Jones (November, 2003 - Review from BBC.co.uk website)
\"'I'm a living proof of all life's contradictions,' Harrison admits with a dash of mirth in his low, sandy voice in Pisces Fish, one of the eleven original songs on Brainwashed, his final studio album. It is hard to tell what Harrison did not play on the album: Dhani and Lynne also play guitars. But the quivering tremolo in Pisces Fish and the stair-step jangle in Any Road reflect Harrison's class and touch, regardless of who did the honors.\"
David Fricke (December 12, 2002 - Rolling Stone)
\"The point of view [of a spiritual outlook on life] becomes more personal on Pisces Fish, as Harrison describes a landscape full of unexpected obstacles that hinder his progress, with the result that 'one half's going where the other half's been.'\"
Vic Garbarini (January, 2003 - Guitar World)
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\"Looking For My Life, on the other hand, summons up a darker reality. 'I never knew that life was loaded,' Harrison sings, 'I never knew that things exploded/I only found out when I was down upon my knees/Looking for my life.' In discussing the song, Dhani uses the same sort of imagery that came naturally to his father. 'I've seen a lot of strange things happen to my family in the last few years,' he says. 'Someone broke into our house and tried to murder us, and then, of course, there was my father's illness and the melee that ensues when the media intrudes upon your life. But you can experience only as much joy as you have had sorrow. Sorrow is like the hollowing out of a wooden block, and joy is what fills it up. The more sorrow you've had, the deeper the joy you can experience.\"
Anthony DeCurtis (October 2002 - The Making of Brainwashed on www.georgeharrision.com)
\"Looking For My Life is one of the handful of songs that bring home the plunging sadness of what Harrison was facing as he wrote. But again, the supplicant manages to sound celebratory: 'I never knew life was lonely, I only found it out when I was down upon my knees, looking for my life.' Then, a flash of that wit: 'I never got any GCSEs.'\"
Craig McLean (November 8, 2002 - The Scotsman)
\"The poignant Looking For My Life reflects Harrison's long fight with cancer and the bizarre 1999 stabbing that nearly killed him. 'I never knew that things exploded,' he sings. 'I only found out when I was down upon my knees, looking for my life.'\"
David Bauder (November 13, 2002 - Associated Press article, Posthumous Harrison Album Impresses)
\"Harrison's meditations on the meaning of life - and death - are at the core of Brainwashed. On Looking For Life, he sings of his existence being 'loaded'... Yet [it is] relatively nimble and upbeat: Looking For Life is underscored by chiming guitars and booming drums...\"
Adrian Thrills (November 15, 2002 - Daily Mail)
\"Even when George does get heavy -- like on Looking For my Life (which could be about his illness or his 1999 stabbing by an intruder)... his shimmering guitar licks and Lynne's full, ringing production keep the vibe optimistic.\"
Darryl Sterdan (November 15, 2002 - Winnipeg Sun)
\"Looking For My Life, minimally steeped in acoustic guitar and voice, is a plea for enlightenment.\"
Vit Wagner (November 16, 2002 - Toronto Star)
\"If you come to Brainwashed looking for intimations of mortality, you'll find some, particularly on Looking for My Life. Informed by more than his cancer diagnosis, the song also seems a response to his near-fatal Dec. 30, 1999 stabbing in his home by a deranged intruder: 'I never knew that life was loaded, I'd only hung around birds and bees, I never knew that things exploded, I only found it out when I was down upon my knees, looking for my life.'\"
Larry Katz (November 17, 2002 - Boston Herald)
\"Rather than dwell on his diagnosis, songs like Looking for My Life drench the sadness in sugary acoustics.\"
Christian Toto (November 19, 2002 - Washington Times)
\"Looking for My Life suggests that desperation and surrender may be necessary points on the path to understanding.\"
Marty Hughley (November 22, 2002 - Brainwashed Shows Harrison's Charms article in The Oregonian)
\"Looking For My Life brings a jangle to spiritual yearning...\"
Keith Phipps (November, 2002 - Onion AV Club)
\"And there is a plaintive wrench to his hindsight in Looking for My Life - 'Oh, boys, you've no idea what I've been through' - especially when the background harmonies pull out and Harrison is alone and close to the mike. ...He makes pointed allusion to his cancer and his sealed fate with both humor and... in Looking for My Life, candid shock: 'Had no idea that I was heading/To a state of emergency.' Harrison had a streak of the preacher in him, too. \"
David Fricke (December 12, 2002 - Rolling Stone)
\"Elsewhere on the [Brainwashed] album, that ailments that intruded upon Harrison's sactuary hang ominously, and it's here that the lyrics become more confessional. [Dhani Harrison says,] 'So with that song, Looking For My Life-- I just think he found himself in moments of desperation before he became ill, when he was under no sort of danger but just desperately wanting to know, Why am I here? He was really looking for his life the whole time.'\"
Vic Garbarini (January, 2003 - Guitar World)
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\"Rising Sun revisits the release of Here Comes The Sun.\"
Craig McLean (November 8, 2002 - The Scotsman)
\"There are lines in Rising Sun that sound very much like they pertain to his illness, but there are lots of dual meanings in there. There is also a lot of dark humor as well, and sometimes people might take that to mean something more grave than my dad intended.\"
Dhani Harrison (November 13, 2002 - Associated Press article, Posthumous Harrison Album Impresses)
\"...Rising Sun, a song so heavily dominated by its big cellos and Beatlesesque arrangement that one can already imagine Noel Gallagher covering it in concert.\"
Adrian Thrills (November 15, 2002 - Daily Mail)
\"Rising Sun, infused with that familiar slide guitar twang, follows a similarly metaphysical course, linking past, present and future as part of a natural process.\"
Vit Wagner (November 16, 2002 - Toronto Star)
\"JL: 'There were some clues on the songs. And he actually left us little instructions, like about a string part that's, uh, that he'd sung onto the tape. And, uh, that Dhani had actually added one part to that and it became a beautiful string part. In reality, conducted by Marc Mann, with a double bass and, uh, four violins and that's... that's all it is.' Dhani Harrison: 'The song, y'know, the structure was all there the, y'know, his parts were perfect and polished and wonderful, and great drums by Jim Keltner and... y'know. It was... it was a great posh demo and, uh good enough to not have to be recorded for us to, y'know, to put these lovely string bits on, so that, y'know, he could hear it how he always thought about hearing it.' [...] JL: 'Y'know, I love the whole [Brainwashed album] because we gave it a lot of loving care and made it, but, y'know, maybe one of the... one of my favorite melodies is probably Rising Sun.' Dhani Harrison: 'Yeah, Rising Sun's a... Rising Sun's a classic.\"
JL and Dhani Harrison (November 19, 2002 - All Things Considered NPR radio show)
\"Fortunately, Harrison had left Dhani and Lynne details on what he wanted for the songs' arrangements and production. Often the tapes themselves contained clues to Harrison's desires for the songs. 'For instance, on Rising Sun he'd sung his ideas for the string parts onto tape,' says Lynne. 'Marc Mann, who played keyboards on some of the record, wrote out the parts that George had sung, and Dhani added one little line on the top of it. And so that became the part for the string players.' 'When Jeff and I were working on the song Rising Sun, it was one of the saddest and happiest things to work on,' says Dhani. 'To hear the finished result, with the big strings on it like my dad had intended-- it was the best thing ever. And then to realize that he never got to hear it, even though he probably just heard it in head the whole time-- for me, it's still one of the saddest things ever.' [Dhani goes on to say,] 'Rising Sun was written on the Live In Japan tour in '91. I remember my dad playing that around the house on the ukulele.'\"
Vic Garbarini (January, 2003 - Guitar World)
\"A chap called Mike Moran had played [the strings] on a synthesiser [sic] and my father had written the parts with him. So songs like Rising Sun, the string arranger that we used, Marc Mann, he was always gonna be in on the project. My father had told me about this great guy who was gonna come and score all the parts, and so it was just completing the process how he would have done it. ...But what was hardest about it I think was finishing something like Rising Sun with all this beautiful string arranging that Mark [sic] did and getting it all obviously how he had heard it in his head, how we'd never heard it before. And then to listen to it and then think, oh but he never heard it coming out of the speakers.\"
Dhani Harrison (May 28, 2003 - Johnny Walker's Drivetime Show on BBC Radio 2)
\"Rising Sun stands as a classic among Harrison's work, a beautiful, redemptive chorus lifting resolutely from the darker verses that find Harrison 'on the streets of villians, taken for a ride.'\"
Warren Zanes (April 2, 2009 - liner notes for Let It Roll: Songs By George Harrison)
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\"The title of the gorgeous, Marwa Blues, derives from an Indian raga, and features Harrison's slide playing at its most gorgeous and yearning. The song unfolds like a prayer for deliverance from this world to a realm of endless mystic possibility.\"
Anthony DeCurtis (October 2002 - The Making of Brainwashed on www.georgeharrision.com)
\"Marwa Blues is a gorgeous guitar-led instrumental, evocative of the sweet sorrow that can be experienced watching a magnificent sunset.\"
Neil McCormick (November 7, 2002 - The Daily Telegraph)
\"...Marwa Blues, derived from an Indian raga and another highlight, features George's guitar playing at its most majestic.\"
Adrian Thrills (November 15, 2002 - Daily Mail)
\"There's also a beautiful guitar instrumental, Marwa Blues, which includes a momentary musical reference to a classic Beatles track that only the most astute listeners may be able to notice.\"
Kevin O'hare (November 15, 2002 - Newhouse News Service article, Harrison's Posthumous Album Ranks With His Earlier Work)
\"Naturally, Harrison's Eastern spirituality figures heavily here [on the [Brainwashed album]. Along with plenty of lyrical references, the disc has the Indian-flavoured Marwa Blues.\"
Darryl Sterdan (November 15, 2002 - Winnipeg Sun)
\"Dhani Harrison: 'Marwa is, uh, uh... It's just a name of a raga in an Indian raga. Say you if you have... you could have... you could have a raga in the key of Dhani if you wanted to. Y'know, you could have a raga in a key of sa, um, or rag something or rag charakeshi. Um, it's just rag marwa was a, a raga that, uh, is an ancient Indian raga and, um... On some level that I'm not sure if I even understand this Marwa Blues contains the same notes in the chord that can pose, uh raga marwa.' JL: 'It was a big challenge because, uh, George had played probably four or five lead guitars, lead slides and things on it and, uh, they're all great. And, it was our... our job to find which was the real tune.' Dhani Harrison: 'Yeah, that was a bit confusing, 'cause he'd always do a live mix on the fly, you see, and he knew where all his favorite bits were, um, out of all these four or five guitar tracks. So whenever we heard it, we only heard a small bit of what was actually there then when we came to do the mixing of it, we had everything and the tune kind of disappeared into five guitars all going on top of each other and we had to like...' JL: 'So it was like a treasure hunt.' Dhani Harrison: 'Yeah, Jeff managed to find the tune and then it was alright from there.'\"
JL and Dhani Harrison (November 19, 2002 - All Things Considered NPR radio show)
\"There were 4 [guitar] takes and of that 2 weren't usable. So it was a sort of, the real essence of the song lay in one track and there were accompany harmonies from two other tracks. It wasn't a composite, it was a take.\"
Dhani Harrison (November 19, 2002 - MSN Webchat)
\"On the instrumental Marwa Blues, Harrison lets his slide guitar do the talking, while a tasteful string arrangement provides counterpoint.\"
Tom Sinclair (November 22, 2002 - Dark Victory article in Entertainment Weekly)
\"And [JL] knew to leave well enough alone, so the beautiful Marwa Blues survives as a glorious and simple testament to a lyrical guitarist who knew that a few spare lines always said more than a week's worth of fretboard fireworks.\"
Pete Best (December 8, 2002 - Herald Sun)
\"It is fitting that one of the best songs on Brainwashed is an instrumental, Marwa Blues. Harrison's first recorded composition was Cry for a Shadow, a basic, magnetic guitar showcase cowritten with John Lennon and cut by the Beatles in Hamburg in 1961. Marwa Blues is in that tradition: a cleansing waterfall of slide guitars. As the Beatles' lead guitarist, Harrison made each note count for something...\"
David Fricke (December 12, 2002 - Rolling Stone)
\"[Dhani Harrison says,] 'I mean, the saddest [the Brainwashed album] gets for me is listening to Marwa Blue. And that's a real beautiful song, but it's also like a real lament. It's a man who wants to be somewhere else, or searching for something else. And it's got no lyrics!'\"
Vic Garbarini (January, 2003 - Guitar World)
\"Marwa Blues is an homage to Santo and Johnny, a gorgeous instrumental inspired by their Tear Drop.\"
Warren Zanes (April 2, 2009 - liner notes for Let It Roll: Songs By George Harrison)
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\"And as for Stuck Inside A Cloud, Dhani says, 'The title could mean a veil of ignorance, something everyone on earth experiences and is ultimately trying to get rid of. It confuses you and shortens your vision. That's actually my favorite song-- I love it. My dad's favorite number was seven; he did a lot of things according to that number. That's why this song is the seventh track on the [Brainwashed] album.\"
Anthony DeCurtis (October 2002 - The Making of Brainwashed on www.georgeharrision.com)
\"George Harrison recorded a poignant song about his love for his wife Olivia as he was dying from cancer. Stuck Inside A Cloud is one of 11 tracks made by the former Beatle in the months before his death last November aged 58. The lyrics reveal the pain Harrison was in but also his feelings for Olivia, who was by his side for almost 30 years and who saved his life as he was attacked by an intruder in their home. 'Only thing that matters to me is to touch your lotus feet,' goes the song. 'Just talking to myself/ Crying as we part/ Knowing as you leave me I also lose my heart.' The song recounts Harrison's problems sleeping and concentrating and his despair at not being able to find a cure. Dhani said of the love song: 'It is my favourite - I love it. My dad's favourite number was seven. He did a lot of things according to that number and this is the seventh song on the album.'\"
Nicole Lampert (October 29, 2002 - Daily Mail)
\"Stuck Inside A Cloud is gentle and simple. It's U2-ballad proportions make it the obvious choice for the first song to be played on radio.\"
Craig McLean (November 8, 2002 - The Scotsman)
\"Harrison's meditations on the meaning of life - and death - are at the core of Brainwashed. ...On Stuck Inside A Cloud: 'I wish I had the answer/Don't even have the cure.' Yet [it is] relatively nimble and upbeat: ...Stuck Inside A Cloud, while more polished than George might have wanted, is gentle and lilting.\"
Adrian Thrills (November 15, 2002 - Daily Mail)
\"With some persuasion, [Beatles engineer Geoff Emerick] was coaxed out of his studio to come listen to parts of Brainwashed while it played on the audio system in the main room. Like everyone, he was taken with the lush first single, Stuck Inside a Cloud, which would have been a guaranteed hit a decade ago. (We can't promise anything anymore giving the condition of radio.)\"
Roger Friedman (November 14, 2002 - foxnews.com article)
\"[Stuck Inside A Cloud] and the one that follows [on the Brainwashed album], Run So Far, capture the irresistible innocence of Harrison's work with the Beatles while conveying the mixed emotions accompanying his acceptance of a terminal illness.\"
Larry Katz (November 17, 2002 - Boston Herald)
\"The first single, Stuck Inside a Cloud, bears his more familiar reedy voice enmeshed in irresistibly ethereal guitars. 'Never slept so little / Never smoked so much,' Mr. Harrison sings, an eerie line given that his smoking habit may have led to his cancer. Later, he tells us: 'Wish I had the answer to give / Don't even have the cure,' leaving the listener to imagine him sighing wistfully at the forces out of his, and our, control.\"
Christian Toto (November 19, 2002 - Washington Times)
\"There is little [on the Brainwashed album\ that stands alongside Harrison's classics with The Beatles or as a solo artist, though the first single, Stuck Inside a Cloud comes close.\"
Marty Hughley (November 22, 2002 - Brainwashed Shows Harrison's Charms article in The Oregonian)
\"Stuck Inside a Cloud, the first single, embodies the essence of Harrison's sweetness. 'Never been so crazy/But I've never felt so sure/I wish I had the answer to give/Don't even have the cure,' he sings, somehow making rubbery befuddlement sound like a state of grace.\"
Tom Sinclair (November 22, 2002 - Dark Victory article in Entertainment Weekly)
\"The other one that makes me cry every time I hear it, and probably always will, is Stuck Inside A Cloud. That's one of his older one's that he used to play for me all the time. It had a magical, misty, very English sort of quality to it. We would be sitting in the studio late at night before shutting everything down, and I'd say, 'Hey, George, play Cloud for me,' and he would put it on and sing along with it. It didn't have drums on it for many years, just these cheesy little keyboard samples from his E2 sampler, but for some reason it just takes me right to Friar Park every time I hear it.\"
Jim Keltner (December, 2002 - moderndrummer.com)
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\"Only on Run So Far and Never Get Over You does [JL's production] style cloy. Both songs sound over-sugared. The former is redeemed by Harrison's clear, cheerful, optimism. 'You know you can't get away,' he sings. 'Lonesome tears after dark, there's no escape, you can only run so far.'\"
Craig McLean (November 8, 2002 - The Scotsman)
\"[Stuck Inside A Cloud] and the one that follows [on the Brainwashed album], Run So Far, capture the irresistible innocence of Harrison's work with the Beatles while conveying the mixed emotions accompanying his acceptance of a terminal illness.\"
Larry Katz (November 17, 2002 - Boston Herald)
\"Before his death Mr. Harrison had instructed the album's producers to include one song on Brainwashed from earlier in his career: Run So Far is his take on a song he gave to Eric Clapton for his fellow guitar legend's 1989 album, Journeyman.\"
Christian Toto (November 19, 2002 - Washington Times)
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\"Never Get Over You is a simple love song promising eternal fealty.\"
Neil McCormick (November 7, 2002 - The Daily Telegraph)
\"Only on Run So Far and Never Get Over You does [JL's production] style cloy. Both songs sound over-sugared. The latter is the most ELO-like, thick with super-sterile guitars and multi-tracked hushed vocals.\"
Craig McLean (November 8, 2002 - The Scotsman)
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\"The old chestnut, The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea [sic], recorded with Jools Holland's band, finds Harrison performing on ukulele. 'Anyone who knew my dad smiles when they hear that,' says Dhani. 'That's really what he was like around the house.'\"
Anthony DeCurtis (October 2002 - The Making of Brainwashed on www.georgeharrision.com)
\"And when we came across a tape of the live TV version of that old chestnut, Between The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea, which George had recorded years ago with Jools Holland and his band, it was magic. George was front and centre with his ukulele, playing it brilliantly, and his voice was so strong and happy. We had to include that on the album. He was proud of that performance.\"
JL (November 9, 2002 - The Toronto Star)
\"Between The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea, a cover of a Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler standard, features him playing ukelele while Jools Holland and his band brew up a boogie-woogie storm in the background.\"
Adrian Thrills (November 15, 2002 - Daily Mail)
\"The [Brainwashed] disc includes a great cover of Harold Arlen's Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, culled from a British TV appearance with Jools Holland's band a decade ago. In it, Beatle George plays his favorite instrument, the ukulele.\"
Kevin O'hare (November 15, 2002 - Newhouse News Service article, Harrison's Posthumous Album Ranks With His Earlier Work)
\"The zippy chestnut Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea captures Harrison rocking the ukulele.\"
Darryl Sterdan (November 15, 2002 - Winnipeg Sun)
\"Even the lone cover in the set, Devil In The Deep Blue Sea, given old-timey flavour by the coupling of Harrison's ukulele and Jools Holland's piano, is about struggling to find the means to an end.\"
Vit Wagner (November 16, 2002 - Toronto Star)
\"His jaunty cover of the standard Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, with Harrison on ukelele and Jools Holland plinking piano, displays his music hall roots.\"
Larry Katz (November 17, 2002 - Boston Herald)
\"Harrison sounds charming strumming the ukulele and singing the old standard Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, although Jools Holland and his band could have camped up the instrumental track a little less.\"
Joel Selvin (November 17, 2002 - San Francisco Chronicle)
\"The kicker is a sprightly take on Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler's Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, with Harrison's uke chiming and a mischievous sparkle in his craggy voice. A love song to life, to music, to his wife and family, it's as much of a prayer as the Hindi chant with which he and Dhani close this warm collection.\"
Steve Hochman (November 18, 2002 - The Los Angeles Times)
\"And the old standard Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea gets a jazzy retelling, buoyed by a velvety vocal.\"
Christian Toto (November 19, 2002 - Washington Times)
\"He hauls out a ukulele and flips the script by covering the moldy oldie Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, and damn if it doesn't sound swell.\"
Tom Sinclair (November 22, 2002 - Dark Victory article in Entertainment Weekly)
\"...his cover of the Hoagy Carmichael chestnut Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea (featuring Harrison on ukulele, with Jools Holland's happily old- fashioned band backing him) is a charmer...\"
Marty Hughley (November 22, 2002 - Brainwashed Shows Harrison's Charms article in The Oregonian)
\"And let's not forget the charming ukulele turn on Between The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea that'll leave a grin on your face.\"
Chris Jones (2002 - BBC website Brainwashed review)
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\"Rocking Chair In Hawaii has Harrison mumbling, as if punch-drunk from life's knockout blow. Punch-drunk, but again, exhilarated. 'You may be going someplace,' he sings from his Maui retreat where his ashes were (reputedly) scattered, 'someplace you've already been.'\"
Craig McLean (November 8, 2002 - The Scotsman)
\"The folk-blues of Rocking Chair in Hawaii is as lazy and relaxing as it sounds like it would be.\"
Darryl Sterdan (November 15, 2002 - Winnipeg Sun)
\"Rocking Chair in Hawaii makes clear his love of roots music: though the title places it in the Pacific and the lyrics talk about a Hindu guru, musically it comes straight from Jimmie Rodgers and the Deep South.
Larry Katz (November 17, 2002 - Boston Herald)
\"Rocking Chair In Hawaii is awash in blues and references to Baba Sais by way of the South Seas...\"
Keith Phipps (November, 2002 - Onion AV Club)
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\"[In 1998] it was as if George knew his time in the mortal world was coming to a close and that he was at peace with the prospect. His songs were philosophical and autobiographical, spiritual and powerful. During an interview, George felt so comfortable with his new music that he broke his own code of privacy by playing some demos on the new songs Valentine, Pisces Fish, and Brainwashed, which he told the interviewer, would be on an in-the-works solo album with the title Portrait Of A Leg End.\"
Marc Shapiro (May, 2002 - Behind Sad Eyes: The Life Of George Harrison)
\"Traffic member Jim Capaldi and veteran session drummer Jim Keltner laid down backing tracks for the [Brainwashed] set, which is expected to feature such songs as Valentine, Pisces Fish, and the title cut, Brainwashed, a caustic rock soliloquy about his former manager.\"
Jonathan Cohen (Billboard - September 09, 2002)
\"Fianlly, Dhani describes Brainwashed's title track as 'the truest song for the record.' It's a catalogue of all the aspects of society that cloud our minds and blind us to the larger truths. 'You're brainwashed by the military,' Dhani says. 'You're brainwashed by corporate industry. You're brainwashed by the news media. And the song is saying that there is an alternative, which is thinking for yourself and self-realization-- and God.' That last point is movingly dramatized as the song fades into the sound of Harrison chanting, accompanied by Bikram Ghosh on tabla. It is a powerfully uplifting note on which to end the album. 'That chant is very famous in India,' Lynne says. 'It's sometimes sung by great crowds of people. It was Dhani's idea to put it at the end, and Dhani double-tracks his dad's vocals on it, which is brilliant. His voice sounds exactly like George's.' The chant, says Dhani, was his father's 'altertive kind of brainwashing. He'd had it on a tape since before I was born. It's just something positive to leave people with at the end of the album.'\"
Anthony DeCurtis (October 2002 - The Making of Brainwashed on www.georgeharrision.com)
\"The [Brainwashed] album's title song is a dark pun alluding to his brain cancer as well as a critique of modern society.\"
Nicole Lampert (October 29, 2002 - Daily Mail)
\"True to form, Brainwashed includes at least one major misjudgment. On the title track, the usually placid Harrison vents his spleen on the ills of society, complaining about brainwashing by institutions from the military to the FTSE, before calling on God to put things right. The result is a quite ludicrous exercise in pomp rock performed in a key that fatally overstretches Harrison's rather frail vocal talents. You can imagine what short work Lennon would have made of this back in the Sixties.\"
Neil McCormick (November 7, 2002 - The Daily Telegraph)
\"Brainwashed has muscular guitar, a big echoey voice and a huge, vivid, bold chorus of 'God God God' of which Freddie Mercury would be proud. Finally, over tabla, Dhani accompanies his dad on an Indian chant long dear to Harrison. Forget the brainwashing of business, of the military, of the media, of Beatlemania. Harrison persuasively conveys the message that there are simpler, purer creeds by which to live your life.\"
Craig McLean (November 8, 2002 - The Scotsman)
\"We knew he wanted Brainwashed to close the album, because he ended the song with a chant, a prayer. It was recorded as part of the bed track.'\"
JL (November 9, 2002 - The Toronto Star)
\"[Brainwashed] features the biting cynicism of the man who wrote Taxman years ago, then dissolves into an Indian chant, with Harrison accompanied by Bikram Ghosh's tabla.\"
David Bauder (November 13, 2002 - Associated Press article, Posthumous Harrison Album Impresses)
\"Rather less impressive [is Brainwashed]. The latter, on which George laments brainwashing by everyone from the military to the media, is lyrically clumsy.
Adrian Thrills (November 15, 2002 - Daily Mail)
\"[Brainwashed] trashes one of Harrison's favorite targets[,] the material world in favor of the spiritual one. As the music fades, the final sounds on the album are soothing, as Harrison can be heard offering a gentle Indian chant against Bikram Ghosh's tabla.\"
Kevin O'hare (November 15, 2002 - Newhouse News Service article, Harrison's Posthumous Album Ranks With His Earlier Work)
\"Even when George does get heavy -- like on... [Brainwashed] (a searing indictment of our soulless society) -- his shimmering guitar licks and Lynne's full, ringing production keep the vibe optimistic.\"
Darryl Sterdan (November 15, 2002 - Winnipeg Sun)
\"It isn't until Brainwashed, the final track [on the Brainwashed album], that Harrison opens the floodgates. The song unleashes an anti-materialist torrent, including criticism of everything from stock-market fixation to the military to mobile phones. It also implores God to 'lead us through this mess,' before settling into ritualistic prayer to Shiva, the Hindu god of destruction and rebirth. Of course, some might take the view that spirituality, however high-purposed, is also a kind of brainwashing. Whether or not Harrison intended the ambiguity will have to remain a mystery.\"
Vit Wagner (November 16, 2002 - Toronto Star)
\"Brainwashed ends with the title cut, a heartfelt diatribe that encompasses Harrison's life. He starts out complaining about his childhood brainwashing in school and ends up finding knowledge and love in God. He takes a midsong break to allow a woman to read a few lines - and even give a page citation - from How to Know God - the Yoga Aphorisms of Patanjali before ending with his own Hindu chanting. It's a fitting close to Brainwashed and Harrison's career.\"
Larry Katz (November 17, 2002 - Boston Herald)
\"The [Brainwashed] album ends with the Dylanesque title track, on the end of which the producers grafted an old recording of Harrison singing a Hindu chant. It's a movingly authentic moment, a glimpse of the private man known as the quiet Beatle.\"
Joel Selvin (November 17, 2002 - San Francisco Chronicle)
\"I'm a big fan of Brainwashed, um, just because of the whole truth behind it and, uh... A lot of people don't like to... don't like it because they get, yknow, they feel threathened by it or something. I've spoken to a lot of people who've been kind of put off by it's sort of sting. But My dad had a good sense of humor, y'know, and, uh, he was one to make fun of people a lot and, uh, sometimes people would not get it and take it the wrong way and it's just part of the joke, really, so, I like that, I like that whole... he was cheeky, yknow and it's fun. [Regarding the ending chant,] we'd be here all night if I tell you [what it means]. It's, uh... it's just a... quite a well known chant that, y'know, Hare Krishnas will sing, and Hindus, kind of ancient chant. It's like an invocation, uh, to the gods kind of thing. We talked about putting Brainwashed at the end, um, and he'd recorded Brainwashed and that was at the end of Brainwashed so I could probably say, yeah. And then I asked him to redo it with me 'cause he said he didn't want it, y'know, he didn't... he wasn't happy with it to start off with. And um, we never got a chance to redo it, um, but we... luckily we had him... he'd done it several times and he'd got it right and, um... and it was, uh... It was enough for us to just polish a little bit and leave on there. I'm glad that it was in a state that we could leave it on there because I think that's a nice little good vibration at the end of the record there, to leave you in a good place, rather than languishing in the thought of all this stuff that's brainwashing you. I think, y'know, the important thing is not to take it too seriously. Y'know, a lot of people get kind of, uh, y'know... a lot of people are dwelling on this death side of things. He never liked all that sad stuff.
Dhani Harrison (November 19, 2002 - All Things Considered NPR radio show)
\"He wears his faith on his sleeve for [Brainwashed], sung alternately in chants and an affected, nasal voice. Still, he lightens the lyrical hammer's blow by weaving humor into his enumeration of sources, such as governments, that leave us 'brainwashed.'\"
Christian Toto (November 19, 2002 - Washington Times)
\"Probably Brainwashed itself [is my favorite track on the Brainwashed album] because it says what needs to be said and it's true to life. Not that people like that sort of stuff, but I do.\"
Dhani Harrison (November 19, 2002 - MSN Webchat)
\"On soothing Indian chant Namah Parvarti, the album's closing track [Brainwashed], Dhani's vocals overlay his father's, and the two are nearly indistinguishable.\"
Edna Gundersen (November 21, 2002 - USA Today)
\"The [Brainwashed] album closes with the opuslike title track, a pounding pop hymn that features a chorus of 'God/God/God' and includes a midsection of a woman reading quotes from The Yoga Aphorisms of Pantanjali, then fades out in a swirl of tabla-and-sitar music.\"
Tom Sinclair (November 22, 2002 - Dark Victory article in Entertainment Weekley)
\"[Brainwashed] is a litany of the forces of ignorance, worldliness and distraction that he felt block the wisdom of God.\"
Marty Hughley (November 22, 2002 - Brainwashed Shows Harrison's Charms article in The Oregonian)
\"...on [Brainwashed], Harrison laments the failings of earthly life and goes out chanting.\"
Keith Phipps (November, 2002 - Onion AV Club)
\"Brainwashed ends the album on a hectoring note, a laundry list of social ills (Wall Street, the press, etc.) softened only by an old tape of Harrison performing an Indian chant with the later double-tracked voice of his son, a welcome coda of deliverance.\"
David Fricke (December 12, 2002 - Rolling Stone)
\"He was annoyed at a lot of things during the period when he wrote [Brainwashed]. He went through some pretty heavy stuff man. But you're right, he had a calm and soothing way about him that makes it difficult to actually remember ever seeing him truly angry with anybody or anything.\"
Jim Keltner (December, 2002 - moderndrummer.com)
\"Nowhere on the [Brainwashed] album is that spirit [of getting up and carrying on despite adversities] stronger than on its final song, the title track, which is Harrison's most scathing and most instructive composition. Against a wall of chiming guitars and other stringed instruments, he counts the many ways in which the human race is drummed into submission, beginning from school, the place in which teenage, free-thinking Harrison developed his rebellious streak. He continues on, denouncing kings and queens, Dow Jones and NASDAQ, the military, the media, computers and cell phones, before concluding with the plea, 'God, God, God, wish that you'd brainwash us too.' 'I just love Brainwashed so much, because it's the realest of the songs,' says Dhani. 'It's true-- everyone is being brainwashed by these messages, taking so much of what we're told and how we live for granted.' [Dhani goes on to say,] 'Brainwashed [was written] more recent [than Rising Sun and Any Road].' Of all the songs, Brainwashed presents the revolutionary message. It denounces everything we've come to accept in the Western world, from our lifestyle to how we're governed. But it also seems to say, 'If we're such God-fearing people, then why don't we let ourselves be brainwashed by spirituality?' [Dhani responds,] 'The song is very antiestablishment, just like punk music, or Rage Against the Machine. And all that stuff is great. But a lot of the time music that denounces what's happening in society doesn't offer an alternative; it just says, Well, this is wrong, but it doesn't say, Go and realize God, or Go and meditate for a bit. And that's why I think Brainwashed is so strong-- because of the contrast he presents in the song. It leaves you with something positive rather than just denouncing the brainwashing and leaving you depressed.'\"
Vic Garbarini (January, 2003 - Guitar World)
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\"Among the numerous new songs he unveils are Valentine, a potent power ballad that sounds like one of his cleverest, hit-destined excursions... Later in that same interview, George states 'in my music I just sing a rock and roll song about the power of love, on Valentine...\"
Timothy White (Billboard - July 1999)
\"Traffic member Jim Capaldi and veteran session drummer Jim Keltner laid down backing tracks for the [Brainwashed] set, which is expected to feature such songs as Valentine, Pisces Fish, and the title cut, Brainwashed, a caustic rock soliloquy about his former manager.\"
Jonathan Cohen (Billboard - September 09, 2002)
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\"Yeah, [there was a pretty ballad that was left off this record that George wrote with Jim Capaldi]. Capaldi is a gifted songwriter and drummer. Jim wrote a lot with Stevie Winwood in the Traffic days. We've been friends for many years, so I was happy that they hooked up. [...] Well I hope [there's more unreleased songs in the can], but I don't know for sure... I really liked the song they did but apparently George didn't feel it was quite finished yet.\"
Jim Keltner (December, 2002 - moderndrummer.com)
Editor's note: Rumor is that the song co-written with Jim Capaldi is Valentine, but that remains unconfirmed.
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\"This [Indian music] recital, incorporating many long flurries of distinctively wobbly notes, mixed with drones and tabla beats was broken only by Lynne singing The Inner Light, one of the Indian-style songs that Harrison managed to smuggle on to a Beatles B-side.\"
David Sinclair (November 30, 2002 - The Times)
\"George was a great friend and a hero to me, and the evening was a fantastic celebration of his life, and what a line-up! It really was brilliant to be playing with this lot. I even got to sing one of my favourite George songs, The Inner Light. This was a big honour for me, to sing with Anoushka Shankar playing sitar, and Ravi Shankar conducting!\"
JL (March 10, 2003 - Showdown mailing list)
\"Musical highlights [of the Concert For George DVD] include a brilliant version of Harrison's rarely played wonderwork The Inner Light, performed by Lynne and Anoushka Shankar, daughter of Ravi Shankar...\"
Kevin O'Hare (November 14, 2003 - Tribute to Beatle Harrison Ranks Among Rock's Greatest Films article from Newhouse News Service)
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\"I used to call him 'jay-rad' instead of 'George,' so I made the whole composure [of Arpan] on that 'jay-rad ha-ree-san'-- George Harrison. 'Jay-rad ha-ree-san-ah pre-fet-kiya.' That means 'jay-rad loved Krishna'. 'Hari...' [unintelligible] Krishna. And [more Indian language which sounds nothing like 'George Harrison'] which means, 'He gave the world so many beautiful songs. That great soul we are remembering today and that great soul we are paying our homage to.\"
Ravi Shankar (November 29, 2002 - Concert For George movie interview)
\"The first half of the show was Ravi Shankar's composition, a musical offering named Arpan, conducted by Anoushka Shankar. Each movement is about George, either in mood or in the homage paid to him. The orchestra consisted of musicians, some who were George's friends, playing George's favourite instruments. There is no one but the Maestro Ravi Shankar who could compose, arrange and perform in a place like this. I don't think we will see anything like it for a long time, if ever.\"
Olivia Harrison (July 31, 2003 - Message From Olivia Harrison posted on www.georgeharrison.com)
\"The show also pointed to Harrison's spiritual side with Anoushka Shankar and a 16-piece orchestra of Indian musicians performing a special composition by her father and Harrison's mentor, Ravi Shankar. The piece was entitled Arpan, meaning offering.\"
Unknown (September 9, 2003 - Press release for Concert For George)
\"In one memorable segment, Anoushka Shankar conducted a full orchestra of musicians performing a special composition by her father and Harrison's mentor, Ravi Shankar, celebrating Harrison's love of Indian classical music. The piece, entitled Arpan, means 'offering.'\"
Author Unknown (February 16, 2005 - Warner Strategic Marketing Press Release)
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\"Highlights include Clapton's towering rendition of While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Petty's jaunty version of Taxman, and the Monty Python crew (plus [Tom] Hanks wearing Canadian Mountie gear) performing I'm A Lumberjack.\"
Neil Smith (October 6, 2003 - Online BBC Concert For George movie review)
\"There's even a riotous rendition of The Lumberjack Song performed by Harrison's buddies from Monty Python with their rather awestruck guest Tom Hanks.\"
Kevin O'Hare (November 14, 2003 - Tribute to Beatle Harrison Ranks Among Rock's Greatest Films article from Newhouse News Service)
\"Among the other high points are... Oscar®-winner Tom Hanks sitting in with Monty Python (featuring Eric Idle, Michael Palin, Terry Gilliam, and Neil Innes) for a hysterical version of The Lumberjack Song, one of Harrison's favorites.\"
Author Unknown (February 16, 2005 - Warner Strategic Marketing Press Release)
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\"Then there's George's friend, JL, of the Electric Light Orchestra, singing I Want to Tell You and Give Me Love.\"
Adam Buckman (February 27, 2004 - New York Post)
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\"How can one compare Eric Clapton singing his late friend's song about love and friendship, If I Needed Someone, to Billy Preston in a black-and-white-checked suit seated at his organ joyously singing My Sweet Lord?\"
Adam Buckman (February 27, 2004 - New York Post)
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\"...on Give Me Love. [JL] had rehearsed that and Jim Keltner had played and Jeff didn't carry it off like George had sung that. He simply wasn't capable. Quite plain and simple he couldn't sing it. And then they sent Jim Keltner offstage. And he said he wants another drummer. And then the other drummer played it more aligned to his singing style. Then it's needless for me to say, I don't want to play on that anymore. Sometime later I addressed that with JL, asked how can we wangle that. Then he said, oh no, we've just rehearsed it already this way, and we want to play it in that way. And that's the bad thing about it, that is a song by George. If he can't sing it properly, he had to let it alone. He should have let Billy Preston sing it or somebody else who can sing. And these are things that I don't understand. And I find that wrong. That wasn't the right moment for an ego trip.\"
Klaus Voorman (November 2003 - translated from a German language interview in Beatlefan magazine)
\"Then there's George's friend, JL, of the Electric Light Orchestra, singing I Want to Tell You and Give Me Love.\"
Adam Buckman (February 27, 2004 - New York Post)
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\"[Highlights include] Clapton's powerful performances on While My Guitar Gently Weeps and Beware Of Darkness. He seems to have real empathy with Harrison's hits.\"
Paul Cole (November 23, 2003 - Sunday Mercury)
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\"[Highlights include] Joe Brown, who should have been a disaster, turns in a surprisingly good performance of Here Comes The Sun.\"
Paul Cole (November 23, 2003 - Sunday Mercury)
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