Year of the Dark Horse

OK everybody get ready, I am calling a Birthday Beatle Bash. Actually, truth be told I think this one is my favorite of all them Beatles. Definitely the most understated of the lot! Such a pity he was claimed so soon by lung cancer... he passed at just 58 and he'd have only been 71 today. I guess some people aren't meant to stay the full 80+ years sentence down here, but they make up for it by concentrating their transcendence into a shorter timespan.

I was sitting here last night wondering if this had ever been done... if someone somewhere had ever stacked up all of George Harrison's Beatles tunes on one release and showcased him for the underrated force he was within that most esteemed of groups. I searched around some and didn't see anything like that -- hard to believe there is no such thing -- so down I plunked with the 2009 stereo remasters box set (plus an extra instrumental jam from 1964 from the "Beatles Anthology" set of 20 years ago) and sifted. The result -- which, unastonishingly, is full of some of the very best popular music that will ever be made by humans, ever -- gleams before you now. As for me, I'll just curl up in the fetal position and wait for the inevitable RIAA SWAT team to make the scene and drag me away to be tortured in the secret prisons of Syria for copyright violations.

Included here you will find all the songs he wrote while a member of The Beatles, as well as a couple of the more famous ones he sang lead on but did not personally compose. Listening to it all straight through, I was struck by how stand-alone his output with them is... how when he was out front, it was basically him with them as a backing group. And I thought to myself wow, you have to be a pretty heavyweight dude to be featuring The Beatles, at the height of their global meltdown impact, as your backup band. I almost feel like if that's your résumé, you can steal all the Phil Spector melodies you want and no one should be able to protest... it's like noblesse oblige to the power of idol worship, I tell you.

George Harrison with The Beatles

One for You, Nineteen for Me

1963-1970

01 Taxman

02 For You Blue

03 I Need You

04 Blue Jay Way

05 Only a Northern Song

06 Old Brown Shoe

07 Here Comes the Sun

08 Savoy Truffle

09 Love You To

10 Don't Bother Me

11 If I Needed Someone

12 Long, Long, Long

13 I Want to Tell You

14 Chains

15 The Inner Light

16 Piggies

17 Do You Want to Know a Secret

18 Cry for a Shadow

19 While My Guitar Gently Weeps

20 Within You Without You

21 Think for Yourself

22 You Like Me Too Much

23 I Me Mine

24 Something

25 Roll Over Beethoven

26 It's All Too Much

Total time: 1:18:20

489 MB FLAC/February 2014 archive link

How's that for a badass Beatle birthday bash? Please do enjoy this little mix as we acknowledge and celebrate the life and legacy of George Harrison, 1/4 of the most influential and revered musical aggregation of our lifetimes. --J.