If George Harrison was alive he’d be 75 years old. It’d be interesting to hear what he thought of 2018, but for now all we have are our memories of the man and his music. Harrison might have been the most widely creative of all of The Beatles. Harrison was a very good songwriter, but, more importantly, he had a very distinctive voice as a tunesmith. Who else could have written “Here Comes the Sun,” “My Sweet Lord,” or even “Got My Mind Set On You?” It was the same case with his guitar playing. In an era featuring the most dynamic, and creative guitar heroes of all time you could pick out George’s unique tone and signature licks just as easily as Clapton’s or Townsend’s. Of course, I admire artists who aren’t hemmed in by medium or milieu and Harrison seemed capable of making art wherever he was with whatever was at hand. I found a great example of this on Open Culture over the weekend. They have a cool piece about Harrison’s photographic self portraits which the Quiet Beatle took using a psychedelic fisheye lens. The images serve as a unique visual diary of Harrison’s first visit to India…

Harrison had principally embarked to study sitar under Ravi Shankar and learn yoga, but this was also a period of self-discovery and escape from, as he says, the “mania.” Traveling, as he always did, with a camera, he documented his journey. His pictures are far from ordinary tourist images.

While he describes in writing the “mixture of unbelievable things” he saw, he just as often turned the camera on himself, his photographic introspection made even more pronounced by his use of a fisheye lens…

Behind his steady, serious gaze open up vistas that presage the breadth and depth of his immersion in Indian spiritual practices. Whatever one thinks of his conversion, there’s no doubt it was sincere, and lifelong. Not long after this first trip, at the age of 24, he wrote to his mother, “I want to be self-realized. I want to find God. I’m not interested in material things, this world, fame.” Harrison expressed the very same mystical aspirations in his final, 1997 interview, still playing and singing with his mentor Ravi Shankar.

Check out the rest of the article and more of Harrison’s photos. And here is a doc about Harrison’s music and his spiritual path…

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If you’re a reader of this blog you know that I’m fascinated by the occult and the darker sides of the paranormal. I love the skanky, gritty American cinema of the 1970s, and I’m enamored with the disturbing art of painters like Bosch and Bacon. That said, I’m a sucker for Christmastime. I love everything about the most magical time of the year to the point where I’ll shout out “the most magical time of the year” without any irony. Of course, Christmas’ pagan underpinnings can actually lead us to actual magick if so inclined, and even the traditional bible story about the birth of Jesus is packed with otherworldly creatures and bizarre happenings. But its the general revelry, merriment, togetherness, food, gifts and the respite at the end of another busy year that speak to me the most. That’s why the discovery of this lost Paul McCartney Christmas album is a perfect gift during this first week of December. Here’s a bit from Paul explaining the 1965 recording on the Uproxx site…

“I had two Brenell tape recorders set up at home, on which I made experimental recordings and tape loops, like the ones in ‘Tomorrow Never Knows.’ And once I put together something crazy, something left field, just for the other Beatles, a fun thing which they could play late in the evening. It was just something for the mates, basically.

It was called Unforgettable and it started with Nat ‘King’ Cole singing ‘Unforgettable,’ then I came in over the top as the announcer, ‘Yes, unforgettable, that’s what you are! And today in Unforgettable…’ It was like a magazine program: Full of weird interviews, experimental music, tape loops, some tracks I knew the others hadn’t heard. It was just a compilation of odd things. I took the tape to Dick James’ studio and they cut me three acetate discs. Unfortunately, the quality of these discs was such that they wore out as you played them for a couple of weeks, but then they must have worn out. There’s probably a tape somewhere, though.”

Check it out here and click the link below to subscribe to my YouTube channel…

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A tree near the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles has been destroyed, much to the consternation of rock fans around the world. Why do music nerds care about a tree? Spin has the story…

A tree planted to honor of the memory of the Beatles songwriter George Harrison has been killed by actual beetles. As the Los Angeles Times reports, the living local monument fell victim to an infestation of insects that couldn’t be bested. According to Councilman Tom LaBonge, the 10-foot-tall pine planted in 2004 bit the dust only recently, and a new one will be planted in its stead shortly.

Harrison’s last years were spent living in L.A. — he died there at 58 in late 2001, and was cremated at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. The so-called George Harrison Tree was accompanied by a plaque reading: “In memory of a great humanitarian who touched the world as an artist, a musician and a gardener.” It includes a quote from the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi: “For the forest to be green, each tree must be green”

Here is George — always the gardener — wishing his new tree the best…

Stay Awake!

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My favorite photography book of 2013 was probably Steve Schapiro’s Taxi Driver, but one of the most surprising was Terry O’Neill’s eponymous career retrospective published by ACC Editions.

O’Neill first made his mark in the 1960′s. The young British photographer snapped everyone from The Beatles to The Stones to Janis Joplin to Jean Luc Godard’s then-muse, Anna Karina. The stunning black-and-white portrait of Brigitte Bardot that graces the book’s cover is pure O’Neill — an iconic image of celebrity from the era he helped to define.

However, in another sense, Bardot’s sexy, open lips barely balancing a raggedy cigar seem posed in light of the fact that O’Neill helped to pioneer a more candid, off-the-cuff style of star-snapping that stripped away glamor and glitz in favor of instants of intimacy. And while some contemporary photographers use similar techniques to demean their subjects, O’Neill caught rock stars backstage and film icons in their trailers in a manner that brought human depth to their two-dimensional images.

Given the hit-and-run paparazzi photographs we see today, O’Neill’s images stand-out for their proximity to their subjects and the details that nearness reveals. An essay by fashion editor and music author Dylan Jones recounts O’Neill’s days as a young drummer in a jazz band. As the photographer recalls, “When I was playing jazz I was always part of the rhythm section…while the stars were up front, so I got accustomed to dealing with egos…” Perhaps that’s the key to O’Neill’s success: a sense of timing, and the good discretion to capture the limelight by staying out of it.

Here’s O’Neill at an exhibition of his work, speaking with the Irish Examiner about his early days as a musician and a photographer:

Stay Awake!

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Long time no see.

I’ve been slammed with new projects, but I’m planning on revealing more about those as I rev this engine of pixel blasting fury back up after a protracted intermission. I have so many new happenings underway that I’m not really sure where to start.

Picking at random…

ArtNowNashville.com is a new online journal that has asked me to contribute art reviews focused on new exhibitions opening in Middle Tennessee. We eventually hope to expand our range to include out of town shows by local artists or even out of town shows that might somehow connect back to local interests. It’s been a pretty interesting new project and I’m pleased to say that we’ve had a great response thus far. Keep your eyes peeled for art reviews I’ll be posting here with links back to the site…

ArtNowNashville has also asked me to review books for them – which is a great thing. As faithful readers know, I’ve done my share of book reviews on these pages at Chapter16.org. Reading, going to exhibits, watching films and listening to music have always been an intrinsic part of my creative work. In many ways interacting with media, absorbing messages, drawing conclusions, making connections and expressing ideas is the heart of my creative process and writing essays, and reviews allows me to monetize these exercises so that I can afford to be an artist.

I was excited to find out that Martin Scorsese had directed a new documentary on one of my favorite musicians – George Harrison: Living in the Material World. I was even more excited that the good people at Abrams publishing were excited to send on a copy of the companion book for me to review.

Via ArtNowNashville…

A companion volume to the new, two-part HBO documentary of the same name, George Harrison: Living in the Material World shines a light on The Beatles’ “Dark Horse” guitarist, revealing a groundbreaking musician, a daring songsmith, and a seeker whose spiritual quest was always tangled up with his rock ‘n’ roll aspirations.

The book offers up a treasure trove of Harrison’s personal photos, diaries, letters and even a collection of autographed photos from heroes like Little Richard and skiffle music pioneer Lonnie Donegan. The inclusion of these ephemera constitute an exhaustive excavation in and of themselves – Material World even includes drawings of the musical instruments and motorcycles that Harrison scribbled in his grade school notebooks. However, some of the most compelling gems here are photographs that Harrison took himself. His snapshots document his life at home and in the spotlight, providing potent insights into both the glam and sham of the rock star life.

If there is any question of Harrison’s creative impact on The Beatles, one quick glance at his post-band career makes his spot in the Fab Four’s pantheon undeniably clear. Harrison’s solo debut All Things Must Pass, ranks alongside – if not above – both McCartney’s and Lennon’s after-The-Beatles offerings. Harrison had a number one record in 1987 with his single “Got My Mind Set on You” and his tenure with The Traveling Wilburys found his music charting into the 1990′s. Even Harrison’s The Concert for Bangladesh in 1971 continues to serve as an inspiring template for all Live Aid-style rock-benefit-extravaganzas. Harrison was the second Beatle – after John Lennon – to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

More after jumping through this hoop of fire…

Joe Nolan <3