Flashback: George Harrison becomes the first solo Beatle to tour America
It was 32 years ago tonight (November 2nd, 1974) that George Harrison launched his "George Harrison & Friends North American Tour," at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver, becoming the first solo Beatle to tour North America.
The 30-date tour was particularly grueling for Harrison, who had blown out his voice in the rush to complete his Dark Horse album, resulting in some reporters mockingly referring to the dates as the "Dark Hoarse" tour. To make matters worse, Harrison and his band were often playing two shows a day, with some dates not selling out.
The show, which had already had pacing problems due to Harrison's choice of material, featured guest spots by saxophonist Tom Scott and Billy Preston, as well as two long Indian music sets by sitar virtuoso Ravi Shankar interspersed within the concerts, which all but wrecked any momentum the "rock" aspects of the show had gained.
Although Harrison and the press were keen to portray the concert audiences as hostile toward his performances, underground recordings of concerts taped in such cities as Fort Worth and Baton Rouge show boisterous fans cheering the show -- including the tunes from Harrison's soon-to-be critically bashed Dark Horse album, which didn't hit the stores until the tour was halfway over.
For many, the main problem with the tour was Harrison tampering with the lyrics and arrangement of Beatles classics. "Something," which surprised many as the second song of the night, had its lyrics changed to "When something's in the way we move it"; "For You Blue" was changed into an up-tempo jazz number; "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" became "While My Guitar Tries To Smile"; and Harrison's update on John Lennon and Paul McCartney's "In My Life" had Harrison declaring during the song's chorus, "In my life, I love God more."
Among his solo hits performed on the tour were "What Is Life" and the Number Ones "My Sweet Lord" and "Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth)." Conspicuously absent from the tour was Harrison's Beatles hit "Here Comes The Sun."
Billy Preston performed show-stopping renditions of his hits "Will It Go 'Round In Circles," "Outta Space," and "Nothing From Nothing."
Harrison had his share of friends visit him throughout the tour, with Bob Dylan checking out both his afternoon and evening Los Angeles Forum shows, John Lennon and girlfriend May Pang catching one of the Nassau Coliseum show on Long Island, and Paul and Linda McCartney attending one of the New York City shows at Madison Square Garden. McCartney tried to disguise himself in afro wig and fake mustache, but was easily spotted by die-hard fans.
Beatlefan magazine reported that David Bowie visited Harrison backstage in Memphis, but that he and Harrison "didn't hit it off that well."
After the dates, Harrison was so turned off to performing that it was 17 years before he embarked on his next tour, a series of dates in Japan far away from the glaring Western media.
Harrison's widow, Olivia Harrison, who was with him for the duration of the '74 tour, told us that although it's still on the backburner, she's planning some type major retrospective around the tour, including a reissue of the Dark Horse album, and a live CD and DVD: "There's a lot of footage and a lot of history around that 1974 tour. Y'know George filmed quite a lot, so I think that it needs a little more time to sort that out. Because there's this great footage, y'know he filmed backstage, he filmed in lots of cities, so many things happened on that tour, as well as a live album."
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The 30-date tour was particularly grueling for Harrison, who had blown out his voice in the rush to complete his Dark Horse album, resulting in some reporters mockingly referring to the dates as the "Dark Hoarse" tour. To make matters worse, Harrison and his band were often playing two shows a day, with some dates not selling out.
The show, which had already had pacing problems due to Harrison's choice of material, featured guest spots by saxophonist Tom Scott and Billy Preston, as well as two long Indian music sets by sitar virtuoso Ravi Shankar interspersed within the concerts, which all but wrecked any momentum the "rock" aspects of the show had gained.
Although Harrison and the press were keen to portray the concert audiences as hostile toward his performances, underground recordings of concerts taped in such cities as Fort Worth and Baton Rouge show boisterous fans cheering the show -- including the tunes from Harrison's soon-to-be critically bashed Dark Horse album, which didn't hit the stores until the tour was halfway over.
For many, the main problem with the tour was Harrison tampering with the lyrics and arrangement of Beatles classics. "Something," which surprised many as the second song of the night, had its lyrics changed to "When something's in the way we move it"; "For You Blue" was changed into an up-tempo jazz number; "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" became "While My Guitar Tries To Smile"; and Harrison's update on John Lennon and Paul McCartney's "In My Life" had Harrison declaring during the song's chorus, "In my life, I love God more."
Among his solo hits performed on the tour were "What Is Life" and the Number Ones "My Sweet Lord" and "Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth)." Conspicuously absent from the tour was Harrison's Beatles hit "Here Comes The Sun."
Billy Preston performed show-stopping renditions of his hits "Will It Go 'Round In Circles," "Outta Space," and "Nothing From Nothing."
Harrison had his share of friends visit him throughout the tour, with Bob Dylan checking out both his afternoon and evening Los Angeles Forum shows, John Lennon and girlfriend May Pang catching one of the Nassau Coliseum show on Long Island, and Paul and Linda McCartney attending one of the New York City shows at Madison Square Garden. McCartney tried to disguise himself in afro wig and fake mustache, but was easily spotted by die-hard fans.
Beatlefan magazine reported that David Bowie visited Harrison backstage in Memphis, but that he and Harrison "didn't hit it off that well."
After the dates, Harrison was so turned off to performing that it was 17 years before he embarked on his next tour, a series of dates in Japan far away from the glaring Western media.
Harrison's widow, Olivia Harrison, who was with him for the duration of the '74 tour, told us that although it's still on the backburner, she's planning some type major retrospective around the tour, including a reissue of the Dark Horse album, and a live CD and DVD: "There's a lot of footage and a lot of history around that 1974 tour. Y'know George filmed quite a lot, so I think that it needs a little more time to sort that out. Because there's this great footage, y'know he filmed backstage, he filmed in lots of cities, so many things happened on that tour, as well as a live album."
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