It’s between John Lennon and George Harrison as to my favourite Beatle. What they did post – Beatles really impressed me and how they carried themselves. We have John Lennon writing in the latter years of his life ‘Watching the Wheels‘ symbolic of ‘The Wheel of Fortune‘ seen in a lot of Gothic cathedrals which I wrote about here. And George was this mystical-Eastern thinker that incorporated a lot of his worldview into his music and influenced others including of course the Beatles. Today’s song All Those Years Ago is from his 1981 album Somewhere in England which served as a personal tribute to former bandmate John Lennon.
Living with good and bad
I always looked up to you
Now we’re left cold and sad
By someone, the devil’s best friend
Someone who offended all
We’re living in a bad dream
They’ve forgotten all about mankind
And you were the one they backed up to the wall
All those years ago
You were the one who imagined it all
All those years ago
I have written a lot about George especially with respect to his forming and moulding The Travelling Wilburys. Since then, I looked for other songs by George because his musical acumen and vocal is so potent, but not in an invasive way. He seems like someone you would just want to hang-around with or at least be in your corner when the sh&t hits the fan.
All Those Years Ago single spent three weeks at number 2 in the US Billboard Hot 100, behind Bette Davis Eyes.
Prior to Lennon’s death, Harrison originally wrote the song with different lyrics for Ringo Starr to record. Although he recorded it, Starr felt the vocal was too high for his range and disliked the lyrics. Harrison took the track back and, after Lennon’s death, the lyrics were changed to reflect a tribute to him. In the song, Harrison makes reference to the Beatles song All You Need Is Love and the Lennon song Imagine.
If you want to hear one of the greatest songs in Contemporary Music, I point you another one of George solos called Give Me Love.
Reference:
1. All Those Years Ago – Wikipedia
“The more I live, the more I learn. The more I learn, the more I realize, the less I know.”- Michel Legrand
Observation Blogger 
I bought this when it was released…the album and single. What I liked about George is he didn’t follow trends much to the displeasure of record companies. I’m glad he included Paul and Ringo on this recording.
Yeh, I read about their inclusion in the song, and I should have included that in the article. I like that George went against the grain and did things his way. Cheers Max.
Have always loved this song. Probably my 2nd favorite George Harrison song after “My Sweet Lord”.
I like My Sweet Lord, but not a huge fan. Horses for courses I suppose. Thanks for chiming in man! Always a pleasure.