George Harrison Dies: The Quiet Beatle Falls Silent

George Harrison died of lung cancer at a friend's home in Los Angeles on November 29, 2001. He was fifty-eight. The Beatle who didn't want to be famous had spent his post-Beatles life proving that the quiet one had the most to say. Born in Liverpool on February 25, 1943, Harrison was the youngest of four children in a working-class family. He met Paul McCartney on a school bus and joined John Lennon's skiffle group, the Quarrymen, at fifteen. He was the youngest Beatle, and during the band's early years, Lennon and McCartney's songwriting dominance left him limited space. He wrote "Something" and "Here Comes the Sun" for Abbey Road, two of the most beautiful songs in the catalog, but he'd been fighting for that space for years. His 1970 triple album All Things Must Pass, released immediately after the band's breakup, outsold anything Lennon or McCartney released solo that decade. The lead single, "My Sweet Lord," went to number one worldwide. The album was a declaration of independence, showcasing the backlog of songs that had been accumulating while he waited for his allotted two tracks per Beatles album. He organized the Concert for Bangladesh at Madison Square Garden on August 1, 1971, the first major charity rock concert in history, raising money for refugees of the Bangladesh Liberation War. He assembled an extraordinary lineup, including Ravi Shankar, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, and Ringo Starr, and pulled the event together in six weeks. The concert established the template for Live Aid, Farm Aid, and every subsequent benefit concert. He studied sitar under Ravi Shankar and introduced Indian music and Hindu philosophy to Western popular culture. He was a devoted practitioner of Hinduism and meditation for the remainder of his life. He co-founded HandMade Films, which produced Monty Python's Life of Brian and other British films. He was stabbed repeatedly in his home in Henley-on-Thames by a mentally ill intruder in December 1999 and nearly died. His wife Olivia attacked the intruder with a lamp and a fireplace poker. Harrison survived but never fully recovered.