Concert for George

The Concert For George feels like an update to The Concert For Bangla Desh. The two could be watched back-to-back for interesting evening of rock. Unlike many tribute concerts where they get anyone who happens to be on the charts at the time to come and do a song (ie. John Lennon and Bob Dylan), The Concert For George is limited almost exclusively to George's friends and colleagues, most of whom have been putting out great records since the sixties. Eric Clapton, Jeff Lynne and Dhani Harrison lead the assembled band through Harrison's best known songs and they are joined by Billy Preston, Tom Petty, Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney & Ravi Shankar (who wrote a beautiful indian piece for George). Even the gang from Monty Python, George's favorite comedy troupe, turn up to do a couple of sketches. The performances are mostly good and there are a few magical moments (The long coda to "Isn't It A Pity", Clapton's solo on "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", McCartney's rendition of "All Things Must Pass" and the moment when McCartney's ukelele rendition of "Something" suddenly turns into a full band rendition). Every flower petal in England falls from the ceiling during the finale. It's also a little strange seeing Dhani Harrison on stage, as he resembles his father greatly.

My only complaint is that they sometimes interrupted a good song (like "Handle With Care") to go to an interview. All in all, great for George's fans or fans of good music in general.

I had the opportunity to see a little bit of my friend's copy of Concert for George a while back and I liked what I saw so I went out and bought it. I was not disappointed.

All of the songs are solid and most of them are great. The concert is divided into three sections. The first section is Indian music, the second section is Monty Python, and the third section is George Harrison's music. All three sections are worth watching but it is the third section that excels with musicians such as Eric Clapton, Paul McCartney, Tom Petty, Ringo Starr, Jeff Lynne, Billy Preston, and various others.

Some of my favorites are "Here Comes the Sun", "Photograph", "All Things Must Pass", "Wah Wah", and "Handle With Care". However, my absolute favorite is a toss-up between "Something" (performed brilliantly by Clapton and McCartney) and "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" (a song in which Clapton displays his musical ability and his vocal vulnerability).

A great, great concert.

9 out of 10

We've had a Beatle Fest for the past few weeks at our house - watched much of the Anthology, Ed Sullivan, A Hard Day's Night, Help!, Let It Be, and saved the Concert for George for the finale.

With all that in recent memory, I think George would have really enjoyed the concert. The Indian music was wonderful and a good start to the evening. Set the right tone.

The choices did showcase George's talent and his optimism, faith, and humor.

A few things in response to what I've read/not read here: Understanding why the Lennon sons were not invited - makes sense when limiting the stage to collaborators.

With that in mind, Dylan being 'on tour' is just not an OK reason for him not to have attended. He was a Wilbury, the Beatles always gave him a lot of credit for influencing them, the concert was planned nearly from the time George died the year before. No tour date could have been more important. Dylan's still being Howard Hughes.

Ringo's words at the beginning of his set were just right. Good attitude of I Loved George and George Loved Me. Thanks for the jelly babies was especially poignant after watching 1964 footage. His choice of 'Honey Don't' got slammed a bit in the reviews - can't understand why. George used the stage name 'Carl Harrison' in the early 60's because he liked Carl Perkins so much. It's just that touch of an old friend knowing what George liked. Added to the diversity - Indian music, country music, his criticism of high taxes, profession of faith. I thought that was a brilliant touch.

McCartney can't seem to be forgiven for some non-specific slight. According to the reviews he either tries to hog the limelight or doesn't join in enough. Something was either great or horrible. That kind of thing. I thought he was just right - a hug and a kiss for Dhani and a funny quote from Olivia. He seemed to be very emotional, but controlled. The uke is always a nod to John Lennon, whose mother taught them a few chords on it. George loved it and Paul played that for George when he and Ringo visited him right before his death. Crowd reaction is a guide of how people felt when they saw these two pay their tribute to their friend.

Clapton looks a bit irritated and frazzled during some of the show, especially at the beginning - maybe having him as a performer, rather than with the additional duty of musical director would have helped.

Everyone was top flight and the production values were astounding. Great class and dignity - both of which Harrison deserved. Still, I can't second-guess any of the choices made by Paul and Ringo. They knew him the best, the longest, through thick and thin. Makes me sad - there will have to be tributes to them. None of us, no one, shares that story from the inside out and I thank them all for giving us moments like this.

I saw this delightful tribute concert to the music and life of George Harrison in the theater when it first came out. This is a good film with a great soundtrack that won a Grammy Award but it only saw a limited run in art house theaters and quickly disappeared from the big screen for DVD release. If it ever comes back around on a big screen somewhere someday see it in it's theatrical glory. Excellent camera work in this film directed by David Leland who was one of the eight directors of the award winning 10 part HBO mini series Band of Brothers and as a screenwriter wrote such films as Mona Lisa. This was filmed as a special tribute concert for George Harrison at the Royal Albert Hall in London on the first year anniversary of his death. Long time inner circle Beatle musician friends led by Eric Clapton take the stage in an evening of music from the career George Harrison. Surviving Beatles Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr are here as well as musicians who recorded with the Beatles, Billy Preston and Klaus Voorman. Ravi Shankar and his daughter do a set. Harrison's Traveling Wilbury band mates Jeff Lynne and Tom Petty are here as well as long time Harrison musician pals Gary Brooker from Procol Harum and Jim Capaldi from Traffic. Jools Holland from Squeeze and touring and recording utility ax man Albert Lee are here too. Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones, Eric Idle and Michael Palin from Monty Python and Pyton players Carol Cleveland and Neil Innes are joined by actor Tom Hanks for a classic Python sketch song. Longtime Harrison friend and fellow ukulele affection ado Joe Brown closes out the show. George Harrison's son Dhani, looking like a young George Harrison plays guitar among the band on several numbers. There is one moment when Paul Mccartney looks at Dhani and you tell he notices the resemblance to his father from the Beatles days and he tries for a second to get his attention during the song so they can share a microphone like Paul and George would often do as Beatles but Dhani is concentrating so hard on his fingerboard that he doesn't quite get what Paul is implying and the song rolls on and the moment is lost. Jeff Lynne produced the concert audio. Eric Clapton is the musical director.

In his role as musical director it reminded me of when Eric Clapton married George Harrison's ex-wife Patti Boyd. At the wedding reception there was a stage set up with amps and instruments and Harrison asked Clapton who the band was. Clapton said, you are. Harrison laughed and said I am? Clapton just said, yeah, look around there are nothing but musicians here so I'm sure you can find enough to make a band out of. Harrison was hesitant but he went up to Paul Mccartney and told him what Clapton instructed him to do. McCartney put down his plate of food and said, lets do it. Harrison must have looked down from beyond at the Concert for George and smiled as to how Clapton was now in charge of putting together the musicians. I would give this a 9.0 out of 10.

I saw this movie with my wife, who is really the big Beatles fan. She loved the movie, and I did as well.

The tunes are so well done, you know that George himself was humming along with them in Heaven. Photography is great, and the documentary aspect of the movie really unfolds into a bigger event that makes you feel that you are as much a part of the event as the musical stars themselves.

This is really a well done movie, and one that captures the essence of a special moment. The event itself brings magic, or perhaps shows us, the magic of George's music.

If you enjoyed the Beatles, you'll love the movie. If you like great music, you'll love the movie. And if you like George Harrison, you'll just get queued up waiting for the DVD release.

Enjoy, and treat yourself to the big screen surround sound version of this gem.