George Harrison - Horse To The Water

In early October of 2001, George Harrison traveled to Switzerland to record one of the last, if not the last song he ever composed (with his son Dhani). The song is called, “Horse To The Water.” George was dying. He had been diagnosed with cancer in 1997. Barely two months after the recording session he was gone.

I remember watching some of the clips of George from 1996, during the time he, Paul McCartney and Ringo got together to complete those two rough John Lennon songs (“Free As A Bird” and “Real Love”). In the formal interviews that George gave at the time, he looked good! He was all made up and his hair was perfect - the George we knew and loved. But in the candid documentary footage of the three surviving Beatles working together on the Lennon songs, he looked awful…sick. In sad retrospect, you can tell that the cancer was eating him up even then, whether he knew it or not (and I suspect he did although the official announcement was yet to be made).

George approached that death with good-natured grace. “Horse To The Water” was a bit of gallows humor on his part, a little inside joke about his inability to quit his years of heavy smoking which ostensibly caused his cancer. He kept working right up until the end. In fact, when George went to Switzerland to record the vocal for that song, it was not for use on one of his own records but rather, a CD entitled “Small World, Big Band” by a guy named Jools Holland. We’ll get to that in a second.

Although he was dying, although he was nearly 58 years-old, George could still write a rocker! The bluesy, “Horse To The Water” is as good as anything he’d ever written.

One of George’s long-time friends was a musician named Joe Brown. Fairly well-known in England, he never gained much popularity in the United States. Joe was best-man at George’s marriage to his second wife Olivia. Joe’s daughter Sam is a singer, and had been working with Jools Holland, who himself had been a member of and keyboard player in a terrific English band called Squeeze back in the 1980’s. The founding members of Squeeze were two guys named Chris Difford and Glen Tillbrook, who were heralded at the time as the “new Lennon/McCartney.” The influence of the Beatles on the music of Squeeze was undeniable, and they didn’t. Currently, Jools Holland is a well-respected musician, television host and interviewer on English television.

So one year after Harrison’s death, his buddy Eric Clapton puts on this concert in George’s honor. He gathers up many of George’s friends including many of those he’d played with over the years. Then they get together in the Royal Albert Hall in London to sing and play his music. I’ve written before about the “Concert For George” and how much I love it. It is possibly the best "tribute concert" that ever will be.

One of the songs they do is “Horse To The Water,” sung by an ebullient Sam Brown. It is an amazing, joyous performance, one of the highlights of the whole show. But before clicking on the video below (and I sincerely hope you do), here are a few things to watch for.

· Sam Brown’s incredible vocal . She just flat nails the song! She owns it!
· Jools Holland’s keyboard playing is wonderful. The look on his face says it all – how happy and honored he is to be there on that very special night.
· Andy Fairweather Low’s backing vocal is awesome, adding a gospel depth.
· Tom Scott’s rockin' sax solo! And I’m not even a big fan of the sax. Scott’s been around forever. He is outstanding.
· This is one time in the concert when we get to actually hear Eric Clapton play- they finally turn his guitar up! As bandleader, throughout most of the concert he's stuck to just playing rhythm and not lead. In this song, his signature sound is unmistakable, yet the cameras only briefly ever catch him in the act.

Enjoy…

 



I can (and do) watch that video over and over. I just love watching Sam sing it, and of course I love hearing it. It never fails to cheer me up and make me feel good.

I had not been able to find a bloggable copy of George Harrison singing that song, although I knew one existed. Finally, through the magic of YouTube, somebody put it up! Mind you, while it is George's version of "Horse To The Water" as it appeared on the Jools Holland album, what is posted below is not a music video. It's just a collection of Beatle video clips centering mostly on George, forming the background for it. Sadly, many of the clips show him happily puffing away on cigarettes.

After George recorded the vocal for the aforementioned "Small World, Big Band" CD, Jools Holland took the track and added the orchestra instruments and more background vocals. So it doesn't sound like your "typical" George Harrison song. Still, it sounds great. But compared to Sam Brown’s killer version, I’m not sure which one I prefer! I'll let you decide for yourself.