"Sue Me, Sue You Blues"

Happy Hump Day People!

Who's up for a new skit?

The End

Hey, it could happen.

This too.....

You know someone's had to have done this to T'Challa at least once.

Bonus cool points that knew that the title to today's skit is the name of a George Harrison song:

Top 5 Songs: Let It Roll: The Best of George Harrison

TGIT!!!!

Well it's official; I'm sick as a fucking dog, and no I'm not talking about being dirty-minded or perverted, although I am, and will always remain that way too;)

No, I'm just fucking sick. Snot running free like a Gazelle, making my nose look redder than Rudolph, and just that all-around shitty, icky feeling.

Oh well, it'll pass.


I figured I'd still do/make a Top 5 list though, so bear with me here.

I was watching the awesome documentary by award-winning director Martin Scorsese  about George Harrison called Living in the Material World. I'd seen before of course, but it's still fresh in my mind, thus why I picked this album:

It's the best, best of compilation out there so far about George Harrison's music and career. It encompasses his Beatle days and solo career.

One of the the things that sets it apart from other "Best Of" albums, is the swapping in of some live versions of his popular hits written while still in The Beatles. And really, the sheer amount of songs, both hits and b-sides is very appealing and worthwhile for any and all George Harrison fans.

I'll attempt to pull 5 top songs with a tie(or two) from this album, but damn if it isn't gonna' be tough as hell to do.

Let's do this thing!

5). Isn't It A Pity/Marwa Blues:

I really love "Isn't it a pity" even though it's a sad song. It's realistic and is all about the different ways people hurt each other, whether intentionally or not. The accompanying music to the last parts of the song feel epic and so beautifully moving. If you happen to get misty-eyed it's okay;)

Plus as an added pathos bonus, it seems George wrote this while he and long-time love Patti Boyd broke up and she got together with one of his best friends Eric Clapton. "Layla" anyone?

Marwa Blues is an instrumental, but damn is it beautiful. This one really showcases just how damn talented of  a guitar player George was. Plus it's soothing. Like lay out on the beach with a drink in your hand, or just admire the sunset/sunrise kind of song. Definitely good enough to meditate or fall asleep to as well.

4). While My Guitar Gently Weeps

How could you not include a song like this on a top 5 list right? Now while the live version on this album's fine, I prefer both the original and the version on the Beatles Love album. This was written during a rough period near the end of the Beatles existence as a group, and it seems as though George was trying to let everybody know ins his own way how he felt about the whole experience and his take away from all that.

Classic Harrison all the way.

Oh and did I mention Eric Clapton played with Harrison on the recording of this song? Well I did now;)

3). What Is Life?

Now you want a fun, poppy song, and this one's your man. I guess it's basically George asking one of those deep, introspective questions we all ask ourselves or someone else from time to time, and that's no different here. 

I first became aware of this song while watching my favorite movie of all time, Goodfellas, also by directed by Martin Scorsese. Amazing how those two projects wound up lining up with Scorsese huh? Hey, whatta' ya' gonna' do? The man has great tastes in music;)

2). Ballad of Sir Frankie Crisp( Let It Roll)

I really, really love this song. Inspired by the very eccentric man who's house he bought in the the early 70's, The Ballad of Sir Frankie Crisp is a really well-put together song that plays to Harrison's strengths, such as his guitar-playing, and the he had with words and phrasing things. And of course, the arrangement of accompanying instruments is impeccable as usual. But would you expect anything less from an ex-Beatles?;)

Bonus pop-culture reference, the sit-com show on CBS, How I Met Your Mother really kind of brought this song back into the collective consciousnesses once it started the playing the song during really important episodes.

1). My Sweet Lord

On the George Harrison documentary, legendary musician and for a time, unofficial fifth Beatle Billy Preston explained how George had come up with this song, but wanted it sound very Gospel-like and if Billy could help him out. I'm glad(or maybe he did) Billy Preston didn't flat out state the obvious to Harrison that his background and start to stardom was his Gospel roots/background. In no time at all, Preston worked his magic on the piano, and a massive hit song was born.

Even legendary music producer and convicted killer, Phil Specter loved this song so much, he pushed for it to be released as THE single from the very album this song originated from. Harrison wasn't so sure at first. He thought people wouldn't care for the chanting or the choir, or the different mantras included in the song, but he was proved wrong when it was released and became a colossal hit. It remains to this day one of Harrison's signature songs, and is definitely one of my favorites.


And that's it for me for this week. I hope you all have a great weekend no matter what you're doing.

Reviewing a Dark Horse

A couple of weeks ago I watched the documentary on George Harrison's life, George Harrison: Living in the material world, by famous director Martin Scorsese, and damn what a really nice one it is!

Here's the link to the trailer in case you guys haven't already seen it:

I readily admit that my favorite member of the Beatles is Paul Mccartney. I love and enjoy his music, both his contributions to the Beatles, his Wings', and solo stuff. After that I guess is John, then George, then poor Ringo's last. Sorry Ringo.

That being said, after watching this well put together documentary on Harrison's life, made me appreciate him even more that I'd thought possible.

Watching the over 2 hour movie, Scorsese beautifully illustrates the type of life Harrison lived, and what he encountered as a rockstar and celebrity. He does that through various interviews with friends and family members and film footage of concerts and events he was part of. These interviews and film footage make you feel as though you're there right alongside Harrison, going through these things right along with him, as if you're really there.

You learn how spiritual he became, starting in 1966, when he first became aware of Indian music and Hindusim. He threw himself into that so heavily, that he even convinced the rest of the Beatles to join him on a trip to India to meditate and better themselves mentally after feeling burned out enough to stop touring altogether. There they met with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who taught them all about Transcendental Meditation, and the like. Of course, in the end, certain things happened that caused the whole trip to be seen as a disaster.

This didn't dissuade George from his spiritual path, but only served to strengthen his resolve. Over the years he would continue his spiritual and musical growth outside the Beatles after they officially broke up in 1970, and that became evident with the continuous flow of material he put out one after another. This occurred because while in the Beatles he only contributed a small amount of songs for their albums, while John and Paul wrote the majority of the hits. Over time he stockpiled many classic songs, such as "All things must pass", "I dig love", "Awaiting you all, and "Wah Wah."

Then there's his historic first of it's kind, concert for Bangladesh in 1970.

This was all due to George Harrison's good friend and mentor Ravi Shankar, coming to him to tell him about the plight in Bangladesh at the time. Harrison and record produce Phil Spector(yeah that crazy guy)set it up, and he along with a bunch of other friends and musicians performed 2 two-hour concerts live to be recorded on film. This film contains footage from the concert, and what a performance it was! Even ever faithful Ringo was here, although John and Paul were not.

The concert raised millions, and was regarded as the standard with which future celebrity benefits were modeled after.

Other things touched on in the documentary that stood out to me was his relationship with friend and fellow Musician Eric Clapton. These two shared a life-long friendship, and even shared girlfriends!

You see Harrison used to be married to Patti Boyd, who became over time romantically interested in Eric Clapton. Soon things came to a head, and Eric was upfront with his friend, and told him how much he had fallen in live his friends' wife. Clapton claims Harrison told him to "take her", and so Clapton did just that. The interviews with Boyd and Clapton on this topic are very interesting to watch. I knew Clapton had fallen in love with Boyd, because as the world knows, that's where his famous hit song "Layla" comes from, but to hear the progression of how that all came about, and Harrison's nonchalant attitude about the whole thing kind of had me going "huh?"

Of course their friendship survived all that, and they continued on as friends until Harrison's death.

That's another topic that is very interesting to hear about. Harrison became diagnosed with throat cancer in 1999. Following that was an attack on his and his wife's lives by a deranged man who felt he was "on a mission from God" to kill him. Both Harrison and his wife Olivia survived the attack, but Olivia felt the brutal attack seemed to cause a remission of the cancer.

He ultimately succumbed to a brain tumor, and passed away in 2001.

What struck me was how Olivia was explaining that Harrison was preparing himself for death. He was preparing his spirit throughout his life to leave his body on his own terms. Very fascinating. Would that we could all do that.

And of course there's little bits in-between all that, like how he personally financed Monty Python's first movie, "The Life and Times of Brian, by putting up his own house as collateral. So yeah, you can blame/thank Harrison for that depending on how you feel about them.

And of course there's a little group called The Travelling Wilburys......

If you haven't ever checked this movie out, or have have heard about it, but been on the fence about it, I strongly urge you to see it, beg, borrow, or steal it. It's just that damn good!

Scorsese demonstrates here why he's so good when it comes to movies and documentaries, that you'll find yourself instantly becoming both a fan of his, and Harrison's. So go check it, and you won't regret that you did.