Note: I found this in a folder I almost deleted, dated 12/5/01, the day George Harrison died. Thought I'd wedge it into ye olde archive.

George. Today I did something I never would have believed yesterday. I bought an issue of People Magazine, the same starfucker rag I've been lambasting for years. I pardoned myself on account of you being on the cover and all. I recall you once said, "How can I keep up around the genius of John and Paul?" Maybe you viewed them on a plateau for being as prolific as they were, but you're eye to eye in genius.

And I shudder at the word "genius" because shitheads everywhere have thrown it around so loosely it has devolved into something tantamount to "successful".

I could tell you that While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Something, and Long Long Long are among the best songs ever written, this according to me. But I bet not even you would give a damn about that. What's more important is the intangible reason that I deliberately left your picture, cut out from the White Album's poster insert, on the back of my college dorm door the day I left. I Thought I'd leave something for the next guy to leave for the next guy—if the summer cleaning staff had any vision.

I've never read that this is the case, but I've always wondered if While My Guitar Gently Weeps is related to your aforementioned reference to John and Paul. It doesn't seem particularly encrypted. I understand you were reading the I-Ching at the time and the first words you saw when you opened it were "gently weeps", or so the story goes. But it's hard not to see the "I look at you all, see the love there that's sleeping, while my guitar gently weeps" as a reference to John, Paul, Ringo, and George Martin overlooking your songs amidst the eclipsing John/Paul thing. I could be wrong, but that song always makes me sad for that reason.

Taking nothing from John, Paul and the others (how could I?), it makes me wonder if your ideas were discouraged at the outset, much like While My Guitar Gently Weeps itself was ignored, until you brought in Eric Clapton and replayed it.

I admit I never bought any of your solo CDs. Your later influences got past me a bit. I admit I didn't like the Wilburys much, and your 80's solo tunes went in one ear and out the other...but it's hard to compare all that to what you did with the Beatles. Those songs are all that was necessary to lift you into the canon. Sorry death came so soon, though I'm glad you were unafraid. You were always invisible to me, so it would be a hollow phrase to say that I'll miss you. But if I did, I'm sure you'd know what I mean. Bye, George.

Labels: tunes