George Harrison: Brainwashed

Parlophone/EMI Music

Playing Time: 47:49

D. Malcolm Fairbrother

Almost a year to the day from George Harrison's death comes what is certainly the final collection of songs that will have been released with the quiet Beatle's blessing. One can only hope that future grave robbers and plunderers of tape fragments that the creator never intended to be hawked like relics among the crowds of reverent Harrison fans only stop to listen to George's final musical entreaties, realize that nothing much of value can be added to this definitive collection of wry observations, heartfelt supplications, and introspective ruminations...well, one can hope.

It is difficult to listen to Brainwashed without trying to find hidden commentary on what it is like to know that one is dying. This critic teetered at the edge of falling into that trap, he will freely admit; then he realized that, even before masterpiece statements such as All Things Must Pass, Harrison made it obvious that he understood that life is transitory, all humans meet the same fate although not all humans are equally prepared when it arrives, and that this life is merely a way station on a larger more mysterious road that we can never hope to really understand. As the quiet Beatle, George Harrison had lots of time to work through these philosophical conjectures.

George Harrison was more than just the shy and quiet superstar. Where Lennon was cynical and caustic, where McCartney was cute with the ever present 'bon mot', where Ringo was cut from the same zany cloth of the Marx Brothers, George was the dry wit who could bring down the house with but a word. Who can resist a smile on recalling George's reply to the mock interviewer in A Hard Day's Night when asked what he called his hairstyle? 'Arthur,' he murmured without so much as a flinch. On Brainwashed, there is ample evidence of his gently mocking humour, and little rancour about his fate. George always seemed at peace. His final opus does nothing to contradict that impression.

Brainwashed opens with Any Road, a song destined to find a home on some future collection of Harrison's greatest hits. A simple nursury-rhyme recitation of transportation vehicles, conditions and emotions (on a wing and a prayer) serve as a framework for a didactic exploration of the importance of having a sense of focus in one's life. Aimlessness is its own direction: if you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there. It is Zen 101 meeting the Traveling Wilburys at their finest.At this point one would be remiss to ignore the instrumentation of this song which is typical in its presentation of the sensibility established on a majority of its companions on this work. No song exists as the rough-hewn work in progress it must have been at the time of Harrison's death. Moreover, Harrison's son Dhani, and fellow former Wilbury, Jeff Lynne have constructed a powerful memorial to the father and the friend by replicating a sound that is seamlessly consistent with what George's previous works indicate must have been the vision held for these songs as final product. The overall effect is pure George Harrison thematically, sonically, and even in it's few weaknesses.

Vatican Blues (Last Saturday Night) is one of a handful of songs that gently berate the world for its foibles. The landscape of this song is surreal, smoke and image to explain disorientation, the election of a pope and the truth obscured by a religion that lets one atone for major sins with one Hail Mary, three Our Fathers/Each Saturday night. Its humour is idiosyncratic as images of 'concrete tuxedos' foreshadow the writer's death. The title song, Brainwashed is a harder edged indictment of the shortsightedness of replacing the thinking process that could lead us to a greater understanding of both ourselves and the Godhead with technology, materialism, rote learning, and the blind following of sightless leaders. It ends in a Hindu chant, father and son blending their voices in an intimate moment of love that transcends the materialism scorned earlier in the song.

George includes a stunning instrumental, Marwa Blues that is destined to be a textbook example of how to play slide guitar with a smooth clarity that soothes and exhilarates the listener at one and the same time. The texture of the piece is enriched by a clean blend of guitars, strings and keyboards.

Pisces Fish at first seems to be a wry condemnation of the people with which it is populated, the complaining farmers, eccentric old ladies and brewery workers; the beauty of its delivery takes it to a more compassionate level where it is a catalogue of simple things that enrich one's life and therefore, the analogy of a tranquil river running through the soul is ultimately pacifying.

Although neither song adds much of originality to the love song, Stuck Inside A Cloud and Looking For My Life are pleasant and earnest inclusions on the CD. The former explores the loss of love and the concomitant depression, always threatening to overwhelm the abandoned lover; the latter explores the complexities of trying to love spiritually while living in the material world. Neither number harms George Harrison's reputation as a song-writer.

Two songs resurface here that those who have paid close attention to Harrison's career might well recognize. Run So Far was recorded by Eric Clapton over a decade ago for his Journeyman album. Here, it is effortlessly reclaimed by Harrison as his own. The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea, a Count Basie standard, here delivered charmingly with ukelele accompaniment, was performed by Harrison with his old friend Jools Holland at a benefit a few years ago. This number, and the hula blues number, Rocking Chair In Hawaii are fond reminders of the versatile former Beatle's love of and skilled use of an instrument that certainly recalled the old English dance hall shows of his youth.

In truth, Brainwashed reveals that George Harrison was far from that condition as he reflected on the life he had lived, his struggles and his victories, and as he contemplated his stepping off into The Great Beyond. The CD serves as a fitting reminder that when one balances the material world with the quest for inner peace, what can be achieved both artistically and spiritually is nothing less than a state of amazing grace.

Go in peace, fellow traveler.