(Credits: Far Out / Bradford Timeline)
Sat 28 March 2026 19:30, UK
George Harrison didn’t get into the music business to become one of the biggest solo artists in the world.
He didn’t like the idea of being at the front, even when he was in The Beatles, but if the world wanted to hear what he had to say, the least he could do was make the kind of music that promoted his beliefs as best as he could. But when you listen to what he was doing on every one of his albums, everything was leading to that fateful day where he would have to say goodbye for the final time.
Then again, that’s what his faith was all about. Many of the teachings that he subscribed to were all about preparing his earthly body for when he eventually passed away, and while he was always ready to meet his maker, he had a few years of his life taken off after being brutally stabbed in his home. If you’re trying to fight cancer and are also dealing with healing wounds in your lungs, it’s bound to be a bit more difficult to keep track of every single piece of your physical well-being.
When you look at the songs that turned up on Brainwashed, though, he was clearly ready to sketch out the final pieces of his career. Many of the tunes are reminders of why he was a beloved part of the Traveling Wilburys on tunes like ‘Any Road’ and ‘P2 Vatican Blues’, but he never forgot about his spiritual side when talking about his inner peace on tracks like ‘Rising Sun’ or even going completely silent and letting his guitar do the talking on tracks like ‘Marwa Blues’.
He was clearly ready to put together the final pieces of his career, but there was never any reference point for how long he had to complete the record. Dhani Harrison was already helping him flesh out many of the tunes, but even when he started working on tunes like the title track with his son singing in harmony with him, there were always going to be parts of the album that he wasn’t going to be able to finish on his own.
His cancer had weakened him too much by this point, and you can tell on many of the songs that his voice was starting to go as well. But after spending years palling around with the other members of The Wilburys, getting Jeff Lynne in the producer’s chair one more time was the only way that he felt his music could be done justice rather than being kept in the demo stages forever.
And when Dhani inducted Lynne into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as part of ELO, he did have a sentimental attachment to the band thanks to Lynne’s involvement on Harrison’s final album, saying, “One of the final conversations I had with my dad, we had been trying to complete his final record, and it seems as though we’d run out of time. And he told me to once again to seek out that space wizard, Jeff, and that together we would know what to do. Jeff knew exactly how to cross that bridge and how to finish it. Working with Jeff was one of the most amazing times I’ve ever had.”
Even though a lot of ELO’s touch could be heard on some of Lynne’s early productions with Harrison, you don’t really hear much of that on Brainwashed. This was clearly the kind of album that Harrison wanted to make before he physically couldn’t make it anymore, and while Lynne was respectful towards the pop songs, there was no sense in trying to touch the kind of job that Harrison did when working on the title track.
Harrison had clearly taken care of everything that he needed in his earthly being, and while not many people get the chance to close the door on their legacy like this, Harrison always knew Lynne would be by his side even from the other side. They spoke the same language in many respects, so getting the right sound for his final songs was like tapping into the same sense of musical precision and humour that they were used to back in the day.
ADD AS A PREFERRED SOURCE ON GOOGLE 