If you have HBO lucky you! I don’t have HBO, I cancelled it a while ago because I was watching so little television and the movies HBO offered just weren’t my thing. I thought it wasn’t smart to pay for something I wasn’t using. But as soon as I turned my back HBO popped up with gems like “Game Of Thrones” and now this clincher Martin Scorsese’s documentary on the life of George Harrison “Living in the Material World”, which premiers tonight. Dear god, why did I cancel HBO!
I love George Harrison. Since the time I was little bitty girl he was my favorite Beatle. There was something very earthy and soulful about George’s face. All the Beatles have amazingly expressive faces. Paul McCartney’s brows floated upward in almost impossibly surprised arches, but George’s eyes pulled downward and his heavy brows seemed to reflect an older more serious soul that clearly felt the weight of the world and I was attracted to that.
I have two older sisters, ten and sixteen years older than me. By the time I was old enough to notice, their Beatle worship was well under way. My sister Christy had a little shrine in her corner of the “girls’ bedroom” where she lit candles and incense, chanted, mediated with prayer beads and drove our parents nuts. The central altarpiece of the shrine was a black and white poster of George Harrison riding a horse through the woods. I loved staring at the poster. I had a favorite book filled with N C Wyeth illustrations that I also loved looking at, and I remember thinking George Harrison was a mythical person, like the medieval knights N C Wyeth illustrated. I’m not sure when I put it together that Harrison was also the man singing and playing guitar.
“Living in the Material World” looks like it’s going to be something special. Martin Scorsese’s rock documentaries are wonderful. “No Direction Home” about Bob Dylan and “Shine a Light,” about the Rolling Stones, are must see documentaries for any fan of rock and roll. “Living in the Material World” was made with the full cooperation and blessing of Harrison’s widow Olivia, who also wrote the excellent coffee table size biography “Living in the Material World”. (Ssshh… My husband who’s a big George Harrison fan doesn’t read this blog, so please don’t tell him I just bought the last copy of “Living in the Material World” at our local Barnes & Noble and hid it for Christmas.)
Harrison’s son Dhani (who looks eerily like his dad) said the documentary was emotionally hard to watch because it felt like seeing his father’s life flash before his eyes, including the most painful moments. He suggests viewers “Plan on making an evening of it and don’t plan on going out afterward.” I’m sure it’s good advice to anyone who’s emotionally invested in George Harrison.
Part one of “Living in the Material World” premieres tonight on HBO. Enjoy.
This is the link to the official website of “Living in the Material World”
Do you have a favorite George Harrison or Beatle song, or a favorite Beatle memory?
XXOO Kat
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