George Harrison: The "reluctant" Beatle

Slightly over ten years after Freddie Mercury’s death, on November 29th 2001, another legend of popular music left this world: George Harrison, the “darker, more spiritual” member of the greatest band that ever was - unquestionably: The Mop Tops, The Fab Four … of course, THE BEATLES!

He will never be considered the most accomplished guitarist (though he’s recently ranked # 11 - not bad! - in a poll conducted by Rolling Stone magazine, “The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time”) or a brilliant singer. George always kept a low profile within the band, never bothered to steal the limelight, the leading role selfishly shared by John and Paul (or is it John and Paul?), the two giant egos who constantly clashed with one another up until the day the Beatles inevitably split up. 

But to me, an unconditional Beatles fan, and this is something I admit that took me years to find out, George was the most talented musician of the Liverpudlian act, sort of the glue that kept the band together. I don’t think their musical adventure would have worked out without him. Because, though much less prolific than the most famous composing duet in the history of rock, Lennon-McCartney (or McCartney-Lennon, what would you say?), George Harrison penned such memorable Beatles songs as “Taxman”, “If I needed someone”, “While my guitar gently weeps”, “Here comes the Sun” or indeed “Something”, which the great Frank Sinatra ignorantly, almost disgracefully, called his favourite “Lennon-McCartney theme” but also - and not many would disagree - “the greatest love song ever written”. 

Or would you indeed disagree with the archetypal “crooner”, the man who sang so many unforgettable love songs? If you do, maybe you need to listen to “Something” once again. Because sure thing you’ve already done it ... or have you? In any case, I don’t even have to insert the lyrics scroller, since it’s so easy to follow the words that George came up with. I love the naive video, featuring the four greats and their wives at the time: Patty, Yoko (yuk, I’ll always kind of blame her for the Beatles’s separation!), Maureen and Linda, in order of appearance. You know guys, I can’t help it, the more I listen to the song, the more it … “woooos me”!

Harrison's wife, the gorgeous Patty Boyd, was later famously “snatched” by the Beatle's close-friend and guitar hero (at least to me!) Eric Clapton, who years before had written “Layla” (a song many of you are probably familiar with - “You’ve got me on my knees, Layla!”) as a token of Eric’s then unrequited love for Patty Boyd-Harrison. I’ll get back to this love/hate relationship between George and Eric later on. 

Going back to George alone, he was a man of profound spirituality who soon became fascinated by Indian culture and religion, so much so that he eventually converted to Hinduism. It all began when he had met Ravi Shankar, often considered the greatest contemporary Indian musician as well as the ultimate sitar virtuoso. George himself found the instrument so appealing that he introduced it in a few Beatles songs. Arguably his biggest hit as a solo artist, My Sweet Lord, even includes the complete recitation of the famous Hindu mantra, “Hare krishna”, and I guess I should also embed the song right at this point, shouldn’t I?

I remember the hit being aired endlessly on the Spanish FM stations during the 80s and how I felt so soothed by it (Hallelujah!). That’s why, if I had to recommend you something quintaessentially “Harrison-ian”, I’d urge you to buy his 1970 album “All things must pass”, produced by himself and the famed Phil Spector, where My Sweet Lord is included. To me it’s definitely George at his most intimate, with beautifully-written, accurately-orchestrated songs that will stir your heart no doubt. It’s difficult for me to pick up a single song other than “MSL” from the album so I’ll embed the one that gives the whole record its title.





My last selected piece comes from the 1991 reunion album between George and Eric (curiously enough, barely a few months after Freddie’s untimely death) and it’s not, I’m sure, his most famous song. It’s called “Cloud Nine”, from the successful namesake comeback album that George recorded in 1987 after a long absence from the music scene. I particularly like this 1991 live rendition in Japan alongside his “bittersweet” friend Eric Clapton. They had sort of smoked the pipes of peace after a short row over the Patty Boys affair (actually she'd divorced Eric a couple of years before this gig). I love him playing - and singing - a bluesy rock with a slide on an unusual in his early days Fender Stratocaster.

Wow, I’m making this too long, aren’t I? So to cut a long story short, I must say that, however big I wanted this tribute to be, it feels very small compared to the extraordinary documentary that American director Martin Scorsese, a great Beatles fan himself, recently released to commemorate George Harrison’ death. It’s called “Living in the material world”  and it’s a fantastic 3-hour journey through the life and music of the often deemed “reluctant” Beatle. Needless to say, I’ve seen it – and enjoyed every minute of it! – and I’ll be delighted to lend it to you guys. But let me put an end to this lengthy post by inserting a CBS news clip on the sad day of his passing in L.A. to lung cancer at the age of 58, which summarizes George’s life and death. 

As a voiceover suitably reads, “There’s a Beatles’ song for just about every occasion”, and I couldn’t agree more. Of course, George Harrison was an essential part of a glorious one-off band that filled with sheer joy – and still does today - the ordinary lives of many across the world …

(Allow me to dedicate this post to David, a keen musician and talented guitarist who, I'm proud to say, has inherited his dad's love for the Beatles - and indeed to all the Fab Four enthusiasts worldwide. This is for you, sonny!)

JOSE SANTIAGO: Twenty years without Freddie Mercury

Freddie Mercury, still today, is one of the most famous singers around the world. Who cannot remember his spectacular voice or his stage presence? He was known as the vocalist, pianist and frontman of the legendary British rock band called Queen, whose members were Brian May (guitar), Roger Taylor (drums) and John Deacon (bass guitar).

He was born in Zanzibar (Tanzania) on September 5th 1946 and his real name was Farookh Bulsara, the oldest child of Bomi and Jer Bulsara, who sent him to India with his uncles. There, he attended St. Peter’s boarding school, where he began to show interest in music and started taking piano lessons at the age of seven.

In 1964, Farookh moved to Middlesex in England with his family and he immediately joined up with a blues band called Wreckage. At the same time he started graphic design at Ealing College of Art, where a fellow student introduced Freddie to Brian May and Roger Taylor. They were the founders of Smile, a new band that were looking for a vocalist. Freddie became the lead singer and the band eventually changed into Queen in 1971 when bassist John Deacon joined the band.

From then till his death, Freddie’s life was linked to the history of Queen; although he never abandoned the band, he also achieved remarkable success as a solo artist. In 1985, he started his own career recording “Mr Bad Guy” and two years later he made a parody of himself with the cover version of The Platters’ song “The Great Pretender”. In that year Freddie made one of his dreams come true, as he sang with Montserrat Caballé the well-known song for Barcelona’s Olympic Games.

Later, Freddie collaborated with Dave Clarke in the recording of the West End musical “Time” and he participated and supported other Clarke’s projects, too. He was also interested in opera, ballet and theatre. He surprised Wayne Eagling (The Royal Ballet’s principal dancer) during a charity gala at the London Coliseum in 1977, performing a choreography Eagling had designed for him.

Sadly, Freddie Mercury died on 24th November 1991, twenty-four hours after he had announced he was suffering from AIDS.

Here I attach two songs by Queen: the first one the worldwide famous “Bohemian Rhapsody”, which Freddie wrote himself and was included in the 1974 album “a Night at the Opera”. A year later Queen released the single because, contrary to what the rest of the band believed, Freddie thought it was going to be a hit. Actually it stayed for 9 weeks at the top of the UK charts. So I hope you will enjoy the inimitable opera-rock style of Queen.

The second one is “Made in Heaven”, which belongs to the posthumous namesake 1995 album. This song may be less well-known than “Bohemian Rhapsody” but was also written by Freddie in the years prior to his death, when he was struggling with AIDS, and it shows his feelings near the end of his life. Unfortunately, Freddie died before Queen had finished recording the album “Made in Heaven” and the rest of the band concluded and published it in 1995.

If you are curious enough, you can find more information on Queen’s official website by clicking on this link.

Part Two: Twenty years now ...


I was a child when a friend of mine introduced Queen to me. I hardly knew a thing about this English rock band in that moment, but soon I became an unconditional fan. As I was listening to more and more music by Queen, Freddie Mercury’s voice seemed to have no limits; he was able to sing any kind of music, even opera with Montserrat Caballé!


Apart from Freddie’s voice, which many people believe was the only reason for Queen’s success, the rest of the members of the band were - and luckily still are - very good musicians. It was their combined hard work that made this band so successful. They transformed any music style in their own so you can identify a song is theirs from the very beginning. Besides, their videos were full of irony and imagination as well as revolutionary and controversial.


Finally, I don’t think not only did Queen change the way music videos were filmed, they also became a band the newer groups took into acount.


When the life of Freddie Mercury came to an end on 24th November 1991, the whole world was shocked. Who could imagine that only 24 hours after he had announced he suffered from AIDS he would be dead? I remember the next day we did not have to attend lessons at school because there was a teachers’ strike, so I was able to spend that morning with some friends; we all agreed that we would have liked to enjoy further albums by Queen.


In addition to yesterday’s post, I’d like to enclose one of the best songs Queen has ever written from my point of view, The Miracle, because it was one of the very first by Queen that I ever heard, so you may understand why I became fond on the band. I hope you will like it as much as I do. 


Sadly, the message of the song is suitable nowadays, but “one day you’ll see when we can all be friends”.

LUCIA LOSADA: Enchanting Krakow, POLAND

Travelling on a budget? Eager to visit a not so common touristy place? Then, you should consider one of our most unknown European neighbours, Poland. Nowadays, it’s as easy as ever: only three and a half hours by plane keep you away from Krakow and its tiny airport and, by the way, you’ll find a fairly good deal if you choose a low cost airline. Don’t worry about accommodation either, since Krakow has plenty of hotels, hostels and apartments for rent, all of them cosy and cheap, although you should book any of them in advance. 

Krakow, included in the World Heritage List, is the second biggest city in Poland and also its cultural and artistic centre, although Warsaw was chosen over it as the official capital since the very end of the 17TH century. Maybe this decision helped Krakow to “survive” WW II in better shape than Warsaw, which was seriously damaged. Nevertheless, you’ll still find traces of the Nazi occupation – and its later “communist/USSR-friendly” period, which was indeed some kind of occupation too - wherever you look.

But let’s go step by step. The first spot you’ll surely visit is the Main Square or Main Market Square. Believe me, there’s no way you’ll miss it, because it’s the largest medieval main square in Europe! You’ll end up there countless of times because the city life revolves around it. It was once filled with an enormous city hall – there’s only a tower left now -, a church and the Cloth Market ... but now it’s packed with tons of tourists, Spaniards included. So, if you are expecting to spend your holidays practicing English without hearing someone speaking Spanish whenever you turn your head ... let me tell you something: that place doesn’t exist anymore.

Krakow's Main Square

But you can drown your sorrows at one of the many cafes and restaurants that you’ll find within the city’s ancient walls, demolished mainly to let the town grow a little more in the 19th century, or at the lively Jewish quarter. Seize the opportunity to try the delicious Polish cuisine and, if you have some time and money, purchase some souvenirs at the Cloth Market. The amber jewellery, as well as the leather or fur items and wooden crafts are the most popular products. Just be sure to remember that you can’t use your Euros in Poland, since Poles have their own currency, the Złoty. If you are as bad at Maths as me, just keep in mind that almost anything is going to be cheaper than it is in Spain. That should be enough.

If you are keen on museums, there’s a bunch you can visit in Krakow. I’ll recommend you two of them: the City’s History Museum, placed right under the Main Square, where you can see the remains of the Old City Hall, and Oskar Schindler's factory, a really didactic and entertaining museum about the WW II in Krakow.

Wawel Castle

Aren’t you familiar with the city yet? Then, you should pay a visit to Wawel Castle and Jagiellonian University. The castle is, in fact, a majestic group of buildings (including Krakow’s cathedral) where the Polish kings used to live until they decided to move to Warsaw. Actually, the Nazis left Poland before they had the chance to destroy the whole structure, so we are lucky to visit it nowadays. Jagiellonian University is about one hundred years “younger” than Salamanca University, but it also had some famous students, such as Copernicus or Pope John Paul II. 

Krakow is a place where you can go walking almost everywhere (no slopes whatsoever!), but you’ll need to take a bus to get to your next destination: the Wieliczka salt mine. The entrance ticket is a bit expensive but the visit is really worth it. Believe me when I say that you haven’t seen anything like this salt mine before. It was included on the first list of World Heritage Sites in 1978 and it was active until 2007… from the 13th century! But it isn’t just a salt mine. Life must have been kind of boring down there, so miners decided to spend some of their time carving statues and even chapels out of the rock salt. The guided tour takes about two hours, but you are only allowed to see less than 1% of the mine. Awesome is the most accurate word I can think of to describe this place.

Wieliczka Salt Mine

But thinking about Polish history also means thinking about WW II, so let me give you my last piece of advice: visiting Auschwitz is a must. Obviously, it isn’t easy, but it is just something you have to do, because, as Spanish philosopher George Santayana said once: “The one who does not remember History is bound to live through it again”. The Polish want to remember, so the entrance is free for that reason. No words can describe how you feel when you visit Auschwitz, but you won’t feel comfortable anywhere, even if you are surrounded by tons of tourists. If you want to leave Krakow with a smile on your face, just don’t visit Auschwitz on your very last day.

To sum up, Krakow is one of the most charming places in Old Europe, full of art, history ... and bars, so don’t miss a once in a lifetime opportunity and head to Poland. You won’t regret it!

Auschwitz

Elena Herrero: GALILEO, WAS HE REALLY THE FIRST?

Hi folks! Do you want to know a bit more about Galileo?

In 1609, Galileo Galilei turned his own version of a kind of telescope towards the sky, using a magnification of just 30. He decided that the earth moved around the sun and not vice versa; as you know, as a result of this, he was accused of heresy by the Church, since they could not hold back science.

Galileo is supposed to have been the first human being to see the moon´s craters, as well as Venus, Jupiter or the stars of the Milky Way, but was Galileo really the first?

For centuries, the Italian scientist was considered the first man to have used a telescope to study the heavens, but nowadays new evidence has appeared which suggests that Galileo was actually the second person to achieve this scientific breakthrough. Research that has recently come to light shows that Thomas Harriot, an unknown English astronomer, had drawn some maps, never published before, with drafts of the moon, Jupiter´s satellites, sunspots and even Halley's Comet, five months earlier than Galileo´s drawings. 

But Galileo was also on the news some years ago because of another macabre reason: Some Italian scientists were trying to exhume Galileo´s body in order to access his DNA, in an attempt to understand how the astronomer was able to developed his revolutionary theories about the universe, bearing in mind that he was gradually going blind, because he suffered from a degenerative eye disease. It might explain some of the mistakes he made in his drawings.

Well, I´ve attached a couple of great YouTube clip related to Galileo. Enjoy them!

Thank you so much once again, dear Elena. Your post suitably supplements the reading about the famous Italian astronomer in unit 2. Very enlightening indeed!

Pau Gasol: Ten years on ...

November 1st 2011 marked the tenth anniversary of Pau Gasol’s arrival at the worldwide famous American basketball league, the NBA. Pau was at the time a skinny lad with a lot of promise, having succeeded in helping FC Barcelona to a couple of domestic titles, if my memory doesn't fail me.

Most experts and analysts in Spain were pretty skeptical about a likely illustrious career, which indeed the 7-footer has had over these ten years, when he signed for a modest franchise, the Memphis Grizzlies. However, Pau had an immediate impact on the team (and the game) and was awarded the "rookie (novato) of the year" trophy. 

I probably don’t need to talk about his subsequent move to the more glamorous LA Lakers, the two championship rings so far, his all-star appearances and even the famous quote by Mr Barack Obama himself (and he knows the stuff, as he played the sport – and still does, it seems), deeming him the best power-forward in the league. 

Of course, I shouldn’t forget to praise what he’s done for my beloved sport in Spain, leading our national team to a string of triumphs worldwide over the last decade. Now he is totally determined and focused to win an Olympic medal (well, the FIBA officials permitting, since they’re usually too lenient with the haughty Americans’ constant travelling violations – pasos, that is) in London this next year; but whatever the outcome, Pau Gasol is to me, no doubt whatsoever, the greatest basketball player ever in our country, isn’t he? The “Michael Jordan of Spain”, as it were.

But not only do I admire Pau as a well-rounded player on the court, but especially off it, as he’s an intelligent, articulate, well educated man (his parents are largely responsible, and his younger siblings, Marc and Adriá, are no exception), who also oozes great charisma and makes me really proud whenever I hear him speak to the media, both domestic and internationally. And the way he speaks English, I mean, he almost sounds like a native American!

So I thought I should end this entry by embedding a couple of interesting interviews (for the sake of listening comprehension) he gave in recent years. The first in June last year to one of the most respected sports journalists in the USA, Ahmad Rashad, a former football all-star himself. Pau talks in his LA home about his background, his family, and his other passions - his “diverse talents and interests”:

Then on a more frivolous note, in January this year Pau was the special guest of the peculiar Scottish-American talk show host, Craig Ferguson.  A far more relaxed atmosphere in the studio. Funny how Craig is amused (and bemused) by Pau's comparison between LA and Barcelona!

So dear Pau, thank you so much for ten years of success in the sport I love but, above all, for being a truly great ambassador of Spain across the world.