brainwashed

George Harrison's intimate and insightful final album was released almost a year after his death. He had begun work on 'Brainwashed' after the release of his previous solo album 'Cloud Nine' and continued off and on for the thirteen years that followed at various locations. During that time he recorded two albums with Bob Dylan, Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison, and Tom Petty as the Travelling Wilburys. In 1997, he underwent radiation treatment for throat cancer. In 1999, he was stabbed in one of his lungs at his home in Friar Park by a deranged intruder, which may have contributed to the development of a cancer of the lungs that spread to his brain. After his near-death experiences, he dedicated himself to finishing the album and shared his vision for it with his son Dhani. Dhani remembers: “He worked very slowly and he spent most of his time gardening. To get him in the studio was very hard. He wasn’t doing it for anybody else. He didn’t care about the music industry...We’d be by ourselves a lot of the time and it was like a cottage industry. I’d be pressing the play and stop buttons. I did it because he needed a buddy and we were friends. He was just playing around. But when my dad played around he was very serious.”

As the sessions continued, they brought in Jeff Lynne as well to assist on production. After George died on November 29, 2001, Lynne and Dhani went into the studio to finish up the work on the album according to the specifications of the late Beatle. Dhani says: “I don’t think my dad cared if he released it. But I cared because in my opinion the record was so good. He never said I should finish it but I always knew I’d have to eventually...We worked through it methodically and filled in where needed. But we never committed fraud on the recordings. It was all my dad and we worked according to his rules and values. It just took us a bit longer because he wasn’t there to ask if it was right or not.”

'Brainwashed' charted at sixty-two in Austria, fifty-eight in Switzerland, twenty-nine in the UK, twenty-one in Japan, eighteen in Sweden and the US, seventeen in Germany, and nine in Norway. In addition to co-production by George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, and Dhani Harrison; credits on the album include: George Harrison on lead vocals, lead guitar, slide guitar, dobro, ukulele, keyboards, bass, and percussion; Jeff Lynne on bass, guitar, piano, keyboards, percussion, and backing vocals; Dhani Harrison on guitar, Wurlitzer electric piano, and backing vocals; and Jim Keltner on drums; plus Mike Moran on keyboards; Marc Mann on keyboards and string arrangement; Ray Cooper on percussion and drums; Jools Holland on piano; Mark Flannagan on acoustic lead guitar; Joe Brown on acoustic guitar; Herbie Flowers on bass and tuba; Bickram Ghosh on tabla; Jon Lord on piano; Sam Brown on backing vocals; Jane Lister on harp; and Isabela Borzymowska doing a reading from 'How To Know God' (The Yoga Aphorisms of Patanjali).

George expounded in an interview in 1997: "You know I get confused when I look around at the world and I see everybody’s running around and you know, as Bob Dylan said, "he not busy being born, he’s busy dying" and yet nobody’s trying to figure out what’s the cause of death and what happens when you die. I mean that to me is the only thing really that’s of any importance. The rest is all secondary. I believe in the thing I read years ago, which I think was in the bible, it said, 'knock and the door will be opened', and it’s true. If you want to know anything in this life you just have to knock on the door. Whether that be physically on somebody else’s door and ask them a question or, which I was lucky to find, is meditation, is you know it’s all within. And that’s really why for me this record’s important, because it’s another little key to open up the within. For each individual to be able to sit and turn of, um...'turn off your mind relax and float downstream' and listen to something that has it’s root in a transcendental, because really even all the words of these songs, they carry with it a very subtle spiritual vibration. And it goes beyond intellect really. So if you let yourself be free to let that have an affect on you, it can have an affect, a positive affect."











http://www.georgeharrison.com/

"Any Road"

If you don't know where you're going any road'll take you there.

"Marwa Blues" won the Grammy for Best Pop Instrumental Performance

"Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea" 

"Brainwashed" 

Brainwashed in our childhood


Brainwashed by the school


Brainwashed by our teachers


And brainwashed by all their rules


Brainwashed by our leaders


By our Kings and Queens


Brainwashed in the open


And brainwashed behind the scenes






God God God


A voice cries in the wilderness


God God God


It was on the longest night


God God God


An eternity of darkness


God God God


Someone turned out the spiritual light






Brainwashed by the Nikkei


Brainwashed by Dow Jones


Brainwashed by the FTSE


Nasdaq and secure loans


Brainwashed us from Brussels


Brainwashed us in Bonn


Brainwashed us in Washington


Westminster in London






God God God


You are the wisdom that we seek


God God God


The lover that we miss


God God God


Your nature is eternity


God God God


Your are Existence, Knowledge, Bliss






The soul does not love, it is love itself


It does not exist, it is existence itself


It does not know, it is knowledge itself


How to Know God, pag 130






They brainwashed my great uncle


Brainwashed my cousin Bob


They even got my grandma


When she was working for the mob


Brainwash you while you're sleeping


While in your traffic jam


Brainwash you while you're weeping


While still a baby in your pram


Brainwashed by the military


Brainwashed under duress


Brainwashed by the media


You're brainwashed by the press


Brainwashed by computer


Brainwashed by mobile phones


Brainwashed by the satellite


Brainwashed to the bone






God God God


Won't you lead us through this mess


God God God


From the places of concrete


God God God


Nothing's worse than ignorance


God God God


I just won't accept defeat






God God God


Must be something I forgot


God God God


Down on Bullshit Avenue


God God God


If we can only stop the rot


God God God


Wish that you'd brainwash us too






Namah Parvarti Pataye Hare Hare Mahadev


Namah Parvarti Pataye Hare Hare


Namah Parvarti Pataye Hare Hare






Shiva Shiva Shankara Mahadeva


Hare Hare Hare Hare Mahadeva


Shiva Shiva Shankara Mahadeva


Shiva Shiva Shankara Mahadeva






Namah Parvarti Pataye Hare Hare


Namah Parvarti Pataye Hare Hare


Shiva Shiva Shankara Mahadeva


Shiva Shiva Shankara Mahadeva






'Brainwashed' 
full album:

All songs written by George Harrison, except "Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea" written by Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler.

"Any Road" – 3:52

"P2 Vatican Blues (Last Saturday Night)" – 2:38

"Pisces Fish" – 4:50

"Looking for My Life" – 3:49

"Rising Sun" – 5:27

"Marwa Blues" – 3:40

"Stuck Inside a Cloud" – 4:04

"Run So Far" – 4:05

First recorded by Eric Clapton on his Journeyman album in 1989, with Harrison on guitar

"Never Get Over You" – 3:26

"Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea" – 2:34

This recording is from a 1992 TV broadcast

"Rocking Chair in Hawaii" – 3:07

Originally demoed in 1970 for All Things Must Pass

"Brainwashed" – 6:07

Includes a concluding prayer, the "Namah Parvati", a mantra dedicated to the Hindu goddess Parvati, chanted by Harrison and his son Dhani Harrison in unison.