"Soft-Hearted Hana" | |
---|---|
![]() Canadian single label (B-side) | |
Song by George Harrison | |
from the album George Harrison | |
Released | 20 February 1979 |
Genre | Music hall, old-time |
Length | 4:03 |
Label | Dark Horse |
Songwriter(s) | George Harrison |
Producer(s) | George Harrison, Russ Titelman |
George Harrison track listing | |
10 tracks |
"Soft-Hearted Hana" is a song by English rock musician George Harrison from his 1979 album George Harrison . In North America, it was also issued as the B-side of the album's lead single, "Blow Away", while in Britain and some other markets it was the B-side of the follow-up, "Love Comes to Everyone". The lyrics recall Harrison's experiences under the hallucinatory effects of magic mushrooms while holidaying on the Hawaiian island of Maui. The song title refers to Hana, a remote town on the island, and is a play on that of the 1920s ragtime tune "Hard Hearted Hannah".
Harrison began writing the song in Los Angeles in response to Ted Templeman, a staff producer at Warner Bros. Records, suggesting he compose something in a similar style to his 1971 track "Deep Blue". He wrote the lyrics in Hawaii in February 1978, during the main writing period for George Harrison, his first album in over two years. Recorded at Harrison's FPSHOT studio in Oxfordshire, the track features dobro, jazz piano, tuba and prominent chorus vocals, as well as voices and sounds captured in his local pub. The musical arrangement recalls the music hall tradition, while the composition's old-time qualities reflect Harrison's earliest influences from the pre-rock and roll era. The other musicians on the recording include Neil Larsen and Stevie Winwood.
The song's lyrics employ, variously, psychedelic imagery, rhyming slang, humorous non sequiturs and John Keats-like symbolism. The song was well received by several music critics and revealed a comedic side of Harrison that was relatively unfamiliar to listeners. Author Simon Leng recognises "Soft-Hearted Hana" as the start of the "Pythonization of Harrison's music", [1] referring to the Monty Python comedy troupe and Harrison's role as a film producer of British comedies such as Monty Python's Life of Brian .
I hadn't had any psychedelic drugs for almost ten years, so I thought maybe I should have it to just see if it reminds me of anything. You have to be careful with mushrooms because they're so good … I nearly did myself in; I had too many. I fell over and left my body, hit my head on a piece of concrete – but they were great. [2]
– George Harrison, 1987
Having taken most of 1977 off to travel with the Formula 1 World Championship, [3] George Harrison decided to record a new album of songs to satisfy the demands of his racing driver friends [4] and to repay the patience of Warner Bros. Records, the company that distributed his Dark Horse record label. [5] [6] During a conversation about the album in Los Angeles with the company's executives, [7] Ted Templeman, a Warner's staff producer, expressed his admiration for "Deep Blue", the B-side of Harrison's 1971 single "Bangla Desh"; Templeman suggested he write another song in that style. Harrison came up with the music for the new song that night, using similar chords to "Deep Blue". [8] [nb 1] He said that it was a "more 'up'" tune than "Deep Blue", which was "down" and written about his mother's deterioration from cancer, but he was unable to find the right lyrics at first. [10]
Harrison then went to Hana on the Hawaiian island of Maui in February 1978, [11] where he finished the song during a fruitful period for his songwriting. [12] [13] He titled it "Soft-Hearted Hana" after the town of Hana, and as a play on the title of "Hard Hearted Hannah (The Vamp of Savannah)". [14] The latter was a 1920s ragtime standard [15] that Harrison had become familiar with through a 1961 recording by the Temperance Seven, which was produced by George Martin, the Beatles' producer. [14] Harrison's inspiration for the "crazy" lyrics came from ingesting magic mushrooms, which he said was his first experience of hallucinogenic drugs for perhaps ten years. He also wrote "Here Comes the Moon" during this time, drawing inspiration again from the lush natural surroundings on Maui [16] [17] and from the magic mushrooms. [18] [19] [20] Another new composition was "Sooty Goes to Hawaii", [21] a comedy song that Harrison wrote about Sooty, the popular glove puppet character from British television. [22] Olivia Harrison – Harrison's girlfriend at the time, and soon to be his wife – recalls that this visit represented the start of their "love affair with Hawaii", as well as providing the inspiration for "Soft-Hearted Hana" and other songs on the 1979 album George Harrison . [23]
Author Simon Leng says that "Soft-Hearted Hana" was Harrison's "first obvious drug song" since his 1967 composition for the Beatles "It's All Too Much". [24] He recognises the mood as similar to Harrison's rustic, Band-inspired songs on his 1970 triple album All Things Must Pass , [25] while author Robert Rodriguez describes the song as old-time music. [14] In the lyrics, Harrison recounts his episode under the influence of mushrooms, and recalls their hallucinatory powers. [15] Among the psychedelic imagery he employs, [14] he describes the sensation of feeling elevated far above the ground, with his legs appearing to be "like high-rise buildings" and his head so "high up in the sky" that he began to "fry like bacon". [26]
Author Ian Inglis identifies several "Dylanesque characters" in the narrative, including "Richard III", "Seven naked native girls" and "Lone-ranger smoking doobies". [15] Another individual asks Harrison whether they had not just met "up on Haleakala", referring to the volcanic crater overlooking Hana. [27] These phrases appear in the song's two middle-eights, [26] which are separated by an instrumental passage played over the same chord sequence as the verses. Inglis comments that whereas Harrison's songs from earlier in the 1970s "Simply Shady" and "Tired of Midnight Blue" offer a self-rebuke on drug-taking, the singer reacts to the characters he encounters in "Soft-Hearted Hana" with the statement: "I'm still smiling." [15] Leng notes the effectiveness of the rhyming slang in Harrison's reference to Richard III, [nb 2] and says that the second middle eight represents "the longest string of deliberate non sequiturs" in Harrison's oeuvre: [24]
Seven naked native girls swam seven sacred pools
Lone-ranger smoking doobies said you're breaking all the rules
You'd better get your clothes on or else there'll be a row
If it wasn't for my sunstroke I would take you on right now ...
In the final verse, the narrative changes as Harrison sings earnestly of his new, idyllic home, referring to Hana as "she". [15] He pictures the town "beneath the crater, in the meadow" and surrounded by vegetation. [26] Inglis likens Harrison's female personification of Hana amid "fruit and grain" to a literary device employed by English poet John Keats in his "Ode to Autumn". He cites this similarity when concluding that "comparisons between the Beatles and the young Romantic poets of the early nineteenth century (Percy Shelley, Lord Byron, and Keats, among others) may legitimately extend to their creative use of language, as well as their public fascination." [15]
Harrison recorded "Soft-Hearted Hana" at his home studio, FPSHOT, in Oxfordshire [29] [30] during sessions held between April and October 1978. [31] [32] The recording coincided with a period of tranquility in his life [11] [22] as he and Arias awaited the birth of their first child. [33] Rather than with Templeman, Harrison produced the album with Russ Titelman, another Warner Bros. staff producer. [34] [35] Titelman's previous projects included Ry Cooder's Chicken Skin Music , [36] a 1976 album that reflected Cooder's adoption of Hawaiian musical influences. [37] The musicians accompanying Harrison on the song were keyboard player Neil Larsen and the rhythm section of Willie Weeks (bass) and Andy Newmark (drums). [38] The horns for this and other songs on the album were arranged by Del Newman [39] and recorded at AIR Studios in London. [40]
As on "Deep Blue" in 1971, the lead instrument on "Soft-Hearted Hana" is a dobro, played by Harrison. [41] Authors Chip Madinger and Mark Easter consider the song's arrangement to be in the music hall tradition, aside from the inclusion of the dobro. [42] The piano part was performed by Larsen [24] in the style of ragtime pianist Jelly Roll Morton. [42] [nb 3] Newman's horn arrangement included a prominent tuba part, [24] while chorus vocals on the "I'm still smiling" middle-eights were sung by Harrison and Steve Winwood. The singalong mood of the track was furthered by the inclusion of spoken voices and background sounds, evoking a party scene. [18] [15] These parts were recorded at Harrison's local pub in Henley-on-Thames, [43] the Row Barge. [7] [nb 4] At the end of the song, the recording was subjected to heavy varispeeding, creating dramatic changes in pitch during the fade-out. [46]
George Harrison was released on Dark Horse Records on 20 February 1979. [47] "Soft-Hearted Hana" was sequenced as the fourth track, between "Here Comes the Moon" and the album's lead single, "Blow Away". [48] In North America, "Soft-Hearted Hana" was issued as the B-side of "Blow Away", which was released on 16 February. [49] In Britain, it appeared as the B-side of the follow-up single, "Love Comes to Everyone", [50] which was originally scheduled as the lead single there. [51] That same year, Harrison furthered his ties to Hawaii when he bought Kuppu Qulua, [52] a property in Nahiku, near Hana. [53] In the album credits, he dedicated "Soft-Hearted Hana" to Bob Longhi, [54] [55] who owned Longhi's restaurant in Lahaina, on the opposite side of Maui from Hana. [18]
Harrison did minimal promotion for the album, [56] [57] content to let the music make its mark as he focused on establishing HandMade Films to finance Monty Python's Life of Brian and other Python-related film projects. [58] [59] The album received favourable reviews from music critics. [60] [61] In Rolling Stone , Stephen Holden wrote: "George Harrison is refreshingly lighthearted ... The arrangements are the most concise and springy to be found on any Harrison record. 'Not Guilty,' 'Here Comes the Moon' and 'Soft-Hearted Hana' transport us back into psychedelic lotus land, but their tone is so airy and whimsical that the nostalgia is as seductive as it is anachronistic." [62] Writing in Melody Maker , E.J. Thribb also welcomed the release, saying that "light-heartedness seems to infiltrate the music on this album, almost to the point of light-headedness", and he added of "Soft-Hearted Hana": "Eric Clapton first played me this a while back, and chuckled gently over the curious wobble speeds employed in the final chorus ... If you're not ready for it, you could fear your turntable has developed Parkinson's Disease." [46] [63]
Harry George of the NME credited Harrison's happiness with Olivia as the impetus for an album that was "a revelation compared to its predecessors" and he praised Harrison's guitar playing, saying: "'Soft-Hearted Hana' finds our hero out of his box at a party, McCartneyesque backing vocals and bucolic bottleneck showing a lightness of touch not seen in years. Ideal for poolside or fireside." [64] Writing in 1981, NME critic Bob Woffinden rated the production, musicianship and musical arrangements throughout the album as the equal of the Beatles' work and said that the song "showed a facility [in Harrison] for switching style and mood that, again, rendered comparisons with the Beatles not at all invidious". [65]
Filled with schoolboy humor and gags, "Soft-Hearted Hana" rivals Cheech and Chong at their peak for multiple drug allusions. The reference to swimming in the midst of a "Richard III" shows the millionaire had not lost touch with the toilet humor on which the British Empire was built. [24]
– Harrison biographer Simon Leng, 2006
In his retrospective review for AllMusic, Richard Ginell was unimpressed by the album but he recognised "Soft-Hearted Hana" as one of the rare "quirks" among a mostly bland collection of songs and "a strange, stream-of-consciousness Hawaiian hallucination". [66] Writing for Rough Guides, Chris Ingham said that George Harrison was worth the two-year wait and, just as "Blow Away" "perfectly conveys the breezy change of mood" Harrison had undergone, "Soft-Hearted Hana" "jazzily details his experience with magic mushrooms". [67]
Among Harrison and Beatles biographers, Simon Leng views the song as the first instalment of the "Pythonization of Harrison's music", the "culmination" of which came with the 1981 track "Save the World". [1] Chip Madinger and Mark Easter recognise the song as an early indication of Harrison's fondness for popular music from the pre-rock and roll era. They remark on its significance as an original composition, rather than an updated cover in the manner of Harrison's version of the Cole Porter standard "True Love", which Harrison released on his 1976 album Thirty Three & 1/3 . [42] Harrison subsequently indulged his love of 1930s jazz, [68] specifically Cab Calloway, in two of the songs he wrote for the soundtrack of the 1986 HandMade comedy Shanghai Surprise : "Hottest Gong in Town", which again features a Morton-style piano part, [69] and "Zig Zag". [70] [nb 5] Robert Rodriguez says that "Soft-Hearted Hana" is one of the "standout tunes" on an album that ranks among the best Beatle solo releases of the 1970–1980 period. [74] While he credits Titelman with reining in Harrison's "increasingly idiosyncratic" tendencies at a time when his music had little in common with contemporary rock and pop trends, Rodriguez expresses surprise that Harrison did not play ukulele on the track, given his attachment to the instrument and to Hawaii. [75]
According to Simon Leng: [25]
George Harrison is the eighth studio album by English rock musician George Harrison, released in February 1979. It was written and recorded through much of 1978, a period of domestic contentment for Harrison, during which he married Olivia Arias and became a father for the first time, to son Dhani. Harrison wrote several of the songs in Hawaii, while the track "Faster" reflected his year away from music-making, when he and Arias attended many of the races in the 1977 Formula 1 World Championship. The album also includes the hit single "Blow Away" and "Not Guilty", a song that Harrison originally recorded with the Beatles in 1968.
Thirty Three & ⅓ is the seventh studio album by English musician George Harrison, released in November 1976. It was Harrison's first album release on his Dark Horse record label, the worldwide distribution for which changed from A&M Records to Warner Bros. as a result of his late delivery of the album's master tapes. Among other misfortunes affecting its creation, Harrison suffered hepatitis midway through recording, and the copyright infringement suit regarding his 1970–71 hit song "My Sweet Lord" was decided in favour of the plaintiff, Bright Tunes Music. The album contains the US top 30 singles "This Song" – Harrison's satire on that lawsuit and the notion of plagiarism in pop music – and "Crackerbox Palace". Despite the problems associated with the album, many music critics recognised Thirty Three & ⅓ as a return to form for Harrison after his poorly received work during 1974–75, and considered it his strongest collection of songs since 1970's acclaimed All Things Must Pass.
The Best of George Harrison is a 1976 compilation album by English musician George Harrison, released following the expiration of his EMI-affiliated Apple Records contract. Uniquely among all of the four Beatles' solo releases, apart from posthumous compilations, it mixes a selection of the artist's songs recorded with the Beatles on one side, and later hits recorded under his own name on the other.
"You" is a song by English musician George Harrison, released as the opening track of his 1975 album Extra Texture . It was also the album's lead single, becoming a top 20 hit in America and reaching number 9 in Canada. A 45-second instrumental portion of the song, titled "A Bit More of You", appears on Extra Texture also, opening side two of the original LP format. Harrison wrote "You" in 1970 as a song for Ronnie Spector, formerly of the Ronettes, and wife of Harrison's All Things Must Pass co-producer Phil Spector. The composition reflects Harrison's admiration for 1960s American soul/R&B, particularly Motown.
"Love Comes to Everyone" is a song by English rock musician George Harrison from his 1979 album George Harrison. It is the opening track on the album and was also issued as the second single, after "Blow Away". The song reflects Harrison's contentment in his personal life as he was soon to become a father for the first time and married his second wife, Olivia Arias. Despite its commercial qualities, and contrary to some reviewers' predictions at the time of release, the song failed to become a hit.
"Sue Me, Sue You Blues" is a song written by English musician George Harrison, released on his 1973 album Living in the Material World. Harrison initially let American guitarist Jesse Ed Davis record it for the latter's Ululu album (1972), in gratitude to Davis for his participation in the Concert for Bangladesh. When writing the song, Harrison drew inspiration from the legal issues surrounding the Beatles during the early months of 1971, particularly the lawsuit that Paul McCartney initiated in an effort to dissolve the band's business partnership, Apple Corps.
"Teardrops" is a song by English rock musician George Harrison from his 1981 album Somewhere in England. It was also issued as the second single off the album, in July 1981. As with the lead single, "All Those Years Ago", Harrison completed the song after Warner Bros. Records had rejected his initial submission of Somewhere in England in September 1980. In response to Warner's concerns, he wrote "Teardrops" as an attempt at a commercially oriented song.
"Faster" is a song by English rock musician George Harrison from his self-titled 1979 studio album. The song was inspired by Harrison's year away from music-making in 1977, during which he travelled with the Formula 1 World Championship, and by his friendship with racing drivers such as Jackie Stewart and Niki Lauda. Although equally applicable to other professions, the lyrics address the difficulties of achieving and maintaining success in the field of motorsport, particularly Formula 1.
"Māya Love" is a song by English musician George Harrison, released on his 1974 album Dark Horse. The song originated as a slide guitar tune, to which Harrison later added lyrics relating to the illusory nature of love – maya being a Sanskrit term for "illusion", or "that which is not". Harrison's biographers consider the lyrical theme to be reflective of his failed marriage to Pattie Boyd, who left him for his friend Eric Clapton shortly before the words were written. Harrison recorded the song at his home, Friar Park, on the eve of his North American tour with Ravi Shankar, which took place in November and December 1974. The recording features Harrison's slide guitar extensively and contributions from four musicians who formed the nucleus of his tour band: Billy Preston, Tom Scott, Willie Weeks and Andy Newmark. Reviewers note the track as an example of its parent album's more diverse musical genres, namely funk and rhythm and blues, compared with the more traditional rock orientation of Harrison's earlier solo work.
"His Name Is Legs " is a song by English rock musician George Harrison, released in 1975 as the closing track of his album Extra Texture . The song is a tribute to "Legs" Larry Smith, the drummer with the 1960s satirical-comedy group the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band and one of many comedians with whom Harrison began associating during the 1970s. Smith appears on the recording, delivering a spoken monologue, while Harrison's lyrics similarly reflect the comedian's penchant for zany wordplay. The song serves as a precursor to Harrison's work with Monty Python members Eric Idle and Michael Palin, including his production of the troupe's 1975 single "The Lumberjack Song" and films such as Life of Brian (1979) that he produced under the aegis of his company HandMade Films.
"Learning How to Love You" is a song by English musician George Harrison, released in 1976 as the closing track of his debut album on his Dark Horse record label, Thirty Three & 1/3. Harrison wrote the song for Herb Alpert, sometime singer and co-head of A&M Records, which at the time was the worldwide distributor for Dark Horse. Although the relationship with A&M soured due to Harrison's failure to deliver Thirty Three & 1/3 on schedule, resulting in litigation and a new distribution deal with Warner Bros. Records, Harrison still dedicated the song to Alpert in the album's liner notes.
"Here Comes the Moon" is a song by English rock musician George Harrison from his 1979 album George Harrison. Harrison wrote the song while on holiday on the Hawaiian island of Maui in February 1978. His inspiration for the composition was the appearance of the moon in the evening sky, just as the sun was setting. Although the lyrics focus on this natural occurrence rather than on the symbolism it suggests, in the manner of Harrison's Beatles track "Here Comes the Sun", the song is seen as a sequel to that similarly titled piece.
"Your Love Is Forever" is a song by English rock musician George Harrison from his 1979 album George Harrison. He wrote it as a guitar instrumental in an open tuning, before adding lyrics at the suggestion of his co-producer, Russ Titelman. The lyrics have an ambiguity typical of Harrison's work, in that the love he expresses is directed towards both a romantic partner and his God. In the United Kingdom, the song was also issued as the B-side of "Faster", on a charity single benefiting the cancer research project set up by the late Formula 1 driver Gunnar Nilsson.
"Soft Touch" is a song by English rock musician George Harrison from his 1979 album George Harrison. It was also issued as the B-side of the album's lead single, "Blow Away", in Britain and some other countries, while in markets such as North America, it was the B-side of the second single, "Love Comes to Everyone". Harrison wrote the song while in the Virgin Islands with his future wife, Olivia Arias, shortly before recording his 1976 album Thirty Three & ⅓. The song is a love song in which Harrison also conveys his wonder at the idyllic island setting.
"If You Believe" is a song by English musician George Harrison from his 1979 album George Harrison. Harrison began writing the song with Gary Wright on New Year's Day 1978 and finished the lyrics a month later while in Hawaii. The song appears as the final track on George Harrison. Its lyrics are a statement on the power of faith to bring about a desired outcome.
"Writing's on the Wall" is a song by English musician George Harrison from his 1981 album Somewhere in England. It was also the B-side of the album's lead single, "All Those Years Ago", which Harrison wrote as a tribute to his former Beatles bandmate John Lennon. In his lyrics, Harrison sings of the transient nature of life and the importance of recognising a spiritual purpose. Although the song was written long before Lennon's murder in New York in December 1980, the lyrics' reference to how easily friends can be shot down and killed led listeners to interpret it as a further comment on Lennon's death.
"Save the World" is a song by English rock musician George Harrison, released as the final track of his 1981 album Somewhere in England. It was also the B-side of "Teardrops", which was the second single off the album. An environmental protest song, "Save the World" was Harrison's first composition to directly address topical issues such as the nuclear arms race, rainforest and wildlife devastation, and the ecologically irresponsible practices of corporate concerns. Musically, the song partly recalls the style of the comedy troupe Monty Python.
"Life Itself" is a song by English musician George Harrison from his 1981 album Somewhere in England. Harrison also included it on his 1989 greatest-hits compilation Best of Dark Horse. As a love song to God, the track served as the artist's most overtly religious musical statement since 1974. The lyrics offer praise to Christ, Vishnu, Jehovah and Buddha, thereby marking a return to the concept of a universal deity, regardless of religious demarcation, that Harrison had first espoused in his 1970 hit single "My Sweet Lord".
Songs by George Harrison is a book of song lyrics and commentary by English musician George Harrison, with illustrations by New Zealand artist Keith West. It was published in February 1988, in a limited run of 2500 copies, by Genesis Publications, and included an EP of rare or previously unreleased Harrison recordings. Intended as a luxury item, each copy was hand-bound and boxed, and available only by direct order through Genesis in England. The book contains the lyrics to 60 Harrison compositions, the themes of which West represents visually with watercolour paintings. Starting in 1985, Harrison and West worked on the project for two years, during which Harrison returned to music-making with his album Cloud Nine, after focusing on film production for much of the early 1980s. The book includes a foreword by his Cloud Nine co-producer, Jeff Lynne, and a written contribution from Elton John.
Songs by George Harrison 2 is a book of song lyrics and commentary by English musician George Harrison, with illustrations by Keith West and an accompanying EP of previously unreleased Harrison recordings. It was published in June 1992, in a limited run of 2500 copies, by Genesis Publications. As with Harrison and West's first volume, published in 1988, each copy was hand-bound and available only by direct order through Genesis in England.