#georges jukebox

Hariprasad Chaurasia, George Harrison, and Shivkumar Sharma, 1973; photographer unnamed, photo courtesy of hariprasadchaurasia dot com.

Rest in peace, Shivkumar Sharma. Sincere condolences to his family and friends.

“George used to always say that if ever you are not feeling right, you should listen to Bob Dylan’s ‘Last Thoughts on Woody Guthrie’ and [Hariprasad Chaurasia, Shivkumar Sharma and Brij Bhushan Kabra’s] ‘Call of the Valley.’” - Olivia Harrison, The Hollywood Reporter, 22 October 2011

“‘Bhoop Ghara’ from Call of the Valley, recorded in 1967 by Shivkumar Sharma, Hariprasad Chaurasia and slide guitar player Brijbhusan Kabra, [Olivia recalls] was ‘something George had on our juke box. We played it as a remedy in our home if you were feeling a certain way. Kabra was one of George’s heroes as a slide guitarist, up there with Ry Cooder.’” - Songlines, 2018 (x)

George Harrison and Bob Dylan onstage at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame awards ceremony in January 1988; photo by David McGough.

“In music, it breaks down into the people who have more sort of a worldly consciousness, and that’s why I’ve always been with Ravi Shankar because he’s bringing, particular in the West, he’s bringing something obscure and creating an audience, and through his audience then he’s giving them something extra which, you know, that something which people who appreciate can get into, you know, it’s a whole other train of thought that comes from the music. You know, in simpler terms, those people are like people who just convey in their music some sort of sincerity. Like I’m a big fan of Smokey Robinson just because musically he’s so sweet, you know, he’s so sweet he makes you feel nice, he makes me feel good. Whereas a lot of music I listen to which is popular music which just makes me uptight, you know, even if I’m not listening too closely, just the sound of it and the whole thing, and the repetition, you know, the boring sort of repetition of how it’s playing. I always have been a fan of Dylan’s, and I think I always will be, because somehow, I don’t know, Dylan has always managed to upstage everybody, you know, when it comes down to being aware of being able to put into words… You know, I mean, we can feel and see a lot of things but when it comes down to writing a tune and being able to communicate this through words, I mean he’s very good at being able to put words down.” - George Harrison (on musicians he admired, 1975), KMET, 1975 (x)