When The Beatles disbanded 50 years ago in 1970, there was an almost instantaneous collation of their work. The world was well aware of the influence they had possessed during their time together and the notion that any item they had touched, smelled or even come close to was now a financially valuable was gathering pace.
Given the demand, it makes it all the more extraordinary that anything could have ever gone noticed. However, in the below footage George Harrison’s son, Dhani, alongside famed Beatles producer George Martin and his son Giles, discover one of the guitarist’s lost solos on The Beatles’ classic ‘Here Comes The Sun’.
There isn’t much we don’t know about The Beatles. The most famous band in the whole world have had their history pawed over countless times and it appears no stone was left unturned. But, somewhat recently, as part of Martin Scorsese’s 2011 documentary George Harrison: Living In The Material World, we had a reminder that we should never stop looking.
In what arrived as a bonus extra scene on the DVD release of the documentary, a section which captured Harrison’s son and an expert guitarist himself, sees Dhani attending a studio session with George and Giles Martin. During the session, the trio are playing around with George Harrison’s most famous Beatles song ‘Here Comes The Sun’.
The track was composed as a moment of light relief from the intensity of the Fab Four’s working as George and his friend, Eric Clapton, mosied around the latter’s garden and causally strummed out one of the greatest songs of all time. “‘Here Comes The Sun’ was written at the time when Apple was getting like school, where we had to go and be businessmen: ‘Sign this’ and ‘Sign that’,” remembered Harrison in The Beatles Anthology.
“Anyway, it seems as if winter in England goes on forever; by the time spring comes you really deserve it,” he added. “So one day I decided I was going to sag off Apple and I went over to Eric Clapton’s house. The relief of not having to go and see all those dopey accountants was wonderful, and I walked around the garden with one of Eric’s acoustic guitars and wrote ‘Here Comes The Sun’.”
Largely regarded as one of Harrison’s finest works, the guitarist, it would seem, did make one concession on the song’s composition and that was the ditching of his “lost” solo. As you can see in the footage below, the solo was a surprise to all involved and seems a genuine moment of discovery.
The trio fiddle around in the studio, raising Harrison’s voice to the fore, then the illustrious backing band and then suddenly, a bolt from the blue, as Harrison’s undoubted tonal guitar sound comes roaring out of the speakers. “It’s totally different to anything I’ve ever heard,” remarks Dhani.
