A long-lost guitar solo from George Harrison was discovered by The Beatles‘ long-serving producer George Martin and Harrison’s son, Dhani.
The pair had been meddling with the master tapes of Abbey Road tracks for a documentary when they stumbled across the Harrison guitar solo. Neither man recalled Harrison having recorded the guitar track, with Martin looking stunned to have found the missing instrumental. The moment was captured on camera as a supplementary piece for the Martin Scorsese documentary, Living in the Material World. The four-hour documentary offers a full breakdown of Harrison’s life and work, with a number of surprises within. One such surprise showcased Harrison and Martin pulling apart Here Comes the Sun in the studio and uncovering the guitar solo for the first time.
Giles Martin also joined Harrison and Martin in the studio and, once the solo starts, says: “And here is the solo he played which never made the final cut.” Harrison looks delighted, while Martin looks completely stunned by the find. Harrison says: “It is totally different to anything I have ever heard.”
Martin added: “I’d forgotten that one,” before Harrison adds: “I never even knew about this.” Martin then adds at the end, speaking to Harrison: “You’ve got it too, you’re just like your father.” Listeners were quick to praise this different version of Here Comes the Sun, with the guitar solo adding a whole new element to the song that they didn’t know they needed.
One person wrote in the comments of a YouTube upload of the clip: “I like the calm version, but that guitar riff is beautiful.” Another added: “This is amazing. I can’t believe these tapes were still around. The bottom line is, The Beatles were four of the most talented guys in the industry ever. Harrison’s son sounds so much like George it’s hard to believe.”
A third hailed Martin’s production skills, writing: “God bless George Martin. He contributed so much to the texture and brilliance of their songs.” Elsewhere, Beatles fans believe George Martin is annoyed at himself for seemingly having skipped over the instrumental additions to one of the Fab Four’s most-streamed songs.
One listener wrote: “No wonder George got frustrated. I mean, I love Here Comes the Sun as released, but that was great to hear.” Another disagreed, adding: “It was really great to hear, but the song is already perfect. I’d rather hear this as some unreleased remastered version later. I think they made the right call not including it.”
A third added: “I love the smile on Dhani’s face when he hears this. The next part they don’t show is that he points out there is a certain Indian music cadence to the song that I can’t remember the name of. George Martin smiles at him and says, ‘You’re just like your dad.’ Such a sweet moment!”
You can watch the breakdown of Here Comes the Sun below
Discover more from Cult Following
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
