Concert for George

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A rock-star tribute to George Harrison, former member of The Beatles.
Disc 1, complete concert (2 hr., 26 min.) -- Disc 2, theatrical version with additional material (2 hr., 20 min. [i.e. ca. 1 hr., 40 min.]).
Sarve Shaam (traditional prayer) -- Your eyes / Ravi Shankar -- The inner light / George Harrison -- Arpan / Ravi Shankar -- Sit on my face / Harry Parr-Davies -- Game show titles / Dave Howman, André Jacquemin -- Lumberjack song ; Spam song / Michael Palin, Terry Jones, Fred Tomlinson -- I want to tell you ; If I needed someone ; Old brown shoe ; Give me love, give me peace on earth ; Beware of darkness ; Here comes the sun ; That's the way it goes / George Harrison -- Horse to the water / George Harrison & Dhani Harrison -- Taxman ; I need you / George Harrison -- Handle with care / George Harrison ... [et al.] -- Isn't it a pity ; Photograph / George Harrison -- Honey don't / Carl Perkins -- For you blue ; Something ; All things must pass ; While my guitar gently weeps ; My sweet lord ; Wah Wah / George Harrison -- I'll see you in my dreams / Isham Jones, Gus Kahn.
DVD; full screen.

COMMUNITY REVIEWS

A Rather Touching Affair submitted by John J. Madonna on January 15, 2008, 11:08am The concert does a really nice job at both highlighting George's musical legacy and showing who he was as a person. Ravi Shankar's daughter played an Indian prayer, one of Shankar's own compositions, and one of George's tunes to demonstrate his spiritual side. Then Monty Python got up and did a few of their numbers to demonstrate George's comical side. Finally Eric Clapton comes in with a band of George's friends (including Paul, Ringo, Billy Preston, Gary Booker, Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty, his son Dhani and plenty of other guys well known to George enthusiasts) and goes through George's big hits, both solo and with The Beatles (as well as a Wilburys song thrown in there.) Bob Dylan, who was present at The Concert For Bangladesh, is conspicuously absent here (he was on tour at the time.)

The band might be five times the size it needs to be, but it's excusable because they're there to pay tribute to their friend. While some of the songs are really great arrangements ("Something" and "Horse To The Water" come to mind,) some are surprising bad ("Taxman" just sounds whiny for some reason.) Most of it though is okay and they at least piqued my interested in Harrison enough to get me to dive into the rest of his records.

The final song, which has never not made me cry, is a cover of "I'll See You In My Dreams" done by Joe Brown on ukulele (showing another side of George Harrison, the ukulele strumming, standards-loving musicians' musician.) It was a special event and the concert film is shot quite beautifully.