Eric Clapton and Friends
94.7 FM is the classic rock station. Today being Thanksgiving, there were two specials. One of them was the Eagles special. It was nice to be woken up and then stay in bed LYING and listening to "Lying Eyes". Hah!
The best was yet to come. Day after is George Harrison's Death Anniversary. So they had a one hour special called "Concert for George". It was great to hear Eric Clapton, Tom Petty ( Travelling Wilburys), his wife, Olivia and the usual suspects talk about George and music. The most entertaining of them all was of course, Ringo Starr. He is exactly what his character in "Help" portrays. He is different, not the cute looks of Paul, or maverick behaviour of John, or like soul searchingly quiet George. The good ole' regular bloke - Ringo. Despite everything being at a strange sort of peace. It was interesting to hear how George showed him how to hold the C chord.
Eric Clapton never took to Indian music despite George's efforts to get him and other guitarists to listen to Indian classical music. Olivia recounted how Eric finally agreed to play Ravi Shankar's arrangement. His bit is really great. Shankar's mammoth arrangement I felt, was too much of a pastiche to be anything distinctive. There was a shenai going crazy as usual, bits of Vishwa Mohan Bhatt on the Mohan Veena and Anoushka conducting some random vocals. Bit of a let down. Too much Indian Exotica, too little real music. "My Sweet Lord" is beautiful in that sense of being sincere to music and less to any image.
The rest of stuff was great though to hear George yell "Taxman". The two sides of Harrison.
"George's favourite was the diminished. He would play that and all the people would go crazy. It was beautiful."
Monty Python was the surprise entry adding the element of comic relief. "..George would not want a long speech about him cause he would be the first to shout out 'Rubbish'..."
Olivia Harrison
Greatest Moment
Eric's tribute to Harrison as he played "While my guitar gently weeps". I wish I could have enjoyed the song unadulterated without the comments during the song by Olivia in the programme. That too in the middle of the solo. Man! I need to get hold of the 2 set DVD.
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The only day I want to go to the Indian Store its closed. I jogged there in the cold expecting some nice 'samosas'. I had to be content to jog back and make some curd rice. Not bad considering they were playing the concert again. Ambience makes a huge difference.