My sweet George

Just 17 when he joined the band, for some time George Harrison was overshadowed by the talents of John Lennon and Paul McCartney. But, by the time the world's greatest rock group called it a day in 1970, Harrison had come to be recognised as a musical force in his own right. And of all the former Beatles, his was the solo career which garnered the most critical acclaim.

"What best describes George Harrison's career with The Beatles is that he was the one who changed the most," according to Ian Inglis, an academic who last year published The Beatles: Popular Music and Society. "John and Paul were very naturally-gifted musicians and composers. John had an emotional creativity and Paul had perhaps a commercial creativity, but George had to learn that.

"He was not a naturally-gifted musician, but he became a very talented one through sheer hard work. There are stories of him practising in his bedroom until his fingers were bleeding and cut to bits.

"He learned how to write songs from watching Lennon and McCartney. He learned how to become a celebrity, although he was never quite happy with the life of a celebrity, and that is why a lot of books on The Beatles tend to describe him as a junior partner."

While it may have been Lennon and McCartney who took most of the spotlight, there was no doubt that Harrison was as much a part of The Beatles, according to Mr Inglis, a senior lecturer in sociology at Northumbria University.

'I think with The Beatles, more than with any other group, what is interesting about them is that each member was absolutely central. Whereas other groups can replace their members, and have done on particular occasions, that was never the case with The Beatles. And I think George's contribution was as important as any other."

Harrison, who lost his battle with throat and lung cancer on Thursday at the age of 58, was the most reluctant to embrace celebrity. And he was the most affected by the relentless hysteria which greeted the group wherever they went.

"It was George who first complained that at these concerts nobody could hear the music because of the screaming," says Mr Inglis. "And, in a sense, it was George who almost announced the end of The Beatles after their last live show, in San Francisco in 1966. On the plane back, George turned to the others and said: 'That is it, I'm not a Beatle any more.'

"What he meant was that an era had come to an end. They were never going to be a touring band any more, they were going to concentrate on studio work.

"He was quite astute as to what was possible. His contribution to the overall career of The Beatles was, in some way, greater than Lennon and McCartney, because he recognised the stresses and strains."

When the time came for The Beatles to break up, it was Harrison's desire to have more than one or two songs on an LP which was as much a factor as Lennon's relationship with Yoko Ono, McCartney's relationship with Linda, and the sheer fatigue of being a Beatle for ten years.

"It was very noticeable that it was very difficult for George's musical ambitions to be contained within The Beatles. He wanted to do much more than just be given two or three songs and let the others take the limelight. He had a whole stack of ideas," says Mr Inglis.

It was in November 1969, just months before their split, that The Beatles released their first Harrison-penned single, the haunting Something, which reached number one in the US and number four in the UK. He was also responsible for While My Guitar Gently Weeps and Here Comes the Sun, among others.

It was Harrison's first major solo project, the triple album All Things Must Pass, released in 1970, that is widely considered to be the best work by a Beatle after their split. It reached the top spot in the US album charts and spawned the single My Sweet Lord, the first chart-topping single by an ex-Beatle.

"While they all pursued solo careers to some extent, George managed to pursue a career as an elder statesman of rock and roll. He became a very respected musician, someone others wanted to work with."

His legacy will also be the fusion of Western music with music from other cultures. It was Harrison who took The Beatles to India to meet the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who became their spiritual mentor. And it was Harrison who introduced the sitar and other elements of Indian music into pop, and could claim to be largely responsible for bringing both Orientalism and mysticism into Western culture in the late 1960s.

And it was Harrison who organised two concerts to help victims of famine and war in Bangladesh in 1971, a then revolutionary idea which laid the foundations for Live Aid more than a decade later

While his fame was inextricably bound up with The Beatles, it is many years since George Harrison could only be considered a second string player in a rock and roll phenomenon. His achievements over the last 40 years have ensured he deserves a place among the greats of rock music.

"I believe The Beatles were the most significant musical force of the post-war years and, for that reason alone, Harrison is desperately important," says Mr Inglis. "And as a solo artist, he deserves a lot of attention and respect for the idea of merging Western and Eastern music.

"In the early days of the group he was the junior partner, but as time progressed he outgrew the role and outgrew The Beatles themselves. He was the lad who had to practise for hours in front of a mirror to learn to play the guitar, but for 20 or 30 years he was the one who was most respected musically."

Read more about George Harrison here.