Any Road Will Take You There

George Harrison Sings Us Through the Limbo

All things must pass.  Indeed. George Harrison wrote it in 69, recorded it in 70, and it has remained an unassailable fact ever since.  But something happened to the song the last time he performed it.  The year was 1997.  There is nothing to be done about it, but I am, by actuarial odds, a 90s person.  I was born in 1973, the year Harrison’s “Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth)” was a number one hit—a nice message, but it obviously didn’t land.  The song was on an album called Living in the Material World, and we are.  By 1997, Harrison realized all things were passing more and more, and it was unbearable.  This was his assessment of how the world was doing since The Beatles left it:

You know what irritates me about modern music, it's all based on ego.

"Look at a group like U2. Bono and his band are so egocentric - the more you jump around, the bigger your hat is, the more people listen to your music. The only important thing is to sell and make money.

"It's nothing to do with talent."

“The Beatles… had a value which will last forever".

"Today there are groups who sell lots of records and then disappear. Will we remember U2 in 30 years? Or the Spice Girls? I doubt it."

Keep in mind that Paul McCartney had performed “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” with Bono.  Keep in mind that it’s been well over 30 years and U2 are not going away.  Bono bowed to God and called him sir, but lived in a post-Beatle era when the spectacle had to keep getting bigger. They were a rock band when that was still a thing. Quick: can you name an important rock band with all members under 40?