Who Can See It

"Who Can See It"
Song by George Harrison from the album Living in the Material World
Published Material World Charitable Foundation (administered by Harrisongs Ltd)
Released 30 May 1973 (US)
22 June 1973 (UK)
Genre Rock
Length 3:52
Label Apple
Writer George Harrison
Producer George Harrison
Living in the Material World track listing

"Who Can See It" is a song by English musician George Harrison, released on his 1973 album Living in the Material World. The lyrics reflect Harrison's uneasy feelings towards the Beatles' legacy, three years after their break-up, as well as a degree of bitterness at his perceived junior status to former bandmates John Lennon and Paul McCartney during the group's career. Music critics and biographers suggest that Harrison wrote "Who Can See It" during a period of personal anguish, in reaction to the level of acclaim he had received as a solo artist with the 1970 triple album All Things Must Pass and his 1971–72 Bangladesh aid project. The revelatory nature of the song's lyrics has encouraged comparisons between Living in the Material World and Lennon's primal therapy-inspired 1970 release, Plastic Ono Band.

Noted as a dramatic ballad in the Roy Orbison vein, the recording of "Who Can See It" features heavy orchestration and a choir, both arranged by John Barham. A number of commentators consider Harrison's vocal performance to be among the finest of his career, while his production style has been likened to that of Beatles producer George Martin. Besides Harrison, the musicians on the recording include Nicky Hopkins, Klaus Voormann and Jim Keltner.

Reviewers have described "Who Can See It" as variously a "song which goes on far too long to make its simple point",[1] an "aching, yearning masterpiece",[2] and an "unequivocal statement" on Harrison's identity.[3] In line with his self-image as a musician, regardless of his past as a Beatle, Harrison included "Who Can See It" in the setlist for his 1974 North American tour with Ravi Shankar, the first tour there by a former member of the Beatles since the break-up.

Background

The Beatles (with Harrison third from left) in 1964, during the height of Beatlemania

Although George Harrison would later make light of the emotion behind "Who Can See It" – describing it as simply "a true story meaning 'Give us a break, squire'" in his 1980 autobiography[4] – biographers recognise the song as a statement of great personal anguish.[5][6][7] Simon Leng, author of the first musical biography on the ex-Beatle, has written of Harrison being "deeply traumatized" by the effects of his former band's unprecedented popularity and his runaway solo success following their break-up in April 1970.[8] Harrison, Leng observes, was in the same state of internal conflict in 1972–73 as John Lennon had been when he wrote the song "Help!" in 1965,[9] during his self-styled "fat Elvis period".[10] Rolling Stone critic Stephen Holden highlighted a similar comparison between the two ex-Beatles in July 1973,[11] when he declared Harrison's new release, Living in the Material World, "as personal and confessional" as Lennon's primal therapy-inspired Plastic Ono Band album (1970).[12] Lennon himself described the Beatles' situation in 1970 as "four individuals who eventually recovered their individualities after being submerged in a myth".[13] Even during the band's time together, Harrison had written songs rejecting what Leng terms the "artifice" surrounding the Beatles.[14][nb 1]

Don't forget, John and Paul had been more satisfied from their ego point of view, having written all those tunes with the Beatles. Especially after 1966, I was starting to write loads of tunes, and one or two songs per album wasn't sufficient for me. By the time All Things Must Pass came, it was like being constipated for years, then finally you were allowed to go.[16]

– George Harrison to Rolling Stone, October 1987

Aside from being released from the psychological pressure of being a Beatle,[17][18] Harrison was the one who potentially benefited the most from the group's break-up.[19][20] Traditionally viewed as a lesser composer by Lennon, Paul McCartney and producer George Martin,[21] yet treated as a creative equal by artists such as Bob Dylan[22] and Eric Clapton,[23] Harrison had to push to ensure that the band recorded songs of his such as "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" and "Old Brown Shoe".[24][25] Other compositions that would later receive widespread acclaim also – including "All Things Must Pass", "Isn't It a Pity" and "Let It Down"[26][27] – were rejected by Lennon and McCartney even when, in the words of authors Doug Sulpy and Ray Schweighardt, Harrison's songs were "far better than their own".[23][nb 2] In November 1970, while in New York preparing his All Things Must Pass triple album for release, Harrison was taken aback by Apple Records executive Allan Steckler's "stunned" reaction to the high quality of his songs.[34] According to Steckler, Harrison replied: "Do you really mean it? You know, they [the other Beatles] wouldn't let me release most of these."[34]

Despite his breakthrough in 1969 as a composer to match Lennon and McCartney,[35] on the band's Abbey Road album,[36][37] Harrison's frustration with this enforced junior status left "deep and lasting wounds", music journalist Mikal Gilmore has suggested.[38] An insecurity regarding his skills as a songwriter was one result.[34][39][nb 3] In addition, it took encouragement from Clapton and others for Harrison to regain his confidence as a guitar player[41] after years of enduring McCartney dictating how he should play.[42][43] During the 1960s, Mojo contributor John Harris notes, Clapton was "among the first to suggest to George that The Beatles' set-up did not do his talent justice".[44]

A more recent factor in Harrison's perspective on his former bandmates came about through his Concert for Bangladesh shows,[45] held in New York on 1 August 1971 to raise awareness and funds for refugees of the Bangladesh Liberation War.[46] While Ringo Starr had immediately offered to play at the shows, Lennon and McCartney each declined to participate[45] – in McCartney's case, because of what he admitted was "a little tit-for-tat" regarding the Beatles' ongoing legal entanglements.[47] In author Peter Doggett's estimation, "neither Paul McCartney nor John Lennon was able to place the lives of starving people before their own egos" or recognise that "there was more at stake here than the balance of power between the ex-Beatles".[48]

Composition

Author Ian Inglis writes of Harrison having become "popular music's first statesman" as a result of All Things Must Pass and the 1971–72 Bangladesh aid project,[49] the last of which established humanitarianism as a new direction for rock music over what had become largely hedonistic pursuits since 1969.[50][51] After the "euphoria" of these achievements, Inglis suggests, Harrison was forced to confront "some of the more unpleasant realities of his everyday life".[52] Among the songs he wrote or finished for the Living in the Material World album, a fair amount reflected on his years with the Beatles,[53] and in the case of "Who Can See It", with considerable bitterness.[6][54]

In the opening verse and chorus to "Who Can See It", Harrison states:[55]

I've been held up
I've been run down
I can see quite clearly now through those past years
When I played towing the line

I only ask
That what I feel
Should not be denied me now
As it's been earned
And I can see my life belongs to me
My love belongs to who can see it.

Inglis offers a simple précis of this statement: "he has paid his dues. Now he is his own man ..."[3]

In the song's second verse, Harrison presents an imagery similar to what he would describe in later life as the "attack on the nervous system" that was Beatlemania:[56]

I've lived in fear
I've been 'out there'
I've been 'round and seen my share
Of this sad world and all the hate that it's stirred.

It's just that it wasn't as much fun for us in the end as it was for all of you.[57]

– Harrison, on the weight of fans' expectations that helped bring about the Beatles' break-up, February 1979

Leng finds these words typical of Harrison's tendency towards "internalization of world events" in some of his songs from this period, where "hate, conflict and strife" are projected onto the "wider world" in the likes of "Who Can See It" and "The Light That Has Lighted the World".[58] Theologian Dale Allison views the mention of "this sad world" as a further reference to the essentially "tragic" nature of human existence, after "All Things Must Pass" and in anticipation of later Harrison songs such as "Stuck Inside a Cloud", in that "notwithstanding all the success and adulation", ultimately, "we are all alone".[59] Allison writes of the message behind "Who Can See It": "Here he declares his freedom from his Beatle past, his freedom to be himself."[54]

Musically, as if to further stake his claim to independence, Harrison offered a "new type" of ballad with this track, Leng writes, "rhythmically complex" in its subtle shifts from a 4/4 time signature to 6/4 and, very briefly, 5/8.[8] The melody is equally adventurous, "full of sweepingly large chromatic intervals", starting with the verse's third line – a four-semitone swoop that Leng identifies as an adaptation of the "rising melismas of Indian music".[8] As Harrison remarked in his autobiography, with reference to the boldness of the melody, "['Who Can See It'] reminds me of Roy Orbison for some reason. He could do this good."[4]

Recording

Harrison had intended to co-produce his long-awaited follow-up to All Things Must Pass with Phil Spector, a mainstay of his career since 1970.[60][61] Spector's unreliability meant that Harrison was forced to produce Living in the Material World alone[60][62] – an outcome that some commentators find regrettable, in light of how Spector's signature Wall of Sound treatment might have suited ballads such as "Who Can See It" and "The Day the World Gets 'Round".[63][64] Another regular collaborator, John Barham, provided orchestral arrangements as before,[65] and noted an "austere quality" in some of Harrison's new songs.[66] "George was under stress during Living in the Material World," Barham later told Simon Leng. "I felt that he was going through some kind of a crisis. I think it may have been spiritual, but I cannot be sure."[66][nb 4]

Roy Orbison, whose vocal style Harrison emulated on "Who Can See It"

I have this tendency to write sort of dramatic, or melodramatic, melodies ... There was a song on Material World that always makes me think it should be sung by someone like Al Jolson or Mario Lanza ...[71]

– Harrison to Paul Gambaccini, September 1975[72]

Harrison taped the basic track for "Who Can See It" between October and December 1972,[73] either at the Beatles' Apple Studio in London or at FPSHOT, his home studio in Henley, Oxfordshire.[62] He recorded his vocals during the first two months of the new year,[74] and Barham's orchestration and choir were added in late February.[75] Harrison played his twin electric-guitar parts in an alternative tuning (although he never stated which tuning)[4] and, tellingly, given the song's subject matter, Leng suggests, he adopted the same Leslie-toned sound synonymous with the Beatles' Abbey Road album.[8] In another Beatles comparison, Harrison's production on Material World has been likened to George Martin's work with the band.[76][77] Leng writes of the song having been "conceived with an Orbison vocal",[78] and Harrison's singing on the track duly reflects Orbison's more dramatic style.[79]

Beginning with a solitary guitar figure from Harrison, soon joined by Nicky Hopkins' piano and Klaus Voormann's bass, the recording features a performance that builds towards the song's choruses, as musical tension matches the emotion of the lyrics.[8] As can be heard in the outtake of "Who Can See It" available unofficially on the Living in the Alternate World bootleg,[80] Gary Wright's original contribution was a prominent harmonium part, superseded by Barham's "sweeten[ing]" strings and brass on the released version,[1] on which Leng credits Wright with playing organ.[8]

Release and reception

Apple Records released Living in the Material World at the end of May 1973 in the United States and a month later in Britain.[81][82] "Who Can See It" appeared as track 4 on side one of the original LP format,[83] in between what Leng terms the "perfect pop confection" "Don't Let Me Wait Too Long"[84] and another song that referenced Harrison's Beatle past, "Living in the Material World".[85][86] Reflecting the album content,[87][88] Tom Wilkes's design for the record's face labels contrasted a devout spiritual existence with life in the material world, by featuring a painting of Krishna and his warrior prince Arjuna on side one and a picture of a Mercedes stretch limousine on the reverse.[89]

The album confirmed Harrison's status as the most commercially successful ex-Beatle,[60][90] but it drew criticism from some reviewers for the number of slow songs among its eleven tracks,[62] as well as the perceived preachy tone of Harrison's lyrics.[91][92] To Stephen Holden of Rolling Stone, however, amid Material World‍ '​s "miraculous ... radiance", "Who Can See It" represented "passionate testament" and "a beautiful ballad whose ascendant long-line melody is the most distinguished of the album".[12] In Melody Maker, Michael Watts described Living in the Material World as "far, far removed from the Beatles" and "more interesting" lyrically than All Things Must Pass.[93] Watts noted the "large autobiographical insights" provided in Harrison's songwriting, of which "Who Can See It" showed "he's found the way at last".[93] Writing of Harrison's standing on an album he considered "as personal, in its own way, as anything that Lennon has done": Watts said: "Harrison has always struck me before as simply a writer of very classy pop songs; now he stands as something more than an entertainer. Now he's being honest."[93] NME critic Bob Woffinden praised the song also, but suggested it was "ideal material" for someone with a wider vocal range than Harrison.[92]

Some recent reviewers have been less enthusiastic, with PopMatters' Zeth Lundy opining that, rather than Harrison's more "stripped-down" production aesthetic, "Who Can See It" would have benefited from "the hyper-drama of All Things Must Pass‍ '​ resonant abyss".[64] In 2002, Greg Kot of Rolling Stone similarly noted the "hymn-like calm" of a performance that failed to reach the "transcendent heights" of Harrison's 1970 triple set.[63] In their Solo Beatles Compendium, Chip Madinger and Mark Easter dismiss the track as a "song which goes on far too long to make its simple point", a situation not helped by a "histrionic" vocal from Harrison.[1]

Reviewing the 2006 reissue of Living in the Material World for Q magazine, Tom Doyle included it among the album's best three tracks and wrote: "the introspective moods of The Light That Has Lighted The World and Who Can See It, with their ornate instrumentation and weepy vocals, are lovely things."[94] Former Mojo editor Mat Snow describes Material World as "a treat for the ears" and, while conceding Harrison's limitations as a singer compared with Lennon and McCartney, he writes that Harrison "worked hard to ensure the choruses of ... 'Who Can See It' caught the ear with their deep and delicious emotion".[95] In his review of the 2014 reissue of Harrison's Apple catalogue, for Classic Rock, Paul Trynka refers to Material Word as an album that "sparkles with many gems"; of these, he adds, "it's the more restrained tracks – Don't Let Me Wait Too Long, Who Can See It – that entrance: gorgeous pop songs, all the more forceful for their restraint."[96][97]

Among Beatles biographers, the Roy Orbison influence in "Who Can See It" is frequently noted, as is the fact that Harrison's lead vocal is one of the best – if not the best – of his career.[6][8][79] In addition to admiring the album's disciplined, George Martin-like production, Alan Clayson has written of the "hitherto unprecedented audacity" of the vocals found throughout Material World and Harrison's "swerving from muttered trepidation to strident intensity" on this particular track.[98] Clayson concludes: "He may have lacked the Big O's operatic pitch, but 'Who Can See It' was among George's most magnificent performances on record."[79] Elliot Huntley describes "Who Can See It" as a "beautiful ballad" and an "aching, yearning masterpiece".[2] In his chapter on George Harrison in the book The Dawn of Indian Music in the West, Peter Lavezzoli is another who highlights Harrison's singing on this "gorgeous Roy Orbison-esque ballad".[99]

While praising a vocal that "positively bursts with passion", Leng identifies the song's "prevailing emotions" as "bitterness and anger" and notes: "If any Beatles fan was laboring under the misapprehension that George had enjoyed the [Beatles] episode as much as they had, this song tells the exact opposite story."[8] Ian Inglis writes that the "rather ponderous" arrangement on "Who Can See It" limits its "entertainment" value but, like "The Light That Has Lighted the World", the song is an "unequivocal statement of who he is".[3]

Live performance

Why do they want to see if there is a Beatle George? I don't say I'm Beatle George ... If they want to [indulge in nostalgia], they can go and see Wings ... Why live in the past?[100]

– Harrison to Rolling Stone, November 1974

In line with his stated refusal to play the role of "Beatle George" at the time,[101][102] "Who Can See It" was among the songs rehearsed and played on Harrison's North American tour with Ravi Shankar in November–December 1974.[103][104] Harrison dropped the song from the setlist in a program reshuffle following the opening show, however,[103] due to his laryngitis-ravaged vocals cords being unable to carry such a demanding tune.[105][106]

The tour was the first North American tour by an ex-Beatle,[101] a fact that encouraged expectations from many critics and concert-goers that were at odds with Harrison's aim[107] – which was to present a musically diverse show featuring a minimum of his Beatles-era songs.[108] In an attempt to justify himself, Harrison took to quoting from the chorus of "Who Can See It" during interviews,[109] as an example of Gandhi's advice to "create and preserve the image of your choice".[110][111]

Personnel

Notes

  1. ↑ Examples of such songs include "Art of Dying", a 1966 composition, and "Wah-Wah".[15]
  2. ↑ In comparison with the high quality of Harrison's rejected compositions during 1968–69,[21] various authors have recognised "Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da",[28] "Dig a Pony",[29] "Dig It",[30][31] "One After 909"[32] and "Maxwell's Silver Hammer"[33] among examples of lesser songs by Lennon–McCartney that were included on the band's releases.
  3. ↑ Leng writes of Harrison "present[ing] his new songs with reticence" during the sessions for All Things Must Pass, "almost with a Pavlovian expectation of their being rejected".[40]
  4. ↑ Besides the Beatles, other issues that impacted on Harrison's songwriting during this period included his increased devotion to Vaishnavist Hinduism, particularly Krishna Consciousness,[67] contrasting with his gradual estrangement from wife Pattie Boyd,[68][69] and his despondency in response to the business and tax complications surrounding the Bangladesh relief project.[70]

Citations

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Madinger & Easter, p. 441.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Huntley, p. 92.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Inglis, p. 40.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Harrison, p. 238.
  5. ↑ Leng, pp. 129–30, 137, 156.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Rodriguez, p. 156.
  7. ↑ Clayson, pp. 322, 324.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 8.6 8.7 Leng, p. 129.
  9. ↑ Leng, p. 138.
  10. ↑ MacDonald, p. 136.
  11. ↑ Rodriguez, pp. 155–56.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Stephen Holden, "George Harrison, Living in the Material World", Rolling Stone, 19 July 1973 (retrieved 17 February 2014).
  13. ↑ Peter Doggett, "Fight to the Finish", Mojo: The Beatles' Final Years Special Edition, February 2003, p. 140.
  14. ↑ Leng, p. 86.
  15. ↑ Spizer, pp. 222, 225.
  16. ↑ The Editors of Rolling Stone, p. 137.
  17. ↑ MacDonald, p. 300.
  18. ↑ The Editors of Rolling Stone, p. 33.
  19. ↑ Anthony DeCurtis, "George Harrison All Things Must Pass" at the Wayback Machine (archived 14 August 2006), Rolling Stone, 12 October 2000 (archived version retrieved 17 February 2014).
  20. ↑ Schaffner, p. 140.
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 The Editors of Rolling Stone, pp. 38, 40.
  22. ↑ Doggett, p. 134.
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 Sulpy & Schweighardt, p. 1.
  24. ↑ MacDonald, p. 305.
  25. ↑ Hertsgaard, p. 252.
  26. ↑ The Editors of Rolling Stone, pp. 38, 187.
  27. ↑ Leng, p. 39.
  28. ↑ MacDonald, pp. 258–59.
  29. ↑ Rob Wakefield, "The Long Goodbye", Mojo, October 2000, p. 74.
  30. ↑ Harris, p. 68.
  31. ↑ Leng, p. 40.
  32. ↑ Huntley, p. 21.
  33. ↑ MacDonald, p. 313.
  34. ↑ 34.0 34.1 34.2 Spizer, p. 220.
  35. ↑ Lavezzoli, p. 185.
  36. ↑ Schaffner, pp. 124–25.
  37. ↑ Clayson, p. 285.
  38. ↑ The Editors of Rolling Stone, p. 39.
  39. ↑ O'Dell, p. 189.
  40. ↑ Leng, p. 76.
  41. ↑ Leng, p. 37.
  42. ↑ The Editors of Rolling Stone, pp. 33, 38, 40.
  43. ↑ Badman, p. 139.
  44. ↑ Harris, p. 69.
  45. ↑ 45.0 45.1 Greene, pp. 186–87.
  46. ↑ Lavezzoli, pp. 187–88.
  47. ↑ Woffinden, pp. 48–49.
  48. ↑ Doggett, p. 174.
  49. ↑ Inglis, p. 36.
  50. ↑ Tillery, p. 100.
  51. ↑ Rodriguez, pp. 41, 49, 51.
  52. ↑ Inglis, p. 37.
  53. ↑ Leng, p. 126.
  54. ↑ 54.0 54.1 Allison, p. 159.
  55. ↑ Harrison, p. 237.
  56. ↑ George Harrison, in The Beatles, p. 229.
  57. ↑ Hertsgaard, p. 282.
  58. ↑ Leng, p. 130.
  59. ↑ Allison, pp. 117–18.
  60. ↑ 60.0 60.1 60.2 Madinger & Easter, p. 439.
  61. ↑ Badman, p. 83.
  62. ↑ 62.0 62.1 62.2 Spizer, p. 254.
  63. ↑ 63.0 63.1 The Editors of Rolling Stone, p. 188.
  64. ↑ 64.0 64.1 Zeth Lundy, "George Harrison: Living in the Material World", PopMatters, 8 November 2006 (retrieved 17 February 2014).
  65. ↑ Huntley, p. 90.
  66. ↑ 66.0 66.1 Leng, p. 137.
  67. ↑ Tillery, pp. 111–12.
  68. ↑ Greene, p. 197.
  69. ↑ Huntley, pp. 87–88, 89.
  70. ↑ Doggett, p. 192.
  71. ↑ George Harrison interview, Rockweek, "George Harrison explains 'A Bit More of You' and 'Can't Stop Thinking About You'" on YouTube (retrieved 5 June 2014).
  72. ↑ Badman, pp. 164, 165.
  73. ↑ Kevin Howlett's liner notes, booklet accompanying Living in the Material World reissue (EMI Records, 2006; produced by Dhani & Olivia Harrison).
  74. ↑ Badman, pp. 83, 89.
  75. ↑ Madinger & Easter, pp. 439, 440.
  76. ↑ Clayson, p. 323.
  77. ↑ John Metzger, "George Harrison Living in the Material World", Music Box, vol. 13 (11), November 2006 (retrieved 17 February 2014).
  78. ↑ Leng, p. 259.
  79. ↑ 79.0 79.1 79.2 Clayson, p. 324.
  80. ↑ "George Harrison – Living in the Alternate World", Bootleg Zone (retrieved 17 February 2014).
  81. ↑ Castleman & Podrazik, p. 125.
  82. ↑ Badman, p. 102.
  83. ↑ Spizer, p. 253.
  84. ↑ Leng, pp. 128–29.
  85. ↑ Rodriguez, p. 157.
  86. ↑ Lindsay Planer, "George Harrison 'Living in the Material World'", AllMusic (retrieved 17 February 2014).
  87. ↑ Woffinden, pp. 69–70.
  88. ↑ Huntley, p. 89.
  89. ↑ Spizer, pp. 256, 258.
  90. ↑ Rodriguez, p. 263.
  91. ↑ The Editors of Rolling Stone, p. 44.
  92. ↑ 92.0 92.1 Woffinden, p. 71.
  93. ↑ 93.0 93.1 93.2 Michael Watts, "The New Harrison Album", Melody Maker, 9 June 1973, p. 3.
  94. ↑ Tom Doyle, "George Harrison Living in the Material World", Q, November 2006, p. 156.
  95. ↑ Snow, p. 39.
  96. ↑ Paul Trynka, "George Harrison: The Apple Years 1968–75", TeamRock, 8 October 2014 (retrieved 27 November 2014).
  97. ↑ Paul Trynka, "George Harrison The Apple Years 1968–75", Classic Rock, November 2014, p. 105.
  98. ↑ Clayson, pp. 323, 324.
  99. ↑ Lavezzoli, p. 195.
  100. ↑ The Editors of Rolling Stone, p. 129.
  101. ↑ 101.0 101.1 Schaffner, p. 178.
  102. ↑ Rodriguez, pp. 237–38.
  103. ↑ 103.0 103.1 Badman, p. 137.
  104. ↑ Leng, pp. 129, 166, 169.
  105. ↑ Leng, p. 170.
  106. ↑ Madinger & Easter, pp. 441, 447.
  107. ↑ Leng, p. 166.
  108. ↑ Rodriguez, pp. 59–60.
  109. ↑ The Editors of Rolling Stone, pp. 44, 125.
  110. ↑ Greene, p. 215.
  111. ↑ Clayson, p. 337.

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External links