Photo by Terry O'Neill.
Song spotlight: “Rising Sun” —
“[‘Rising Sun’] was written on the Live in Japan tour in ‘91. I remember my dad playing that around the house on the ukulele. […] When Jeff and I were working on the song ‘Rising Sun,’ it was one of the saddest and happiest things to work on. To hear the finished result, with the big strings on it like my dad had intended — it was the best thing ever. And then to realize that he never got to hear it, even though he probably just heard it in his head the whole time — for me, it’s still one of the saddest things ever. And at the same time, to go through my father’s music with a fine-tooth comb made me see things about him that even I hadn’t realized: that he was even more impressive that I thought he was. And that might sound like an arrogant thing to say, but, you know... even though I knew what I had, you never quite know what you’ve got until it’s gone.” - Dhani Harrison, Guitar World, January 2003
“On ‘Rising Son [sic]’ he sung his ideas for the string parts onto the tape. Marc Mann, who played keyboard on some of the record, wrote out the parts that George had sung, and Dhani added a little line on top of it. And so that became the part for the string players.” - Jeff Lynne, Guitar World, January 2003
“In 1988, I had written a book called Quantum Healing. I suddenly received a call out of the blue from George Harrison, and he said he wanted to meet me. […] I was leaving England and he drove me to the airport. And as he was saying goodbye, he pulled out this little CD that he had made and he said, ‘this is my gift to you. This is a song I wrote[.]’ So after he passed away, I realized that I should at least let everyone know that I had this song. I sent it to Olivia his wife, and Olivia then had it published in the album that came out after he passed away. So ‘The Rising Sun’ is beautiful, he uses words like ‘the universe at play inside your DNA. You’re a billion years old today.’ Where else will you find a lyric in the world with phrases like that?” - Deepak Chopra, KCRW, 26 April 26, 2017 (x)
