The Hold Up

This song is not well known maybe to the audience so time to pay some attention to it.

The song is the direct result of a dinner at Al Aronowitz, a famous journalist who had interviewed George about All Things Must Pass and is even featured on "Out Of The Blue". Al was David Bromberg's manager.

At some point, David saw a guitar and started playing a vaguely Hispanic guitar pattern. George could'nt resist getting involved and within 30 minutes the song just came out.

They wrote the lyrics together which were linked to "Taxman" and the great analist Simon Leng in his book Bromberg tells how he does not really remember who wrote what part but did say that "getting the nose wet' is very English and that it was very George to say "I'll put a bullit right through your best liver"

Bromberg tells "He was a very thoughtful player. I never saw him do any improvisation at all. In our interactions with me, he worked in a way I'd never seen anyone else work. He worked on the slide solo in the studio, he sat in the control booth, plugged the guitar into the board, and he had the tape played over and over. He worked out exactly what he was going to play and laid it down.

Bromberg and George met during Bob Dylan's Self Portrait sessions. By that time George already knew about David's work from Bob. David is probably also the one who inspired George to pick up the dobro.

Bromberg: "I met him at Columbia Studios and he sang me a song I wrote and told me that Bob had taught it to him. It floored me"



Here is the lyrics and sorry for the big ones


STICK UP YOUR HANDS, YOU MUST STAND AND DELIVER,
MY STOMACH'S EMPTY, MY CLOTHES ARE ALL THORN.
OPEN YOUR HEARTS TO THE JOYS OF THE GIVER,
ALL OF YOUR POCKETS ARE TERRIBLY WORN.

THIS IS A HOLDUP, NO WAY TO MISTAKE IT,
WE'RE MEN OF VIOLENCE SO DON'T FOOL AROUND.
IF YOU HAVE MONEY, WE'RE GOING TO TAKE IT,
YOU'LL TRY AND STOP US, YOU'LL END UNDERGROUND.

WHEN WE HAVE YOUR MONEY, WE'LL RIDE TOWARDS THE SUNSET.
AT ROSA'S CANTEEN WE'LL STOP AT THE DOOR.
WE'LL SPEND ALL YOUR MONEY JUST GETTING THE NOSE WET,
TOMORROW EVENING WE'LL BE BACK FOR MORE.

SO HAND US THE MONEY, DON'T STAND THERE AND SHIVER,
TAX TIME IS COMING, GIVE ALMS TO THE POOR.
OR I´LL PUT A BULLET RIGHT THROUGH YOUR BEST LIVER,
WEALTH IS DISEASE AND I AM THE CURE.

WHEN WE HAVE YOUR MONEY, WE'LL RIDE TOWARDS THE SUNSET.
AT ROSA'S CANTEEN WE'LL STOP AT THE DOOR.
WE'LL SPEND ALL YOUR MONEY JUST GETTING THE NOSE WET,
TOMORROW EVENING WE'LL BE BACK FOR MORE.

SO HAND US THE MONEY, DON'T STAND THERE AND SHIVER,
TAX TIME IS COMING, GIVE ALMS TO THE POOR.
OR I´LL PUT A BULLET RIGHT THROUGH YOUR BEST LIVER,
WEALTH IS DISEASE AND I AM THE CURE,
I AM THE CURE,
I AM THE CURE,
I AM THE....

Pisces Fish

I want to take you on a little Henley-on-Thames tour.

The lyrics to the song "Pisces Fish" come mainly from bike rides as Olivia Harrison mentions in a "Brainwashed" interview with Jools Holland.

Bike rides along Henley. Henley is a lovely typical English town. I have seen many pictures from it, from inside the town but also from the surroundings like the Thames area.

In Pisces Fish, the song, for the first time George describes Henley.

Let's have a look at the lyrics and see what comes up;

Rowers gliding on the river Canadian geese crap along the bank Back wheel of my bike begins to quiver

Henley is known for the annual Regatta. Dhani used to row and there are stories that George would go along on a bike wearing some sort of disguise and bike along the river following Dhani.

Smoke signals from the brewery

Henley has a few breweries, like this one

http://www.fellwalk.co.uk/thame802.htm

There's a temple on an island

Here is the 'temple on an island'

http://static.panoramio.com/photos/original/18001287.jpg

So, that was a little tour along the lyrics.

Now as for the lyrics as a whole, from what Olivia says I believe it is George looking back on his life and the pleasure of being outside in the country area and enjoying what he comes across on a bike ride.

Old ladies, who must be doggie training
Walking, throwing balls, chasing all the sheep
While the farmer stands around,
and he's complaining
His mad cows are being put to sleep

just a description of a nice bike ride, translated in the Harrison way of playing with words and in these few words put
a) the beauty of the farmland
b) his life as a true vegetarian

I love bike rides and living very close to the country side like farms, acres, rivers, green, I know exactly the feeling as he describes it

Riding along those things as he mentions, sightings, one thinks about the beauty of it and at the same time can think of serious things. Like problems, thoughts about that come out better in an environment like George describes.

Like someone in there found the latest Pope
In a vat of beer that keeps pumping out with fury
While the churchbell ringer's tangled
in his rope

a left verse to P2Vatican blues?

There's a temple on an island
I think of all the Gods and what they feel
You can only find them in the deepest silence
I got to get off of this big wheel

So from the scenery of the Temple Island he moves in his mind to 'the Gods and what they feel' and his feeling of meditation and maybe his love for the silence of his garden come along, remember what he says in the Brainwashed EPK about

'the moment I get out of the gate I think; what the heck am I doing here'

so that my be

'You can only find them in the deepest silence
I got to get off of this big wheel'

okay, the bike ride was okay, but now let's get back to Friar Park and let me be in the garden and meditate. The search for peace and quiet.


And I'll be swimming until I can find
those waters
That one unbounded ocean of bliss

Olivia says George will be swimming till he finds those waters and maybe now he has found that ocean of bliss.

Some times my life it seems like fiction
Some of the days it's really quite serene
I'm a living proof of all life's contradictions
One half's going where the other half's just been

doubts? I'm not sure. He seems to be 'thinking' deeply here. Weighing.

Beautiful song and a nice Henley tour from George

For George

Hi Everyone,

For quite a number of years I have been writing on various forms about my admiration for George Harrrison. His personality, phylosophical views and music has inspired me for over four decades now and still does.

To write about George and his life is a passion and whilst moderating a special forum for George called the Crackerbox Palace a new thought came to me which was to start a blog page.

So here I am and I want to tell you and share with you a lot. One has to start somewhere.

I hope to be able to share things with people who also have 'a thing' for George.