A gift for George Harrison fans usually means a Beatles thing with his face on it. My map does something else: it takes the twelve solo studio albums, from Wonderwall Music in 1968 to Brainwashed in 2002, and draws every musician credited on them as their own line.
The first of those albums came out while the Beatles were still going, which is where this print starts being interesting.
The short version. My George Harrison map plots 12 solo studio albums across 34 years, with more than a hundred musicians drawn as lines. It starts with Wonderwall Music in 1968, the first solo album by any Beatle, and ends with Brainwashed, finished by his son after his death. Eric Clapton runs from the first album to 1987. Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney and Linda McCartney all appear on one track in 1981. Available as a Giclée art print in A2 and A1, unframed or framed, from £42.00.
This Gift for George Harrison Fans Starts Before the Beatles Ended
Wonderwall Music was released in November 1968, which makes it the first solo album by any Beatle. The band had more than a year left in them. That date is the first station on my map and it catches people out every time.
It also means the print covers thirty-four years rather than the thirty most people expect, and that the early end of it overlaps with a band that is not on the map at all.
For somebody who owns the Beatles catalogue and thinks they know what came after, the opening two stations are the part worth pointing at.
George Harrison Discography Map
Twelve solo albums across 34 years, from Bombay in 1968 to his son finishing the last record, drawn as one transit network.
Explore This Art PrintThree Beatles Arrive at One Station in 1981
Somewhere in England carries "All Those Years Ago", and the credits on that one song are the most remarkable thing anywhere on this print. Ringo Starr drums on it. Paul McCartney sings on it. So does Linda McCartney.
Three of the four are on one track, and the song is about the fourth. Harrison wrote it after John Lennon was killed, and Ringo's drum part was recorded before the lyric was even written.
On a discography list that is one line of small type. On the map it is three separate lines converging on a single station in 1981 and then going their own ways again, which is a very different thing to look at.
The First Album Shares Nobody With the Second
Wonderwall Music was largely recorded in Bombay with Indian classical players: Aashish Khan on sarod, Shivkumar Sharma on santoor, Shankar Ghosh on tabla, Mahapurush Misra, Chandrashekhar Naringrekar on surbahar, Vinayak Vora on tar shehnai.
Almost none of them appear again. It is a full station of names that arrive once, do something nobody else on the map does, and leave.
Two exceptions cross over. Eric Clapton and Ringo Starr are both on that first record, which is how two of the longest lines on the print begin at the very first station.
Eric Clapton Is on the First Solo Album and Still There in 1987
Clapton plays on Wonderwall Music in 1968. He is all over All Things Must Pass in 1970. He returns for the guitar intro on "Love Comes to Everyone" on the 1979 album, and he is back again on Cloud Nine in 1987, on four tracks including "Devil's Radio" and "Wreck of the Hesperus".
Four stations, nineteen years, two long gaps in between. That shape tells you more about a friendship than a paragraph would.
Two other lines run even deeper. Jim Keltner drums his way from 1973 to the last album in 2002, and Ray Cooper is on percussion from the late seventies right through to Brainwashed. Neither is a household name and both of them cover more of this map than any Beatle does.
A Credit From 1970 Can Reach the Map Thirty Years Late
Here is a problem this catalogue gave me that no other artist has. A station is a release date, but the credits attached to a release do not stay still. Several of these albums have been reissued with restored or corrected personnel, decades after the fact.
Phil Collins is the clearest case. He played congas on "Art of Dying" on All Things Must Pass in 1970, as an unknown teenager, and he was not credited on the record that came out. The credit only appears on the reissue thirty-one years later.
My rule is that the map follows the record as it now stands rather than the sleeve as first printed, because that is the version somebody can actually go and buy. It does mean a few lines on this print begin at a station that did not acknowledge them at the time, and I think that is the more honest of the two options.
From Bombay in 1968 to Jools Holland in 2002
The guest list on these twelve albums is wider than almost anything else in my range. These are the ones people do not expect.
| Musician | Album | Better known for |
|---|---|---|
| Phil Collins | All Things Must Pass (1970) | Genesis, and here an uncredited teenager on congas |
| Ginger Baker | All Things Must Pass (1970) | Cream, on one track only |
| Peter Frampton | All Things Must Pass (1970) | Humble Pie, and later his own enormous live album |
| Ronnie Wood | Dark Horse (1974) | The Faces, and later the Rolling Stones |
| Mick Jones | Dark Horse (1974) | Foreigner, three years before they existed |
| Ronnie Spector | Extra Texture (1975) | The Ronettes |
| Steve Winwood | George Harrison (1979) | Traffic |
| Al Kooper | Somewhere in England (1981) | Blood, Sweat and Tears, and Dylan's organ player |
| Jon Lord | Gone Troppo (1982), Brainwashed (2002) | Deep Purple, twenty years apart |
| Elton John | Cloud Nine (1987) | Piano on three tracks, and nowhere else in my catalogue |
| Jools Holland | Brainwashed (2002) | Squeeze |
Badfinger deserve a note of their own. Pete Ham, Tom Evans, Joey Molland and Mike Gibbins all play on All Things Must Pass, so a whole band arrives at one station as four separate lines and then, mostly, leaves again.
Dhani Harrison Finishes the Last Album
Brainwashed came out in 2002, a year after Harrison died. It was completed by his son Dhani and by Jeff Lynne, and Dhani is credited on acoustic guitar, electric guitar, Wurlitzer and backing vocals across most of it.
So the final station on the map has a new line arriving at it, which is the opposite of how these prints usually end. Everywhere else, the last album is where lines stop.
Jeff Lynne is on that album too, and on Cloud Nine fifteen years earlier, which are the only two he appears on. Jim Keltner and Ray Cooper are there at the end as well, having been on the map since the seventies.
Twelve Stations, and Where the Detail Hides
The A2 at 420 x 594mm (18 x 24 in) suits this one well. Twelve albums is a comfortable number, so the long lines read clearly and you can follow Clapton's four appearances across the print without effort. It starts at £42.00.
The A1 at 594 x 841mm (24 x 36 in) earns its keep at two points: the crowd on All Things Must Pass, and the Bombay session at the very start, where the instrument names are half the pleasure. At A1 you can read sarod, surbahar and tar shehnai rather than seeing a cluster.
Both come unframed if they would rather choose a frame themselves, or framed and ready to hang. Every print is a Giclée on 230gsm premium fine art paper, textured matte, archival and acid-free, with the full detail on the print and frame specification page.
Straight Answers on the Solo Years
Does the map include the Beatles albums?
No. This is the solo catalogue, twelve studio albums from 1968 to 2002. The Beatles have their own map in the range, and the two hang well together.
Which album has the most people on it?
All Things Must Pass, by a distance. It is a triple album with most of Derek and the Dominos, all of Badfinger, and about twenty other names on it.
Is Ringo on it?
On several, from Wonderwall Music in 1968 through to Cloud Nine in 1987, and most notably on "All Those Years Ago" alongside Paul and Linda McCartney.
Does it cover the Traveling Wilburys?
Not on this print, because those are not Harrison solo albums. Both Wilburys records appear as stations on my Tom Petty map instead, with Harrison drawn as a line across them.
Does it show who played what on each track?
No. Each line tells you which albums that musician appears on. Track-level roles appear only on my Rolling Stones Goats Head Soup album map.
He Already Has Stations on Two Other Prints
Harrison appears on my Tom Petty map three times, on both Traveling Wilburys albums and on Full Moon Fever, so the two prints genuinely share lines. And the Beatles map is the obvious other half of the story.
The rest come off these credits. Paul and Linda McCartney on "All Those Years Ago" connect it to the Paul McCartney and Wings map. Jeff Lynne's two albums link it to the ELO map, and Jon Lord's two link it to the Deep Purple map, which is not a pairing anybody would guess.
The wider family sits in the Beatles collection and the solo artist collection. If you came here for the gift rather than the research, the George Harrison discography map is the print itself, in A2 or A1, unframed or framed, from £42.00.
