I have been listening lately to One, interspersed with my holiday music. One was the CD George Martin produced a few years ago that mashed up different Beatles songs, enhanced others – really a pretty amazing work of art.
As I was listening to it in my car today, George Harrison’s While My Guitar Gently Weeps came on. It made me think about his experience with the Beatles and the solo career that came afterwards.
For most of the reign of the Beatles, everything was Lennon/McCartney. George was thrown in with Ringo as “one of the other guys.” And, to be truthful, when he first started, he wasn’t on top of his craft. He was given a lot of covers to sing. You couldn’t really blame him. He had John AND Paul to compete with for space and attention. His songs were always kind of different from the regular Beatles fare, though, especially as he started getting into Indian music and culture.
Eventually, George Harrison forged his own sound, his own reputation, and I would argue that in some ways he outshines Paul in the recreation of his own persona beyond Beatle George.
The Social Media space is filled with a lot of figures that seem like John Lennon and Paul McCartney. They’ve partnered up with each other and their talent, as a group and individually, is formidable. Are you going to let that stop you in your tracks? Or are you going to forge your own unique style and become your own person, your own brand, your own reputation?
Are you like George Harrison?