George and his Czech-made Futurama guitar take the lead as John and Paul look on.
It has been easy, in Beatles historiography, to forget that other members of the band were very talented in their own right and enjoyed a fan base, even in the early days. Such is the case for George Harrison, who has always seemed to take a backseat to the more prolific songwriters in the band, John Lennon and Paul McCartney.
This is a shame, because George had his own thing going on although perhaps that was not readily apparent until some of the band's mid-career albums that featured very well-crafted, interesting George compositions. But even during the Beatles' Hamburg days, George contributed to the band's look and sound, much to the delight of the German audience, who referred to him as "Das liebschen Kind" (the beautiful child).
George could even be the most adventurous of the five Hamburg-era Beatles where his personal appearance was concerned. According to one biographer, George was the first to buy cowboy boots from the Texas Shop in Hamburg and wear them onstage. He was also the second Beatle (after Stu Sutcliffe) to begin combing his hair down over his forehead into something akin to what became known later as the beatle haircut.
As I've already mentioned somewhere on this blog, George was a huge fan of American rockabilly/country artist Carl Perkins, and so naturally many of Perkins' tunes featured in the Beatles' set lists during their Liverpool and Hamburg days. One that has a particularly country feel to it is Glad All Over, which was recorded by The Beatles for one of their BBC radio programs in 1963 or '64. And here's a link to the original Sun Records version of the song by Carl Perkins, which really moves right along at a break-neck pace.
Just click on the highlighted links above to hear recordings of the song in question, featuring George (and Carl of course) on lead vocals and guitar. And if you close your eyes, it's very easy to imagine that the former might have been singing Glad All Over when the photograph at the top of today's entry was taken in 1960 or '61. Enjoy!
