(Apple, 1973)I’m in a truly SWELL mood tonight, so I’m tempted to let this single off easy… but I just CAN’T, O reader, CAN’T, because that would be cheating YOU of the precious thing I deal in most: TRUTH!! Yep, I’m afraid that George’s lead single from Living in the Material World is a semi-bore that stands as an ominous neon finger-point towards the soft-rock mediocrity that is the bulk of his next decade’s work. But: Taken on its own terms, “Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth)” is a fairly beautiful song with a top-notch melody and some fine piano and guitar interplay; however, it’s ultimately laid back in a way that’s far more “California” than “George Harrison,” which is a bit unsettling in an atmospheric sense… when and WHY did we trade Spectorian overkill for a sleepy hammock next to Don Henley? Yech! On the other side, “Miss O’Dell” is a lazy, rootin’-tootin’, laugh-filled toss-off that doesn’t need to be heard more than once or twice, yet it justifies its existence here by acting as an effective counterweight to the spiritual super-solemnity of the A.
1 comment:
Yeah, you said it. I remember always wanting to like this song way more than I did, even in its day. But I think it just made obvious something that, in a certain mood, strikes me as true about "Something," and "My Sweet Lord" -- fine as they are as tunes, there's something overly repetitive about them, or maybe it's just that there are no big moments that surprise or excite. And, like you say, this song is where the grace of those earlier tunes runs out and we're left with Dozing George for quite some time.
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