Dear One

"Dear One" is a song by English musician George Harrison, released in 1976 on his album Thirty Three & 1/3. The song was inspired by, and dedicated to, Paramahansa Yogananda, whose 1946 book Autobiography of a Yogi was a great influence on Harrison. Aside from keyboard player Richard Tee, Harrison plays all the instruments on the recording.

This article is about the George Harrison song. For the Larry Finnegan song, see Dear One (Larry Finnegan song).

"Dear One"
Song by George Harrison
from the album Thirty Three & 1/3
PublishedOops/Ganga
Released19 November 1976
GenreRock, pop
Length5:08
LabelDark Horse
Songwriter(s)George Harrison
Producer(s)George Harrison with Tom Scott
Thirty Three & 1/3 track listing
10 tracks
Side one
  1. "Woman Don't You Cry for Me"
  2. "Dear One"
  3. "Beautiful Girl"
  4. "This Song"
  5. "See Yourself"
Side two
  1. "It's What You Value"
  2. "True Love"
  3. "Pure Smokey"
  4. "Crackerbox Palace"
  5. "Learning How to Love You"

History

Harrison wrote the lyrics to "Dear One" in 1976 during a vacation to the Virgin Islands, shortly before starting work on Thirty Three & 1/3.[1] In his autobiography, I, Me, Mine, Harrison says that he believes the song is the only one he ever wrote in open A tuning.[1] The lyrics are directed to Premavatar Paramahansa Yogananda,[2] author of Autobiography of a Yogi, who Harrison called "a great influence on my life".[1] While in India in 1966,[3] Harrison was given a copy of Yogananda's book by Ravi Shankar's brother, after which, author Peter Doggett writes, Harrison "read every Indian spiritual text he could find".[4]

Apart from American musician Richard Tee on organ, Harrison played all the instruments on the recording: acoustic guitars, synthesizers and percussion (hi-hats).[5] As with the song "See Yourself", Harrison dedicated "Dear One" to Yogananda on the credits to the Thirty Three & 1/3 album.[6]

In his Encyclopedia of Popular Music, Colin Larkin describes the track as a song that "could have come straight off of The Beatles' Abbey Road". He adds: "'Dear One' weaves a haunting, Indian-influenced melody with a big pop chorus to create an intensely moving song of devotion."[7]

Personnel

References
  1. Thirty Three & 1/3 (CD booklet). George Harrison. Dark Horse Records. 2004. p. 2.CS1 maint: others (link)
  2. Thirty Three & 1/3 (CD booklet). George Harrison. Dark Horse Records. 2004. p. 9.CS1 maint: others (link)
  3. Gary Tillery, Working Class Mystic: A Spiritual Biography of George Harrison, Quest Books (Wheaton, IL, 2011; ISBN 978-0-8356-0900-5), p. 56.
  4. Peter Doggett, You Never Give Me Your Money: The Beatles After the Breakup, It Books (New York, NY, 2011; ISBN 978-0-06-177418-8), p. 22.
  5. Chip Madinger & Mark Easter, Eight Arms to Hold You: The Solo Beatles Compendium, 44.1 Productions (Chesterfield, MO, 2000; ISBN 0-615-11724-4), p. 454.
  6. Ian Inglis, The Words and Music of George Harrison, Praeger (Santa Barbara, CA, 2010; ISBN 978-0-313-37532-3), pp. 60, 62.
  7. "Harrison, George – Thirty-Three & 1/3: Encyclopedia of Popular Music", oxfordindex.oup.com (retrieved 8 March 2015).


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