The George Harrison Lyric That Made His Drummer Cry
The music world lost a giant of a talent when George Harrison passed away at the age of 58 in 2001. Even then, Harrison wasn’t finished bestowing his musical grace upon us, thanks to the release of the posthumous Brainwashed album a year later.
For the most part, the album steers clear of details about the health problems that Harrison was enduring. “Stuck Inside A Cloud”, however, stands out as a brave and touching evocation of a man in physical, mental, and emotional distress.
George Harrison scrambled to put together his final album once he received a terminal diagnosis. Luckily, the record was in progress well before that time. Harrison had been compiling material for a while in preparation for a return to his solo career.
It became clear that he might not live to see the album completed. So, Harrison entrusted some musical confidants with a blueprint to finish whatever was still in progress. They included his son Dhani, longtime collaborator and former ELO mastermind Jeff Lynne, and session drummer Jim Keltner. Keltner had worked with Harrison all the way back to All Things Must Pass.
Because the song seems to refer to Harrison’s health issues, you might assume that “Stuck Inside A Cloud” came from the final months of his life. Keltner reported in an interview with Modern Drummer that the song was one Harrison had been kicking around for a while. And it floored Keltner every time he played it.
Source: americansongwriter.com/Jim Beviglia
