The Answer's at the End

Edit links
This is a good article. Click here for more information.
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

"The Answer's at the End"
Song by George Harrison
from the album Extra Texture (Read All About It)
Released22 September 1975
GenreRock, soul
Length5:32
LabelApple
Songwriter(s)George Harrison
Producer(s)George Harrison

"The Answer's at the End" is a song by English rock musician George Harrison, released in 1975 on his final album for Apple Records, Extra Texture (Read All About It). Part of the song lyrics came from a wall inscription at Harrison's nineteenth-century home, Friar Park, a legacy of the property's original owner, Sir Frank Crisp. This aphorism, beginning "Scan not a friend with a microscopic glass", had resonated with Harrison since he bought Friar Park in 1970, and it was a quote he often used when discussing his difficult relationship with his former Beatles bandmate Paul McCartney.

Harrison's adaptation of the verse for "The Answer's at the End" coincided with a period of personal upheaval, following the severe criticism afforded his 1974 North American tour by several influential reviewers. In its plea for tolerance and a musical arrangement that includes orchestral strings, the song recalls Harrison's 1970 hit ballad "Isn't It a Pity". The arrangement also bears the influence of Nina Simone's 1972 cover version of "Isn't It a Pity", specifically in a pair of codas performed by Harrison in the soul style.

Harrison recorded "The Answer's at the End" in Los Angeles, where he was overseeing projects relating to his Dark Horse record label during much of 1975. The backing musicians on the recording include members of the Dark Horse Records band Attitudes, among them David Foster and Jim Keltner. As with much of Extra Texture, the song has received a varied response from music critics and Harrison's biographers. On release, Rolling Stone dismissed the track as "padded subterfuge" and overlong,[1] while Melody Maker described it as "majestic" and one of Harrison's "most potent tracks ever, highly emotional and introspective".[2]

Background and inspiration

Gatehouse detail at Harrison's Friar Park estate, built by Sir Frank Crisp

In March 1970,

medieval gardening,[10] Crisp established 10 acres of formal gardens,[11] which similarly reflected his eccentric tastes.[6][12][nb 1]

From midway through the twentieth century until 1969, ownership of Friar Park resided with the

Roman Catholic Church.[15][16] As a result, paint masked some of Crisp's inscriptions inside the house,[17] but outside, signs reading "Don't keep off the grass", "Herons will be prosecuted" and "Eton boys are a Harrowing sight" remained intact.[18][nb 2] Harrison also discovered inscriptions with a more profound meaning, which he described to his Hare Krishna friend Shyamasundar Das as "like songs really, about the devil, about friendship, life".[20] One example was "Shadows we are and shadows we depart", written on a stone sundial;[21] another began: "Scan not a friend with a microscopic glass / You know his faults, now let his foibles pass ..."[22] This four-line verse was written above an entrance-way in a garden wall,[23] and it was an aphorism that Harrison soon took to quoting in interviews.[24] On 28 April 1970, just over two weeks after the Beatles' break-up, he used the words during an interview for New York's WPLQ Radio,[25] as Village Voice reporter Howard Smith repeatedly pushed for details on the animosity between Paul McCartney and the other three Beatles.[26] In October 1974 – towards the end of what Harrison termed a "bad domestic year", following his split with Boyd[27] – he used the same quote in an interview with BBC Radio's Alan Freeman,[28] when again discussing the current relationship among the four ex-Beatles.[29][30][nb 3]

Harrison wrote his first Friar Park-inspired composition, "Ballad of Sir Frankie Crisp (Let It Roll)", within two months of moving in.[33] As with the "Crispisms" that surfaced in the lyrics to his 1974 single "Ding Dong, Ding Dong",[34] a number of years elapsed before he incorporated the "Scan not a friend" inscription into a song.[35] In 1975, it provided the central theme to "The Answer's at the End",[36][37] a composition that, theologian Dale Allison has written, "expresses the personal doubts and religious uncertainty George experienced in the mid-1970s".[38] This temporary uncertainty contrasted with his previous devotion to a Hindu-aligned spiritual path.[39] It was also a period marked by Harrison's excessive use of alcohol and cocaine[40][41] – a symptom of his despondency following his troubled 1974 North American tour with Ravi Shankar, and the generally unfavourable reception afforded his Dark Horse album.[42][43]

Composition

Frank Crisp in 1904. One of the inspirational verses he had carved in stone at Friar Park provided the central theme for Harrison's song.

The song begins in the key of D,[44] before changing key to F for the choruses.[45] In its musical mood, authors Robert Rodriguez and Elliot Huntley liken the released recording to "Isn't It a Pity",[37][46] which, like "Ballad of Sir Frankie Crisp", was co-produced by Phil Spector and issued on Harrison's 1970 triple album All Things Must Pass.[47][48] Harrison biographer Simon Leng describes "The Answer's at the End" as a ballad set to a "mellow, reflective soul mood", like much of its parent album, Extra Texture (Read All About It).[49]

According to the way he renders Crisp's inscription in his 1980 autobiography,

I, Me, Mine, Harrison made a minor alteration to the original text's third line ("Life is one long enigma, true, my friend") for his opening verse:[50]

Scan not a friend with a microscopic glass
You know his faults, now let his foibles pass
Life is one long enigma, my friend
So read on, read on, the answer's at the end.

In another passage from I, Me, Mine, read out by his son Dhani in the 2011 documentary George Harrison: Living in the Material World,[51] Harrison explains that these words helped him reach a better understanding of human relationships and others around him.[52]

There were disasters all around at that time ... [B]ut the thing about Sir Frank with his advice, like: "scan not a friend with a microscopic glass ..." I mean, that helped me actively to ease up on whomsoever I thought I loved, gave me that consciousness not to hang on to the negative side of it, to be more forgiving.[52]

– George Harrison, 1979

The theme of tolerance is further reflected in the song's chorus,[53] where Harrison urges: "Don't be so hard on the ones that you love / It's the ones that you love, we think so little of ..." The chorus lyrics echo the message of "Isn't It a Pity",[37] in this case, author Ian Inglis writes, providing a "bleak assessment of the human condition".[54]

The second verse begins with an example of what Harrison biographer Alan Clayson views as the "restricted code" found in the lyrics on much of Extra Texture.[55] Harrison sings, "The speech of flowers excels the flowers of speech / But what's often in your heart is the hardest thing to reach"[45] – the second line of which, Allison writes, "is surely [Harrison] talking about his inability to find God, who for him dwells, above all, inside the human being".[56] Allison suggests that, with the singer describing life as first an "enigma" and then a "mystery", the previous certainties of his faith have disappeared; true to the song title, Allison continues, "Only death will reveal ... whether his religious beliefs have been true or false."[39]

Nina Simone's soulful rendition of Harrison's song "Isn't It a Pity" inspired the two codas in "The Answer's at the End".

As a further reference to the sentiment regarding friendship expressed in "Isn't It a Pity",[57] the middle section of "The Answer's at the End" reflects the influence of Nina Simone's 1972 cover of that earlier song.[35][46] According to his recollection in I, Me, Mine, Harrison added this section, or coda, when recording "The Answer's at the End".[35] In the lines "And isn't it a pity how / We hurt the ones we love the most of all ...", Inglis notes the influence of the 1944 pop standard "You Always Hurt the One You Love".[58][nb 4]

In the final half-verse, following a brief instrumental passage,[45] Harrison personalises the second line of Crisp's text to "You know my faults, now let my foibles pass".[60] Rodriguez remarks that the subject of reserving judgement would have resonated with Harrison at this time, given the "shellacking" he had recently received in music publications such as Rolling Stone.[61] On the released recording, the song fades out during a repeat of the "isn't it a pity how ..." coda.[45]

Among the former Beatle's biographers, interpretations differ over the message of Extra Texture songs such as "The Answer's at the End", with regard to his spirituality. Like Dale Allison, Gary Tillery writes of Extra Texture revealing Harrison's "inner turmoil at having strayed from his faith".[62] Leng views this composition as "a deliberate tempering of tone rather than a change in fundamental beliefs", however, with the song's choruses "attenuat[ing] the search for universal solutions to a simpler, earthbound observation".[53] Joshua Greene similarly writes that Harrison had "regained strength and relaxed his missionary zeal" during 1975. Greene references "The Answer's at the End" while stating that "a modest appeal for tolerance" had now replaced the singer's earlier "exhortations to chant and warnings about rebirth in the material world".[63]

Recording

Harrison taped the basic track for "The Answer's at the End" at

A&M Studios in Los Angeles on 22 April 1975.[64] During the previous month, Harrison attended a press party held by McCartney and the latter's band, Wings, on board the Queen Mary at Long Beach.[65][66] This event marked the first social meeting between the two former bandmates since December 1970[67] and, according to McCartney biographer Howard Sounes, was evidence of a "Beatles rapprochement", five years after their break-up.[68]

Authors

Friar Park studio, Harrison recorded the album at a facility he admitted to finding "technically limiting",[73] since he was in Los Angeles overseeing projects by his various Dark Horse acts when studio time became available, following the cancellation of sessions for Splinter's second album.[72] Another of these acts was Attitudes,[74][75] a band put together by his friend, session drummer Jim Keltner.[76] "The timing was perfect", Leng writes of Harrison's approach to making Extra Texture, "as this latest signing to Dark Horse provided a ready-made backup band, close at hand."[77]

Although Attitudes guitarist

Paul Stallworth.[79][nb 5] Another guest musician on the recording was keyboard player Gary Wright,[84] a regular contributor to Harrison's solo work throughout the 1970s[85][86] starting with the session for "Isn't It a Pity".[87][88] A&M engineer Norman Kinney, who had carried out the mix down for The Concert for Bangladesh recordings four years before,[89] added the song's percussion,[64] which the mastering sheet lists as tambourine and shaker.[90] As for all the songs on the album, overdubs on the basic track were carried out between 31 May and 6 June.[91] A string arrangement, written and conducted by Foster, was recorded at A&M on 6 June.[64]

Huntley describes "The Answer's at the End" as "the first of the piano songs" on Extra Texture.

arpeggios over the choruses, and a brief solo.[90] During the quieter, "isn't it a pity how ..." codas, Huntley notes "the merest veneer of the strings" accompanying Harrison's vocal.[46] In Leng's description, Harrison "semi-scats" over these "smoochy" sections, "gospel style, over sundown jazz piano"[53] – a vocal affectation that reflected his immersion in the soul genre.[96] Following the first coda, the full band returns for the short instrumental break, after which Harrison repeats the choruses, with his singing increasing in emotion.[46]

Release and reception

"The Answer's at the End" was released on 22 September 1975.[97] It was sequenced as the second track on Extra Texture (Read All About It), between "You" and "This Guitar (Can't Keep from Crying)".[98] Some music critics immediately derided the song for its funereal tempo,[84] which was all the more obvious after the upbeat "You".[54] Writing in 1981, author and critic Bob Woffinden paired the song with "This Guitar" as examples of Harrison asking for tolerance from his detractors, and considered that the inclusion of orchestral strings on the album was an attempt to achieve a "commercial bias".[99]

Dave Marsh of Rolling Stone referred to "The Answer's at the End" as "padded subterfuge" which could "easily" have been cut down to two minutes from its length of 5:32.[1] In the NME, Neil Spencer said that, following "You", "hopes of Hari's revival are comprehensively dashed by five-and-a-half minutes of the inordinately dreary 'The Answer's at the End'". Spencer described it as "one of Hari's Homespun Homilies full of crusty chunks of potted wisdom".[100][101]

In his favourable review for Melody Maker, Ray Coleman wrote that Extra Texture represented "a re-statement of the fundamentals we should all cherish" and that "The Answer's at the End" was Harrison "at his most expressive, vocally", as well as "by far the most majestic track on the album". Coleman also said it was "One of George's most potent tracks ever, highly emotional and introspective" and predicted that its universal theme would encourage several cover recordings.[2]

Retrospective assessment

[On "The Answer's at the End"] the old, bold George is no more. The certainties of "The Lord Loves the One" seem to have dissipated ... The passionate searcher of "Hear Me Lord" sounds defeated, asking for a little "live and let live."[53]

– Author Simon Leng, 2006

Writing 21 years after its release, Alan Clayson dismissed the song as "archaic parlour poetry" on an album full of "long, dull melodies".[102] Simon Leng admires the "warm sonic scenes" of "The Answer's at the End" and recognises it as an "interesting" composition, one that "ponders the nature of relationships" in a similar way to Bob Dylan's 1975 album Blood on the Tracks.[103] Leng pairs the song with another Extra Texture track, "Grey Cloudy Lies", however, as "two slabs of introspection" that suffer from being "part calls for tolerance and part expression of downright despair".[104][nb 6] While similarly noting the bleakness of the subject matter, Ian Inglis opines: "The lack of optimism in his words is matched by a largely inconspicuous melody and an inconsistent production in which alternate piano, strings, and guitar interludes fail to provide a coherent musical context."[105]

Music journalist Rip Rense cites "The Answer's at the End" as an example of how "even the rather hasty" Extra Texture offers "some of the most affecting moments in [Harrison's] career". With reference to the song's second verse, Rense adds: "and how many songwriters have ever sung a line as wonderful as 'The speech of flowers excels the flowers of speech?'"[106] Authors Chip Madinger and Mark Easter recognise the song as a "highlight" of the album,[64] while Elliot Huntley terms it a "gorgeously melodic song of forgiveness".[36] Huntley praises the track's "epic sweep" and writes of the Simone-inspired coda: "This is one of my favourite moments of the entire Harrison back-catalogue, especially when the ensemble returns to see the song through to its conclusion ..."[46]

ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award for excellence in music journalism.[109]

Reviewing the 2014 Apple Years reissue of Extra Texture, for The Second Disc, Joe Marchese highlights "the touching 'The Answer's at the End'" among the "top-drawer material" found on the album.[111] In his review for Paste magazine, Robert Ham views the song as a "[moment] when Harrison's focus returns" on Extra Texture and one of the album's ballads that "cut deep".[112] New Zealand music critic Graham Reid writes that "the melancholy and string-enhanced The Answer's at the End makes a lovely plea", and he suggests that had Harrison recorded the track with Phil Spector, it "might not have sounded out of place" on All Things Must Pass.[113]

Personnel

Notes

  1. ^ Among these outdoor features were caves containing wishing wells, distorting mirrors, model skeletons[6] and, at each entrance, a gnome beside a giant toadstool and a chest of fake jewels.[13] Crisp also designed a series of tiered lakes,[6] the lowest of which was traversed by a bridge that, from the house, made it appear as if someone crossing the bridge was walking on water.[14]
  2. ^ Visitors to Friar Park have commented especially on the nonsensical "Two Holy Friars" stone carving at the front of the house,[6] which showed a friar holding a frying pan with a hole in it.[18][19]
  3. ^ Among other instances, Harrison adopted the "Scan not a friend" aphorism in an online chat to promote the 30th anniversary reissue of All Things Must Pass, in January 2001.[31] This time it was in reply to a fan's query: "Does Paul still piss you off? (tell us the truth)".[32]
  4. ^ Harrison later described his song as being "like a modern version of 'You Always Hurt the One You Love' – 'the one you shouldn't hurt at all'."[59]
  5. ^ The other track on which Foster, Stallworth and Keltner all contribute is "Can't Stop Thinking About You".[80] Contrasting with the melancholic musical content of Extra Texture, Harrison adopted a humorous theme for the album's artwork,[73][81] which included a list of people "not appearing" on the album, the first of whom was Kortchmar.[82][83]
  6. ^ Leng also laments that, in exchanging his "quest for philosophical certainty" with a request for understanding, "The Answer's at the End" appears to present a diluted version of Harrison's message on All Things Must Pass and his 1973 album Living in the Material World.[53]

References

  1. ^ a b Dave Marsh, "George Harrison Extra Texture " Archived 20 September 2017 at the Wayback Machine, Rolling Stone, 20 November 1975, p. 75 (retrieved 10 July 2012).
  2. ^ a b Ray Coleman, "Extra Texture: Back to the Sixties!", Melody Maker, 6 September 1975, p. 30.
  3. ^ The Editors of Rolling Stone, p. 42.
  4. ^ Boyd, p. 146.
  5. ^ O'Dell, pp. 135, 137.
  6. ^ a b c d e Clayson, p. 300.
  7. ^ Harrison, p. 68.
  8. ^ Clayson, pp. 300, 301.
  9. ^ Greene, p. 166.
  10. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
    online, January 2007 (subscription required; retrieved 26 February 2013).
  11. ^ O'Dell, p. 136.
  12. ^ Boyd, pp. 144, 145.
  13. ^ O'Dell, pp. 137, 144.
  14. ^ Huntley, pp. 46–47.
  15. ^ Harrison, p. 67.
  16. ^ Clayson, p. 301.
  17. ^ Greene, p. 168.
  18. ^ a b O'Dell, p. 137.
  19. ^ Klaus Voormann interview, in George Harrison: Living in the Material World.
  20. ^ Greene, p. 165.
  21. ^ Clayson, p. 302.
  22. ^ Greene, p. 171.
  23. ^ Boyd, p. 144.
  24. ^ Badman, p. 6.
  25. ^ Badman, pp. 6–7.
  26. ^ Howard Smith, "Scenes", The Village Voice, 7 May 1970; Tony Ortega, "George Harrison Post-Beatles: 'It's very selfish if the Beatles don't record together'", villagevoice.com, 21 September 2010 (retrieved 6 May 2021).
  27. ^ Harrison, p. 69.
  28. ^ Badman, pp. 138–39.
  29. ^ "That's Entertainment", Contra Band Music, 10 October 2012 (retrieved 23 December 2013).
  30. ^ "Interview with George Harrison", Rock Around the World, program 61, 5 October 1975.
  31. ^ Clayson, pp. 446, 447fn.
  32. ^ Huntley, pp. 308–09.
  33. ^ Madinger & Easter, p. 431.
  34. ^ Badman, p. 144.
  35. ^ a b c Harrison, p. 300.
  36. ^ a b Huntley, p. 123.
  37. ^ a b c d Rodriguez, p. 385.
  38. ^ Allison, pp. 135–36.
  39. ^ a b Allison, pp. 7–8.
  40. ^ Greene, pp. 219, 220.
  41. ^ Mat Snow, "George Harrison: Quiet Storm", Mojo, November 2014, pp. 72–73.
  42. ^ Rodriguez, p. 384.
  43. ^ Tillery, pp. 116, 117.
  44. ^ "George's handwritten lyrics for 'The Answer's at the End'", booklet with Extra Texture (Read All About It) CD (Apple Records, 2014; produced by George Harrison), pp. 10, 16.
  45. ^ a b c d "The Answer's at the End", in George Harrison Extra Texture: Sheet Music for Piano, Vocal & Guitar, Charles Hansen (New York, NY, 1975).
  46. ^ a b c d e f Huntley, p. 124.
  47. ^ Spizer, pp. 211, 219.
  48. ^ Woffinden, pp. 37–38.
  49. ^ Leng, pp. 180, 186.
  50. ^ Harrison, pp. 300, 302.
  51. ^ Dhani Harrison interview, in George Harrison: Living in the Material World.
  52. ^ a b Harrison, p. 37.
  53. ^ a b c d e Leng, p. 181.
  54. ^ a b Inglis, p. 50.
  55. ^ Clayson, p. 349.
  56. ^ Allison, p. 8.
  57. ^ Leng, pp. 86–87.
  58. ^ Inglis, pp. 50–51.
  59. ^ Kevin Hewlett, liner-note essay, Extra Texture (Read All About It) CD booklet (Apple Records, 2014; produced by George Harrison), p. 6.
  60. ^ Harrison, p. 302.
  61. ^ Rodriguez, pp. 59, 385.
  62. ^ Tillery, pp. 116–17.
  63. ^ Greene, p. 221.
  64. ^ a b c d Madinger & Easter, p. 452.
  65. ^ Ray Coleman, "Dark Horse", Melody Maker, 6 September 1975, p. 28.
  66. ^ Huntley, p. 121.
  67. ^ Badman, pp. 16, 156.
  68. ^ Sounes, p. 320.
  69. ^ Schaffner, p. 182.
  70. ^ Rodriguez, pp. 247–48.
  71. ^ Clayson, p. 348.
  72. ^ a b Leng, pp. 178−79.
  73. ^ a b Madinger & Easter, p. 451.
  74. ^ Rodriguez, p. 81.
  75. ^ Woffinden, pp. 85–86.
  76. ^ Clayson, pp. 347–48.
  77. ^ Leng, p. 179.
  78. ^ Spizer, pp. 274, 275.
  79. YouTube
    (retrieved 1 July 2012).
  80. ^ Leng, p. 184.
  81. ^ Carr & Tyler, p. 117.
  82. ^ Album credits, Extra Texture (Read All About It) LP (Apple Records, 1975; produced by George Harrison).
  83. ^ Spizer, p. 275.
  84. ^ a b Leng, p. 180.
  85. ^ Inglis, p. 71.
  86. ^ Rodriguez, pp. 87–88.
  87. ^ "When Gary Wright Met George Harrison: Dream Weaver, John and Yoko, and More", The Daily Beast, 29 September 2014 (retrieved 24 September 2017).
  88. ^ Melissa Parker, "Gary Wright Interview: The 'Dream Weaver' Gets 'Connected,' Tours with Ringo Starr", Smashing Interviews, 28 September 2010 (retrieved 24 September 2017).
  89. ^ Interview with Norman Kinney and Steve Mitchell, in The Concert for Bangladesh Revisited with George Harrison and Friends DVD, Apple Corps, 2005 (directed by Claire Ferguson; produced by Olivia Harrison, Jonathan Clyde and Jo Human).
  90. ^ a b c 24-track master reel information, booklet with Extra Texture (Read All About It) CD (Apple Records, 2014; produced by George Harrison), p. 5.
  91. ^ Spizer, p. 274.
  92. ^ Huntley, pp. 122–23, 146.
  93. ^ Leng, pp. 179–80, 194.
  94. ^ Schaffner, pp. 159–60, 178–79.
  95. ^ Castleman & Podrazik, p. 375.
  96. ^ Inglis, p. 52.
  97. ^ Castleman & Podrazik, p. 369.
  98. ^ Spizer, p. 273.
  99. ^ Woffinden, p. 86.
  100. ^ Neil Spencer, "George Harrison Extra Texture (Apple)", NME, 20 September 1975, p. 23.
  101. ^ Chris Hunt (ed.), NME Originals: Beatles – The Solo Years 1970–1980, IPC Ignite! (London, 2005), p. 103.
  102. ^ Clayson, pp. 349–50.
  103. ^ Leng, pp. 180–81.
  104. ^ Leng, p. 186.
  105. ^ Inglis, p. 51.
  106. ^ Rip Rense, "There Went the Sun: Reflection on the Passing of George Harrison", Beatlefan, 29 January 2002 (retrieved 14 December 2014).
  107. ^ a b Richard S. Ginell, "George Harrison Extra Texture", AllMusic (retrieved 9 July 2012).
  108. ^ Rodriguez, pp. 379, 385.
  109. ^ a b Chris Charlesworth, "Timothy White", The Guardian, 2 August 2002 (retrieved 3 March 2015).
  110. ^ Timothy White, "The Answer's at the End: George Harrison, 1943–2001", Billboard, 15 December 2001, p. 7 (retrieved 3 March 2015).
  111. ^ Joe Marchese, "Review: The George Harrison Remasters – 'The Apple Years 1968–1975'", The Second Disc, 23 September 2014 (retrieved 3 October 2014).
  112. ^ Robert Ham, "George Harrison: The Apple Years: 1968–1975 Review", Paste, 24 September 2014 (retrieved 3 October 2014).
  113. Elsewhere
    , 24 October 2014 (retrieved 4 December 2014).

Sources

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Answer%27s_at_the_End&oldid=1217536754"