As I sit here listening to the much maligned, critically derided 1975 album by one George Harrison of Liverpool, England, I have to remind myself of some clear and noticeable facts about the man himself.

This is the last album of original material on the APPLE label proper, hence the rotten, eaten core of an apple that originally appeared on the sleeve graphics. It was also by the artist that released the first APPLE album in 1968, WONDERWALL MUSIC, back when APPLE was full of 60’s marketing idealism, and artistic ‘vision’. With a grand plan for the Music marketplace, unencumbered by corporate manipulation, APPLE started off well, as all things do, but by 1975, looked very much like that eaten core of fruit that graced EXTRA TEXTURE’S sleeve.

EXTRA TEXTURE was also by The Beatle that was the only one signing Black Artists to the APPLE roster. Not to suggest that the other Beatles did not want Black artists on their label, but when it came down to actually signing on the talents of Billy Preston and Doris Troy to what was primarily a Caucasian enterprise, George Harrison was instrumental in bringing people of ‘’ethnic’’ background and colour to the APPLE catalogue. And you can’t really go wrong signing a child prodigy who learned musical chops from the creator of Soul Music, Ray Charles, and one of the most influential female singers of her time. The reputations of APPLE’s black artists actually outshone the prospects of Mary Hopkins, Grapefruit, and Badfinger on sheer ‘’street credibility’’. When you are named the worthy successor to the Ray Charles legacy by the man himself, being Billy Preston ain’t bad.

Considering Harrison’s promotion of Indian culture was enough to give him ‘street credibility’ from an entirely other culture, the lengths to which Harrison went to promoting Black Music, belief systems, culture and artists, is another indication that Man of the Decade might have gone to the wrong person. Two decades in a row.

Because what I missed on EXTRA TEXTURE for almost 30 years of me owning it the first time around, was its abundance of Soul. And it’s not as if Harrison wasn’t incorporating Gospel / Rhythm & Blues / Soul into his original material prior to 1975. It’s actually there in abundance on ALL THINGS MUST PASS (1970), LIVING IN THE MATERIAL WORLD (1973) and DARK HORSE (1974), along with a fair mix of Indian Classical/Folk and Country/Bluegrass/ Folk along for the ride. EXTRA TEXTURE actually is Harrison’s Soul album, henceforth known as HARRISOUL ™. And he accomplished this with a good degree of integrity and homage to its sources, and the people who defined the genres. And for all those who believe that Harrison did not possess a great voice, I beg to differ. Because on EXTRA TEXTURE he actually possesses the ‘Soul’ required to sing the songs with conviction, care, and most of all, EMOTION, which is the fundamental root of all Soul / Gospel music.

It has recently been researched that Black Gospel music has its root in the Hebrides of Scotland.

And if one completely denies that there ever was Slave Trade in the 18^{th & 19th centuries, that Scottish Gaellic speaking people did NOT emigrate to the Americas, and that one can admit that Jesus Christ probably did not matter much in the middle of the Kalahari, let alone exist as religious icon, then one can easily see how the roots of Gospel music is European in structure. But it is what African American singers and musicians DID with that main foundation that sets the genres apart. Much of this theory of Gospel’s roots raises the ire of Black Americans, who once again see it as another diminishing of Black influence on the fabric of American culture. And I do believe this is a fair and accurate response, considering the nation’s history for ‘Whitewashing’ much of the contributions Black people have made to practically every form of artistic expression that has come out of America. America is in fact, so in debt to Black contributions to its culture, that it is sometimes very hard to see what the European influence actually is, apart from the rules of Western harmony, the instruments that were used to produce Jazz, the Blues, ‘’Race Music’’ (eventually called R & B), Gospel, and Soul.}

What also has to be realized is that the same attitudes that produced the Spanish Inquisition. Or the Salem Witch Trials. Or the creation of Holy and Pagan distinctions, were suffered by Ray Charles and other artists who sang ‘’Soul’’. Without the cross burning, lynching, torture that of course accompanied such theological trends. ‘Soul’ was a combination of Secular and Non-secular music. And the Secular, Righteous Black communities accused such artists as Ray Charles of making ‘Devil Music’. The Devil had a hand at creating the number ZERO, which Indians invented centuries ago, according to Western European thought. Of course, the number 0 opened up mathematics to unprecedented levels, but it’s only recently that the Devil has played less a hand at finally acknowledging Indian contribution to the modern world, and the Truth eventually surfaced. Self-righteousness is not a Caucasian distinction alone, in fact, many races are afflicted by it. And ‘’Soul’’ received the same treatment from the Secular Black community that artists like Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Fats Domino all received from 1950’s Caucasian Radio and Segregation. But just in denouncement, and to my knowledge, no one got hurt for singing this new brand of Gospel Music. No one expects the Spanish Inquisition.

Everyone possesses a ‘’Soul’’, though Science is hard-pressed to find out what that actually is. And no one truly knows quite honestly. We just assume we all possess one, because there’s at least some evidence that some have more than others!

When it comes down to Black Singers and White Singers, the simple difference between a Caucasian Gaellic Hebrides Hymnal singer, and a Negro Southern Baptist Gospel singer is EMOTION. They all can sing, there is no question about how technically adept each race is at vocalizing musical notes and frequencies. But it’s the degree to which Caucasian singers do not ‘Let it all go’ is the main difference between the two cultures. Whatever ‘Soul’ is, scientifically or spiritually, Negro singers possess the ability to harness some core emotion that overrides the logical approach to Western Harmony and Structure. That’s fancy words for saying they let it all hang out. Part of the emotional content of all religious music is the living of life, the joy and the suffering. The pleasure and the pain. People of the Hebrides did not lead an idyllic life whatsoever in their homeland, and many were forced to leave Scotland and reside in the Americas. This of course did not stop them from owning other people as property. The Gaellic communities of the Southern states were profitable in the Slave trade, but also contributable to what turned eventually into Gospel, to Rhythm & Blues, into Soul. But Negro ‘suffering’ was an altogether different experience, and I believe that is a part of the content that many Caucasian singers who seek to emulate or sing ‘Soul’ miss out in their interpretations. I am not suggesting a Rich Man cannot feel the Blues. What I am writing about though, is how joy and suffering are the integral parts of all Black Music, its prime directive. And to sing it with conviction, you have to mean it. You have to live it, to know it. And to know it in your heart, defies all ‘Rational’ approach to Western Harmonic rules.

Harrison was not the most technically perfect of the three main singers of The Beatles. But he meant what he sang. He didn’t fill his songs lyrically with surreal, unconnected images, or wistful reminders of pre-war England. He was the first Beatle songwriter to raise social / political issues in song, long before Lennon ever thought to sit on the Revolution fence. And when it comes down to encapsulating the primary essence 5,000 years of Vedic thought into 5.03 minutes, he certainly had no equal in The Beatles or his peers in the British or American pop charts. If there was a problem in the Beatles inner circle or politic, it was more than likely Harrison was the one telling the ‘’consumer’’ there is trouble in paradise. Even a satirical ditty such as ‘Piggies’ is a musical reminder of George Orwell’s dissection of social hierarchy, and territorial, primitive inclinations. George Harrison meant what he sang, and he did not waste words. And that gives EXTRA TEXTURE the soul qualifications in practice and intent, so missing on many Caucasian interpretations of Black ‘Soul’. You have to mean it.

And before this article commences with the greater points of Harrison’s singing, comparisons will be made to Lennon and McCartney that may be seen as ‘derogatory’ or unnecessary to the point. Many times it has been put to me that ‘putting down’ one person to elevate another is ‘wrong’. But then I’m reminded that George Martin and John Lennon based much of their careers on ‘putting down’ George Harrison, and Paul McCartney barely mentions Harrison’s contributions whatsoever. Not much different to the illustrations provided and noted with Negro and Indian acknowledgement of contribution by the Majority Rule mentality of Western European domination mindset. If the criticism is constructive in intent, and argued with a degree of respect towards the individual that does not border on prostration or condemnation, hopefully the points will be seen. Or disregarded as ‘opinion’ of an individual. It is often thrown my way Harrison’s own ‘’Scan not a friend with a microscopic glass’’ as sermon, or fingerpoint of wrong-doing. I then have to remind myself that I have received no word of ‘friendship’ status from the estate of Lennon, or McCartney. Harrison isn’t even my friend. I have only bought his albums, and read biographies / autobiographies if available. But there are many things that are clear that I need not a friend be to note Harrison’s contributions in integrating and introducing different cultures to eachother, on more equal and just terms.

Extra Texture (and Somewhere In England / Gone Troppo) were truly the albums that made it least to my turntable. The only other album that didn't always make this trip was Living in the Material World, but Sue Me Sue You Blues and the title track certainly made it more times than those other 3 albums ever did.

And then I had a re-listen to Extra Texture one day, and was totally blown away by what I had missed all those years. Even when it wasn't turntable bound, I still always liked Grey Cloudy Lies. I remember making a tape cassette of my favourite George Harrison songs in the late 80's, and Grey Cloudy Lies I think was the only song I used from Extra Texture, barring You. Don't know what it was about Grey Cloudy Lies that stood out to me, but it was my favourite track from this poorly received album for a very long time.

Until I had a re-listen to it a few years ago.

What I had missed was one of Harrison's best vocal performances on record for one. Another thing I had missed was Tired of Midnight Blue. Another thing I had gained (and lost) was the acquired opinion that This Guitar (Can't Keep From Crying) was a sequel song that didn't compare to the original. And in all my years of owning the George Harrison (1979) album, I never felt that way about Here Comes The Moon and its relationship to Here Comes The Sun. So why I let 'others' opinions guide my own I'm not entirely sure, but I totally lost that ''disregard'' the sequel mentality when I really listened to the song for its own good points.

Extra Texture became a much different album when I met it on ITS terms, not mine. And what I discovered was a completely different album to popular opinion and Rolling Stone.

I absolutely fell in love with Tired of Midnight Blue, and for all those years I neglected it, I'm truly sorry! Beautiful vocal, great drumming, half New Orleans / Jazz in style, I think today it's one of his best, and most underrated songs. The main chord sequence I think is near perfection. This song swings, like a Cajun Waltz at times, or back into Honky Tonk bar territory. It literally drifts between three musical styles as if they were all sat in the same room, all at the same table. This is helped of course by the musicians he has playing on this track, Jim Keltner, Paul Stallworth, and Leon Russell, all versed in a multitude of styles and genres, which makes the transitions that happen in Tired of Midnight Blue seem natural and effortless.

His voice hadn’t completely recovered from the Dark Horse experience, and Grey Cloudy Lies does sometimes show how weakened it was by it. By 1976 he could have sang this song with more assuredness and strength. But what I’ve always loved about Grey Cloudy Lies is the tempo, and what he’s singing about. At least it is honest in it saying that pain is sometimes all consuming. Even though Harrison hoped the message sung in 1970’s Beware of Darkness, about not giving in to Sadness and Maya would always be true and relied on, Grey Cloudy Lies at least acknowledges the power Sadness and Maya do possess if you give into them. It is about depression and pain, and that does not a pop song make. But it does qualify you Soul and Blues Points.

This Guitar (Can't Keep From Crying) I just love for its first 30 seconds. I think it just captures the whole mood of the song so quickly with those opening chords and slide guitar runs. I don't know how I missed this song for nearly 20 years. My sentiments are on Harrison's side of the story, and always have been, so why it took me so long I don't know. It’s also the very Jazz delivery of his vocal lines that bring what’s being said about that Guitar’s present state (in 1975). It’s Jazz / Blues in execution, and if one just removes the ‘’Sequel’’ status, or comparison to the standard of ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’ seems to dictate, you’ll find a song which just serves as an update, a diary entry, about that Guitar. It’s a metaphor and character of Harrison’s emotional state. And there is nothing wrong with continuing on that character in song, especially if your emotional state is the prime driver of your creative expression.

Extra Texture is most definitely George HARRISOUL, which I think was very close to his heart as a musical genre. And for those who don't like Harrison's voice, I really don't know what to say. I was recently in my local OXFAM, and Sgt. Pepper was playing. Now I'm used to the usual skip track Harrison when going into record stores, but that day Within You Without You played loud and clear. And as I enjoyed the one song I truly believe is 'The Beautiful Song' on that Pop album, another customer went up to the OXFAM employee on duty and asked who was that song by? OXFAM boy told her it was George Harrison, and I immediately went up to the counter and said this is absolutely THE best track on the whole album.

This of course got a confused look from the OXFAM boy, but I stated my case.

During the 'hardsell', O-Boy said he didn't like Harrison's voice much. My reply was, at least he meant what he sang, and you just don't get that with McCartney (he stated he was more a McCartney fan). He then asked what albums to pick up by Harrison. Had I had the time, and needed to convince someone that Harrison was a great singer, when you get it out of your head that if you're a Beatle or an ex-Beatle, you must sing like McCartney or Lennon, I would've sold Extra Texture as a clear indication that Harrison had the most soulful voice of the three, and it goes back to meaning what you sing. And that is the reason for all Gospel / Soul / Rhythm and Blues music being made in the first place. And that is what so many British and American Caucasian performers sought to imitate when they made the charts and the opinion polls.

It is very hard to figure out why there is some difficulty had by White singers who attempt to sing Soul, and there's very few who can actually do it. It's not even a matter of skin, it's about NOT being conscious of HOW you're singing it, or what notes you should hit after singing a B, or an E. There is something that singers like Marvin Gaye, Teddy Pendergrass, Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, Bobby Womack, Curtis Mayfield, James Brown, Ray Charles, just do with ease. And that's NOT thinking about what you're singing, but just singing it, and how you feel, and how it makes you feel. When you hear McCartney & Wonder's ''What's That You're Doing'' or McCartney's ''After The Ball / Million Miles'' the difference between what's Black and what's White becomes really apparent. Especially if you've heard much of what came out of Motown / Stax / King / Volt / Buddha / etc.

Now I'm sure O-Boy wouldn't have sat through that whole digression on ''Soul'', just so I could push Harrison as a great vocalist that he needed to listen to again. But had he, I eventually would have pushed Extra Texture for an example of HARRISOUL. Because what HARRISOUL possessed was a pretty beautiful Falsetto voice, that sounded more in line with Curtis Mayfield, Eddie Kendricks, and Smokey Robinson. Now I'm sure there's truly a singer in Black Music who he sounds more like, that I may not know of, but those three come first to mind because of the smoothness of their Falsetto voices.

fal·set·to ( P )
n. pl. fal·set·tos
A male voice in an upper register beyond its normal range.
One who sings or talks in this register.

And one beautiful example of HARRISOUL is on The Answer's At The End, where a very Isaac Hayes / Teddy Pendergrass middle section reprises the lyrics from George's own ''Isn't It A Pity''. THAT is a beautiful vocal, and for everyone that said his voice was shot on Dark Horse, they should have listened to Extra Texture a bit more closely to hear how much his voice had recovered. He dips from possible his lowest natural range as a singer, to possible his middle range as a Falsetto all in this short passage:

Oh, we think so little of the ones that we love, sometimes
Isn't it a pity how we hurt
The ones that we love the most of all
The ones we shouldn't hurt at all

Now you can tell me over and over again how great a singer was McCartney or Lennon, and I have a ton of albums that say technically they are great singers and hit all their notes (well, Lennon did most of the time), but I have yet to hear them sing with that much emotion or 'feeling'. Yes they can scream, yes they can shout, yes they can jump up and down the musical scale (McCartney more than Lennon), but I cannot equate singing with any degree of the emotive quality that makes things 'Black' or 'Soul', with songs that bear little meaning to their writer. On an emotional level, which is where most 'Soul' is derived from. You can intellectually approach Soul, you can physically approach Soul, but most of the time European / American Caucasian singers just do not 'sing' things with Soul. It sounds and looks like it, but it's an imitation. I have not heard many White singers even come close to the way Marvin Gaye sings the line

You know we've got to find a way
To bring some lovin' here today

In his song What's Going On. Particularly To bring some lovin' which is all instinctive, emotive, and rises on notes that you don't expect. Black 'singing' is the closest equivalent to Indian singing the West has got, wherein Indian singing is comprised of notes within a 22 octave scale, which incorporate microtones between ''Major'' and ''Minor'' notes. Notes within Notes. And many Black singers sing little 'notes in between' that make what sound like a sung B, sound like a Bmajor and minor at the same time. These are sometimes called Grace Notes. It's the way the breath and rhythm rises and falls as the notes are sung that make it sound like part of it is Flat or Sharp. Indian singers do this on a massive scale, but Black singers touch on that 'microtone' or what is called a Gamak in Hindi.


In Indian music it is not enough to produce just twelve or even twenty two 'tones' in an octave. One ought to produce even the intermediate frequencies. These intermediate frequencies, which do not have any keys to produce them, are called 'microtones'. The Indian word for the 'microtone' is 'gamakam'. (of course, 'gamak' in hindi) It is often very difficult to explain this concept clearly and precisely. If the C key produces 240 Hz and the C# key produces 254 Hz what intermediate frequencies are we talking about ? Does Indian music use sounds produced at 247 Hz ? Treatises have been written in India about such microtonal apects of music. Suffice it to say that microtones or gamakams tend to be clustered around the primary key frequency, although this need not always be the case.

And when Harrison sings the line Isn't it a pity how in The Answer's At The End, he's doing exactly what Black singers have been doing for years, and has baffled many a Caucasian singer. I can think of only a few Caucasian singers who do not let European Classical rules of Harmony interfere with the way they sing notes, and how emotion should truly be your guide when singing anything regardless of ''The Rules''. McCartney, on 1969’s ‘’Oh! Darling’’ physically put his voice through days of ‘hardship and toil’ to achieve what Little Richard could literally do instantly. Is it suffering for your art? Or is it trying to get close to what Black singers seem to without really trying? Either way, Harrison on this one line ‘got it’. He’s not trying to do it, he’s not aiming to do it. And it’s the ability to transcend the rational, or thought process from emotionally singing something that earns ‘Soul’ points.

Bobby Kimball (Toto)
Glenn Hughes (ex-Deep Purple / Solo Artist)
Robert Palmer
Daryl Hall
Hamish Stuart & Alan Gorrie *(Average White Band)

(*Ironically enough, these two Scottish singers fooled Black consumers in 1974 that they were actually black, despite their band name. One need not be reminded of the proposed early link between Hebrides Hymnal singers and Southern Gospel singers to see that maybe something came full circle here.)

These are Caucasian artists who sounded Black / Negro. Honourable mention to Paul Rodgers of Bad Company / Free. They all sang/sing with a degree of Soul that even fooled Black consumers.

If The Answer's At The End were the only example on Extra Texture of HarriSoul, It'd be difficult to put Harrison with those 5 people. But he's not a Soul singer like Patti Labelle, or Teddy Pendergrass. He's not a screamer, raised in Baptist churches. He's much more smooth, which is why I listed him amongst the Mayfield's, Kendrick's and Robinson's. It's all in the delivery, and Harrison could sing soul much better than his peers with 'better' voices.

Me and the Wife were listening to a compilation CD the other day, with Soul artists and 'Rock' artists, and Harrison's 'I'd Have You Anytime' came on after a particularly soulful 70's song from Bobby Womack (Across 110th Street). And I looked at her and said, ''Why do people think this guy can't sing?'' She said ''People think that?'' My reply was yea, even down at OXFAM. I have never understood it, and every time I heard Harrison's voice, I always got the feeling he meant exactly what he was singing, and what more was needed?

Extra Texture is full of that type of singing. You even get an ''early'' version of Pure Smokey on 'Ooh Baby (You Know That I Love You)''. Now I prefer Pure Smokey, because it's more refined, but there's nothing wrong with Ooh Baby as a test version of it, and it's very rare that Harrison actually 'Recycled' songs he'd previously done before as another song. Unlike McCartney did throughout the 70's output, redoing oomPAH oomPAH oomPAH for a good majority of songs like 'Let 'Em In', 'Uncle Albert / Admiral Halsey', the end of 'Rock Show', or at a faster tempo for 'Magneto & Titanium Man', 'Smile Away', 'Mrs. Vandebilt', 'Nineteen Hundred & Eighty Five', amongst others. I mean, how many songs can you actually write based on a jump of an octave, or 3rds and 5ths? Ask Paul McCartney. At last count, John Deacon of Queen only did it once for 'You're My Best Friend'. The vocal delivery of ‘Ooh Baby’ isn’t as assured as ‘Pure Smokey’, but there are moments that are very soulful in this preliminary version.

World of Stone is Extra Texture’s main Gospel piece. It is very hard not to insert crowd praises of ‘Amen’ and ‘Hallelujah’ in the gaps that Harrison leaves in the vocal melody. The slow, but direct tempo is very reminiscent of most Gospel songs, which at times has proved for an impatient Pop crowd, not fast enough for interest. But Gospel was founded on these slower tempos, allowing for call and response on the more solemn or polemic stylings of the genre. The emotion of sadness, or despair, but with a ray or glimmer of hope, is perfectly captured by Gospel in this style. Even the Delta / Chicago Blues relied on the slow, plodding rhythms to emphasise the long ‘haul’ towards salvation. The whole point of these songs is to say Hope is not always around the corner. Sometimes it’s a long way off, but if you keep walking, and remain set on your path, you will arrive there. The slow rhythms musically pronounce The Walking, the trek towards final redemption.

One thing that truly must be said, is that the original vinyl version seriously outdoes the current EMI CD version of this album in sound quality. This album is not as murky as present versions would have you believe.