Songwriting isn’t always an exercise one can configure up out of nowhere. Even the most acclaimed artists suffer from writer’s block, which often involves giving themselves some space before they try to sit down with the guitar with that same chord progression. While George Harrison was admittedly used to taking his time during The Beatles’ career, he thought it was almost impossible to crack the code to the song ‘Your Love is Forever’.
Granted, Harrison never willingly tackled a track he wasn’t satisfied with during the 1970s. As opposed to other artists who seemed to be writing to fulfil a contract, Harrison was more than happy to coax by with any collection of tunes that he thought would work well for him under Apple Records.
While expressing his feelings often led to some ugly moments on the album Dark Horse, things started swinging back his way just a little bit on Thirty-Three and a Third. The end result was far from anything having to do with rock and roll, but it’s hard to really listen to a ditty like ‘Crackerbox Palace’ and not have a big goofy smile on your face half the time.
If that kind of breezy music worked once, why not try it again? Because if that album was Harrison having fun, his self-titled release would be a tropical-style version of his spiritual side. Although most people like to remember highlights like ‘Blow Away’ or even the Beatles sequel ‘Here Comes the Moon’, ‘Your Love Is Forever’ might be one of the greatest love songs he has ever made.
That didn’t mean it came without a fight, though, as Harrison states in I Me Mine, “It was difficult for me to write the words because sometimes when I get a tune first, I am not too sure which way the lyric should go. But in this case, because I felt the tune was good, I wanted the lyric also to be good and to mean something.”
That difficulty probably wasn’t helped by the fact that Harrison was using an open guitar tuning that he wasn’t familiar with. He had tried using those abnormal-style tunings on tunes like ‘Dear One’ before, but trying to squeeze any tune out of an instrument that’s not tuned normally is practically like learning how to ride a bike backwards with your hands tied.
And yet, Harrison came up with a tune that could go toe-to-toe with ‘Something’ as one of his best compositions. Whereas that track was about the lady in his life who has swept him off his feet, this continues on the theme of ‘My Sweet Lord’ and how his communion with his creator will forever live on in his soul.
That kind of mentality may have turned some people off at the time, but it’s not like Harrison could be asked to care. He had finally found some salvation through his music, so why not spend the rest of his life trying to get everyone else to share in this spiritual gift that he had found?
