Fans Gather in an Outpouring of Sorrow Along Abbey Road

They stood in front of the Beatles’ legendary Abbey Road Studios on Friday, pulling words of wisdom from mystical lyrics: “George, my guitar will gently weep,” one fan wrote on a card taped to the wall.

“Our loss is the next world’s gain,” another wrote. “Let it be.”

The death of guitarist George Harrison brought Beatles fans of all ages together on Friday in mourning and tribute to music that changed the world.

“It’s clear we’ll never see anything like the Beatles again. They were such a cultural force, so hugely popular and beyond language,” said Tim Jenkins, 34, a musician. “George opened Western culture to other cultures. He made people think about themselves and their lives in different ways.”

Many of the fans wept as they lit candles and placed flowers, with Harrison’s anthem, “My Sweet Lord,” playing through the open windows of the studio.

Some fans leaned against motorbikes. Others sat on a wall sipping cappuccino and listening to the music. As on most days, men and women traversed the nearby crosswalk that the Beatles trod for the cover of their “Abbey Road” album.

Fans brought white lilies, purple carnations and pictures of Harrison bearing heartfelt inscriptions: “Something in the way you moved us. Thanks.”

In Germany, Harrison’s death saddened many who recalled the Fab Four’s early appearances at Hamburg’s Star Club.

“George’s death hits me hard. We sort of grew up together,” said British musician Tony Sheridan, who lives in Hamburg. “Harrison was nearly obsessed with playing the guitar. He wanted to know everything and wanted to be able to do everything.”

Paul Zint, a Hamburg photographer who met the Beatles at the Star Club in 1962, remembers Harrison as the shy one. “I had a lot of fun with John [Lennon] and Paul [McCartney],” he said. “But George was not easy to get warm with. He always was the silent one.”

John Hanvey, 49, a plumber from Belfast, said he came to Abbey Road to “pay my last respects, because he’s given me a lot of pleasure in my lifetime.”

“I liked them as a band and as individuals, but I had a soft spot for Georgie, for his spiritual values and the way he didn’t hog the limelight. He organized the Bangladesh concert and always had a wee bit to give,” Hanvey said. “But he said it: ‘All things must pass.’ ”

The sadness too will pass, but not the music, insisted Ali Rees, 26. “No one is ever going to forget the Beatles. We’re very, very big fans. We’ve been to Liverpool on the Magical Mystery Tour.”

“He’ll live on forever, like John Lennon,” added Rees’ friend, Kate Rodwell, 28.

Anna Rawlings, 14, wearing a faded Beatles T-shirt, lit a candle in tribute to Harrison and the music her mother had introduced her to. Wrapped in a wool coat against the cold, Kathy Carpenter, 56, recalled hearing the Beatles “Love Me Do” on the radio in 1962 and becoming a fan. As a teenager, she went to eight concerts and “screamed my head off, like everyone.”

She came to Abbey Road on Friday, she said, to pay homage to Harrison and the group that “gave you a sense of pride that young people hitherto didn’t have. We all liked the same thing. Everyone was the same, equal, together.”

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Times researcher Christian Retzlaff in Berlin contributed to this report.