Mourning the Passing of One of Rock’s Gentler Spirits

As an experienced musician and longtime subscriber to The Times, I’m used to butting heads with many of Robert Hilburn’s writings.

But let’s give credit where credit is due: His piece on the unfortunate passing of George Harrison was very well done (“Memories of ‘The Quiet One,’” Dec. 1). He hit the nail right on the head when he began, “And now there are only two.”

I’m glad that someone could effectively articulate my sentiments of the “quiet Beatle” as I would have myself. Keep it up, Bob, and I might even buy some albums by some of these new acts that you recommend!

JASON MADDEN

Diamond Bar

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As a dyed-in-the-wool classical music lover, I’ll tell you why the Beatles endure. It has very little to do with rock ‘n’ roll. It has to do with the universality of their music, and their eternal innocence.

Unlike other rock groups, the Beatles wrote music for all ages and tastes--the young, the old, the musically literate, the tone-deaf. They maintained a childlike spirit that allowed them to have fun, experiment and project a presence that uplifted everyone.

I don’t like rock ‘n’ roll in general. Most of it is just fertilizer, and like all fertilizer, it decays quickly. The Beatles wrote very little fertilizer. They were giants in an age of dwarves. If they are dying young, it’s because the world has asked so much of them, and it’s sucking them dry. May they rest in peace.

ROSEMARY PATTERSON

Los Angeles

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In the few brief hours since the news of George Harrison’s death has been announced, his songwriting and musical skills have been lauded. What impressed me so much was his devotion to family and spirituality and his sense of commitment to living a life in harmony with his deepest values.

One example of this was his production of a music concert to raise money and awareness for a humanitarian crisis with the Concert for Bangla Desh, the first concert of this kind.

While I will always treasure Harrison’s music, I feel in many ways that the uncomplaining and courageous manner in which he faced his illness and the message he shared with fans to honor spirituality and to love one another may be his greatest gift to us.

ANDREW TETON

Santa Barbara

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As I read the tributes and mourn the loss of George Harrison, I can’t help feel saddened for the current generation, whose idols of the music industry today are known more for their ability to shock, abuse and end up inside courtrooms rather than their contribution to music and society.

The creativity, magic and hope that the Beatles and George Harrison brought to the world can never be equaled if the current music industry keeps catering to these spoiled and selfish so-called artists.

ROBERTO AYALA

Los Angeles

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It was so unfortunate that George had to suffer from not only a crazed fan who stabbed him, but the many battles with cancer that he finally succumbed to. Now, when I listen to his songs, and the Beatles’ songs, I sit back and remember the joy, love and hope I felt throughout my life that this prophet so generously gave to us.

We’ve lost two peaceful, gentle Beatles now. I can only “Imagine” George and John Lennon watching over us, and occasionally tapping us all on the shoulder when we feel frightened of our future, and both gently whispering, “Love one another.”

MARIE ROBERTS

Los Angeles

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With the passing of George Harrison, it is typical for people my age to think back to the days when we first picked up a guitar and tried to do what he did.

From the thousands of lead guitarists who could not measure up to the Harrison standard of performance, style, composition, innovation and sweet sounds, I tell it this way: George was one of the few blessed with the things of genius.

No one guitarist was more recognizable and more admired. His work was the sound of quality.

Yet we failed lead guitarists did not lose at all. We never would have known what it was like to play if not for the inspiration of the Beatles. They changed us. They gave us something to do that was different, something to listen to that was phenomenal.

On behalf of the short-lived, minimalist garage band of the ‘60s, the Grapes of Wrath (Manny, Dave, Kevin & George), I extend our condolences to the Harrison family of Great Britain. We will miss him too.

DAVE MARESH

Yucca Valley

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There’s an obscure little instrumental rocker in the Beatles’ early catalog called “Cry for a Shadow.” It’s the one song in existence credited to only John Lennon and George Harrison as co-writers. I played it a dozen times this past week with a broken heart.

BENJAMIN KREPACK

Los Angeles

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While George Harrison will undoubtedly receive due deference for his musical talents in the days to come, I will always be most grateful to him for saving the film “Monty Python’s Life of Brian.”

Harrison stepped in and provided the funds to complete the project after its chief backer, EMI, unexpectedly pulled out midway through filming, leaving the movie in limbo. Thanks to his intervention, Americans and others around the world were able to enjoy one of the funniest movies ever made, as well as several other subsequent Python-related projects.

TIMOTHY P. JANKOWSKI

Los Angeles

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In Saturday’s George Harrison remembrance, and again in Monday’s piece about the enduring legacy of the Beatles (“Something in the Way They Played,” Dec. 3), Robert Hilburn makes the dubious--but popular--claim that the Beatles took ‘50s rock ‘n’ roll and turned it into an art form. Not to minimize the group’s tremendous achievement and impact, but rock ‘n’ roll was an art form from the time Chuck Berry first set his short stories about cars and girls to killer riffs and Elvis took country tunes and sang ‘em like the blues.

The critics and fans labeling the Beatles as the “first artists of rock” often credit the group with innovations that others arrived at earlier. Brian Wilson’s groundbreaking studio work on “Pet Sounds” predates the vaunted “Sgt. Pepper” by a year, and Lennon and McCartney’s turn toward more mature and reflective themes would have been unimaginable without Bob Dylan’s trailblazing work.

DAN SEARLE

Los Angeles

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All those years ago when George wrote “All Things Must Pass,” we knew he meant the passing of the Beatles. But we now find it difficult to accept the fact that it also includes one of the group’s most spiritual voices.

Rest in peace, George. There really was “Something” in the way you moved us.

RICK FARMILOE

Stevenson Ranch

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I’ll miss George. But there is no mention in any of the stories of possibly the worst record ever: his “Electronic Sound” (1969). Not meaning to speak ill of such a pop icon, but this is truly terrible. We all make mistakes. Stick with “Taxman.” I listen to it again and again, and my eyes water up each time.

PATRICK GALLIGAN

Ventura

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Tuned Out

Please tell Randy Lewis (“...But Not on This Planet,” Nov. 30) that I was delighted to read that I’m not the only one that tried to use their Nielsen diary to change television for the better. Sadly, I have to report that it doesn’t do any good. If it did, I’d be watching “Nowhere Man” right now instead of writing a letter to The Times.

KELEIGH HARDIE

Tarzana

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Bocelli Versus Corelli

When writer Chris Pasles, in an article on media creation Andrea Bocelli (“Tenor Inspires Love-Hate Relationship,” Nov. 30), dismisses the great Italian tenor Franco Corelli as someone “whose career included stints in the world’s major opera houses and appearances with” a list of the stellar sopranos, his ignorance is showing.

Corelli was the genuine article whose brilliant successes were not dependent upon the whim du jour of those marketing opera to simple-minded masses. In the second half of the last century, his command of the stage was unrivaled by any Italian tenor before Pavarotti. To wit, no other tenor, then or now, could approach his power as the Calaf in Puccini’s “Turandot,” wherein his plangent renditions of “Nessun dorma” first created public clamor for an aria that has since essentially become the national anthem of tenors.

Corelli built a sensational career that, without current media hype, Bocelli could only dream of.

JEROME S. KLEINSASSER

Bakersfield

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‘Amahl’ Wasn’t Missing

The UCLA Film and Television Archive is pleased that the Museum of Television and Radio is showing the 1951 version of “Amahl and the Night Visitors,” but to refer to that landmark program as having been considered “missing” is a misstatement (“Museum Will Revisit a Holiday Treasure in Vintage ‘Amahl,’” by Susan King, Dec. 5).

The UCLA Film and Television Archive has never considered the production as “missing” or “lost.” The kinescope of that landmark telecast has resided in the archive’s television collection since 1972, and was screened at UCLA in 1991 as part of the archive’s salute to Hallmark Cards Inc. on the occasion of the “Hallmark Hall of Fame’s” 40th anniversary. It was donated by Hallmark to UCLA along with the rest of the “Hallmark Hall of Fame” collection, which over the years has grown to encompass more than 300 programs produced under the Hallmark banner since 1951, making it the largest and most comprehensive collection of Hallmark programming in the world.

DAN EINSTEIN

Television archivist, UCLA Film and Television Archive

Los Angeles

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An Unsmiling Response

Just when we hoped we’d evolved to a higher level of priorities, we’re faced with the dictates of Stephen Huvane, “the most feared flack in Hollywood,” according to Liz Smith’s column of Dec. 4 (“The Cover Story on Aniston”). Do we really care or should we even know Jennifer Aniston “isn’t crazy about her teeth showing” and the media “must promise not to publish a smiling photo” of the “Friends” star?

Post Sept. 11, there are thousands of families who may never again have anything to smile about. I can only hope Aniston was as offended as I was by the attention given to her in this instance at this time by Huvane and Liz Smith.

JUDY BROOKS

Palm Springs

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Here’s to Harry

Those people who criticize Harry Potter as being a bad influence on kids because of witchcraft and say that children should stay away from Harry’s books and movies would do better to spend their time debunking other myths like the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy or the most oppressive of all, Santa Claus.

Santa Claus can be pretty scary to a kid who thinks that this very large, loud and brightly colored old man is spying on them all year, watching them in secret to see if they are behaving and living up to standards that are often not well defined, confusing and nebulous.

Harry Potter doesn’t do anything to damage a kid’s self-confidence or challenge his or her self-worth or make them feel guilty because their parents are not financially well off. Harry can be seen as an inspiration and a symbol of empowerment to many children.

FRANK LLOYD KRAMER

Denver

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Gaps in the Bridge

In a year of disappointing movies, an “upscale cinema” might lure us out of our house, but Orlando, Fla., has a theater, the Enzian, that goes several steps beyond the Director’s Halls at the Bridge, as described by Jon Burlingame (“Please Take Your Comfy Seats,” Nov. 29).

The Enzian is a little gem that features the best of indie, foreign and character-driven movies. As if that isn’t enough, it also has dining tables for two or four and a fairly well-rounded menu of light meals--all served up before the movie begins. Then the lights go down and dinner is taken while watching a really good movie on the big screen. (We always ordered popcorn and the candy du jour for after dinner.)

If there were a similar type of theater in Los Angeles/Orange County, I’d be the first to buy tickets.

JEAN RIDDELL

Irvine

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The sorry state of classical music becomes clear in the article regarding the Bridge Theater when the moviegoing experience reduces the music of Mozart to the right kind of hold music while on the phone, and the music of Tchaikovsky as the appropriate bathroom music.

And why must one be accompanied by music while in the bathroom? MATTHEW HETZ

Los Angeles