Ten Favorite Dark Songs: Dark Horse (#7)

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The dark songs I'm posting may be showing the "dark side" of me! I posted a very popular song yesterday, and what's this -- another song and person most people have heard of?! I blame the bronchitis medication. Here's the next song on my list of favorites with dark in the title. #7: Dark Horse - George Harrison Some itenerant guitarist who was in some band from England. Wonder if he ever achieved any success? Actually, George's reputation as "the Quiet Beatle" partly inspired this terrific song where he compares himself to a long shot in a horse race. Other inspirations included what was going on his personal life at the time: Layla! In my generation this is common knowledge, but I've been surprised by a lot of things that were "common knowledge" that get a lot of "I didn't know that" replies. In this timeframe Harrison's wife, Pattie Boyd, was having an affair with Eric Clapton. Clapton wrote the song "Layla" about her. (After she and Harrison split she married Clapton...and, despite him telling her "you look wonderful tonight" in that song, they eventually divorced, too.) Additionally, Harrison was quite devout in his Hindu faith. His first #1 single was "My Sweet Lord," and his album Living in the Material World received a lot of flack for being "preachy" ("so damn holy that I could scream" said one critic). Harrison politely but firmly took the critics to task at the same time he dealt with his wife's unfaithfulness with one of his best friends (Harrison and Clapton toured together in the 90s) and the pressure of being an ex-Beatle. Put it all together and it's one of George Harrison's greatest singles. Dark Horse Written by George Harrison Recorded by George Harrison From Dark Horse, 1974 I've been a cool jerk: