Channeling Harrison (Book) Review
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“What does George want?” David Young is, by most accounts, a very successful musician. He has sold literally hundreds of thousands of cds, and has been able to make a living from his art. That’s a pretty momentous undertaking, and a level of success most musicians never achieve. Having reached acclaim for his unusual talent […]
“What does George want?”
David Young is, by most accounts, a very successful musician. He has sold literally hundreds of thousands of cds, and has been able to make a living from his art. That’s a pretty momentous undertaking, and a level of success most musicians never achieve. Having reached acclaim for his unusual talent of double flute playing (one in each hand), as well as for his relaxing music for spas and yoga centers, David was nonetheless feeling unsatisfied with his life. After a rough divorce sends him off to start life over again as a single person, David soon begins to notice an eerily frequent constant in his life: George Harrison.
That’s right. The late George Harrison, of Beatles acclaim, soon begins to pop up in David’s life in all sorts of unexpected places. From coincidentally relevant songs playing just as he turns on the radio, to meeting a variety of friends and acquaintances with connections to George, to a series of vivid dreams that help Young shape his new music style, George Harrison seems to be having a lot of influence in changing David Young’s life for the better – and he isn’t letting a little thing like being dead stop him.
Channeling Harrison is a memoir of David Young’s life, spanning the time from Young first felt George Harrison began to “speak” to him to the present. It gives an accounting of David’s life through those years, touching on friends and acquaintances made, relationships he works through, and the evolution of his music throughout this time (including using lyrics from the songs he wrote at those times to illustrate what he was going through). It is evident that David Young truly does believe his is “channeling Harrison”, and he uses this book as a way to lay out just why he believes so, intertwined with his feelings on various events in his life.
As a memoir, there is a lot of interest in this story. Of course, there’s the whole George Harrison thing, but David Young’s life is really the focus of the book, with bits of Harrison thrown in whenever pertinent. And David Young does have a rather unique life. The life of a professional musician is something most people will find quite fascinating. That being said, the book often has a rather self congratulatory tone to it that doesn’t always feel appropriate or engaging.
Channeling Harrison is a memoir of David Young, a book about spirituality, and a discourse as to why the author feels he is channeling a former Beatle, all rolled up into one little book. While there is much of interest to be found, the author is perhaps too close to the subject at hand to portray things from a more objective angle, and that makes for difficult reading at times. Still, readers looking for something different may just find what they’re looking for here.