Watching The Music
By Adam D. Miller

Video: “This Song”
Artist: George Harrison
Album: Thirty Three & 1/3
Released: 1977

Available on Dark Horse Years from EMI. 

“My Sweet Lord” is one of George Harrison’s biggest hits.  Released in January 1971, three months after his 1970 album All Things Must Pass, the single was the first by a solo Beatle to chart at #1.  Even before it was a single, the track was regularly played on the radio.  But with this popularity and success came a serious legal battle that would wage for five long years.

In 1971, George Harrison found himself in a lawsuit that accused him of plagiarizing the melody from The Chiffons’ 1963 hit “He’s So Fine” in “My Sweet Lord.”  Portions of the melody consisted of the same notes, and that was apparently enough to instigate such a suit. 

But what does this have to do with “This Song” and its video? 

One of George Harrison most endearing qualities was that he could approach anything with a sense of humor.  With an opening riff reminiscent of “I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)” by The Four Tops, “This Song” is a not-so-memorable song from a not-so-memorable album, but it serves as an effective sequel to “My Sweet Lord.”  The tune was written as a humorous response to the lawsuit that Harrison had found himself struggling with for years.  It opens with the verse: “This song has nothing tricky about it / This song ain't black or white and as far as I know / Don't infringe on anyone's copyright, so…”  The narrator goes onto defend how he goes about composing (“This song came to me unknowingly”) and is interrupted during one of his choruses by Eric Idle impersonating a pair of women arguing over what song “This Song” sounds like: “Could be ‘Sugar Pie Honey Bunch’, No, sounds more like ‘Rescue Me’!”

Harrison’s humor extends into the video for “This Song.”  Harrison gets dragged into the courtroom, handcuffed to a motorcycle cop.  Inside the courtroom, he is surrounded by all sorts of bizarre figures, including a psychotic looking stenographer who plays her stenograph as if it were a piano (she later moves on to the real thing) and a wig-wearing judge who bangs his gavel to the beat of the song.  Harrison sings from the stand, displaying the sheet music to “This Song.”  As he continues to sing, he swears on the bible and pleads to the jury.  All the while, the people in the court room are dancing to the music.

Like a scene out of The Blues Brothers, the video for “This Song” shows how an awkward situation, like being in a courtroom, can turn into some sort of chaotic musical extravaganza.  After a debate between two women in drag, one of the people sitting in the courtroom gets up and plays a sax solo, and is soon accompanied by two other horn players.  The bailiff joins in on bass.  The scene becomes more and more chaotic and resembles a circus more than a court hearing. More than twenty-five years later, this satire of overblown and ridiculous court cases is all too relevant.

Five years after the Chiffons lawsuit, Harrison lost, forcing him to pay a hefty fine. 

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