Beware of Darkness by George Harrison

George Harrison's 'Beware of Darkness' is one of those rare songs that feels less like a composition and more like a revelation. Emerging from his landmark 1970 triple album, All Things Must Pass, the track carries a solemn grandeur that, in keeping with its title, shines through.

The number opens with a haunting guitar progression, immediately enveloping the listener in a soundscape that is both intimate and all-pervasive. Harrison's voice, brittle yet imbued with quiet authority, delivers a warning against the illusions and corruptions of the world - not as some post- Beatles sage but as a friend.

It is a majestic song, in which the lyrics caution against false prophets - 'Watch out now, take care/ Beware of soft shoe shufflers/ Dancing down the sidewalks' - fleeting pleasures and the seduction of power. And, yet, the song provides sanctuary.


Phil Spector's production layers instruments into a shimmering wall of sound that feels vast, but never overwhelming. Harrison's slide guitar, his signature voice in strings, cuts through with piercing clarity, like a beam from a lighthouse. Beware of Darkness is both a lament and a hymn, a warning and a balm. And, boy, does it sound contemporary.