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}} "Dark Horse" is a song by English musician George Harrison, released as the title track to his 1974 solo album on Apple Records. The song was the album's lead single in North America, becoming a top-twenty hit in the United States, but it was Harrison's first single not to chart in Britain when issued there in February 1975. While the term "dark horse" had long been applied to Harrison due to his success as a solo artist following the Beatles' break-up in 1970, commentators recognise the song as Harrison's rebuttal to a number of possible detractors: those reviewers who criticised the spiritual content of his 1973 album ''Living in the Material World''; his first wife, Pattie Boyd; and his former bandmates John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Harrison also used the title for that of his record label, and his 1974 North American tour with Ravi Shankar would come to be known as the Dark Horse Tour. Harrison taped an early version of the song with Ringo Starr in 1973, intending to finish this recording for the album. The officially released version was recorded during rehearsals for his 1974 concerts, at a time when Harrison's exhaustion through overwork contributed to him contracting laryngitis and losing his voice. Harrison's singing was similarly affected throughout the ensuing tour. A number of music critics rate "Dark Horse" as one of Harrison's finest post-Beatles compositions and believe that the single would have achieved greater success with a cleaner vocal performance. The recording reflects Harrison's embracing of the jazz-funk musical genre, and features contributions from musicians such as Tom Scott, Jim Horn, Billy Preston, Willie Weeks and Andy Newmark. Harrison played "Dark Horse" throughout both the 1974 tour and his 1991 Japanese tour with Eric Clapton. A live version appears on his 1992 album ''Live in Japan''. Recordings also exist of Harrison performing the song during radio and television appearances in the 1970s, although none of these versions are available on official releases. For the first time since the debut CD releases of ''Dark Horse'' and ''The Best of George Harrison'' in the early 1990s, "Dark Horse" was remastered in 2014, along with its parent album, as part of Harrison's ''Apple Years'' reissues. The latter release includes an acoustic demo of the song, which Harrison recorded in 1974 before the onset of laryngitis. ==Background and composition== George Harrison's 1973 album ''Living in the Material World'' had divided music critics,〔Schaffner, p. 160.〕 with Stephen Holden of ''Rolling Stone'' lauding it as "a pop religious ceremony for all seasons" and "an article of faith, miraculous in its radiance",〔Stephen Holden, ("George Harrison, ''Living in the Material World''" ), ''Rolling Stone'', 19 July 1973 (retrieved 23 December 2012).〕 while the ''NMEs reviewer derided the pious nature of the songs and concluded: "So damn holy I could scream."〔Kevin Howlett, booklet accompanying ''Living in the Material World'' reissue (EMI Records, 2006; produced by Dhani & Olivia Harrison).〕 Although the album was another "massive" commercial success for Harrison,〔Madinger & Easter, p. 439.〕 and the general perception remained that he was still the most capable of the four ex-Beatles,〔Schaffner, p. 159.〕〔Rodriguez, pp. 159, 263.〕 Harrison was reportedly stung by this criticism of the overt Vaishnava Hindu spirituality in his music.〔David Cavanagh, "George Harrison: The Dark Horse", ''Uncut'', August 2008, pp. 36–48.〕〔Inglis, p. 43.〕 His purchase of Bhaktivedanta Manor early that year as a UK headquarters for ISKCON〔Clayson, p. 306.〕 – or, colloquially, "the Hare Krishna movement" – led to ridicule in the British press.〔Greene, p. 196.〕〔The Editors of ''Rolling Stone'', p. 227.〕 Author Joshua Greene, a former ISKCON devotee, describes a visit Harrison made to the house in August 1973 when the singer shared his concerns with Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the movement's international leader: "I'm provoking a bad reaction," Harrison confided. "The stronger the commitment on my part, the stronger the animosity becomes."〔Greene, p. 201.〕 At the same time, Harrison's marriage to Pattie Boyd was coming to an end,〔Greene, p. 197.〕 and he would later describe his behaviour during their final years together as "the naughty period, 1973−74".〔George Harrison, p. 274.〕 Biographer Ian Inglis has written of Harrison's dismay at the more negative reviews for ''Material World'': "It coincided with a period of intense disarray and frequent infidelities in his personal life, and the combination of these two sources of disappointment produced a mood of gloom and cynicism that would invariably work its way into his next musical projects."〔 Harrison wrote "Dark Horse" in 1973, apparently as a rebuttal to critics of ''Living in the Material World''.〔Leng, p. 154.〕〔 Like a number of reviewers of the ''Dark Horse'' album,〔Lindsay Planer, ("George Harrison 'Dark Horse'" ), AllMusic (retrieved 5 December 2014).〕〔Bob Woffinden, "George Harrison: ''Dark Horse''", ''NME'', 21 December 1974; available at (Rock's Backpages ) (''subscription required''; retrieved 24 December 2012).〕 Inglis also interprets the composition as Harrison's message of defiance to Boyd.〔Inglis, p. 47.〕 Harrison's comments on "Dark Horse" in his 1980 autobiography, ''I, Me, Mine'', are as "obscure" as the song's lyrics, writes theologian Dale Allison.〔Allison, p. 139.〕 While the term "dark horse" usually refers to an unlikely or surprise winner,〔 Harrison states in ''I, Me, Mine'' that he was unaware of that meaning at the time;〔George Harrison, p. 288.〕 his lyrics instead referred to someone who carried out clandestine sexual relationships − that is, a dark horse in Liverpudlian terms.〔Pieper, p. 111.〕 Harrison's musical biographer, Simon Leng, views "Dark Horse" as its composer addressing his critics by creating a "new persona".〔Leng, pp. 154−55.〕 "This 'George' is a man one step ahead of his detractors," Leng writes, "triumphing with quicker feet and better gags. Commentators try to pin his character down at peril, for he is likely to change and take the least expected course."〔Leng, p. 155.〕 In the song's choruses, Harrison declares himself "''a dark horse / Running on a dark race course''", "''a blue moon''", and a "''cool jerk''" who is "''Looking for the source''".〔George Harrison, p. 290.〕 Leng paraphrases this self-depiction as meaning "a loner" and "an elusive, cheeky maverick".〔Leng, p. 193.〕 While describing the lyrics as "smarmy, if not somewhat defensive", AllMusic's Lindsay Planer identifies the song's opening verse as "seem() to address the situation" between Harrison and Boyd:〔 Planer suggests that the "searing" verse-two lines "''You thought you had got me in your grip / Baby, looks like you was not so smart''" are a further example of this interpretation.〔 Like Planer, Inglis recognises a third possible target of Harrison's scorn – former bandmates John Lennon and Paul McCartney.〔〔 Inglis observes that in the song's final verse, Harrison is making it clear to those who have underestimated him in the past that his abilities are not "recent acquisitions":〔 Leng notes that this Harrison "character" would return in his 1976 composition "This Song", written as a light-hearted reflection on his "travails in court" during the "My Sweet Lord" plagiarism case.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Dark Horse (George Harrison song)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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