|
"The Answer's at the End" is a song by English musician George Harrison, released in 1975 on his final album for Apple Records, ''Extra Texture (Read All About It)''. Part of the song lyrics came from a wall inscription at Harrison's nineteenth-century home, Friar Park, a legacy of the property's original owner, Sir Frank Crisp. This aphorism, beginning "Scan not a friend with a microscopic glass", had resonated with Harrison since he bought the property in 1970, and it was a quote he often used when discussing his difficult relationship with fellow ex-Beatle Paul McCartney. Harrison's adaptation of the verse for "The Answer's at the End" coincided with a period of personal upheaval, following the harsh criticism that his 1974 North American tour had received from a number of influential concert reviewers. The song's plea for tolerance recalls Harrison's 1970 hit song "Isn't It a Pity", and in part of its musical arrangement, "The Answer's at the End" bears the influence of Nina Simone's 1972 cover version of that earlier composition. Like much of the ''Extra Texture'' album, the song has traditionally enjoyed a mixed reception from music critics and biographers – being labelled "archaic parlour poetry"〔Clayson, p. 350.〕 and a "bleak assessment of the human condition"〔 on one hand, and a "gorgeously melodic song of forgiveness"〔 on the other. The backing musicians on the recording include members of the band Attitudes, among them David Foster and Jim Keltner, who were signed to Harrison's Dark Horse record label at the time. ==Background== In March 1970, George Harrison and his first wife, Pattie Boyd, moved into their Victorian Gothic residence at Friar Park in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire.〔The Editors of ''Rolling Stone'', p. 42.〕〔Boyd, p. 146.〕 The 120-room house was built in the 1890s〔O'Dell, pp. 135, 137.〕 on the site of a thirteenth-century friary by Frank Crisp, a City of London solicitor and microscopist.〔 Harrison was immediately taken with Crisp's penchant for whimsy,〔Harrison, p. 68.〕 the legacies of which included interior features such as doorknobs and light switches shaped as monks' faces (which meant "tweaking" a nose in order to turn each light on),〔Clayson, pp. 300, 301.〕 and a carving of a monk's head that showed him smiling on one side and frowning on the other.〔Greene, p. 166.〕 A keen horticulturalist and an authority on medieval gardening,〔Anita McConnell, ("Crisp, Sir Frank, first baronet (1843–1919) )", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' online, January 2007 (''subscription required''; retrieved 26 February 2013).〕 Crisp established 10 acres of formal gardens,〔O'Dell, p. 136.〕 which similarly reflected his eccentric tastes.〔〔Boyd, pp. 144, 145.〕 From midway through the twentieth century until 1969, ownership of Friar Park resided with the Roman Catholic Church.〔Harrison, p. 67.〕〔Clayson, p. 301.〕 As a result, paint masked some of Crisp's inscriptions inside the house,〔Greene, p. 168.〕 but outside, signs reading "Don't keep off the grass", "Herons will be prosecuted" and "Eton boys are a Harrowing sight" remained intact.〔O'Dell, p. 137.〕 Harrison also discovered inscriptions with a more profound meaning, which he described to his Hare Krishna friend Shyamasundar Das as "like songs really, about the devil, about friendship, life".〔Greene, p. 165.〕 One example was "Shadows we are and shadows we depart", written on a stone sundial;〔Clayson, p. 302.〕 another began: "Scan not a friend with a microscopic glass / You know his faults, now let his foibles pass ..."〔Greene, p. 171.〕 This four-line verse was written above an entrance-way in a garden wall,〔Boyd, p. 144.〕 and it was an aphorism that Harrison soon took to quoting in interviews.〔Badman, p. 6.〕 On 28 April 1970, just over two weeks after the Beatles' break-up, he used the words during an interview for New York's WPLQ Radio,〔Badman, pp. 6–7.〕 as ''Village Voice'' reporter Howard Smith repeatedly pushed for details on the animosity between Paul McCartney and the other three Beatles.〔("It's Really a Pity" ), Contra Band Music, 15 March 2012 (retrieved 9 July 2012).〕 In October 1974 – towards the end of what Harrison termed a "bad domestic year", following his split with Boyd,〔Harrison, p. 69.〕 and shortly before his troubled North American tour with Ravi Shankar〔Madinger & Easter, pp. 443, 445.〕 – he used the same quote in an interview with BBC Radio's Alan Freeman,〔Badman, pp. 138–39.〕 when again discussing the current relationship among the four ex-Beatles.〔("That's Entertainment" ), Contra Band Music, 10 October 2012 (retrieved 23 December 2013).〕〔"Interview with George Harrison", ''Rock Around the World'', program 61, 5 October 1975.〕 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「The Answer's at the End」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|