The Light That Has Lighted the World
| "The Light That Has Lighted the World" | |
|---|---|
| Song by George Harrison | |
| from the album Living in the Material World | |
| Published | Material World Charitable Foundation (administered by Harrisongs) |
| Released | 30 May 1973 |
| Genre | Folk rock |
| Length | 3:31 |
| Label | Apple |
| Songwriter(s) | George Harrison |
| Producer(s) | George Harrison |
| Living in the Material World track listing | |
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11 tracks
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"The Light That Has Lighted the World" is a song by English musician George Harrison released on his 1973 album Living in the Material World. It is viewed as a statement on Harrison's discomfort with the attention afforded him as an ex-Beatle and features a prominent contribution from English session pianist Nicky Hopkins, along with a highly regarded slide guitar solo from Harrison. Around the time it was recorded, in late 1972, "The Light That Has Lighted the World" was rumoured to be the title track of the forthcoming album. Harrison originally intended it as a song for English singer Cilla Black, whose version of his 1970 composition "When Every Song Is Sung" he produced before starting work on Living in the Material World.
An early acoustic demo of the song, a solo performance by Harrison, appeared as the closing track on the 2012 compilation Early Takes: Volume 1 compilation. Whether intentionally or not, "The Light That Has Lighted the World" is an approximation of at least two verses from the Bible (John 8:12): "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." (John 1:9): "That was the true Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world."
In early August 1972, in between overseeing the UK release of Saul Swimmer's Concert for Bangladesh documentary and heading up to Liverpool to catch Ravi Shankar's recital at the Philharmonic Hall,George Harrison tried recording "When Every Song Is Sung", a ballad from the All Things Must Pass era, as a single for Cilla Black. Although the project was not completed, just like Harrison's attempt to record the same song with Ronnie Spector the year before, he later decided to write a B-side for her, which would become "The Light That Has Lighted the World". In his autobiography, I, Me, Mine, Harrison explains that the lyrics dealt with the "Local boy/girl makes good" phenomenon, where the public initially supports someone who achieves success yet are then disapproving if fame or success changes that person. Both he and Black were from Liverpool and had become famous quickly, after which many people considered their personalities had changed – a common link that Harrison thought of basing the intended B-side around. After he had come up with the opening two lines, however, the theme soon evolved into something more personal.
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