Scorsese Prepping George Harrison Documentary for 2011 Release

Director Martin Scorsese has completed filming his upcoming George Harrison documentary, now titled Living in the Material World: George Harrison. The filmmaker broke the news at the Cannes Film Festival, where he and George's widow, Olivia Harrison, are shopping the documentary to potential distributors. Living in the Material World, which is currently being edited by David Tedeschi, will likely be released in 2011, though no definite date has been set, Variety reports.

The documentary borrows its title from Harrison's revered 1973 album Living in the Material World, and both Scorsese and Olivia Harrison said that George's search for the balance between the physical and spiritual inspired the film's title. "I grew up a Roman Catholic and wanted to become a priest, so it is a subject matter that has never left me. The more you're in the material world, the more the search for serenity," Scorsese said. The documentary will track Harrison's legacy from his Beatles days to his solo career. According to Variety, Olivia Harrison spent hours going through George's never-released notes, cassette tapes and photos for the film, which will also feature new interviews with Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Yoko Ono, Eric Clapton, Phil Spector and more of the Beatles' contemporaries.

Living in the Material World continues Scorsese's long tradition of balancing out his incredible cinematic career with journeys into the rock world. The Taxi Driver director's filmography includes the Band's final star-studded concert The Last Waltz, deemed by some as the greatest rock & roll movie ever made, as well as the Bob Dylan documentary No Direction Home, the "Feel Like Going Home" segment of the 2003 documentary The Blues and the Rolling Stones' all-star 2006 Beacon Theatre performance Shine a Light. Scorsese also helmed Michael Jackson's "Bad" music video. He previously used Harrison's "What is Life" in his film Goodfellas.

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Song Stories

“1999”

Prince | 1982

“I don’t consider myself a great poet,” Prince told Rolling Stone. “I just know I’m here to say what’s on my mind.” In the case of the apocalyptic party anthem “1999,” he was worried about then-president Ronald Reagan’s foreign policies. The song’s melody is based on a riff borrowed from the Mamas and Papas’ “Monday, Monday,” and Prince originally envisioned the first verse with three-part harmony but later split the vocals between himself and members of the Revolution. Because Warner Bros., with whom Prince was locked in a contractual battle, owned the original’s masters, Prince rerecorded the song and appropriately released that version in 1999.

More Song Stories entries »

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