GEORGE HARRISON - DEVIL'S RADIO

DEVIL'S RADIO

GEORGE HARRISON

SONGWRITER: GEORGE HARRISON

COUNTRY: U. K.

ALBUM: DEVIL’S RADIO

LABEL: DARK HORSE

GENRE: ROCK

YEAR: 1987

"Devil's Radio" is a song written by George Harrison that was first released on Harrison's 1987 album Cloud Nine. It was not released commercially as a single, but a promotional single was released and the song reached #4 on the Billboard Album Rock Tracks chart.

"Devil's Radio" was inspired by a church billboard Harrison had seen stating "Gossip: The Devil's Radio...Don't Be a Broadcaster." The song's theme is an attack on gossip, trivia and cynical talk radio which spreads inaccuracies and falsehoods. The song uses metaphors such as "vultures," "weeds," "pollution" and "industrial waste" to drive home the point of gossip's effects. The theme was a personal one to Harrison, as he had felt victimized by gossip and by the media attention he received as an ex-Beatle, which inhibited his ability to live a normal life. This point is driven home by the line "You wonder why I don't hang out much/I wonder how you can't see."

"Devil's Radio" begins with a repeated recitation of the word "Gossip" before launching in the verses describing the evils of gossip. Chip Madinger and Mark Easter wrote that the music was inspired by the Eurythmics, making it one of the few songs in which Harrison was influenced by contemporary musical trends. Harrison biographer Simon Leng described the music accompaniment as Harrison's most aggressive since "Wah-Wah" in 1971 and described the style of the music as rockabilly. Leng compared the opening of "Devil's Radio" to songs of Chuck Berry and particularly praised Harrison's vocal and the counterpoint provided by Eric Clapton, who played guitar on the song along with Harrison. The other musicians who performed on the song were Elton John on piano, Jeff Lynne on bass guitar and keyboards, Ringo Starr on drums and Ray Cooper on percussion.

Several commentators have noted resemblances between "Devil's Radio" and songs written by others. Beatles' author Andrew Grant Jackson points out a similarity in theme and tone with Don Henley's 1982 hit "Dirty Laundry." Music lecturer Ian Inglis suggests a resemblance between the line ""You wonder why I don't hang out much" and the rhetorical devices Bob Dylan uses in "Desolation Row" where Dylan asks "You asked how I was doing/Was that some kind of joke?" Leng notes a similarity with the theme of a different Bob Dylan song, "Restless Farewell," in which Dylan complains of the damage caused by gossip and rumors. However, Leng also states that Harrison's approach differs from Dylan's by being more direct, whereas Dylan's approach is more allegorical.

George Harrison MBE (25 February 1943–29 November 2001) was an English musician, singer, songwriter, and music and film producer who achieved international fame as the lead guitarist of the Beatles. Sometimes called "the quiet Beatle", Harrison embraced Indian culture and helped broaden the scope of popular music through his incorporation of Indian instrumentation and Hindu-aligned spirituality in the Beatles' work. Although the majority of the band's songs were written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, most Beatles albums from 1965 onwards contained at least two Harrison compositions. His songs for the group include "Taxman", "Within You Without You", "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", "Here Comes the Sun" and "Something".

Harrison's earliest musical influences included George Formby and Django Reinhardt; Carl Perkins, Chet Atkins and Chuck Berry were subsequent influences. By 1965, he had begun to lead the Beatles into folk rock through his interest in Bob Dylan and the Byrds, and towards Indian classical music through his use of the sitar on "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)". Having initiated the band's embracing of Transcendental Meditation in 1967, he subsequently developed an association with the Hare Krishna movement. After the band's break-up in 1970, Harrison released the triple album All Things Must Pass, a critically acclaimed work that produced his most successful hit single, "My Sweet Lord", and introduced his signature sound as a solo artist, the slide guitar. He also organised the 1971 Concert for Bangladesh with Indian musician Ravi Shankar, a precursor to later benefit concerts such as Live Aid. In his role as a music and film producer, Harrison produced acts signed to the Beatles Apple record label before founding Dark Horse Records in 1974 and co-founding HandMade Films in 1978.

Harrison released several best-selling singles and albums as a solo performer. In 1988, he co-founded the platinum-selling supergroup the Traveling Wilburys. A prolific recording artist, he was featured as a guest guitarist on tracks by Badfinger, Ronnie Wood and Billy Preston, and collaborated on songs and music with Dylan, Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr and Tom Petty, among others. Rolling Stone magazine ranked him number 11 in their list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time". He is a two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee – as a member of the Beatles in 1988, and posthumously for his solo career in 2004. 

Gossip, gossip

Gossip, gossip

I heard it in the night

Words that thoughtless speak

Like vultures swooping down below

On the devil's radio

I hear it through the day

Airwaves gettin' filled

With gossip broadcast to and fro
On the devil's radio

Oh yeah, gossip

Gossip, oh yeah

He's in the clubs and bars

And never turns it down

Talking about what he don't know

On the devil's radio

He's in your TV set

Won't give it a rest

That soul betraying so and so

The devil's radio

Gossip, gossip

Gossip, gossip

(Oh yeah) gossip, (gossip) oh yeah

(Gossip) oh yeah, (oh yeah) gossip

It's white and black like industrial waste

Pollution of the highest degree

You wonder why I don't hang out much

I wonder how you can't see

He's in the films and songs

And on all your magazines

It's everywhere that you may go

The devil's radio

Oh yeah, gossip

Gossip, oh yeah

Runs thick and fast, no one really sees

Quite what bad it can do

As it shapes you into something cold

Like an Eskimo igloo

It's all across our lives

Like a weed it's spread

'till nothing else has space to grow

The devil's radio

Can creep up in the dark

Make us hide behind shades

And buzzing like a dynamo

The devil's radio

(Gossip) oh yeah, (gossip) oh yeah

(Gossip) gossip, (gossip) gossip

Oh yeah, gossip I heard you on the secret wireless

Gossip, oh yeah You know the devil's radio, child

Gossip, gossip

Gossip, gossip.