Friday November 30 3:43 AM ET

Former Beatle George Harrison Dies at Age 58

LONDON (Reuters) - Former Beatle George Harrison has died in Los Angeles at the age of 58 after a long battle against cancer, a family friend said Friday.

Long-time family friend Gavin De Becker said: ``He died with one thought in mind -- love one another.''

He died at a friend's home. His wife, Olivia, and son, Dhani, were at his side.

No one was immediately available for comment at the offices of Harrison's London lawyers who have in the past put out updates on his health.

The star was treated for cancer in 1997 after he found a lump in his neck.

He also had surgery for lung cancer in 2001 and was reportedly treated at a Swiss clinic for a brain tumor.

When Harrison first disclosed that he had been treated for throat cancer, he said: ``It reminds you that anything can happen.''

As well as his recent struggle with cancer, Harrison's life was also threatened when he was stabbed by an intruder at his English country home in 1999.

-- seeker (searching@low.and.high), November 30, 2001

Answers

Don't know about you folks, but I'm going to dust off the old turntable, break out the vinyl, and give "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" a spin or two.

Rest in Peace George, I'll miss you.

-- seeker (searching@low.and.high), November 30, 2001.

One of the fondest memories of my childhood.. I was 8, but had a sister that was *16*..need I say more?

-- Peg (who s@id. "Eddie...kiss me goodnight"..?), November 30, 2001.

There'll come a time
When all of us must leave here
Then nothing Sister Mary can do
Will keep me here with you
As nothing in this life that I've been trying
-----George Harrison

"I look at you all, see the love there that's sleeping,
While my guitar gently weeps."

-- just an@anonymous.one (topo@gigo.com), December 01, 2001.

He was the only one worth a shit. Dang.

-- Carlos (riffraff@cybertime.net), December 01, 2001.

He was my favorite, Carlos.

-- Oxy (Oxsys@aol.com), December 02, 2001.

The cloud has a silver lining...

Saturday December 1 9:55 PM ET

Paper: Beatle Harrison Made Secret Last Album

LONDON (Reuters) - Former Beatle George Harrison was secretly recording a last album in the months before he died, according to British media reports on Sunday.

The Sunday Times newspaper said Harrison played tracks from the album to his family at a Los Angeles hospital last Sunday, four days before his death from cancer at the age of 58.

Harrison gave the album the working title ``Portrait of a Leg End,'' a jokey reference to his uneasy relationship with fame, the paper said.

Harrison was working on 25 unreleased tracks at a studio in his English country home, the report added.

``Some of the new songs are very poignant, concerning his life in the past few years,'' California-based musician Jim Keltner, who played drums on some of the tracks, was quoted in the Sunday Times as saying. ``The CD is very close to finishing.''

The tabloid Sunday Express said Harrison's wife Olivia would decide if and when to release the album, as the late Beatle was not signed to any record company.

Harrison recorded one of his last songs, ``Horse to Water,'' with his son Dhani on October 1 for a compilation being released by British musician Jools Holland.

The song contains references to Harrison's physical and spiritual struggle with cancer.

Meanwhile, British politicians called for Harrison to be granted a posthumous knighthood, the Sunday Express reported.

The move would require a change in Britain's honors system under which only military personnel can be given the title ''Sir'' after their death, the paper said.

``Considering the type of people who get knighthoods, how can you not give one to the man wrote ``Here Comes the Sun,'' opposition Conservative member of parliament Boris Johnson was quoted by the Sunday Express as saying.

-- seeker (searching@low.and.high), December 02, 2001.

-- seeker (searching@low.and.high), December 02, 2001.