A George Harrison bonus post here on the tenth anniversary of his death.
Harrison’s 1976 hit “Crackerbox Palace” was written about his visit to the Los Angeles home of the great Beatnik comic, Lord Buckley, after a chance meeting with Buckley’s manager, George Grief, in France. Harrison was a big admirer of Buckley (as was Frank Zappa) and thought the name of his house would make a great song title. The song includes references to both George Greif (“I met a Mr. Greif”) and to his Lordship (“know that the Lord is well and inside of you”).
Python member Eric Idle directed a promo film for “Crackerbox Palace” shown on SNL that featured Neil Innes (in drag and in other weird costumes). You can spot Harrison’s future wife, Olivia Arias, in a flash as one of the women on the bed and director Idle can be seen as one of the people in the chair. What’s really wild about this clip is that you can see how George Harrison lived like, uh, royalty in his Friar Park mansion. The house and the grounds are really a sight. The final pull-out shot shows some insane landscaping.
