George Harrison performs at the Prince's Trust Concert in London on June 06th 1987/Dave Hogan/Getty Images
Qalam strives to explore the interpenetration of different cultures. To this end, we have decided to launch a series of playlists in which music mediates between different geographical and ideological spaces. Our first playlist is called ‘West to East: One Hundred Best Songs’. It will be updated several times a week, and its curation will focus on how Western pop culture has reflected the realities of the East, whether they are musical, geographical, religious, or political. (The terms ‘West’ and ‘East’ should be taken as broadly and arbitrarily as possible.)
Of the four Beatles, George Harrison was the one most obsessed with the East. In this case, however, the Hong Kong theme came to him as a reflection of old American culture. Here, in a nice eighties style, he sings an old blues song by the great Hoagy Carmichael about an American who became addicted to opium in Hong Kong and couldn’t get home. Carmichael himself delivered an unmatched performance of this song in the film To Have and Have Not (1944). The scene features Humphrey Bogart barging into a bar wearing an equally memorable cap.