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ALS by George Harrison, signed “George & Ollie,” one page, 8 x 11.25, Dark Horse Records letterhead, stamped August 29, 1976. Fantastic handwritten letter to his close friend and collaborator Gary Wright and Wright’s wife, Christina Uppstrom, addressed “Gary Tina,” in full: “You are never far from here! Om Guru Om! Have a nice day squire's—love you.” He adds a cryptic handwritten postscript: “C.U. in L.A. (Videl Sassoon).” Harrison also sketches several devotional symbols at the top, including an Om, cross, star, and Hindu swastika. Affixed at the bottom is an original candid photograph of an American flag flying over Harrison’s famous Friar Park mansion. Presented with CD covers for Harrison’s Thirty Three & ⅓ and Wright’s breakthrough album, The Dream Weaver, which is signed in black felt tip by Wright, who adds “Love” and an Om symbol. Double-matted together to an overall size of 14 x 21. In very good to fine condition, with light creasing and intersecting folds. Accompanied by a full letter of authenticity from Beckett Authentication Services for the Harrison letter and a certificate of authenticity from JSA for the Wright-signed CD cover.
Harrison wrote this letter in the late summer of 1976, while recording Thirty Three & ⅓ at his home studio at Friar Park, in sessions that ran from May into mid-September. A bout of hepatitis had interrupted the sessions, and on August 31, two days after the date stamped on this letter, a federal judge ruled that Harrison had subconsciously copied the Chiffons’ ‘He’s So Fine’ in ‘My Sweet Lord.’ The new album included ‘This Song,’ his wry response to the lawsuit, written earlier that year. The record would also be his first release on his own Dark Horse label. Following a dispute with A&M over the album’s delayed delivery, Dark Horse secured distribution through Warner Bros.
Gary Wright, who had first played keyboards for Harrison on All Things Must Pass, was among the musicians on Thirty Three & ⅓, and the two shared a deep spiritual bond. Harrison had given Wright a copy of Paramahansa Yogananda’s Autobiography of a Yogi and traveled with him to India, an awakening that helped shape Wright’s ‘Dream Weaver,’ a major hit earlier that year. The letter’s “Om Guru Om” and its symbols drawn from several faiths reflect that shared devotion, which Harrison expressed on the new album in ‘Dear One,’ his tribute to Yogananda. “Ollie” is Olivia Arias, Harrison’s companion, whom he married in 1978.
