George Harrison and Magic Mushrooms

[jumex12]

Harrison went to Hana on the Hawaiian island of Maui in February 1978, where he finished the song during a fruitful period for his songwriting. He titled it "Soft-Hearted Hana" after the town of Hana, and as a play on the title of "Hard Hearted Hannah (The Vamp of Savannah)".The latter was a 1920s ragtime standard that Harrison had become familiar with through a 1961 recording by the Temperance Seven, which was produced by George Martin, the Beatles' producer. Harrison's inspiration for the "crazy" lyrics came from ingesting magic mushrooms, which he said was his first experience of hallucinogenic drugs for perhaps ten years. He also wrote "Here Comes the Moon" during this time, drawing inspiration again from the lush natural surroundings on Maui and from the magic mushrooms. Another new composition was "Sooty Goes to Hawaii", a comedy song that Harrison wrote about Sooty, the popular glove puppet character from British television. Olivia Harrison, Harrison's girlfriend at the time, and soon to be his wife, recalls that this visit represented the start of their "love affair with Hawaii", as well as providing the inspiration for "Soft-Hearted Hana" and other songs on the 1979 album George Harrison.