| "Soft-Hearted Hana" | |
|---|---|
 Canadian single label (B-side) | |
| Song by George Harrison | |
| from the album George Harrison | |
| Released | 20 February 1979 |
| Genre | Music hall, old-time |
| Length | 4:03 |
| Label | Dark Horse |
| Songwriter(s) | George Harrison |
| Producer(s) | George Harrison, Russ Titelman |
| George Harrison track listing | |
10 tracks | |
"Soft-Hearted Hana" is a song by English rock musician George Harrison from his 1979 album George Harrison. In North America, it was also issued as the B-side of the album's lead single, "Blow Away", while in Britain and some other markets it was the B-side of the follow-up, "Love Comes to Everyone". The lyrics recall Harrison's experiences under the hallucinatory effects of magic mushrooms while holidaying on the Hawaiian island of Maui. The song title refers to Hana, a remote town on the island, and is a play on that of the 1920s ragtime tune "Hard Hearted Hannah".
Harrison began writing the song in Los Angeles in response to Ted Templeman, a staff producer at Warner Bros. Records, suggesting he compose something in a similar style to his 1971 track "Deep Blue". He wrote the lyrics in Hawaii in February 1978, during the main writing period for George Harrison, his first album in over two years. Recorded at Harrison's FPSHOT studio in Oxfordshire, the track features dobro, jazz piano, tuba and prominent chorus vocals, as well as voices and sounds captured in his local pub. The musical arrangement recalls the music hall tradition, while the composition's old-time qualities reflect Harrison's earliest influences from the pre-rock and roll era. The other musicians on the recording include Neil Larsen and Stevie Winwood.
The song's lyrics employ, variously, psychedelic imagery, rhyming slang, humorous non sequiturs and John Keats-like symbolism. The song was well received by several music critics and revealed a comedic side of Harrison that was relatively unfamiliar to listeners. Author Simon Leng recognises "Soft-Hearted Hana" as the start of the "Pythonization of Harrison's music",[1] referring to the Monty Python comedy troupe and Harrison's role as a film producer of British comedies such as Monty Python's Life of Brian.
- ^ Leng, p. 226.