George Harrison's 1974 Tour Revisited

The Beatles gave up touring forever on this date in 1966.  The first bandmember to launch a large-scale tour (notwithstanding Paul's jaunts through small European venues in 1972-73) was George, whose 1974 tour has wrongly been called a disaster.  It was his first U.S. tour, and his only one aside from a 12-date run through Japan (backed by Eric Clapton's band) in 1991.
Rolling Stone magazine, which seems to revel in contradicting itself every 10 minutes, published a scathing account of the tour back then.  It claimed, among other things, that audiences were bored by Ravi Shankar's lengthy sets.  The review in-turn annoyed George, which may have inspired him to make long speeches about his spirituality, which really DID bore the audience.  Audio evidence, though, somewhat contradicts this, but it does confirm that George's voice was suffering from the strain.  Not horrible, just different.  Most of the stress was likely due to damning press coverage: years later, George wrote that he came home and couldn't even walk inside after the tour; he first needed to sit in his garden and just decompress for a while.
George was at least invited to the White House during the tour, and he got some smoking live tapes out of the deal, which have only been officially released on a pair of rare EPs that were included with his book "I Me Mine."  (One example is this take on "For You Blue").
Below is a concert from mid-way through the tour, in Chicago on November 30.  And here's a concert poster for the only canceled date, at the then-new Richfield Coliseum near Cleveland.  George would have been one of, if not THE, first rock shows there, which was then the home of the Cleveland Cavaliers.  It had just opened October 26, 1974, with a concert by Frank Sinatra.

Chicago 11/30/74:

Here's the full tour itinerary:
2-Nov-74: Vancouver, Pacific Coliseum
4-Nov-74: Seattle, Seattle Center Coliseum
6-Nov-74: San Francisco, Cow Palace
7-Nov-74: San Francisco, Cow Palace
8-Nov-74: Oakland, California, Oakland Coliseum [2 shows]
10-Nov-74: Long Beach, California, Long Beach Arena
11-Nov-74: Los Angeles, The Forum
12-Nov-74: Los Angeles, The Forum [2 shows]
14-Nov-74: Tucson, Arizona, Tucson Community Center
16-Nov-74: Salt Lake City, Salt Palace
18-Nov-74: Denver, Denver Coliseum [2 shows]
20-Nov-74: St Louis, The Arena
21-Nov-74: Tulsa, Oklahoma, Tulsa Assembly Center
22-Nov-74: Fort Worth, Texas, Tarrant County Convention Center [2 shows]
24-Nov-74: Houston, Hofheinz Pavilion
26-Nov-74: Baton Rouge, Louisiana, LSU Assembly Center
27-Nov-74: Memphis, Tennessee, Mid-South Coliseum
28-Nov-74: Atlanta, The Omni [2 shows]
30-Nov-74: Chicago, Chicago Stadium [2 shows]
2-Dec-74: Richfield, Ohio Coliseum [canceled due to weather]
4-Dec-74: Detroit, Olympia Stadium [2 shows]
6-Dec-74: Toronto, Maple Leaf Gardens [2 shows]
8-Dec-74: Montreal, Quebec, Montreal Forum [2 shows]
10-Dec-74: Boston, Boston Garden [2 shows]
11-Dec-74: Providence, Rhode Island, Providence Civic Center
13-Dec-74: Landover, Maryland, Capital Centre [2 shows]
15-Dec-74: Uniondale, Long Island, Nassau Coliseum [2 shows]
16-Dec-74: Philadelphia, The Spectrum
17-Dec-74: Philadelphia, The Spectrum [2 shows]
19-Dec-74: New York City, Madison Square Garden
20-Dec-74: New York City, Madison Square Garden [2 shows]


George's band for the tour is listed as:
George Harrison – vocals, electric and acoustic guitars, backing vocals
Tom Scott – saxophones, flute
Billy Preston – vocals, organ, clavinet, synthesizer, backing vocals
Robben Ford – electric and acoustic guitars, backing vocals
Jim Horn – saxophones, flute
Chuck Findley – trumpet, flute
Emil Richards – marimba, percussion
Willie Weeks – bass
Andy Newmark – drums
Jim Keltner – drums (from 27 November)
Kumar Shankar – percussion, backing vocals