In 'Pisces Fish' George Harrison penned a perfect theme song - Happy birthday, Beatle George

George Harrison in the Oval Office, 1974 (Wikimedia Commons)  

It’s George Harrison’s birthday. Not the one listed in the early Beatles biographies, but the one he and his astrologer determined through rectification of his natal chart. The complicated process used when birth times are uncertain placed his birth in Liverpool at 11:42 p.m. Feb. 24, 1943, rather than at five minutes into the day on Feb. 25.

“I only learned recently after all these years that the date and time of my own birth have always been off by one calendar day and about a half hour on the clock," Harrison told Billboard magazine in comments reported in the December 1992 issue.

George was a consummate Pisces. His deeply moving song “Pisces Fish,” appeared on Brainwashed – the album that was released posthumously in 2002 after its production was completed by his son, Dhani Harrison, and by friend and fellow Traveling Wilburys bandmate Jeff Lynne. It is a song deep with Piscean perspective.

“I’m a living proof of all life’s contradiction,” George sang. “One half’s going where the other half’s just been. I’m a Pisces fish and the river runs through my soul.” He also wrote “Fish on the Sand” for the earlier Cloud 9 album.

Dhani has said George was always partial to the number 7, which is the number astrologers and numerologists say resonates to Neptune, planet of dreams and modern ruler of Pisces. Dhani placed George’s “Stuck Inside a Cloud” as the seventh song on Brainwashed because that was his dad’s favorite number and the song was special to Dhani. It also glistens with Piscean imagery.

The rectified birth chart, of course, left George’s sun in Pisces, the sign with which he so strongly identified, with all its symbolism of deep spirituality, sensitivity and the quest for Oneness. It also left his moon in Scorpio, the related water sign known for probing the mysterious, and for life-and-death concerns, and for a certain darkness. All of those Scorpio characteristics are also reflected in the music and interviews left behind by “Dark Horse George,” who called himself a dark horse more often even then he called himself a fish.

What changed in the adjustment of his natal chart was his rising sign, which went from early Scorpio to late Libra but stayed conjunct with his moon at the very beginning of Scorpio. Libra adds a certain intellectual detachment, a love of beauty and a need for balance. His ruling planet, Neptune, is also in Libra. Where the sun sign indicates the basic ego-sense of self, the moon represents one’s emotional nature and the ascendant or rising describes one’s dealings with the outer world. All come through with great strength in George’s theme song for his sun sign, “Pisces Fish.”

This song and the CD it came from are among my favorites of all time. Please give this YouTube version a listen. The lyrics are below.

Pisces Fish
by George Harrison

Rowers gliding on the river
Canadian geese crap along the bank
Back wheel of my bike begins to quiver
The chain is wrapped around the crank

Old ladies, who must be doggie training
Walking, throwing balls, chasing all the sheep
And the farmer stands around, and he's complaining
His mad cows are being put to sleep

I'm a Pisces fish and the river runs through my soul

Smoke signals from the brewery
Like someone in there found the latest pope
In a vat of beer that keeps pumping out with fury
While the churchbell ringer's tangled in his rope

But there's a temple on an island
I think of all the gods and what they feel
You can only find them in the deepest silence
I got to get off of this big wheel

I'm a Pisces fish and the river runs through my soul
I'm a Pisces fish and the river runs through my soul

And I'll be swimming until I can find those waters
That one unbounded ocean of bliss
That's flowing through your parents, sons and daughters
But it's still an easy thing for us to miss

Blades go skimming through the water
I hear the coxswain shout us his instructions about
With this crew, oh, it could be a tall order
Have we time to sort all these things out?

Sometimes my life it feels like fiction
Some other days it's really quite serene
I'm a living proof of all life's contradiction
One half's going where the other half's just been

I'm a Pisces fish and the river runs through my soul
I'm a Pisces fish and the river runs through my soul