Для тебя, Блю: История песни Beatles Джорджа Харрисона

"For You Blue" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1970 album Let It Be. The track was written by George Harrison as a love song to his wife, Pattie Boyd. It was also the B side to the "Long and Winding Road" single, issued in many countries, but not Britain, and was listed with that song when the single topped the US Billboard Hot 100 and Canada's national chart in June 1970. On the Cash Box Top 100 chart, which measured the US performance of single sides individually, "For You Blue" peaked at number 71. The song is a twelve bar blues in the country blues style. When writing "For You Blue", Harrison was partly influenced by his stay with Bob Dylan and the Band in Woodstock over November–December 1968. Whereas that visit had been a musically rewarding experience for Harrison, the Beatles first worked on the song amid an atmosphere of discord, during the filmed rehearsals that made up part of the Let It Be documentary film. Recorded at the group's Apple Studio in London in late January 1969, the song includes a lap steel guitar part played by John Lennon. Among music critics, some have admired the track for its lighthearted qualities and as a good band performance. Other commentators identify it as an inconsequential song, particularly in relation to some of the Harrison compositions that his bandmates rejected over the Let It Be period. In 1976, Capitol Records included "For You Blue" on the compilation album The Best of George Harrison. An alternative take of the track appeared on the Beatles' 1996 compilation Anthology 3. A live version recorded during Harrison's 1974 North American tour received a limited release on the Songs by George Harrison EP in 1988. Paul McCartney performed the song at the Concert for George in November 2002, a year after Harrison's death.

After the film project was revived in January 1970, for a proposed cinema release under the new title of Let It Be, Harrison chose to re record his lead vocal for the track. With Johns producing the session, Harrison overdubbed the vocal part at Olympic Sound Studios in south west London on 8 January. Harrison sings falsetto through much of the song. The release was similarly treated as a double A side when it topped Canada's singles chart and peaked at number 6 on Australia's Go Set national chart. On the US listings compiled by Cash Box, which continued to monitor single sides individually, "For You Blue" peaked at number 71. "For You Blue" was one of Harrison's most successful songs on the Billboard charts, both as a member of the Beatles and as a solo artist. In 1976, it was among the seven Beatles tracks that Capitol Records selected for inclusion on the compilation The Best of George Harrison. Recognising that its status as a US chart topper was due to Billboards policy at the time, however, Apple did not include the track on the Beatles' 1 compilation, released in 2000. The edit of the song as used in the Let It Be film – a composite of takes 9 and 6 – was issued as a promotional video for the compilation. A new mix of this film version was included on the Anthology DVD in 2003. That same year, a remix of the original album track, without the introductory dialogue added by Spector, was issued on the album Let It Be Naked.

Among contemporary reviews of Let It Be, Alan Smith of the NME described "For You Blue" as "another strong one from George, a whispery chunky rocker  'Elmore James,' he calls out at one point, 'got nothin' on this baby!'" Melody Makers Richard Williams considered it to be "an amusing trifle", citing Lennon's "camped down bottleneck guitar" and the reference to James. Less impressed, John Gabree of High Fidelity magazine found the lap steel playing the only point of interest on an "otherwise boring" track. In a 2003 review for Mojo, John Harris highlighted "For You Blue" as one of the tracks that remained true to McCartney's original concept for a "return to the group's beginnings" with the Get Back project. Harris admired the song's "mesh of piano, acoustic guitar and lap steel" as "quietly wonderful". Writing in Acoustic Guitar magazine that same year, David Simons said that, along with other "standout"s such as "Here Comes the Sun" and "I Me Mine", "For You Blue" exemplified Harrison's creativity as a rhythm guitarist and introduced a new element to the band's sound, through the composition's origins on capo ed acoustic guitar. Among Beatles biographers, Ian MacDonald dismisses the song as a "forgettable twelve bar", while Mark Hertsgaard terms it "a slight blues boogie" and considers that Harrison would have been better served on the album by the superior "All Things Must Pass" and "Let It Down". Walter Everett writes that the "promise" offered in Harrison's acoustic guitar introduction remains unfulfilled, such that the principal interest lies in "Lennon's only lap steel performance with the Beatles, one that seems both clumsy and polished at the same time". Ian Inglis welcomes the song's lightheartedness as evidence that, amid Harrison's usual preoccupation with spirituality and enlightenment, he was nevertheless able to produce "an uncomplicated and enjoyable love song". Inglis concludes: "Its directness, and his obvious enjoyment, reinforce the sincerity of his words." Music journalist Kit O'Toole recognises "For You Blue" as an example of a Beatles B side that was "just as good, if not better" than the single's lead side. While remarking on the contrast between the song's upbeat and optimistic qualities and the tense atmosphere within the band in January 1969, O'Toole likens the performance to "the four sitting in a living room, just jamming for fun". Pitchforks Mark Richardson admires the song's "prickly rhythmic drive" and groups it with tracks such as "Two of Us" and "Get Back" as examples of how Let It Be still contains quality material even though "little  feels consequential to the Beatles' legacy".

"For You Blue" was part of Harrison's set on his Dark Horse Tour of North America in 1974. Harrison performed the song as a jam track during which he introduced the musicians in his tour band. A live version, featuring solos by Robben Ford, Emil Richards and Willie Weeks – on guitar, percussive bells and bass, respectively – appeared on the disc accompanying Songs by George Harrison, a limited edition illustrated book published by Genesis Publications in 1988. On 29 November 2002, McCartney sang "For You Blue" at the Concert for George, held at the Royal Albert Hall in London on the first anniversary of Harrison's death. McCartney was backed by a large band that included Starr, Clapton, and Harrison's son, Dhani, with Marc Mann playing slide guitar. Pete Molinari covered the song for Mojos Let It Be Revisited CD, included with the October 2010 issue of the magazine. In 2013, Dhani Harrison recorded "For You Blue" as a charity release in aid of the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation, a project supported by the Harrison family's Material World Charitable Foundation. Dhani was accompanied by Blake Mills, Aaron Embry and Jim Keltner, the last of whom also played drums on Harrison's 1974 live version of the song and on McCartney's performance in 2002.