Photo: Gary Wright | Gary Malcolm Wright (April 26, 1943 – September 4, 2023) was an American musician and composer best known for his 1976 hit songs “Dream Weaver” and “Love Is Alive”. Wright’s breakthrough album, The Dream Weaver (1975), came after he had spent seven years in London as, alternately, a member of the British blues rock band Spooky Tooth and a solo artist on A&M Records. While in England, he played keyboards on former Beatle George Harrison’s triple album All Things Must Pass (1970), so beginning a friendship that inspired the Indian religious themes and spirituality inherent in Wright’s subsequent songwriting. His work from the late 1980s onwards embraced world music and the new age genre, although none of his post-1976 releases matched the same level of popularity as The Dream Weaver.
A former child actor, Wright performed on Broadway in the hit musical Fanny before studying medicine and then psychology in New York and Berlin. After meeting Chris Blackwell of Island Records in Europe, Wright moved to London, where he helped establish Spooky Tooth as a popular live act. He also served as the band’s principal songwriter on their recordings – among them, the well-regarded albums Spooky Two (1969) and You Broke My Heart So I Busted Your Jaw (1973). His solo album Footprint (1971), recorded with contributions from Harrison, coincided with the formation of Wright’s short-lived band Wonderwheel, which included guitarist Mick Jones, later known for his work with Foreigner. Also, during the early 1970s, Wright played on notable recordings by B.B. King, Jerry Lee Lewis, Ringo Starr, Harry Nilsson, and Ronnie Spector, while his musical association with Harrison endured until shortly before the latter’s death in 2001.
Wright turned to film soundtrack work in the early 1980s, including re-recording his most popular song, “Dream Weaver”, for the 1992 comedy Wayne’s World. Following Spooky Tooth’s reunion tour in 2004, Wright performed live frequently, either as a member of Starr’s All-Starr Band, with his own live band, or on subsequent Spooky Tooth reunions. Wright’s most recent solo albums, including Waiting to Catch the Light (2008) and Connected (2010), have all been issued on his Larklio record label. In 2014, Jeremy P. Tarcher published Wright’s autobiography, Dream Weaver: Music, Meditation, and My Friendship with George Harrison.
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George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass
Through Voormann, Wright was invited to play piano on former Beatle George Harrison’s 1970 triple album All Things Must Pass. Among what author Nicholas Schaffner later described as “a rock orchestra of almost symphonic proportions, whose credits read like a Who’s Who of the music scene”, Wright was one of the album’s principal keyboard players, together with former Delaney & Bonnie organist Bobby Whitlock. During the sessions, Wright and Harrison established a long-lasting friendship, based on music and their shared interest in Indian religion. In a 2009 interview with http://wwwvintagerock.com, Wright described Harrison as “my spiritual mentor”; author Robert Rodriguez writes of Wright’s “unique” place among musicians with whom Harrison collaborated at this time, in that Wright wasn’t an established star, a friend from the years before Harrison achieved fame as a Beatle, or a “studio pro”.
Wright played on all of Harrison’s subsequent solo albums during the 1970s, as well as on other releases that the ex-Beatle produced for Apple Records. These included two hit singles by Harrison’s former bandmate Ringo Starr over 1971–72, “It Don’t Come Easy” and “Back Off Boogaloo”, and a 1971 comeback single by ex-Ronette Ronnie Spector, “Try Some, Buy Some”.
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Personal life
Wright resided in Palos Verdes Estates, California, with wife Rose, whom he married in 1985. He was previously married to Christina, who, as Tina Wright, received co-writing credits on Wright’s songs “I’m Alive” (from The Mirror), “Feel for Me” (The Dream Weaver) and “I’m the One Who’ll Be by Your Side” (Headin’ Home). He had two adult sons, Dorian and Justin. Justin is a member of the band Intangible. Wright had a sister, Lorna Dune, who recorded the song Midnight Joey. The song was an answer song to Joey Powers’s Midnight Mary in 1962.
Wright spoke out on the importance of creative opportunities for children in the public educational system,and expressed his opposition to the prevalence of free music downloading and its disadvantage to artists. In 2008, he voiced his support for Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, during which “Dream Weaver” was a song adopted for the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado. That year, Wright discussed the message behind “Dream Weaver” with Huffington Post writer and political activist Howie Klein, saying: “With Wayne’s World and all that, the perception of the song’s meaning got a little bit changed for a lot of people. It’s a very spiritual song. ‘Dream Weaver’ is really a song whose lyrical content is about the consciousness of the Universe: God moving us through the night – delusion and suffering – into the Higher Realms.”
In August 2014, Wright announced the imminent publication of his autobiography, Dream Weaver: Music, Meditation, and My Friendship with George Harrison. Coinciding with the book’s release, Wright’s Warner Bros. albums were reissued for digital download.
Death
Wright died at his home in Palos Verdes Estates on September 4, 2023, at the age of 80. He had been diagnosed with Lewy body dementia and Parkinson’s disease around six or seven years before his death.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Wright
Photo: Gary Wright | https://www.facebook.com/OfficialGaryWright/
Gary Wright, Keyboardist, Writer of “Dream Weaver”, Dies at Age 80
