Lead guitarists question

In Bangla Desh, George said he needed a guitarist so he got Eric
Clapton. Why didn't George play lead guitar himself?

Danny Caccavo...

Probably the same reason why Ringo almost never appeared as the only
drummer on stage after The Beatles.

Which is a shame - because I LOVE Ringo's groove, and I hate it when
it's obscured by other's playing. Ringo loves to play, but I don't
think he appreciates how a lot of listeners appreciate his playing.

In the Concert for George, in many songs like My Sweet Lord, Clapton
did not play the lead guitar melody but Andy Fairweather-Low and Marc
Mann did. Why did they do that?

stephen212...

No doubt George never felt as capable (or at least not as practiced) as
the lead guitarist in a live setting as Eric or Jesse Ed Davis. Still,
George did play "lead guitar" for Bob Dylan's entire set. I'm pretty
sure he also took the solo on "Beware of Darkness" and he definitely
played the solo in "Something" which, BTW, was not a note-for-note
version of the Abbey Road recording and is every bit as nice.
Improvised? Worked out ahead of time? That I don't know.

As for MSL, the slide guitar parts are intermittent. As composer and
especially as performer of the song, it made more sense to accompany
himself on acoustic rather than dropping in and out.

During George's Japan tour he featured himself as lead guitarist
playing great slide guitar on "Cheer Down" and his turn soloing on
"Something" outshines EC's with all of George's gorgeously quirky
phrasings.

minglewood...

I can perhaps answer the first part. At the time of the Bangladesh
concert, and really for the rest of his life, George didn't feel he was
very facile as a lead guitarist, at least in comparison to the the slew
of "guitar gods" like Clapton who had raised the bar in guitar playing
considerably by the late 60s. This self-estimation, I've read, is why

dlarsson...

Harrison's humility about his guitar playing is sort of
infuriating, because he could play great solos and his
rythmn playing was also excellant. I always liked listening
to Harrison as a guitar player -- especially when he was not
just doing pure slide licks. He was always the Beatles "best"
and most facile & musically-skilled guitar player.

But, as far as the concert goes., Harrison was the front-man
and had to focus on singing the songs more on playing so
often you get a "lead guitarist" in those situations to back
you up - because lead guitar work runs through the entire
songs anyway.

George played his adopted slide style almost exclusively from then on.
He felt it was something he could offer that was unique, and he left
the conventional soloing to Clapton and others.