Beatle Harrison made secret last album - paper
( 2001-12-02 09:18 ) (7 )

"Quiet Beatle" George Harrison has lost his battle against cancer, closing another sad chapter in the history of the world's most famous pop group.

Former Beatle George Harrison was secretly recording a last album in the months before he died, according to British media reports on Sunday.

The Sunday Times newspaper said Harrison played tracks from the album to his family at a Los Angeles hospital last Sunday, four days before his death from cancer at the age of 58.

Harrison gave the album the working title "Portrait of a Leg End", a jokey reference to his uneasy relationship with fame, the paper said.

Harrison was working on 25 unreleased tracks at a studio in his English country home, the report added.

"Some of the new songs are very poignant, concerning his life in the past few years," California-based musician Jim Keltner, who played drums on some of the tracks, was quoted in the Sunday Times as saying. "The CD is very close to finishing."

The tabloid Sunday Express said Harrison's wife Olivia would decide if and when to release the album, as the late Beatle was not signed to any record company.

Harrison recorded one of his last songs, "Horse to Water", with his son Dhani on October 1 for a compilation being released by British musician Jools Holland.

The song contains references to Harrison's physical and spiritual struggle with cancer.

Meanwhile, British politicians called for Harrison to be granted a posthumous knighthood, the Sunday Express reported.

The move would require a change in Britain's honours system under which only military personnel can be given the title "Sir" after their death, the paper said.

"Considering the type of people who get knighthoods, how can you not give one to the man wrote "Here Comes the Sun", opposition Conservative member of parliament Boris Johnson was quoted by the Sunday Express as saying.