The Quiet Beatle, silenced Thursday by an inoperable brain tumor at 58, left far more than simply a legacy of unprecedented worldwide fame. Guitarist/singer/songwriter George Harrison's diverse loves of American rockabilly and the spiritual and musical traditions of India helped set the direction for the biggest rock group of all time and influenced generations of musicians from rock to jazz to classical.

        George was the youngest Beatle and usually took a backseat to the more aggressive John Lennon or the more extroverted Paul McCartney, the team that wrote and sang the bulk of the Beatles' material.

        “To me, George was the one Beatle who kept his feet on the ground and just handled fame gracefully,” says Rob Fetters, a lifelong Beatles fan and Harrison-inspired, Cincinnati-based rock guitarist.“I always thought George would be the nicest guy to sit down and talk to. He's the one I felt was always in touch with his humanity.”

        Despite his willingness to defer to his band mates,the humble Mr. Harrison managed to surpass the other Beatles in several major arenas.

        • In 1970, he was the first ex-Beatle to have a hit record, topping the charts with “My Sweet Lord,” from his No. 1 album, All Things Must Pass.

        • In 1971, he started the trend of superstar benefit concerts when he organized “The Concert for Bangladesh,” which included Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Leon Russell and Ravi Shankar.

        • He was the only former Beatle to be successful in a field other than music. In the late '70s, he founded Handmade Films, producing some of the most enduring independent films of the '80s, including the perennial children's favorite, Time Bandits, as well as Monty Python's Life of Brian,The Long Good Friday and Mona Lisa.

        But it was as the guitarist with the Beatles that Mr. Harrison forever changed the world, revolutionizing the music industry, reshaping pop culture and transforming rock 'n' roll into a team sport.

        “He was very underrated,” says his friend Peter Frampton, who played on Mr. Harrison's All Things Must Pass early in his career. “I think after All Things Must Pass everybody went,"Wow the guy can play a damn good guitar.'But I don't think he ever had the confidence in himself he should have had.”

        Hamilton County Auditor Dusty Rhodes met Mr. Harrison during the Beatles' first American tour. Then a disc jockey at WSAI-AM, Mr. Rhodes raised $25,000 with four other DJs to bring the Beatles to Cincinnati Gardens.

        He recalls that Mr. Harrison earned his introverted reputation. “He was definitely the Quiet Beatle,” says Mr. Rhodes. But even as he let the others take the spotlight, “he helped lead the second rock revolution.”

        And it was wasn't just the different melodies and chord progressions the Beatles utilized. They changed the radio business.

        “They kind of kicked the doors down to the Top 40, which had been limited to singles,” explains Mr. Rhodes. “Once they came along, it was OK to play album cuts which kind of paved the way for the whole progressive album FM stations.”

        And they did it on simple strength of appeal, he asserts. “They were kind of the last group that cut across all levels of society, all demographics.”

        Before the Beatles, says Mr. Rhodes, the mainstream media ignored rock radio, dismissing it as “kids' stuff.”

        “We did not exist until the Beatles,” he says of the Cincinnati rock radio scene. “Then we had all three TV stations there at the press conference.”

        Mr. Harrison's darkly brooding good looks made him the favorite Beatle of more intellectual teen-age girls. But his deepest influence was felt on other musicians.

        “George Harrison was sort of like the ultimate chameleon,” says local blues guitarist and Beatles fan Greg Schaber. “He always seemed to play something that was perfect for the song, whether it was electric 12-string, slide guitar or acoustic nylon string.”

        While the best rock guitarists have a signature sound, Mr. Harrison had several.

        He began his Beatles career playing a sort of modified rockabilly lead style based on his idol, Carl Perkins. Then, around the time the Beatles filmed A Hard Day's Night,he began using a new electric 12-string provided by the Rickenbacker company. It was so influential it provided the sound of the Beatles' chief American rivals, the Byrds. That group's founder, Roger McGuinn, says that they got the idea for their style by seeing Mr. Harrison in A Hard Day's Night.

        Towards the end of the Beatles, Mr. Harrison developed an entirely new style, playing melodic, un-bluesy slide guitar.

        Then there was his use of traditional Indian instruments.

        “He was the first to use the sitar in pop music,” says local luthier Dave Schneider, an internationally renowned maker and restorer of sitars, tambouras and veenas. “What diversity he brought to music! What he played on the sitar was simple, but just the whole idea of putting the sitar in Western music was just brilliant.”

        In the mid '80s, Mr. Harrison returned to his rockabilly roots, performing with Mr. Perkins on the latter's 1985 HBO TV special. In 1987, he recorded Cloud Nine, an album that took him back to the twangy sound of his first guitar experiments. The following year, he formed the Traveling Wilburys with Mr. Dylan, Tom Petty, Roy Orbison and Jeff Lynne. But instead of the usual, stuffy superstar ensemble, this was a band out for a good time. The result was a 1990 rock group Grammy.

        Fittingly, Mr. Harrison's final musical impact was felt with the Beatles. In 1995, past conflicts forgotten, he and Mr. McCartney and Ringo Starr reunited to record “Free as a Bird” with the pre-recorded voice of the late John Lennon, killed in 1980 by a deranged fan. Recorded for the Beatles Anthology TV series and album, the song became a hit and helped lead to 1, the best-selling CD of the second half of 1999. It was a tribute to the enduring power of the Beatles.

        In these days of overinflated egos, when every pre-fab boy band and mini-Madonna seems intoxicated by their own wonderfulness, the example of George Harold Harrison takes on even greater importance.

        “The Beatles were absolutely the most important and influential band in history,” says Mr. Fetters. “And George was just such an important part of their chemistry. But he just seemed to be egoless. You have to work at humility. and I think he made a great effort at being humble. He knew how much he was loved, but it didn't inflate his ego. He was the only guy in the band who kept it in check.”

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