ARTICLES
Why George Harrison said John and Paul misread who he really was
George Harrison wasn’t given much space by John Lennon and Paul McCartney in The Beatles since they formed one of the most influential and successful songwriting partnerships in music history. The guitarist said many times that he and Ringo Starr would have to work on Lennon/McCartney songs before they could focus on tracks written by themselves. As a result, he held a grudge against his bandmates for that treatment and later showed in his solo career what an incredible songwriter he was, having the first number one record by any former Beatles member after the band came to an end.
Why George Harrison said John and Paul misread who he really was
He explained why he felt they misread him in an interview in 1987 (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage). The interviewer asked: “John Lennon said he was really hurt by you because he never mentioned him in your autobiography.”
George replied: “He was annoyed that I didn’t say that he had written one line of the song ‘Taxman’. The point was that I also didn’t say how I wrote two lines to ‘Come Together’ or three lines to ‘Eleanor Rigby’. You know, I wasn’t getting into any of that. I think that in the balance I would have more things to be niggled with him about than he would have with me.”
The interviewer questioned: “But he said that you idolized him as a boy…” George said: “(laughs) Well, that’s what he thought. I liked him very much, he was a good lad but at the same time he misread me. He didn’t realize who I was and this was one of the main faults of John and Paul, they were so busy being John and Paul, they failed to realize who else was around at the time. (Hearing about his death was) like losing your parents.”
He continued:
“You know, ‘All Things Must Pass’ but when it’s taken in a violent way like that, by somebody else, it makes it very strange. He was very good, in some ways he was a slight genius but apart from that he was still just a guy, like the rest of everybody else. He wasn’t (an angel) but he was as well.”
“Everybody likes to say: ‘Ok, one of your best friends got assassinated so surely you must be nervous about being assassinated too’. You know, I like to take care but I don’t walk around fearing for my life and I don’t think anybody could be bored killing me. You know, what’s the point of killing me? I don’t feel that important,” he said in an interview in 1987 (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage).
George thought it was funny that McCartney only said that would like to write with him decades after the end of The Beatles
Of course, over the years those wounds were healed and they had more good things to say about each other. They even worked together again when both reunited with Ringo Starr to finish the John Lennon song “Free as a Bird”, which was released in 1995 as a single.
But in the mid-80s, in an interview (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage), George Harrison was asked about the movie “Give My Regards to Broad Street” (1984), which was written by McCartney. For the soundtrack his ex-bandmate wrote a few original songs but also re-recorded many Beatles hits. About the movie, Harrison joked that he didn’t notice that The Beatles songs featured in the movie were new versions. When asked why McCartney did that he said that he probably ran out of good original songs.
“We are long past all the squabbles now. I think they were ok (The new versions of Beatles songs), I didn’t notice that they were new versions (laughs). I only watched it once but I liked it. (But) I remember about ‘dancing’, ‘ballroom dancing’, all that stuff. I don’t remember the old ones. Paul? Maybe because he ran out of good ones of his own (laughs)”. The interviewer laughed and said “Now we’ve got that on record” and Harrison laughed and said: “Well, it’s true”.
