Harrison Archive

Q: “On Somewhere In England you were shown on the cover in front of a Mark Boyle painting. Do you collect art?” George Harrison: “That painting was wonderful. He’d done a cast of the pavement and the gutter and a piece of the road. It’s quite an amazing process, like a sculpting of the street. I like certain artists, but by the time I *got* to like them they were too expensive to collect, like Dali and Magritte. Paul’s got a bunch of Magrittes. He bought them for, like 50 dollars each. Then the guy died in 1967 and now they’re worth millions.” - Musician (November 1987) What happened to the lost songs (seen on the proof’s track listing), removed from Somewhere In England by the record company? “Lay His Head” later became the B-side of the single “Got My Mind Set On You” (1987), and… “[W]e decided to put a free record inside the books of some songs that have gotten left out over the years. I finished the record for the first book just before I came here, and it’s of those four songs you just mentioned [‘Lay His Head,’ ‘Tears of the World,’ ‘Sat Singing’ and ‘Flying Hour’] — and a live version of ‘For You Blue.’ It all comes in a big leather box with a little drawer for the record. It’s called Songs by George Harrison and it should be out by Christmas, but there’s only 2,000 copies being done, and it does cost 200 pounds. It’s expensive, yes, but in a world of crass, disposable junk, it’s meant to be a lovely thing.” - George Harrison, Musician (November 1987)

“The night before the sessions the phone rang about 9:30 p.m. ‘Is this Al?’ a voice asked. ‘This is George Harrison. I was just calling to see if you wanted any special keyboards for tomorrow. I’ve gotten you a Hammond B3 organ, a Fender Rhodes, and a Wurlitzer piano. We also have an Arp Omni. Will those be okay for you?’ I thought it was Herbie [Flowers] having me on. Something told me to answer normally though, just in case. ‘Uhhhhhh, yeah, that sounds like everything I need. Thank you and I guess I’ll see just see you tomorrow… Good night.’ […] [At Friar Park] George came out to greet us. He had incredible eyes that could look right through you. I had not met anyone with that powerful a stare since Dylan. ‘You didn’t think it was me on the phone last night, did you, Al?’ he said, laughing. ‘No, I didn’t,’ I admitted. ‘I thought it might be Herbie having a go.’” - Al Kooper, Backstage Passes & Backstabbing Bastards: Memoirs of a Rock ‘n’ Roll Survivor (1998) “I would say the three most interesting people I worked with and got to know were Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix and George Harrison.” - Al Kooper, interview conducted by Michael Limnios for Keep The Blues Alive (2012) “[George was a] really sweet guy. He had those eyes. I only saw them one other time; Dylan had those eyes. They can look right through you, right into your soul. I never thought I’d see them again but Harrison had them.” - Al Kooper on George Harrison, Lancaster Online (August 7, 2009)

The first fan memory and accompanying photos come from Ruth Raciniewski of Delmenhorst, Germany, who sent the following to the German teen magazine BRAVO, who published it in issue no. 31/1967. Translated, it reads: “I was at George’s home! Beatle Harrison revealed where he bought his sunglasses My sister and I managed to speak to Beatle George Harrison and his wife for over three quarters of an hour. Our experience is only believed if we show photos as evidence. George’s wife Pattie told us that she often has trouble with the neighbors, because there are constantly fans asking where George’s house is. With a soft sigh, she said: ‘I can’t shop anywhere unrecognized. Often I have to make a hasty escape from the store.’  George revealed that the Beatles buy their sunglasses at the London boutique Biba. ‘They’re very inexpensive there,’ he said. After we had taken about 20 pictures of the two of them, they excused themselves, saying they still had things to do. Then they called out to us, sending greetings to all German fans.” - Ruth Raciniewski of Delmenhorst, Germany The captions: "This was how George and Pattie greeted us at their house in England" "My most valued photo: George Harrison and I!” The next fan memory and photo comes from Silvia Purbs of Berlin; she, too, sent this to BRAVO, and was published in the magazine’s issue no. 5/1968. Translated, it reads: "George’s new motto: Live colorfully, friends! I was so lucky! First I visited George Harrison with my English pen pal — and then I met Paul McCartney, too! My visit with George was a total success. I hadn’t expected him to be so friendly. He talked for a very long time to my friend and myself, partially in German as well. After we had taken several photos of him and his colorful house [Kinfauns], we said goodbye and left with happy smiles on our faces. Later, on the way to London’s Regents Park, I noticed a house that was being ‘besieged’ by several girls. An elderly woman was testily telling them to be patient and not ring the doorbell constantly, Paul McCartney would be home in a moment. Shortly thereafter, a taxi arrived with Paul! He rang the bell — and had to wait quite some time before the elderly woman opened the door for him. She was very dismayed when she saw that she had kept Paul waiting, and not the unwelcome guests…" - Silvia Purbs, Berlin

George Harrison: “Very real, very real. I feel… I don’t know, I think in some ways, I have to split it into positive and negative. If you get negative about it, it’s in a hell of state; the world is in a mess, really, and it seems to have got in more of a mess the last four or five years, you know, with all this… I mean, the wars are going on just as usual, there’s still as many wars as usual, there’s the whole thing that happened with the, you know, fuel crisis, you know, the energy crisis. And then also, you know, we passed out of that Sixties period, where there was — something happened in the Sixties which, you know, which brought the flower power and the hippies and the whole love generation. This is what kills me now is when I see these people who were supposedly a few years, who supposedly loved me and I’m supposed to love them, and I see them, they’re just dropping apart at the seams with hate. You know, this is… I’m talking about Rolling Stone, actually, talking about Jan Wenner. But you know, this is a thing that we, you know, God, we all came through so much in the Sixties and we all wanted so much to create something positive, something good. And it’s hard to… you know, when we come out into the Seventies, we find it’s hard to go on. A lot of these people were only part-time hippies, or part-time lovers; they, you know, the badness of the world, or in them, caught up on them too soon. And you find that they turn ‘round and all start stabbing each other in the back. It’s like, we all need to support each other in many ways in order to exist.” - radio interview conducted by Dave Herman (1975)

“George Harrison! And I got a chance to tell him years later. We met at a party at Ron Dennis’ house — the McLaren Formula One guy — and I told him he was my Beatle ‘crush’ way back! He was such a charming guy. You wouldn’t be able to say that to just anybody! We played that game where you have a celebrity’s name on your head and you have to guess who it is. He actually was George Harrison, although he didn’t know it! And his wife Olivia asked him: 'Are you good looking?’ and he said: 'Well, I think so!’ Which was very sweet… I found them very charming people.” - Kiki Dee in response to the question, “Who was your first musical crush?” for the Exeter Express & Echo (July 11, 2013)

Watching the Chicken Shop Date interview with Paul brought to mind this moment in George's Dick Cavett Show interview in 1971...

Revisiting the Harrison-Dylan co-write "I’d Have You Anytime," the opening song on George's All Things Must Pass; recording for the song (alongside other Harrisongs such as "Run Of The Mill" and "Isn’t It A Pity") took place at EMI’s (Abbey Road) Studio Three on May 29, 1970. "I was with Bob and he’d gone through his broken neck period and was being very quiet, and he didn’t have much confidence anyhow — that’s the feeling I got with him in Woodstock. He hardly said a word for a couple of days. Anyway, we finally got the guitars out and it loosened things up a bit. It was really a nice time with all his kids around, and we were just playing. It was near Thanksgiving. […] I was saying to him, ‘You write incredible lyrics,’ and he was saying, ‘How do you write those tunes?’ So I was just showing him chords like crazy. Chords, because he tended just to play a lot of basic chords and move a capo up and down. And I was saying, ‘Come on, write me some words,’ and he was scribbling words down. And it just killed me because he’d been doing all these sensational lyrics. And he wrote, ‘All I have is yours/ All you see is mine/ And I’m glad to hold you in my arms/ I’d have you anytime.’ The idea of Dylan writing something, like, so very simple." - George Harrison, Crawdaddy (February 1977) Chris Carter: "Leadoff track ‘I’d Have You Anytime.’ Kind of sets the mood for the whole album. Tell me about writing that with Bob Dylan." George Harrison: "Well, it was just one of those simple things. I happened to be invited to Woodstock by The Band. I spent some days with Bob and I s’pose we just got round to picking up guitars and we were just, you know, he was saying, Hey what about those, show me some of them chords, those weird chords. And that’s how that came about. It’s like a strange chord, really, it’s called G major 7th, and it’s got all these major 7th chords [chuckles], so, you know, we just kind of turned it into a song [I’d Have You Anytime]. It’s really nice." - interview (February 15, 2001) Q: "Was it a big decision to start the album with the song you wrote with Dylan, ‘I’d Have You Anytime’?" George Harrison: "It probably was, because it goes, ‘Let me in here…’ [laughs]. It just seemed like a good thing to do; it was a nice track, I liked that. And maybe subconsciously I needed a bit of support. I had Eric [Clapton] playing the solo, and Bob had helped write it, so it could have been something to do with that." - Billboard (January 8, 2001)

“My dad never had a trade, but he had the idea that all his three sons would have three different trades. My eldest brother was a mechanic, my second brother did panel-beating and welding. So Dad thought, ‘George can be an electrician, and then we can have our own garage.’ For Christmas Dad bought me a little kit that opened up and inside were screwdrivers and tools, and I thought, ‘Oh God, he really does want me to be an electrician.’ That was depressing, because I had no chance of being one. […] I went down to the Labor Exchange and they said: ‘Go down to Blacker’s, the shop in town. Somebody is required as a window-dresser.’ The head of window-dressing at Blackler’s said, ‘Sorry, that job’s gone. But go up and see Mr. Peet.’ Mr. Peet was the head of the maintenance department. He gave me a job as an apprentice electrician, which is what my dad really wanted me to be. I wanted to be a musician and, though there was no justification for it and no qualifications, the the group got together we all had an amazing, positive feeling about being in the band full-time. I don’t know why — we were just cocky. It was felt that something good was going to happen. But then, in those days, something good would be getting to do a tour of Mecca Ballrooms. That was a big deal!” - George Harrison, The Beatles Anthology “I remember asking my big brother [Harry], ‘Would you pack in work and have a go at this [1960 tour of Scotland backing Johnny Gentle] if you were me?’ He said, ‘You might as well — you never know what might happen. And if it doesn’t work out you’re not going to lose anything.’ So I packed in my job [as an apprentice electrician at Blackler’s in Liverpool], and joined the band full time and from then on, nine-to-five never came back into my thinking.” - George Harrison, ibid “[I became] an apprentice electrician with a Liverpool outfit called Blacker's, but it didn't work out; I was too interested in music. It wasn't fair to my employer, because I kept blowing things up.” - George Harrison, Men Only (1978) “[George] served in the store as an apprentice electrician. But he got into hot water for always asking to go off early to play in a band somewhere. In the end his frustrated boss asked: ‘Stay here, or go and play your ukulele.’ George obviously made the right decision and left.” - Liverpool Echo (March 31, 1988) “[September 6, 1980] [At Friar Park] George is mending an electric hedge-cutter which cut through its own flex. […] George tinkers in homely fashion with his garden equipment (‘I was an electricial apprentice,’ he assured me. ‘For three weeks.’)” - Michael Palin, Halfway To Hollywood: Diaries 1980-1988 Blacklers, located on Liverpool’s Great Charlotte Street, was opened in 1908 by Richard John Blackler and A.B. Wallis, and closed in 1988, and has since become a Wetherspoons, named The Richard John Blackler.

“‘The main thing that really buzzed me, even before I heard Elvis, was Fats Domino’s “I’m In Love Again,”’ says Harrison. ‘I can even see exactly where I was when I heard that. There was this little place near where I was born called Wavertree, a district. And right at that point there’s a thing called the Picton Clock Tower, this tower in the middle of the road with this clock on it, and then nearby there used to be this old art-deco cinema called the Abbey. I was just walking across the road there when I heard Fats Domino: Yes it’s me and I’m in love again! It must have been on a radio or a record player somewhere. And it touched somewhere deep in me.’” - Billboard (1992) About photo 1: “A young George Harrison with his Tony Curtis haircut, bright fluorescent green waistcoat (under the towel), and skintight jeans. He’s carrying flippers, so he must be off to the swimming pool or the sea. This would be around 1958 or ‘59, when George, Paul, and John were in the Quarrymen skiffle group. I thought I’d taken this photograph, but Paul rang up to complain, ‘Hey you bugger lugs! I took that one!’” - Mike McCartney, Remember: The Recollections and Photographs of Michael McCartney (1992) “When we lived in 12 Ardwick Road I vaguely remember a lad who lived in Upton Green, a couple of roads away from us. The next time I saw the same lad was in and around the ‘Inny,’ but as he was a year ahead of me, he was immediately classified as one of the ‘big lads’ and therefore unapproachable. He was obviously one of those working class rebel chaps and toward the end of our school days together he got more and more outrageous. The compulsory school uniform was outvoted by his extrovert dress sense and his hair was the longest anyone could possibly get away with in the Inny, all ‘Tony Curtis’d back,’ with a school cap perched on the top rear like a rabbi’s skull cap. When his guitar playing affinity with Paul was established in the end of term skewl koncerts, he’d visit our new Forthlin home […]. His dress by this time was even more interesting… full length, skin-tight drainies down to his bright fluorescent socks, even brighter lime (Upton) green waistcoat under his blazer which he would flash at me in the school corridors (followed by a wink). He had the first blue suede, winkle picker shoes which together with incessant chewing of gum all became his trade marks. My Sweet Lord knows who he was, but his Mum must have loved him.” - Mike McCartney (writing about “George Handsome”), Thank U Very Much: Mike McCartney’s Family Album (1981)

“The [first] photo [in Maui] was taken by my best friend, Mary [DeVitto]. She had given me a copy of it a long time ago, and I had it made into an 8 x 10 and put in a little frame. When I go on the road it goes right on my makeup mirror, so before I go on stage, whether it's with Fleetwood Mac or me in my solo career, the three of us are looking back at me and that has been my inspiration every single night. There's lots of nights where you kind of go, I wish I didn't have to go on stage tonight, I'm tired, I don't feel like doing it, and I look at George Harrison and look at Longhi and look at me and I go, well, you just have to, because it's important, it's important to make people happy, so get out of your chair, put on your boots and go out there and do your thing. [In Maui] we were writing a sort of parody of 'Here Comes the Sun,' but we were writing 'Here Comes the Moon.’ Longhi was saying, 'you guys are writing about the moon instead of the sun,' and I said, that's because by then we were all such night birds. I had met George before that at a record party in Mexico in Acapulco for 'Rumours.' Longhi saw George all the time. He drove me and my friend Sara and Mary to George's house in Hana. And we just hung out and wrote and sang and talked. I had been famous for not even quite three years and we were talking with George about being famous and what it meant and what you had to give up.” - Stevie Nicks, Something Else Reviews (January 14, 2014)

“[I]f Dylan hadn’t said some of the things he did, nobody else was going to say them. Can you imagine what a world it would be if it didn’t have a Bob Dylan? It would be awful.” - George Harrison, It’s Not Only Rock ‘n’ Roll - Iconic Musicians Reveal The Source Of Their Creativity (2013) “I think his voice is great, I love that sort of madness. And as a person he’s somebody who — well, as he said, ‘Time will tell who has fell and who’s been left behind.’ Bob is still out there and whether you like him or not he’s Bob. I’ve always listened to his music. I’m thankful there’s people like that.” - George Harrison, Musician (March 1990) Q: “What did you think of Bob Dylan getting nominated for an Oscar?” George: “I think he should win it! I think he should win ALL the Oscars all the Tonys all the Grammys” - Yahoo web chat (February 15, 2001) “George quoted Bob like people quote Scripture. Bob really adored George, too.” - Tom Petty, Rolling Stone (January 17, 2002) “I mean, you tell me one person other than Bob Dylan who has a moral message in a tune that’s improved upon Bob’s words in his song ‘Every Grain of Sand’: ‘Don’t have the inclination to look back on any mistakes/Like Cain I now behold this chain of events that I must break/In the fury of the moment I can see the Masters hand/In every leaf that trembles/In every grain of sand/Oh the flowers of indulgence and the weeds of yester-year/Like criminals they have choked the breath of conscience and good cheer/…I gaze into the doorway of temptations angry flame/And every time I pass that way/I always hear my name/Then onward in my journey/I come to understand/That every hair is numbered/Like every grain of sand.’” - George Harrison, Billboard (June 19, 1999)

“George was an extraordinary musician and the sweetest of men, and, over the years, I grew to adore his gentle nature, his music, his deep spirituality and his friendship. […] If we had been dropped from the same height, George would have been a feather, drifting this way and that on the breeze, and I would have been a lead weight plunging straight down: the point is we would have both there in the end. There were times when we could have been living on different planets, times when George was procrastinating over what to do and I would be decisive and all action, or waring amazingly casual and way-out clothes when I would be more traditionally dressed. Yet there were many other times when we seemed so similar, paying the same fanatical attention to detail. He could be amazingly fastidious, keeping his cars immaculately clean and taking such care and time over his gardens, both at his home near Henley, England and in his tropical paradise on Maui. This determination to get things exactly right extended to his music. George would work and work until a song was totally as he wanted it to be — not just right, but precisely right, so precisely right that it would almost sound as if it had evolved naturally, out of nothing, dreamily and effortlessly. […] [Since 2001] we have stayed very close to Livy and Dhani, who has grown up to bear such a striking resemblance to his father, both in his appearance and his mannerisms. For me, George was a true friend who opened my eyes to so much that I would otherwise not have seen, and who in his calm, gentle way gave me a new perspective on living and dying.” - Jackie Stewart, Winning Is Not Enough (2007)

“George, who is also Dominic [Taylor]’s godfather, wrote [in the book I Me Mine]: ‘Dominic always seemed very familiar. He’s the first person I’ve seen all the way through from birth who I felt like I knew straight away.’ Dominic says of George: ‘He was my father’s closest friend. He is a lovely fellow who has been a wonderful and constant figure in my life.’” - article by Tanith Carey, Daily Mirror (March 31, 1998) Dominic is, of course, the son of Derek and Joan Taylor; and Dominic’s film credits also include an appearance in George’s “Crackerbox Palace” music video (as the gangster rat, according to IMDb). “Reading what Derek Taylor had to say about George was captivating once again. Perceptions of the man I dearly love by someone as insightful and articulate as Derek have become somehow more important to me. Derek and George exchanged a special banter that often left others in the room completely bewildered by their verbal shorthand. It took time if you wanted to join in because their points of reference were wide reaching and covered decades of colorful and obscure characters and events, many shared during the phenomenal days of the Beatles that gave them a private world of experiences from which to draw. George quoted the wisdom of the great swamis, the Bhagavad Gita and the ancient Vedas, as well as the humor of Lord Buckley, The Goons, Lenny Bruce, Mel Brook's 'The Producers' and Monty Python. At the same time, Derek regaled us with history lessons on both wars, commentary on current events and politics. If anyone in our household had a question pertaining to one of those subjects, George always said, ‘Call Derek and ask him.’ He was very well read and shared with us information of all sorts, some of which we did not really wish to know, but all of it presented amusingly. I wasn't always certain what was fact or folly (although it didn't seem to matter).” - Olivia Harrison in the introduction to the 2002 edition of I Me Mine