matinée idol

The Beatles dal film aiuto!

George Harrison and Derek Taylor at the Apple office, auctioned by RR Auction, 12 November 2015.

Photo © Camera Press

“Derek is the most honest person. We’ve always been close, always will be… He taught me so much, some of it surprising, about life… things like the royal family’s original softness toward Hitler… He taught me to just be myself… which I always tried to be.” - George Harrison to Larry Kane, quoted in When They Were Boys [x]

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“[George Harrison] is an example of what a man can be if he wills it.” - Derek Taylor, Record Mirror, 1 January 1972 [x]

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“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 exhanged 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 colourful 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 Brooks’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).

The days they spent together working on this book were happy ones and took place over continuous cups of tea (for which Brian Roylance, who conceived and published the original, limited edition of 'I Me Mine’, was mostly responsible, being the biggest fan of tea since Earl Grey himself). George and Derek’s dialogue in these pages reveals much about their relationship, which began in Liverpool - and as they used to remind us, 'Being born in Liverpool carries with it certain responsibilities’. They’d worked together for thirty years, so Derek’s interviews with George were second nature to both of them, yet they always managed to produce fresh recollections of their experiences. All of us around during the writing of 'I Me Mine’ took laughter for granted. It must have been a real eye-opener for Brian, whose previous publishing endeavors we considered to be more serious documents, such as 'The Log of the HMS Bounty’ and 'Charles Darwin’s Journal of a Voyage in HMS Beagle’. I would wager Brian was surprised at the emergence of his own sense of mischief and humour, which was appreciated and encouraged. George and Derek led him astray in the best possible way and he became one of George’s closest friends and confidants, especially after Derek passed away in 1997. Brian and I now share the memories of those days along with the love and respect we all had for one another.” - Olivia Harrison in her introduction to the 2002 edition of I Me Mine [x]

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