George Harrison: Living in the Material World

Living In

The Material World, Part 1

You know, just go ahead, George,

go on and fly away, babe.

Just be free and go.

And we'll see you down the line.

Erm... Just, leave.

Go to some place nice.

We'll be all right here.

And then he went on out.

That was it.

Is there anything you would say

to George if he was around today?

Fancy a cup of tea?

Where have you been?

I had a dream that I saw him.

And that was what I said to him

in the dream.

So I guess that's what would

be the question, wouldn't it?

Where've you been

since I last saw you?

And he answered it, so I can

tell you the answer as well,

which was, "Here the whole time".

Which doesn't really

help me in any way, but...

There's George with cancer

and he knows his life is limited.

And what he does is buys

a house in Switzerland,

so he can avoid paying

the taxman here.

The man who wrote the song Taxman,

even to his final hours, was

determined to cheat the taxman.

And then I thought,

"There's George." Grace and humour.

And a weird kind of angry bitterness

about certain things in life.

It's still difficult to try

and talk about him in a, kind of...

anecdotal, frivolous way.

It's, er, it's still too painful.

Sunrise doesn't last all morning

A cloudburst doesn't

last all day

Seems my love is up

and has left you with no warning

It's not always

gonna be this grey.

People in their gayest colours.

Red, white and blue rosettes.

Red, white and blue hats...

That, in accordance with arrangements

between the three great powers...

Make the world rejoice

While you're playing your part

Keep a song in your heart

Tra-la-la-la, la-la, la-la

Count your blessings and smile

Sing low, sing high,

isn't it grand, beating the band?

Who wants to die?

Oh, what a happy land.

All things must pass

All things must pass away

Sunset doesn't last

all evening...

OK. Do you want me to start?

OK. And then Pete can go.

Right. We lived in 12 Arnold Grove.

It was a two up and two down.

The only heating was a coal fire,

so there was no electricity.

Small backyard.

Toilet down the bottom of the yard.

It was a very cold place.

What kind of a kid was George?

He was cocky. A cocky little guy.

He had a good sense of himself,

he wasn't cowed by anything.

He had a great haircut. He had

this long hair that he quiffed back.

We had a friend, Arthur.

And he used to describe it as

"a f***ing turban!

"Like a f***ing turban!"

And it did. It looked like

a great big marvellous thing.

Looking back now, you know,

it was pre-fame.

So you were just an ordinary kid

who couldn't get in places,

cos you weren't famous.

Teachers didn't like you.

You know,

rock and roll hadn't arrived yet.

I always think of it as Dickensian.

And the school that I went to,

with George, incidentally,

was a very Dickensian old place.

In fact, Dickens had taught there.

That's how Dickensian it was.

You grew up wanting

to go somewhere else.

It made you hungry.

So art was

a great golden vision.

So for us, we wouldn't have called

it art then, it'd be rock and roll.

We needed a good guitar player.

Both John and I played a bit of

guitar, but we couldn't really solo.

We weren't that good.

And I said, "I know this guy.

He's a bit young, but he's good."

John said, "Well, you know,

let's meet him".

So I said to George,

"You want to meet these guys

I'm in a group with?"

"Yeah." So he brought his guitar.

We were all on the top deck

of a double-decker bus

in Liverpool, round where John

lived, a place called Woolton,

and nobody was on the bus.

It was late at night.

And John said, "Well, go on then.

Let's see you play" to George.

I said,

"Go on, go on, get your guitar out."

So George unpacked his guitar,

got it out,

and he played the thing called

Raunchy, which is...

"Raunchy" by The Beatles

Down, George, down!

Yeah. George, only

a brief document or two left.

For the record, I'd like

to say these are more papers

that I don't know what they say...

Any of these?

..that I'm signing.

Yes, all those. Gentleman's name

is Lennon. No, no, no.

Or Richard Starkey, or John Lennon,

or George Harrison.

Krishna, Krishna, Krishna.

May the Lord help this

to become final.

The small gathering on Savile Row

was only the beginning.

The event is so momentous

that historians

may one day view it as a landmark in

the decline of the British Empire...

the Beatles are breaking up.

It's funny how people

just won't accept change

As if nature itself

They prefer rearranged.

When I was still at school

and I was really small,

I know John was really embarrassed,

cos I was so tiny.

I only looked about ten years old.

When I met John,

he had four strings on his guitar.

I mean, John didn't even know

guitars had six strings.

And I said, "What are you doing?

What's that?"

And he would say, "Well, why?"

You know, he thought

that's what it was.

So we showed John the guitar chords,

E and A and all those.

My mother

was a real big fan of music

and she was really happy

about having the guys around.

You know, and John was always keen

to get out of his house,

because his Aunt Mimi was,

kind of, very stern and strict

and she embarrassed him.

I remember going to John's house

once when I first had met him.

I was still at the Institute.

And we were trying to

look like Teddy boys,

which was like that

style in those days.

And I must've looked good,

cos she was like...

She didn't like me. She was shocked.

She said, "Look at him! Who is this?

Bringing this boy to this house.

"Look at him. He looks

dreadful, like a Teddy boy."

And he'd just say,

"Shut up, Mary, shut up!"

Don't you try to tame a wildcat

You just don't understand

The wildcat's what they name me

No kitten's gonna tame me

Oh, no. Not me.

Our wedding was just one of those

occasions where they thought

they would practise on people

and see what happened.

They were not exactly what the

majority of people there expected.

They had a tea break.

An elderly lady,

who was one of the guests,

came along to play the piano,

who was a real pub player.

She could really hammer out tunes

that everybody wanted to sing to.

The three lads reappeared

from the bar, pints in hand,

and John just poured a pint

over this lady's head,

just straight over the head,

saying, "I anoint thee, David."

And just walked away.

And this lady surprised me,

because there was absolutely

nothing. There was no reaction.

She just smiled and got up

and went away and got dry again.

You know, it was...

And I thought it was funny,

because in those days,

people used to say,

"See you had a wedding in Liverpool.

How many fights were there?"

But there wasn't even a fight.

The nearly fight was John Lennon

pouring a pint on her head.

When I met John,

he had a lot of power, really.

Sometimes they'd pick somebody

to march behind

on the way to war.

Well, he was certainly out front.

When you thought you wanted

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