George Harrison: Living in the Material World Page #4

but from time to time,

you don't realise that

it's actually about yourself.

You see your pictures

and read articles about,

you know, George Harrison, Ringo

Starr, Paul and John, but you don't

actually think, "Oh, that's me.

There I am in the paper."

It's funny. It's just as though

it's a different person.

Well, gonna write

a little letter

Gonna mail it to my local DJ

Well, it's a rocking little record

I want my jockey to play

Roll over, Beethoven

I gotta hear it again today

You know my temperature's rising

And the jukebox's

blowing a fuse.

Do you know where you were

this time last week?

No. I haven't a clue.

I don't even know what day it is.

You don't know what day it is?

No. What is it?

"We've been to the Hollywood Bowl

and done the show, which was great.

"And the place was marvellous.

"The seats

go right up the side of big hills.

"Colonel Tom Parker,

Elvis's manager, came to see us,

"and gave us all real leather belts

and holster sets. Cowboy things.

"And little covered wagons,

which are television lamps.

"He was good too and said

that Elvis wants to meet us

"and has invited us to his house

in Memphis, Tennessee.

"Tonight, we were invited

to Burt Lancaster's

house and he made

us very welcome.

"His house was a knockout

and cost him a million dollars.

"I had a swim in his pool, which was

great - and as hot as a bath almost.

"After that, the men organising

the tour wanted us to go to

"this place called

Whiskey A Go-Go, on Sunset Strip.

"They said we wouldn't be bothered.

"We got there and went

in and fought our way,

with Mal and a few big

hard men, to a table

"where John and Derek were.

And Jayne Mansfield."

"By this time,

after fighting through the crowd,

"I was annoyed and threw

some Coke on a cameraman.

"We all fought our way back out

and jumped in the car and went home.

"It was a drag and we were there

for about ten minutes altogether.

"You see why we don't

usually bother going out now."

How did George deal with it?

George, you know, George had two

incredible separate personalities.

He had the lovebag of beads

personality and the bag of anger.

He was very black and white.

Whether you will go along

with any change in taste. Er, no.

Well, you never know,

because we have.

We change anyway, don't we? Yeah.

We hope you've enjoyed the show

tonight. Have you enjoyed it?

There's a fog upon LA

And my friends have

lost their way

We'll be over soon, they say

Now they've lost

themselves instead

Please don't be long...

I was boss of Parlophone Records

and I'd made it my business,

over the previous years,

to develop Parlophone as

a comedy label. And, in fact,

when Brian Epstein desperately took

us on, or hoped we would take him on,

he felt he'd hit rock bottom,

cos he'd been everywhere else

and now he was ending up

on a comedy label.

I first met The Beatles in 1962.

I wasn't terribly impressed

with the first stuff they did.

I couldn't make out the sound.

You know, it was something

I hadn't heard before.

So I looked at these four guys,

and thought,

"Well, none of them shines

as being above all the others."

And I had to make up my mind,

in my silly mind, who

the lead singer was going to be.

Suddenly, I realised I would

take them as they were, as a group.

The hell with a lead singer.

They would be singing together.

So we were struggling

with the sound a bit.

And I said to the boys,

after we'd done a

few takes of rather

nondescript songs,

"Come into the control room

and have a listen

"and see what we've been doing.

"And if there's anything

you don't like, tell us."

And George was the one

who took the leap.

And he said, "Well, I don't

like your tie for a start."

And the others were horrified.

They thought, "God, he's blown it."

But, of course,

I fell around laughing.

I thought it was so cheeky

and so funny that I...

You know, he endeared himself to me

at that point.

I give her all my love

That's all I do

And if you saw my love

You'd love her, too

I love her...

John and I would write the songs

the week before the studio.

Brian Epstein would

ring us up and say,

"You're in the studio next week.

You've got a week off.

" We'd go, "Yes!"

He'd say, "But you've got to write

the album." We'd go, "Yes!"

So we'd just, you know...

Each day we'd write a song,

so we can have seven or so songs

to go in with,

which was enough to start with.

And we'd go in the studio,

ten in the morning,

and this was the first time George and

Ringo had heard any of the songs.

So this is how good they were. John

and I would go, "It goes like this."

She loves you, yeah...

Or whatever it was.

And they'd go, "Mmm-hmm."

George would cop the chords. He'd

go, "Uh-huh," not writing them down.

It was just like, "Yeah, I can see

what you're doing. Cos I'm one of you.

"I didn't write it,

but I see what you did."

And Ringo would just stand around with

his sticks and do a little thing.

I was just thinking actually

about my song And I Love Her.

And I give her all my love...

I had that,

but then George comes in with...

Do-do-do-do.

Now, you think about that.

That's the song.

But he made that up on the session.

Cos knew the chords, and we said,

"It needs a riff."

I didn't write that.

When we got together in the studio,

whoever had written the song

would be the kind of boss in leading

the other guys through it.

Paul and John,

being the songwriters...

and at that stage, George wasn't

showing himself to be a songwriter...

they were the dominant forces.

George and Ringo were slightly

behind Paul and John,

because Paul and John were

the writers and the lead singers.

I guess George

was kind of a loner, really,

because he was outside the team

that were providing the hits.

John and Paul had each other

to play against.

And their collaboration

was much more of a

competition than a

collaboration, really.

One would do something,

and the other one would

say, "Gosh, I think I can

do better than that,"

and try and make something better.

George was the sole guy.

He had no-one to work with.

The funny position I was in was

that, in many ways, you know,

this whole focus of attention

was on The Beatles,

so in that respect,

I was part of it.

But from being in them...

..an attitude came over,

which was John and Paul.

"OK, you know, we're the grooves

and you two just watch it."

I mean, don't forget,

I spent ten years

in the back of the

limousine with them.

That speed.

Don't Bother Me. This is

remake recording, take ten.

'Don't Bother Me was

the first song.

It was written basically

as an exercise

'to see if I could write a song,

cos I thought,

'"Well, if John and Paul can write,

everybody must be able to."'

Two, three, four.

Since she's been gone

I want no-one to talk to me...

Hang on, it's going too fast.

Take 12. One, two...

'I wrote that in

the hotel in Bournemouth.

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