George Harrison: Living in the Material World Page #9

"as religious leaders here make out,

"then it doesn't affect

my dedication to Sacred

Heart in any way.

It only strengthens it.

"But we will help to spread

his teachings,

"so that everybody can attain this

and new generations

"will grow up and have this

right from the start,

"instead of going through the

ignorance that seems to dominate

"everything and everyone

at the moment, causing

them to feel that it's

mysticism or black magic.

"Don't think that I've gone

off my rocker, because I haven't.

"I now love you and everybody

else much more than ever.

"So it's not that bad, is it?"

Creme tangerine and Montlimar

A ginger sling

with a pineapple heart

A coffee dessert, yes

You know it's good news

But you'll have to have them

all pulled out

After the Savoy truffle.

Whenever we were together,

in the public,

say, for instance, I would turn...

I mean, for all of the amount

of weight that I thought I carried,

would turn to nobody.

If we were going into a restaurant

or a club,

the way people would behave

around their aura, you know.

I mean, by "their", I mean,

the Beatles, was beyond belief.

George had two sides

to his character.

I mean, you know, I'm his mate, so I

can't tell too much, but he was a guy.

You know what I'm talking about.

He was a red-blooded man, you know.

So he would like, you know,

the things guys like.

But you'll have to have them

all pulled out

After the Savoy truffle.

I distinctly remember

putting the saxes on and I got

what I considered to be a good

sax sound. They blended well.

It was very nice and George

comes up, after teaching the parts,

and says "Yeah, they sound great.

"Now distort them."

It was, "What?!" "Yeah, they're

too clean, they're too nice.

"Distort them." "OK."

So I had to, one way or another,

mess them up.

When we were mixing it, George

Martin walks into the control room.

He says, "Uh isn't it a bit bright?

"Isn't it a bit toppy?"

And George turned around to him

and said, "Yeah. And I like it."

And he just turns around

and we carry on working.

And George Martin just

upped and walked out, went

to a studio where they

were doing other work.

They were like the kids

that just left home,

whose parents aren't looking

after them anymore.

A guy called Joe Massot

was making this film

and he'd asked George

to do the soundtrack.

It was really just, um.

I showed up, you know.

George told me he'd like me

to play on something

and we'd write as we went along.

We put down this thing and George

then put backwards guitar on top

and was, you know, it was very

experimental and it was good fun.

"Wonderwall" score

by George Harrison

I think that, in England, there was

a sort of cultural revolution

in the '60s

which touched on

every branch of life.

Wake up!

You can thank your lucky stars

you're working with me.

And a smile now. Come on.

Smile... Smile!

God.

'That's why Antonioni

decided to do Blow-Up in England

because of it being the spot

where everything was going on.

What do they call you in bed?

I only go to bed to sleep.

'I remember

the mystery that was around'

George Harrison.

I wouldn't have asked him a question.

I wouldn't have dared,

because of feeling

he was onto something else.

There was a lot of energy around.

Everybody was inspiring

everybody else.

We'd go to David Hockney's studio

and watch him paint.

"Oh, David, can I just

have that little sketch?"

And he'd say, "No, you can't."

And then we'd go off and he'd say,

"Oh, let's go and see the Stones.

"They're recording at so and so."

Then off we'd go there.

So we could just do anything.

Nobody minded.

Everybody was flying around

like that.

It was all so possible and so easy

and we didn't think twice about it.

I was in New York

and some people came and said,

"Aren't you coming to London?

"London is swinging. London's great!"

And I think, "Well, I don't know."

I was so New York, you know,

I didn't want to, sort of,

leave New York.

But then things happened and I went

to London and it was great.

There was a, kind of,

feeling of freedom

and I felt that it's almost like

the air was, kind of,

had an intelligent smell about it,

yeah?

George and John and I

made...Number Nine.

And that was actually George

who, sort of, instigated it.

He said,

"Let's do it, let's do it".

And he didn't have that feeling of,

"Well, Yoko is a separate thing

and, you know, we shouldn't

"be nice to her

or anything like that."

He was just very nice.

I thought it's very interesting

to know about what the Beatles do,

because, you know, I come from

an avant-garde background

and all that and here

they were making music in a way

that was very different

from what we used to do.

It had power of its own.

And I thought,

"Well, this is what you can do."

George had two sides,

like we all do, you know.

Sometimes he was very nice

and sometimes he was

just being too honest or something...

frank about things, yeah?

He would say something right away,

before he's thinking.

So he didn't, uh, mince words.

And sometimes it's, you know, "Oh,

dear, you think that?" or something.

He'd just hurt me, maybe.

But John said,

"Oh, that's George, you know."

And I got used to that, too.

It was very nice.

I remember a particular occasion,

when I'd written Hey, Jude,

and I brought it in.

And I'd go,

Hey, Jude, don't make it bad.

And George was playing,

Hey, Jude...

Don't make it bad...

And I had to sort of say, "No,

George, look, I really don't think

"you can put a guitar riff

after every line, you know."

And it was like a real,

"Oh, OK, then."

But, you know,

I knew he couldn't do it.

Maybe he knew he couldn't do it.

But it created tension, you know.

And it was like...

Then this feeling that I was

just dictating things

started to grow, you know.

And I was dictating things, cos

I knew how I wanted my song to go.

Similarly, John would say

how he wanted his song to go

or George would say

how he wanted his to go.

The intensity that they had together

must have had its limits

and it had to explode at some point.

Now they were out in London,

travelling a lot and getting...

having different people

influence them.

So coming back together,

it didn't work as well.

I quit the band in '67,

on the White Album,

because...I was just in,

I don't know, in some emotional state

where I honestly felt

that I wasn't playing well.

For some reason,

I felt I just wasn't playing good.

And those three were really close.

And I thought, "Well, I've got

to deal with this, anyway."

So, I went over to John's - he was

staying with Yoko in my apartment...

and I said, "Look, man," I said,

"You know, I have to say, look,

I feel I'm not playing really good.

"And you three are really close."

And he goes,

"I thought it was you three."

And I went to Paul's and knocked on

his door and I said the same thing.

I said, "You know,

you three are really close."

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