How Pete Townshend helped Eric Clapton romance George Harrison’s wife Pattie Boyd
Read More
Credit: Alamy
When George Harrison angrily discussed John Lennon’s murderer
As the eldest of The Beatles, John Lennon assumed an older brother role for George Harrison, who was nearly three years younger. As with any brotherly relationship, Lennon would give Harrison more than his share of mockery, but the two had a bond that remained distinctly strong following the band’s break-up in 1970.
Despite their lives growing apart over the late 1970s, Lennon remained in Harrison’s fond thoughts, and they sent each other postcards occasionally. In a 1979 interview with Rolling Stone, Harrison was asked if he kept in close contact with his former bandmates. “Paul and Ringo, I see from time to time,” he replied. “I haven’t seen John for a couple of years. I get postcards from him – it sounds like the Rutles [smiling], but he keeps in touch with tapping on the table and postcards.”
In a 1990 interview, Harrison recalled the final time he saw Lennon before his murder in 1980. “I was in New York at his house at the Dakota,” Harrison said. “He was nice, he was just sort of running around the house making dinner. [But] I hadn’t seen him for so long. I didn’t see him for two years anyway, occasionally maybe send a postcard, and it’s knowing that he’s on the other end of the telephone if you do want to call…”
He added: “He was actually playing a lot of Indian music, which surprised me, because he always used to be like a little bit (annoyed) when I was playing it. So he had hundreds of cassettes of all kinds of stuff. He grew into it.”
Sadly, Harrison never got the chance to speak to his friend and former bandmate again. On December 8th, 1980, Lennon was shot by an unstable and obsessive fan named Mark Chapman outside The Dakota in New York City.
In a 1988 interview on Aspel and Co., Harrison revealed that he had been sleeping when he received the shocking news. “The call came through sometime in the morning, four or five in the morning,” George said. “I didn’t take the call. Olivia took the call, and she said, ‘John’s been shot.’ And I thought, ‘Oh, how bad is it?’ I just thought maybe a flesh wound or something like that, but she said, ‘No, that’s it, he’s dead’”.
He added: “I just went back to sleep, actually. Maybe it was just a way of getting away from it. I just went to sleep and waited to see what it said the next morning, and he was still dead the next morning, unfortunately.”
Nine years after Lennon’s murder, Harrison was questioned about the horrific incident again. This time, he divulged to reveal his thoughts on Chapman himself. “Well, it was because it was such a waste by some stupid person,” Harrison said, as quoted in George Harrison: Interviews and Encounters. “If John had been killed by Elvis or something, it would have been, you know, at least … but killed by somebody who was, like, pointless and didn’t have any … and in such a violent way and also in such a sneaky way”.
Harrison added: “You know, I mean, that thing—I’ve just read about it, and at times I flash on that when people call my name from behind, you know: ‘Mr. Lennon, will you sign this.’ It’s such a shitty thing.”
Harrison concluded the point by illustrating how the event has served to strike fear into fans and stars alike. “And also, he cast—that guy Chapman—cast a very dark cloud over any fan who happens to be standing on the pavement when you come by … because you just don’t know who’s crackers and who isn’t.”
Listen to George Harrison’s ‘All Those Years Ago’ below. First released in 1981, the track was written as an ode to John Lennon.
Never Miss A Beat
The Far Out Beatles Newsletter
All the latest stories about The Beatles from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.