‘Only a Northern Song’: The first sign George Harrison wanted to leave The Beatles
The release of Peter Jackson’s Get Back documentary in 2022 further cemented the image of George Harrison not just as the “quiet Beatle” but as the “embittered Beatle”—overlooked, condescended to, and generally underappreciated by his bandmates and their inner circle. While this portrayal of Harrison as a frustrated third wheel to the Lennon-McCartney powerhouse can lend itself to comedy, it’s undeniably poignant. After all, Harrison had a pretty strong case for feeling creatively and financially sidelined, and it’s striking to remember that much of this turmoil unfolded while he was still in his mid-20s.
Harrison was only 23 when he wrote one of his first “bitter young man” songs, 1966’s ‘Taxman’, which proved to be a hit and the important opening salvo on the Revolver LP. ‘Taxman’ was a protest song of sorts, aimed directly at the UK’s new Labour government and the exorbitant tax hikes that were rapidly emptying The Beatles’ coffers. You could call it politically minded or financially minded; either way, George was annoyed.
A year later, Harrison’s creative energy was again either fuelled or diverted by money issues, depending on your perspective. After the band wrapped up what would become their final tour, George embarked on an extended solo trip to India to hone his sitar skills under Ravi Shankar’s guidance. But rather than returning refreshed and at peace with his place in the band, Harrison seemed even more disillusioned about his role as 1967 began. At the heart of his frustration was the group’s music publishing company, Northern Songs Ltd. Founded in 1963, when Harrison was just 20, the company had gone public in 1965 to mitigate the Beatles’ tax burden. However, the arrangement disproportionately benefitted John Lennon and Paul McCartney, who each owned 15% of the shares, leaving George and Ringo Starr with a paltry 0.8% each.
‘Only a Northern Song’—which was recorded during the Sgt. Pepper sessions in ’67 but didn’t come out until the 1969 Yellow Submarine soundtrack—was Harrison’s not-so-subtle commentary on this publishing injustice. Had it been widely heard at the time that it was actually written, the song would have also provided an early warning to fans that all was not well in Beatleland and that the under-utilised Mr Harrison would almost assuredly want to pave his own way sooner than later.
“It doesn’t really matter what chords I play / What words I say or time of day it is / As it’s only a Northern song,” sings Harrison. In other words, the Beatle isn’t going to see any of the profits from his artistic endeavour, regardless of what he puts into it, because his work with the Beatles will be owned now and forever by Northern Songs Ltd. He laments: “If you think the harmony / Is a little dark and out of key / You’re correct / There’s nobody there”
While some critics would hail ‘Only a Northern Song’ as an interesting foray into experimental psychedelia, the meta-message of the lyrics and their lazy delivery from Harrison’s lips suggests something more on the cheeky, rebellious side rather than something artistically boundary-pushing.
Melodically, the tune starts out strikingly similar to Harrison’s own track, ‘If I Needed Someone’ from Rubber Soul, albeit played on a Hammond B3 organ and at a considerably slower pace. It’s quite underproduced compared to other tracks from the Sgt. Pepper era (it wasn’t even available in stereo until 1999) and feels like a late-night outtake, complete with plenty of noisy background horn flourishes, backwards tape playbacks, wind chimes, and ‘I Am the Walrus’ style television samples.
Harrison’s vocal tone throughout the song sounds, for lack of a better word, resigned to its fate. Many years later, he would acknowledge that the song’s anger was directed primarily at Dick James, who was Northern Songs’ managing director. In Harrison’s view, James had failed to properly explain the contract he and his bandmates had agreed to in 1963, and it had put young George in a very rough spot once the catalogue entered the public sphere.
Fortunately, the situation resolved itself in 1968, when Harrison was finally able to escape his contract and publish all his subsequent work through his own company, Harrisongs Ltd. This proved doubly advantageous, as the rights to songs like ‘Something’ and ‘Here Comes the Sun’ were lifelong goldmines, while squabbles between Lennon and McCartney had gradually cratered Northern Songs, giving Harrison a lucky escape from further grief, even before exiting the Beatles in an official capacity.
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