The reason why George Harrison recorded music on the same day as John Lennon’s death
The death of John Lennon was one of the most shocking moments in popular culture. The legendary Beatle had just recorded and released his first album in half a decade, 1980’s Double Fantasy, when his life was tragically cut short. The world scrambled to make sense of the legendary singer’s death, and almost immediately, the other three Beatles were looked to for their comments.
Paul McCartney came away with the most controversial take. After leaving a recording studio the day following Lennon’s murder, McCartney was hounded by paparazzi. Having already made a statement at his home earlier in the day, McCartney rattled off a few loose thoughts, ending with a seemingly casual “drag, isn’t it?” – but McCartney wasn’t the only one who decided to keep recording in the wake of Lennon’s death.
George Harrison was working on his own album when he heard of Lennon’s murder. Harrison’s initial statement to the press was critical of gun violence. “After all we went through together, I had and still have great love and respect for him. I am shocked and stunned,” Harrison wrote. “To rob a life is the ultimate robbery in life. The perpetual encroachment on other people’s space is taken to the limit with the use of a gun. It is an outrage that people can take other people’s lives when they obviously haven’t got their own lives in order.”
Session players for Harrison’s in-progress album, Somewhere in England, assumed that the day’s schedule would be put on hold. “Ray [Cooper] called on the morning of the sessions and said, ‘I’m not sure whether it’s going to happen,’” drummer Dave Mattacks told Uncut magazine. “I asked why. ‘Have you not heard? John Lennon has been shot.’ There was a two or three-hour gap when nothing happened, then Ray called back and the conversation was something along the lines of, ‘I’ve spoken to George, and he thinks that trying to make music would be more therapeutic than him sitting around and being besieged by press and God knows what else.’ So the session went ahead.”
According to Cooper, Harrison was working on ‘All Those Years Ago’ when he was informed of Lennon’s murder. “George had just finished the vocals on ‘All Those Years Ago’, of all things, and I was on my way back home to London in the early hours of the morning,” Cooper said in the same interview. “On the radio it was announced that John had been murdered. I turned the car around on the M4 and came straight back. George was devastated. He and John had a very special relationship. He loved him, and he had just written a song about him.”
Harrison would later alter the lyrics to ‘All Those Years Ago’ in tribute to Lennon. To bring the track full circle, Harrison called up Ringo Starr, who was originally supposed to sing ‘All Those Years Ago’, and Paul McCartney to add contributions to the song. It would be the trio’s first collaboration since The Beatles ended more than a decade prior and would be their only song together until reuniting for the Anthology project more than a decade later.
