George Harrison’s favourite songs from The Beatles’ early era
The early years of The Beatles seem as joyously insane as the latter years were tortuous. Sure, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, John Lennon and Paul McCartney becoming the most famous people on the planet overnight got old quick for them. However, the road from the mean streets of Hamburg’s red-light district to the bright lights of Shea Stadium seemed like a fairytale. Especially when considering this was before the Fabs started hating each other’s guts.
Their story is full of boyhood camaraderie that, even today, seems pretty charming. It’s reflected in the music, too. No matter how boundary-pushing and seismic their work gets later in the decade, I think we’ll always have a soft spot in our hearts for those surging guitar pop classics. I’m not alone in this either, as a number of George Harrison’s favourite Beatles songs come from the same era, too.
This is saying an awful lot, as while Lennon gets all the attention for being the “outspoken” Beatle, never far away from a savage putdown or seven, the so-called ‘Quiet Beatle’ was never far away from one either. As his creative stifling at the hands of Lennon and McCartney continued, the songs that broke through did have an air of seething resentment to them, like in ‘Taxman’, ‘Piggies’ and ‘Only a Northern Song’.
So, it says a lot that even a man as opinionated as he was looks back fondly on his band’s early days. Case in point is a telling clip from Peter Jackson’s Get Back documentary. Otherwise, a document of a band in freefall and four young men about to kill and eat each other, there’s still a moment of levity when the band spools through a few of their old numbers.
Lesser-spotted Beatles For Sale cut ‘Every Little Thing’ is brought up and Harrison, a man who literally quit the band mere weeks ago, just melts. He smiles, says, “That was a good one”, and actually plays the lick from memory, jamming on a few bars of the song with McCartney. Both seem overjoyed to have their childhood friend back and doing what they love, if only for a moment.
He has a similar reaction to Lennon and McCartney bringing up ‘This Boy’, the B-side to ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’. John and Paul start going through the song, with George taking the chorus’ high harmonies. After the jam falls apart, he says, “It’s a good song though. A good song”. It’s slightly surreal to see the literal Beatles are just as partial to a bit of nostalgia as we are, but it was desperately needed at the time.
Finally, and quite ironically, we look to after the Beatles split for what might just be Harrison’s favourite song from the early days of The Beatles. In 1974, Harrison went on an extensive tour of the United States with one of his heroes, sitarist Ravi Shankar. The concerts were an extravagant spectacle. An extended joint concert with both Harrison and Shankar performing with backing bands of over ten members.
Little time was given to the work of Harrison’s old band, save for four songs. Three of these are arguably Harrison’s greatest-ever achievements, ‘Something’, ‘While My Guitar Gentle Weeps’ and ‘For Your Blue’. However, there was precisely one Lennon/McCartney song so undeniably brilliant it landed on the setlist: Rubber Soul’s masterpiece ‘In My Life’. It is a song, fittingly, about the special place one has in their heart for the people you loved in the past
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