How George Harrison saved one of Tom Petty’s biggest hits: “What the hell is that?”
During the lengthy and at times, gruelling recording sessions of The Beatles, George Harrison’s fingers would have likely been in bits.
Famously, the band recorded eight songs for Please Please Me in one day, wasting absolutely no time and spending only minutes without an instrument at arms length. When touring stopped in 1966, it didn’t exactly mean that the band eased up in the studio either. The very fact they had no touring timelines meant they spent even longer inside the creative space, pushing the boundaries of their own skill to the absolute limits.
These experiences would have made Harrison a master at understanding what it takes to get a song over the line. But, he was rarely, if ever, the one at the forefront of these songs. Sure, he had an important role in contributing to the arrangement and perhaps providing the odd guitar solo, when allowed, but it was largely Paul McCartney and John Lennon who strained their voices on tracks.
The continued enthusiastic performance of vocals certainly takes its toll on an artist and inevitably, certain tricks were needed to live up the sleeve of any artist in need of assistance. Can you imagine ‘Twist And Shout’ without the powerful rasp of John Lennon or the raw energy of McCartney’s stripped away in ‘Helter Skelter’? No it simply wouldn’t have been allowed to happen.
So later down the line, when Harrison was working with Tom Petty on his record Full Moon Fever, he came armed with an appropriate bag of tricks, should Petty approach any stumbling block. Almost like the musical version of Nanny McPhee, Harrison whipped up a soothing concoction that helped get ‘I Won’t Back Down’ laid down on tape.
“I had a terrible cold,” Petty recalled in an interview with Mojo. “George went to the store and bought a ginger root, boiled it, and had me stick my head in the pot to get the ginger steam to open my sinuses, and then I ran in and did the take. I put my heart and soul into those records. I remember things about making them pretty vividly. It’s a great job to have. The best thing to do with your life, I always tell young people, is to try and figure out what you like and make it your work. I’m incredibly fortunate in that respect.”
But despite what the history books try to tell you, Harrison was just more than the on hand studio remedy maker. He was a brilliant songwriter in his own right and while his voice may not have been heard during The Beatles’ sessions, it certainly was with Petty.
“When we were recording it, George [Harrison] said, ‘What the hell is that?’” referring to Petty’s lyric, “I’m standing on the edge of the world”. Petty continued to explain that Harrison said, “‘Surely, there’s got to be something better than that.’ Then, I came up with “There ain’t no easy way out” which seemed so obvious.”
He was a welcome and calming presence in the studio. Soothing Petty’s tones with ginger based remedies while simultaneously pulling him out of creative ruin with some rather uninspiring lyrics.
