“They were not interested”: How many masterpieces were lost because of The Beatles dismissing George Harrison?
The Beatles were a finely oiled machine. When they started their careers and were initially signed to a record label, they were responsible for writing a large number of songs, and it wouldn’t have worked out if the band weren’t as efficient as possible. A lot of this efficiency came from the songwriting prowess of John Lennon and Paul McCartney.
No meeting in musical history has been as important as John Lennon and Paul McCartney. A lot of the most exciting music to come from the 1960s, and a lot of the exciting music which has since followed, has resulted from Lennon and McCartney’s excellent songwriting ability.
In addition to those two penning melodies and lyrics, Ringo Starr provided an excellent rhythm section, giving each of their tracks an infectious swing, which made them easy to dance to and enjoy. Equally, George Harrison could apply his formidable guitar playing to their songs.
The fact that he wasn’t the band’s chief songwriter meant he could spend more time perfecting his guitar playing. This was a huge benefit for the band as a whole; however, there was also a downside to it as far as Harrison was concerned, as it meant that a lot of the songs he wrote, despite being good, were dismissed by the band as they didn’t have the signature Lennon and McCartney sound.
Harrison was constantly writing different pieces of music, but a lot of it was ignored by the band as Lennon and McCartney were keen on handling most of the songwriting duties. It often led to Harrison feeling deflated, to the point that he wasn’t trying for many of the songs he wrote for the band. For instance, his offering for Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, ‘Only a Northern Song’, fell flat.
Even producer George Martin said, “I’m disappointed that George didn’t bring something better.”
There were also occasions when the band seemed so disinterested in what Harrison was writing that he brought in other musicians to help him record the songs. On the track ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’, which is now regarded as one of the band’s best offerings, Harrison asked Clapton to help him record the song since his bandmates weren’t pulling their weight.
“I worked on that song with John, Paul, and Ringo one day, and they were not interested in it at all. And I knew inside of me that it was a nice song,” he said, “The next day I was with Eric, and I was going into the session, and I said, ‘We’re going to do this song. Come on and play on it’. He said, ‘Oh, no. I can’t do that. Nobody ever plays on the Beatles records’. I said, ‘Look, it’s my song, and I want you to play on it’.”
Harrison continued, “So Eric came in, and the other guys were as good as gold because he was there. Also, it left me free to just play the rhythm and do the vocal. So Eric played that, and I thought it was really good.”
There are two ways to look at the way The Beatles dismissed Harrison’s songs. It gave him more time to work on his guitar playing, which contributed to the band’s success and unique sound. However, how deflated he was because of their attitude towards his music meant that many songs he could have written were likely left alone because he knew they wouldn’t be met with enthusiasm. We are left wondering what could have been.
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