‘Around The World’: The one Neil Young song George Harrison couldn’t stand
Within The Beatles, George Harrison had a reputation for being a calming influence who, in addition to being the band’s lead guitarist, could also act as a peacekeeper. While, at points, he felt creatively contained by his limited role as a songwriter, it didn’t lead to Harrison making statements in the heat of the moment that he’d later regret.
Harrison was ever the diplomat in public and didn’t go out of his way to make enemies. However, he was only human. Therefore, the guitarist naturally didn’t adore every piece of music that appeared on his radar. Nevertheless, Harrison wasn’t one for airing his dirty laundry in public, and he preferred to keep his opinion to himself rather than share it with the world. Still, ‘The Quiet Beatle’ once privately explained why he couldn’t get on board with Neil Young, and unbeknownst to him, footage from the conversation later emerged.
The Beatles played a crucial part in Young’s musical journey, and it would have hurt the Canadian singer-songwriter to hear Harrison’s opinion on his craft. During an interview with Rolling Stone in 1975, the Canadian shared his first live performance experience: “I remember singing Beatles tunes. The first song I ever sang in front of people was It Won’t Be Long, and then Money (That’s What I Want). That was in Calvin High School [Winnipeg] cafeteria. My big moment.”
When he inducted Paul McCartney into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999, Young told the crowd: “The first song I learned to play was a Beatles song, ‘Money, (That’s What I Want)’. Paul McCartney is one of the greatest songwriters ever. He’ll be remembered hundreds of years from now.”
In 1992, Young shared the stage with Harrison at Bobfest, an evening celebrating 30 years of Bob Dylan as a recording artist at New York’s Madison Square Garden. The evening is now cemented into the rock history books, as at the end of the show, Young and Harrison joined Johnny Cash, June Carter Cash, Roger McGuinn, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Stevie Wonder, Willie Nelson, and many more in paying tribute to Dylan. While Harrison was friendly with Young at Bobfest, he made a series of cutting remarks about his fellow musician behind closed doors in the same year. When the former Beatle assisted Dave Stewart in the studio with his cover of Harrison’s track, ‘This Guitar’, they talked about Young with Bob Geldof.
At one point in the video, Geldof inquisitively asks Harrison whether he liked Young’s track, ‘Around The World’, which Harrison shut down. “I’m not a Neil Young fan,” he replied. Following his comment, Geldof continued to heap praise upon the track, but he was again interrupted with a scathing remark with Harrison saying, “I hate it, yeah, I can’t stand it”. After mimicking Young’s guitar style, Harrison elaborated: “It’s good for a laugh. We did this show with him; I saw it from the other side of the stage and looked around; I looked at Eric and said, ‘What’s going on?’ He did the solo in the middle, and then he kind of looked at me like, ‘Don’t look at me; it’s not me. ‘”
Harrison’s comments about Young and ‘Around The World’ are harsh; he never planned for his opinion to be hurtful, which is why he said it in the company of friends. However, somehow, footage from the recording session made its way online and revealed the guitarist’s true thoughts about another member of musical royalty.
‘Around The World’ isn’t one of Young’s most well-known creations. It never appeared on a traditional studio album, and the only versions that exist are live cuts. The rarity has only been played 11 times by Young, all of which occurred in 1986. It was also featured on the live album Life in 1987. Therefore, it seems improbable to have appeared on Harrison’s radar unless he didn’t hate Young as much as he claimed.
