The real reason George Harrison held himself back from songwriting
By the time lead guitarist George Harrison sought to pen his first song for The Beatles, the John Lennon and Paul McCartney songwriting partnership already boasted ‘From Me to You’ and ‘She Loves You’ under their belt.
While Beatlemania was already on the rise mere months into their official existence, Harrison found himself ill and bedridden during a stay in Bournemouth in August 1963 and thought to pass the time by writing his own piece, coming up with With the Beatles‘ ‘Don’t Bother Me’.
Even from his first contribution, the Harrison numbers that peppered the Lennon-McCartney songbook always caught one’s attention with their contrary character, flashes of existentialism or philosophical musings scored by his subtle pop melancholy that always offered a welcome turn in mood whenever his pieces felt like showing up. Following ‘I Need You’ and ‘You Like Me Too Much’ on Help!, a trend was established among The Beatles’ output of affording Harrison two or three pieces per album.
Harrison’s songs by the end of The Beatles’ run are much recognised and celebrated—’Something’ and ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’ are routinely praised as one of their finest works—but his evolving pieces along the way are often the albums’ secret weapons. ‘Blue Jay Way‘ is the eerie fog that creeps into the Magical Mystery Tour soundtrack or the jerky attack on the UK taxman that opens Revolver all essential contributions to the Fab Four’s dazzling body of work.
It’s often thought that the balance of songwriting within The Beatles—Ringo Starr having only two songs to his name—was dominated by the Lennon-McCartney hit factory, discouraging others from even trying. There’s some truth to that, but the band also had a brutal vetting process. So many of Harrison’s songs were rejected that he amassed enough material to release All Things Must Pass as a triple LP in 1970.
It was also the effort. More fascinated by his guitar in the early days, Harrison spoke candidly about the lack of willingness to hone his songwriting skills. “I’m still trying to churn out a couple,” he told journalist Larry Kane in 1965 following a show in Chicago. “My main problem is trying to write lyrics. And I don’t think it’s worth writing songs and getting somebody else to do the lyrics, you know. Because it’s no point. You don’t feel as though you’ve done it, really”.
He added: “So I’ve written a few more songs I’ve got taped at home. If I get something going, then I’ll tape it and I’ll leave it for about five weeks. And I’ll suddenly remember, and then I’ll add a bit more to it. So probably it’ll take me about three months before I’ve really finished one song. I’m so lazy, you know. It’s ridiculous. But I’d like to write more”.
Beatlemania was flying at such a dizzying pace that it’s incredible that Lennon and McCartney found the time to write the wealth of the material they did. Ceasing their punishing touring schedule a year later, Harrison found himself unreined to finally realise the great songs that were in him all along.
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