The 1967 song that finally earned George Harrison’s respect from John Lennon
The Beatles had more firepower in the songwriting department than any other band in the world, thanks to the dynamic partnership of John Lennon and Paul McCartney.
Even if Ringo Starr, for example, was capable of writing songs like those of The Kinks’ Ray Davies, it’s improbable that Lennon and McCartney would have allowed his wings to fly straight out the gates. He’d almost certainly still been given just his token song, without getting a fair share of earning equal credits on an album.
Admittedly, Ringo was no writer like Davies, but by the end of the Fab Four’s tenure, George Harrison had a case for being on that level. It took him a while to get there, but Harrison eventually proved his elite status to everyone, even if it took Lennon many years to view him in this light.
Harrison wasn’t a natural songwriter like Lennon or McCartney, but that’s a ridiculously high bar that few have ever met. After all, penning a chart-topping pop song for them was about as difficult as making a cup of tea for you and me.
Due to being surrounded by their immense songwriting expertise, songwriting could exist as a gaping flaw in Harrison’s artistic game. There was no demand from his bandmates for him to start supplying songs, but nevertheless, he took it upon himself to learn the craft.
His first attempt at writing for the Fab Four was ‘Don’t Bother Me’, which appeared on their second album, With The Beatles. The song was born out of boredom while holed up in a Bournemouth hotel room, while fighting illness on tour, and pivotally marked the start of his songwriting journey.
While ‘Don’t Bother Me’ isn’t a Beatles classic, it gave Harrison a taste for songwriting, which he steadily developed in the background as a peripheral figure in the band’s hierarchy.
Towards the end of The Beatles’ reign, Harrison had become a reliable songwriter, regularly outshining his bandmates. Lennon may not have immediately recognised Harrison’s knack in this field, but after creating one song, the guitarist finally earned the respect of his colleague.
The turning point occurred on Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band with ‘Within You Without You’. While it was his only songwriting contribution to the record, it was a stark upturn in quality, proving to Lennon that he was now the real deal.
The track remained a source of fondness for Lennon, even long after The Beatles split. In 1980, shortly before his death, Lennon said of the composition, “One of George’s best songs. One of my favourites of his, too. He’s clear on that song. His mind and his music are clear. There is his innate talent; he brought that sound together.”
It was a song influenced by Harrison’s period spent in India, which changed his attitude towards music, thanks to his blossoming friendship with Ravi Shankar. He once explained, “I’d also spent a lot of time with Ravi Shankar, trying to figure out how to sit and hold the sitar, and how to play it. ‘Within You Without You’ was a song that I wrote based upon a piece of music of Ravi’s that he’d recorded for All-India Radio.”
‘Within You Without You’ is the moment that Harrison discovered his own sound, adding an otherworldly new dimension to The Beatles. Rather than attempting to write in the vein of Lennon or McCartney, ‘Within You Without You’ is a song that is unique to Harrison’s life experience.
Lennon and McCartney wanted Harrison to be authentically himself with the pen, rather than an imitation of them. Finally, with ‘Within You Without You’, he’d cracked it. Not only did that trip to India shape him spiritually and musically, but it also proved to Lennon that he was a songwriter of the highest calibre.
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