The 1989 George Harrison song he tried to give to Eric Clapton: “He didn’t use it”
For most artists, it would be a career high to have George Harrison write a song with them in mind.
However, to Eric Clapton, Harrison was merely his friend George rather than a Beatle. While few would dare reject a song that had been penned for them by the man responsible for crafting ‘Something’ and ‘Here Comes The Sun‘, their relationship meant that he wasn’t prepared to accept a song purely because of who wrote it.
The pair had been close confidantes since the 1960s, with Harrison even inviting Clapton into The Beatles’ tight-knit inner-circle, even contributing to ‘When My Guitar Gently Sleeps’. Their musical partnership continued to flourish once The Beatles went in their separate directions.
Somehow, their friendship even survived Harrison’s ex-wife, Pattie Boyd, marrying Clapton, who had been courting her throughout her marriage to his friend. Moreover, at Clapton and Boyd’s wedding, Harrison even performed at the ceremony.
They truly had a bond that was thicker than blood. While Harrison left his touring days behind in the ’70s, Clapton even convinced him to come out of retirement for a co-headline run in Japan in 1991, which proved to be his final set of shows.
However, while they’d have likely have taken a bullet for each other, Clapton had no qualms about rejecting ‘Cheer Down’, despite Harrison and Tom Petty penning it purely for him. Notably, Harrison was in his Travelling Wilburys era, hence why it was co-written with Petty.
At the time, Clapton was in the middle of making his eleventh studio album, Journeyman, which arrived in 1989, but didn’t feel the song fit into his plans. Although he did accept ‘Run So Far’, also written by Harrison, which appeared on Journeyman.
While ‘Cheer Down’ was rejected by Clapton, he’d inadvertently be responsible for the song seeing the light of day thanks to Lethal Weapon 2, of all things.
Clapton was tasked with curating the soundtrack for the movie, yet was still hesitant to green-light the song, until the decision was taken out of Clapton’s hands.
In the book Harrison on Harrison, the former Beatle explained of the unconventional journey of ‘Cheer Down’: “There’s a song here when Eric was doing the Journeyman album, and I wrote this song for him, but he didn’t use it. I think we made an attempt at it, we just ran through the song, and at that time, he was working with Michael Kamen doing the music to Lethal Weapon 2, and the director Dick Donner heard this song, and he wanted it in the film.”
“And Eric didn’t really want it – he didn’t want to have a single out from the movie – so Dick Donner asked me if I’d record the song, which I did. I wrote it for Eric originally, and Tom Petty helped me write the lyrics to it. It’s called ‘Cheer Down’,” he added.
As much as Clapton wasn’t infatuated enough with ‘Cheer Down’ to include it on Journeyman, he unsurprisingly felt less preciously about the soundtrack to Lethal Weapon 2.
He must have had somewhat of a soft spot for it, however. When they toured Japan in 1991, the duo would perform ‘Cheer Down’ together, which was later included on Harrison’s Live in Japan album.
Curiously, Clapton has never gone on record to explain his reasoning for rejecting ‘Cheer Down’; it’s hard to believe it wasn’t for the best with the benefit of hindsight. It’s a splendid addition to Harrison’s solo catalogue, even if it was never designed to be so. Harrison’s slide guitar solo on the song will put a smile on your face for the rest of the day, and his voice also fits it perfectly. Therefore, while the rejection still makes little sense, it allowed ‘Cheer Down’ to be recorded by its rightful owner.
