Why George Harrison felt The Beatles became “stale”
Evolution is the key to survival as a musical act. If an artist stays in the same lane for too long, the schtick quickly becomes tired unless they change it up. The Beatles were the kings of reinvention and knew when the time was right to start a fresh chapter, but there was one moment when George Harrison believed they’d turned “stale”.
Almost on a yearly basis, The Beatles were switching up their appearance and, most importantly, their sound. While in the early period of their career, the Fab Four were another set of young, hopeful upstarts fostering ambitions of superstardom, but after they quit touring, they put their full focus into studio work and reinvented themselves at an unprecedented speed.
Whenever the rest of the music world caught up with The Beatles, they’d already moved onto something new. Like many of their peers, the Liverpudlian four-piece could have stayed in the same lane, but their interests in songwriting expanded as they evolved as people and experienced the world.
While ‘Twist and Shout’ was one of their breakthrough hits, The Beatles soon outgrew that brand of song, and Harrison particularly wanted to move forward into new musical areas. During a 1977 interview, which was printed in the book George Harrison on George Harrison, he quipped: “It got stale. I felt stale, you know, because you play the same riffs da-dada-ding-ding-dow, you know, ‘Twist and Shout’ and things.”
Harrison honestly added: “By the time you came off the road, been touring the world, I’d just want to not particularly [look at an instrument].”
The Beatles guitarist also explained how forming a friendship with Eric Clapton injected life into his career and helped him get out of his rut. He added: “We did get very stale and that’s a period when — I was saying about being into the sitar — I got really friendly with Eric, and all the kids were playing guitars. I’d felt as though I’d missed so many years out.”
‘Twist and Shout’ was a cover of the Philadelphia R&B vocal group, The Top Notes, and was also popularised by The Isley Brothers. Due to this reason, John Lennon was hesitant to perform it live because he felt he couldn’t do the original justice.
He said in an interview in 1963: “I always hate singing the song, ‘Twist and Shout’ when there’s a coloured artist on the bill with us. It doesn’t seem right, you know. I feel sort of embarrassed… It makes me curl up. I always feel they could do the song much better than me.”
While the song was critical to their success in America, The Beatles soon outgrew tracks of this ilk and were ready to develop their sound into new boundaries. ‘Twist and Shout’ offers a vignette into the start of their career, but the Fab Four proved there was much more to their artistry than knocking out covers of R&B hits for a mainstream audience.
Never Miss A Beat
The Far Out Beatles Newsletter
All the latest stories about The Beatles from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.