Why didn't Paul write and record with George after 1970?

I had tried to allude to this in my first post from earlier today. I think the nature of the places and kinds of encounters Paul had in going around with Jane were of the sort that were more conducive to relating to people as acquaintances than as real friends, while George's tended to be a mix as well, but a mix that tended more to creating real friendships. I suppose the real question if of the chicken and egg sort, whether that was what each separately preferred, or in Paul's case as certainly appears a function of going around in that world that was at least at first more Jane Asher's than his.

 

I will confess I find Jane Asher to be a sympathetic presence in these stories. Whatever the view of those outside the relationship, such as John's, of her and of her with Paul, and also that as Paul himself admits none of them were faithful to the main women on their lives, at least on the road, it is also true Paul spent five years more or less within his relationship with her, which also I think not coincidentally was during rise and heyday of The Beatles. And her influence on him was also great. So that needs to be remembered in such assessments.

 

The truth of the matter is if you look at George's history in the Beatles it's not what he could have done it's he could do it if Paul said it was ok. When you have loved and lost like Paul someone like George couldn't understand and therefore, in such a light, it's not hard to imagine they were incapable of working together again.

 

I think that's 1 reason he took Linda on the road with him, would have been too much temptation without her there.

 

Supposedly Harrison made comments, while recovering in hospital or at home after the madman stabbed him. Supposedly he said he needed to have Paul over to the house to play music while he still could.

I've always wondered if that eventually happened in Harrison's last year's, & if they went out to the studio & layed down a couple things.

I couple that with Dhani Harrison's remarks to a Hoffman member at Coachella several years ago, when he said, regarding George Harrison's archives.

" You have no idea what's in there ( the archives ) none. It's it's it's incredible, you have no idea."

Fanciful speculation on my part, or a clue ?......

Both Harrison & McCartney enjoyed recording in their home state of the art studios frequently for decades. Privately, we've heard & read about hundreds of songs recorded by both men in the 70s-90s & beyond. As they renewed a closeness towards the end of George's life, I'd be surprised if they didin't get together at Friar Park & dabble with a few things.

There are other clues, the Threetle reunion period obviously. The 1979 Rolling Stone interview with George, where the article begins by stating Harrison had just spent the day with Paul McCartney in the studio !!

There is All Those Years ago from early 1981 featuring George, Paul & Ringo.. & McCartneys admission from a few years ago, that the original purpose for that session was to have George play guitar on Wanderlust. Which is why George Martin & Geoff Emerick were also at the All Those Years Ago vocal session.

So an interesting thread about why Paul & George didin't work together after 1970. But perhaps even more interesting are the times they did..... ( Insert scary film music )

George resented Paul for treating him like an economy class Beatle. Lennon treated him badly also, but he tended to be more forgiving of Lennon. At least for awhile.

 

According to Ken Scott, Harrison's Friar Park studio wasn't anywhere near state of the art. And then was during the recording of MSL 2000!

 

In Eric's defense, George wasn't exactly the picture of a doting husband.

"Tried to give you consolation, when your old man let you down...
But like a fool, I fell in love with you...and you turned my whole world upside down."

 

Well maybe. But Harrison recorded most of his solo albums there.

In some of the footage of Friar Park studio, you can see a large mixing console, multi track machines, a tracking room, lots of instruments like organs, guitars. How much outboard gear & how larges microphone selection I don't know.

But it was also a great environment to record, lush green gardens, totally private, but in easy distance of the main house. .

I like those kind of private semi rustic studios. The acoustics, monitors, other stuff I don't know, but it appears ok to me, check out the My Sweet Lord 2000 footage.

 

Oh I dunno- based on the handful of pictures I've seen of it, FPSHOT wasn't that bad, good sound at least.

Ringo could apparently make the same claim given George at least tried to bag Maureen at one time...

 

Few figures have inspired such Rashoman-style conflicting anecdotes as Linda. Some depict her as such a kind and easygoing person, others as harsh and manipulative, others as having a softening influence on Paul, others as making him harder to like, it's fascinating. I know a woman who used to work at the very posh vets where he and Linda used to take their many pets, and she always recalls Paul as a nice guy and Linda as very standoffish when they visited together, but then Linda would return on her own and query every penny of the bills, then he'd sometimes come back on his own, looking a bit embarrassed, to thank everyone and give the staff presents. The multiple Lindas keep increasing with the years!

 

I think the opposite:
Linda was too much of an attraction for others, so I think Paul wanted to keep her close, so that she wouldn't be tempted.

Just playing devil's advocate. here; but there are two sides to every coin.

 

It's almost like she was an actual multifaceted human being with different moods and who interacted with different people differently.

As for Jane's influence on Paul's social life, I think it was more in exposing him to more sophisticated pursuits in London (like theater and classical music) rather than friends. It doesn't seem like they ever had too many mutual friends. Jane, by all accounts, did not like the musician or rock and roll crowd and according to people like Hunter Davies, actively discouraged Paul from associating with the other three Beatles and other rock and rollers (she also disapproved of drug use). Her own group of friends seemed mainly to be other young actors and actresses, none of whom Paul seemed to socialize with very much either.

Yet Paul did have that group of musician friends, did do a lot of drugs and had at least a couple of steady on/off girlfriends Jane didn't know about it. How did he accomplish such things with a live-in girlfriend not noticing? I think the secret to their relationship lasting as long as it was their lack of time together - despite nominally living together, both Paul and Jane were frequently off on tours and away from each other. A relationship between two very young people who only live together a small amount of time during the year, but meet up for luxury vacations, and otherwise live very independent lives...it's no wonder it went on for a few years being stagnant like that. The point of Marianne Faithfull's anecdote was not, I think, to comment really about their personalities but about how they simply weren't together all that much so when they were, there was a lack of communication. Even after living together for a few years, they still treated each other almost like fellow boarders in the same house because they simply had never spent enough time being together as a couple building a home.

But then, biographers/writers have never been much interested in exploring Paul's friends and influences outside of the other three Beatles, or how they examine John's friends (consider how much ink has been spilled on Pete Shotton!). We know about someone like Robert Fraser because Paul talked so much about him in Many Years from Now, and Barry Miles was part of that same artsy circle. Isn't it interesting though, that during the Beatles years two of Paul's best friends were women who he didn't sleep with - Marianne Faithfull and Twiggy? (The latter who's said Paul has remained her best friend for the past 50 years). Quincy Jones first met Paul (and George Martin) way back in 1963 and became friends - I didn't know that before recently. Q was good enough friends with Paul that he did things like hang out during the Ram sessions and was close enough to the family for Stella McCartney to consider him like an uncle (and Q said he and George Martin used to have long phone conversations in the Sixties about production techniques). Who wouldn't want to know more about what drew two legends like Paul and Quincy together as friends, or Paul and Stevie Wonder? But sadly, that stuff will probably never be asked in favor of twenty more questions about "how do you write a song?"

 

Because Paul was dead?

 

And it's almost like you've deliberately misrepresented a post for the sake of some pointless sarcasm. We can all do that:

But back to the next chapter of 'Jane Asher is the most important person in the universe'.

 

Damn you're right. We never hear about Paul's friends outside of The Beatles. While we've heard a lot about Pete Shotton indeed...

 

Paul had a friend write a book too, Barry Miles, altho Paul was able to contribute to that.

 

One of his best friends of the past twenty years has been Woody Harrelson. What's that about?? How did Paul McCartney and Woody Harrelson even meet? What brought them together (aside from a love of weed)?

 

I would guess it was the love of weed.

 

Both vegetarian (Woody is a vegan). Both advocates for PETA.

 

Paul is good friends with Lorne Michaels I believe.

 

It's almost like he is an actual multifaceted human being with different moods and who interacts with different people differently.

 

If you're friends with Eric Idle, do you really need any other friends?

 

Aren't Paul and Billy Joel close these days?

 

Had no idea about that. Nor about Quincy Jones!. Where has this info come from? bios? guess maybe I should give one a read.

 

I've never read George's biography; the only bit that I can remember hearing about is in Lennon's final (or one of those last couple) interviews that he gave, where he's clearly a little peeved at George and says something like "George gives credit to every 2 bit sax player that he's ever played with, but says that my contribution to his life was non-existent", or something like that. Is it just that George didn't really mention the other guys very much? Or is this John and his selective memory at work?