John Lennon - George Harrison relationship in the 70's

While all Beatle fans are well versed with the ups and downs of John and Paul's friendship in the 70's does anyone know anything about the state of John and George's friendship in the 70's? Obviously John and George were on very friendly terms during the Imagine recording sessions and IIRC there was a rift when George didn't extend an invitation to Yoko to appear at the Concert for Bangladesh. I've read the John interview where he is upset that George only mentioned him 11 times in his autobiography but was there really that much acrimony between John and George in the mid to late 70's? Did they see each other at all during the "house husband" years? If there was a rift did they ever reconcile their differences? Did George give any interviews in the days and months after John's murder?

Chris

 

George and John had a very close relationship from 1970/71. You are correct that there was a rift 1971/72 after George did not invite Yoko to perform at the Bangladesh concert. However, they did renew their friendship and actually became close again in 1973/74 (especially 74) starting with the Ringo recording session for I'm The Greatest through December 1974 when John came to see George perform at Madison Square Garden and even did a joint interview with him after the show.

This is not confirmed, but I believe the MSG show could have been the last time they saw each other although they continued to speak through sometime in 1975/76 when there was another falling out of some kind. Fred Seaman in his book The Last Days of John Lennon relates a telephone message left by George to John in 1980 where he states he is "anxious to reconnect after five years of silence" (paraphrasing the text of the message). John was still miffed about the I Me Mine book and never returned the call.

It is known that the last time Paul saw John was 1976 and Ringo in November of 1979. As a result, the 1974 date is not impossible, although one would think George may have come to see/meet Sean sometime in late 75/early 76 (especially during the 33-1/3 New York press stop).

 

Thanks for the info GuyDon! Have you heard/seen the post concert MSG interview? If so what did John and George discuss? So John and George were in the studio at the same time recording their respective parts for I'm the Greatest?

 

I also liked that West 57th interview with George where he discussed John:

Selina: "In an interview before his death (Playboy), John said he was really hurt by you, that you never mentioned in your autobiography any of the influence that he had on you."

George: "He was annoyed 'cos I didn't say that he'd written one line of this song 'Taxman'. But I also didn't say how I wrote two lines of 'Come Together' or three lines of 'Eleanor Rigby', you know, I wasn't getting into any of that. I think, in the balance, I would have had more things to be niggled with him about than he would have had with me!"

Selina: "He said, that you idolised him as a young boy ..."

George (interrupting): "That's what he thought. I liked him very much, he was a groove. He was a good lad. But, at the same time, he misread me. He didn't realise who I was, and this was one of the main faults of John and Paul. They were so busy being John and Paul, they failed to realise who else was around at the time."

 

I have heard the interview, but cannot remember what they discuss. I believe it is on the end of a George bootleg cd of his final MSG show.

John, George and Ringo (along with Billy Preston and Klaus Voorman) were all in the studio at the same time during the recording of I'm The Greatest. George, Ringo, Billy and Klaus tried to persuade John into forming a group but, as John later remarked in the Playboy interview, he wasn't interested in being in a group without Yoko.

 

In a summer 1975 radio interview George talked of how he really wanted to get back with John and "get going again" as a musical act, but he also pointed out that he would never work with Paul again. At this point John was already back with Yoko and didn't need his old mates once again, although he welcomed their companionship during his separation.

 

Funny you mention this interview as I was listening to it this past Sunday. It comes from the Rock Around The World radio special he did to promote the Extra Texture album. He calls John both a genius and a bastard and said he would like to get back together with the Beatles and "kick down some doors." He also mentions that Paul ruined him as a guitar player and it took people like Eric Clapton to build back up his guitar playing self-esteem.

 

http://www.hariscruffs.com/chronicle3.html

The Harrison fan site above has some interesting info about the '74 Harrison MSG shows. According to the site John volunteered to appear on stage with George. Allegedly George turned him down stating "where were you when I needed you" referring to the Bangladesh Concert. They then made up but a few days later and George asked John appear at one of the MSG shows but John declined because George is furious that John won't sign the agreement to end the Beatles as a legal entity. George later "mellowed out" and John and George were interviewed by KHJ-FM in Los Angeles. Again, this is what is stated on the site I linked to. I have no idea how accurate it is...

 

McCartney has said that while he was able to repair his friendship with Lennon shortly before his death, he sadly doesn't think Harrison had the opportunity to do the same.

 

This is about right. The interview occurred on December 20, 1974 show after George's final show of the 1974 tour in MSG, NYC. Given the embattled nature of the entire tour, he was hoping that John would appear with him on stage to give the final show a boost, but John declined.

The interview was reportedly done in George's hotel room after the show. It is about 24 minutes long as I recall and I can't remember exactly what the topics discussed were. This interview came on a cd as a freebie when purchasing a book by the Beatles author, "Belmo" a/k/a/ Scott Belmer called George Harrison: His Words, Wit and Wisdom. The book provides various quotes from and about George.

I'm sure this interview has also appeared on various boots, but I can't recall any titles at the moment. If I have a chance, I will listen to it again tonight and give you the highlights.

Regarding Paul's comments about George not having had the opportunity to reconcile with John before his death, this is one of Paul's canned stories that you will hear over and over from him if you collect Beatles interviews. It is right up there with his story of how he came up with the idea for Yesterday by dreaming it and how John told him not to remove the line, "the movement you need is on your shoulder" from Hey Jude as it was the best line in the song.

 

It makes me sad to read all the fights between them, specially what George says about Paul, but if it´s the true there´s nothing I can do.

 

What great quotes. Do you have a link to the whole interview? I'd love to read/hear it.

 

Actually, that was the only part posted. Here is a link to the cached page on google:

http://216.239.41.104/search?q=cach...om/b20_1987.htm+george+harrison+niggled&hl=en

I have the interview on a VHS somewhere at home. I'll see if I can dig it out. I could probably post the audio portion or make you a dub if you'd like. I think it's about a 15 minute piece.

 

Cynthia Lennon's book ("A Twist of Lennon") certainly portrays George as idolizing John during his teen years. She describes him as following John around like a puppy dog, constantly crashing her dates with John as a third wheel.

 

From what I've read John's decision not to appear at The Concert For Bangladesh was one he later regretted. Apparently John & Yoko had a big fight about the whole deal as well.

 

Ooooooh that Yoko! That's it, I'm never listening to my Seasons of Glass lp ever again!!!

 

Okay, well hopefully this will work. I posted an mp3 of the West 57th Harrison segment from 1987.

WARNING: The sound quality is fairly crappy. It's from an old VHS, being played back in my VCR which doesn't like to track old tapes. There is a consistant crackle throughout. If you pretend you're listening to an old 78, you'll be fine.

Anyhow, here's the link for those of you who are interested.

www.howgain.com/music/harrison.mp3

 

Thanks for the upload.

 

I was playing a VHS tape yesterday with crackly sound. On one of my VCRs you can play stereo, L, R or Mono. When I selected mono the crackling went away.

 

George Harrison Interview

Idv81,

Thanks for the mp3 sound file. That really brought back some memories. For all of the impact that the Beatles had on my generation, they had their own difficulties to deal with.
I still think of the Beatles as the greatest group ever! Thanks again.

Steve

 

By "canned stories" do you mean bogus stories? I always felt dubious about Paul saying "I made peace with him before he died", although of course I hope it is true.

 

Oh no, I didn't mean to say that Paul's stories were bogus. I am sure they are entirely correct as he remembers them, especially what he says about John's death. I only meant to say that Paul has been interviewed so many times over the course of his career and has been asked the same questions literally hundreds of times. As a result, he has developed "standard answers" for many questions and you will hear him tell the story the same way every time. I collect Beatles/solo Beatles interviews and have heard enough interviews of Paul over the course of his career to verify this for myself. That is why it is more pleasing to me (and others I've dealt with) to hear interviews from John or George as they tend to say what is really on their mind more often.

The "standard answers" line that he gives goes along with the fact that a lot of what Paul does is heavily scripted. His live shows (while fabulous IMO) are basically laid out in the same manner every night, even including the flubs during You Never Give Me Your Money on the Driving U.S./Back in the U.S. tour that appeared to be spontaneous to most of the people in attendance who hadn't heard recordings of other shows.

I am not slamming Paul when I say this BTW. It is just an observation, and I am a huge fan. Whatever scripting he does in his live shows is not going to prevent me from trying to obtain recordings of every show he did of his Summer 2004 tour in Europe.

 

At this point, I honestly don't believe Paul CAN give a good interview anymore. I think he's always kept himself closed off while in public and never grew out of the "cute Beatle" mode. Even when he discusses personal subjects like Linda and seems to tell us revealing facts, he always remains glib and distanced - he tries to put forth a sense of frankness but it doesn't work.

I also don't come at this as a Paul-basher. I liked his music before I became a Beatle fan and he is - and always will be - my fave of the Fabs. I hate the diminishment of his legacy over the years, as John's mistakenly come to be seen as the one true genius of the band. Paul's much more of a musical genius than John - he's radically more talented instrumentally and also has more of a flair for melodies and that side of things.

I'd dearly love to hear Paul really tell it like it is someday, but like I said, I don't think he CAN do that - I believe he's been Beatle Paul for so long that there's nothing else left, at least in public...

I saw that show 11 times, and for the 11th, I went with a friend who'd not seen Paul at all. Throughout the entire night, I told him what Paul would say before he said it. I think my friend's still mad at me!

 

Right. Same way he always plays Twenty Flight Rock in interviews. I've noticed Keith Richards tells the same stories too.

 

A lot of acts have "scripted" in concert banter. The casual concert goer sees this as "connecting" with the audience, while the "following fan", who may go from stop to stop, hears the same stories over and over.

Sometimes these stories allow stage people to do things behind the scenes.