John Lennon - George Harrison relationship in the 70's

It's amazing how young they were . When they first started playing together Paul was still messing around with a trumpet as his main instrument.

George had quite the rocking hairdo even at a young age, huh ? Young scruff.

 

Palm facing forward equals peace sign. The back of the hand facing forward equals f*** you.

 

Jack Douglas said at least once fairly recently. He said John and Paul were on board to back Ringo as the Beatles, that Harrison wasn't on board
yet but would come around. Douglas said that they were going to get together behind Ringo because that was a way, they could do it with less pressure.
That then maybe they could ease into something else some additional recording. Douglas states this as a factual plan.

Fred Seaman, or one of those plethora of books, the tarot card reader, the personal assistant, the man who cleaned the window, I forget which books, but it says that there was one or two songs cowritten by John and Paul at the Dakota, that they were going to do it again, but Yoko blocked McCartney when he came round to the building again.

We have all seen the pictures of John and Paul at the rented Malibu house in 74. Ringo was there too. George was in LA round that same time. But I don't have specific dates on Harrison being in LA offhand.

 

Interesting - I didn't know that! I stand corrected!

 

The Peace sign in America, is the V for victory sign in Britain is it not? Winston Churchill ?

How does the V for victory differ from the Brit F sign ? Or is there any difference? is intent or
context the only difference

The photo of Paul and Linda in bad wigs is a great thing! Like others I don't find it more than a curiosty if the Beatles sat in a room together in some meeting unrecorded by history. I think the most likely place to find a recording post break up, would be a Threetles recording in the Harrison or McCartney archives 1994-00. I wonder if the other Threetles Lennon, Harrison, Starr, Voorman, Preston AKA the Ladders, I wonder if they busked through another song when Harrison arrived. The one quote is something along the lines of "Ringo says, John George is on the phone should he come down ?" Lennon replies, heck yes tell him to get down here and help me finish this bridge. This is all regarding the I'm the Greatest session in LA in 1973. If I were a betting man I would say there is perhaps a 30% chance some configuration of Threetles or Beatles may have recorded a song or two circa 1973-74. I was told way back in the day circa 1978 from an Engineer in Burbank that a tape existed of the Beatles recording fifties tunes. Later the Toot and a snore surfaced. The description I heard was of something that sounded good. The Lennon rock n roll album had been released already. So it wasn't confusion over that. Who knows maybe Toot and a snore is only part of what occured. Maybe there was a second day with Ringo John and Paul. It's possible. Toot and a snore sounds so bad, it's almost like a plant.

 

The rude one is the other way round (back of hand forwards), normally accompanied by repeated upward motion "flicking Vs"

 

It always seemed like Paul and George were mates but once Paul joined the Quarrymen and got in with John, the older guy who was band leader, he dropped George a bit, or at least relegated him. I suppose he still brought him into the group as a friend and ally.

Perhaps George got nearer to John as the decade progressed but it does seem like John (and Paul) always thought of him as the guitar player (which others have suggested many times). It would be hard to get away from that attitude after holding it for years. If anything George's treatment by John and Paul became worse as he developed his talents. Even when he wrote better stuff, he was short-changed. He often seemed quite bitter in interviews later on so I doubt his memories of this were ever far from his mind when dealing with his former bandmates.

 

Many people seem to reflect that George Harrison was the most decent fellow in the band. As a person.
I wouldn't know. But I read that type of opinion often from various musicians and people who knew him.

 

I was lucky to meet several people who knew them from the Hamburg days including Voormann and Kirchherr. And they all speak about George with the biggest affection. Cause he was the one staying in touch all through the years and even supported his Hamburg friends. He helped Kirchherr to secure the copyright to her Hamburg photographs, which she used to give away for free in the early days. And when you hear stories like that first hand, you get a very different picture about the band.

 

Another cool story I read about George in an old mag: when he knew his housemaid's mother was diagnosed with cancer, he told her to seek for the best medical assistance. He would pay every bill.

 

I've no idea if he was decent or not and I'm not suggesting he wasn't but he seemed quite bitter about a lot of The Beatles stuff. Paul and John (after 1970 anyway) always seemed proud. I believe George (quite fairly) retained a sense of frustration and annoyance about his treatment in The Beatles which tempered his dealings with his colleagues later in life, at least in regards to business and music.

 

Paul always seemed proud and remains so to this day... as does Ringo. John had an on/off switch when it came to the Beatles. He actively solicited fans for bootlegs and loved telling stories of their days in Hamburg, but he also said he wished he could re-record their songs. In that 1980 Playboy interview he dismissed much of the Lennon/McCartney catalog, even though he clearly loved some of the tunes. He tossed off George Martin as if he was just another studio guy (the attacks caused a deep rift between the two that was still going on at the time of his death). George remained frustrated, I think, because even after he attained mega success as a solo artist (and from 1970-1973, he was, by far, the most successful member of the group) John and Paul gave him very little credit. Think about it. George having had TREMENDOUS success with All Things Must Pass was brought in as a session guitarist on Imagine. Nothing wrong with that, but there was no collaboration effort at all... just "play a solo here George." They never worked again after that. Coincidence? I can't recall Paul ever commenting positively about George's early solo success either. I'm sure THAT hurt George and brought back lingering memories of always being the third Beatle. This was different than 1969 when both John and Paul praised George's songwriting prowess. John even saying that Something and Here Comes The Sun were the two best songs on Abbey Road. It's a shame jealousy got in the way over time. Ron

 

My understanding is that it comes from the days of British Longbowmen. During the 100 years war, if the French caught an English archer, they would cut those two fingers off so they couldn't shoot the bow. The British as a sign of defiance would "show you the bowfingers".

I assume somehow one finger got dropped from this practice in America.

 

That's exactly what the historians say.

 

I think from 70-73 Harrison and Lennon were more respected for their solo output than McCartney. Until the very end of 73 when Band on the run came out and changed the perception among critics and some fans. I think Lennon and McCartney were probably both jealous and embarrassed, here is this guy who they both sort of disrespected has this monster monster album (ATMP) Huge hit singles, and then goes multi platinum again with Bangladesh (Arguably the first ever mega rock charity event) and then the platinum Living in the material World and the number one single Give Me Love. Harrison had two number one singles I don't think Lennon had any ? Also Harrison cowrote the massive #1 smashes for Ringo It Don't Come Easy and Photograph, giving humble George 4 number ones!. It made George Martin, Lennon and McCartney appear self serving for disrespecting Harrison all that time. By acting as if he didin't have the chops as a songwriter.

I recall McCartney saying Something and Here Comes the Sun were the best songs on Abbey Road, did Lennon say that also ?

Harrison showed restraint and class. When Give Me Love soared to number one, Harrison didin't even bother to issue a second single. He could have certainly. Don't Let Me Wait Too Long is widely considered by fans to be a song that could have been a hit. Harrison wasn't just trying to grab hits. He was satisfied with just the one number one single off the album. Not as greedy for attention as the other two? George Martin has expressed regret that he didin't encourage Harrison more, that he in hindsight made a mistake. I don't know if either Lennon or McCartney have said that about Harrison, tipping their hat and
offering Praise to him for his ability as a songwriter.

 

It's considered greedy to release more than one single from an album?

And John had a #1 with "Whatever Gets You Thru The Night"

 

Michael Jackson must have been exceptionally greedy then.

 

I think he meant between 1970-1973. Ron

 

Though sardonically dedicated to Herb Alpert, there is something Lennonesque in the vocal (extended vowel in the words flow, grow and know) in "Learning How To Love You" that makes me think that George was thinking of John when he wrote the song. I might be completely wrong to think that, but you never know!

 

A minor point, but there was no such thing as "platinum" (in terms of record sales) at that point in time...

 

Actually It Don't Come Easy, peaked at #4 in the UK & USA, not #1 as listed above.

 

It was number one in Canada, and possibly other countries, as well as being a cut on the number one album Bangladesh. Close enough.

I actually just meant for that one album. He had a huge hit with Something, then three big hits off of ATMP, and then another smash album
with Bangladesh and a top 20 with the single of Bangladesh, and then his second solo #1 after My Sweet Lord, with Give me love. So with five
solo hits under his belt, three smash albums and two smash hits for Ringo, I assume he felt he didin't need to get another second hit single off
of Material World.

That was in 74. In 73 Lennon may have been smarting that My Sweet Lord and Give Me Love did better than any of his singles. Also I haven't
checked this but Harrison's first three solo albums may have all done better than Plastic Ono Band, Live Peace Toronto, Imagine and Sometime
In New York City. Imagine may have outsold some of those, but generally Harrison was more succesful than Lennon those first years. Probably
more than McCartney also until Band On The Run. Although McCartney had some big hits, Uncle Albert and My Love and Live and Let Die all
went number one. Harrison had another number one with Got My Mind Set On You and I think All Those Years ago hit either number 1 or 2.
Pretty good for a guy who was considered second class as a songwriter. By his bandmates.

 

To be fair, Rudy Clark wrote "Got My Mind Set On You."

 

Well John had number #1s in other countries too if you're comparing that way including Canada.

 

That's true.

That's true also.

My point was that Harrison had bigger hit singles and albums than Lennon in the first years after the breakup and more succesful albums than
McCartney, and Lennon, McCartney and George Martin had all sort of disrespected Harrison as if his songwriting wasn't up to par with Len/Mac

Harrison had three huge, huge albums in a row as well as two monster number one singles My Sweet Lord and Give Me Love. He also had several
other top ten and top twenty singles during the period. In addition to the huge hits Ringo had of which Harrison wrote or cowrote at least two, and
produced one. By the time Harrison had his second solo number one, plus Something a number one on the final Beatles album, as well as cowriting
Photograph, I think Harrison had proved he was pretty much on anybodys level, in terms of writing hit songs. With that backround, Lennon a
basically insecure guy may well have been jealous, and expressed that by sometimes appearing to demean Harrison even into the seventies.