George Harrison And The Love He Left Behind

“With his long hair, pointy shoes, pink shirt and yellow waistcoat, George made a habit of tagging along with John and Cynthia wherever they went.”

"It was on such days as these that John and I would leave the college portals hand in hand for an afternoon at the cinema or a bus ride to see Aunt Mimi in Woolton, just happy being in each other's company for a while. It wouldn't be for long, though. Wandering along lost to the world we would be brought down to earth with a bump by a piercing whistle or yell from behind us that could only mean one thing-

George.

-

'Hi John, Hi Cyn.' He would hurriedly catch up to us and then it would be, 'Where are you two off to? Can I come?' Neither of us would have the heart to tell this thin gangly kid in school uniform to push off. Poor George! He hadn't really got to the stage of serious girlfriends yet and was totally unaware of what it was all about, Alfie! So we would spend the lost afternoon as a jolly threesome, wondering what on earth we were going to do with ourselves."

- A Twist of Lennon by Cynthia Lennon (via thateventuality)

edited some of William's facial expressions for. reasons.

Get Back Rewatch 55 Years On: Day 17

George is so sweet to put so much effort into helping Ringo write his song and to not ask for any kind of writing credit. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you, right? But also, I’d do that for Ringo too if I were him. Ringo deserves it for everything he’s given to that band and the little credit he’s received. 

“What am I playing, Richie?” “You’ll be on drooms.” If the Beatles know how to do one thing, it’s be cute. 

John, stop talking about Paul’s strong arms, you're embarrassing yourself. 

I do have to just include this here. From my Get Back book. I never heard, “was it sexually oriented?” on the nagra reels, but apparently that’s what Peter Jackson’s cleaned-up version gave him, and again, he was like, “hmm. Too gay.” 

He’s known Heather for how long? Less than a year, right? But if somebody had showed me just this footage and told me he’d raised her from a newborn, I would not blink an eye. That kind of tired but fond interaction is exactly how a dad plays with his kid. And she’s climbing all over him and bossing him around like he’s never not been in her life. It’s beautiful. 

And John, with his “are you going to eat them?” is the perfect sort of bad-example favorite uncle. The kind that would check her out of school when she’s older and go get her ears pierced when her dad had said she was too young. 

Sorry, I promise I’m not just going to be thirsting over dad Paul this whole time. I have to just make one thing clear, and this is the only thing I’ll say on the subject and then I’m done. If a man is a 3 and a good dad, he’s a 10. Paul was already an 11, so I’m literally just done-for. Okay, I’ll shut up. 

John and Paul doing their usual thing, only paying attention to each other. Talking about an Elvis gospel ending for Let it Be. George, smirking, stands up: and we’ll all kneel as you do it. If John had said it, Paul would be in stitches. But George said it, and he might as well have never opened his mouth for all the notice he gets. And it’s honestly heartbreaking, if you can take your eyes off of the insanity of John and Paul’s weird eye-contact, to watch George’s face go from excited at his own wit and hopeful for a laugh to just completely downcast. Twelve years of that. Twelve years. 

Ringo, you’re an absolute saint. He’s being so sweet to Heather, even letting her mess with his symbols, and then Paul has the audacity to tell him to “keep it lighter.” Like. Paul. Do you think that maybe the fact that he’s got a five-year-old over there “helping” him might have anything to do with how the drums are coming out? Just a thought. Anyone else would at least have something to say about it. Ringo just sort of nods along but he looks SO tired.

TFW you’re inspiring the next generation of women to be loud and free and take up space.

“Dig it” is actually insane to me. I know I’m crazy, but remember those twin dreams they had about buried treasure when they first met? “If you want it, you can dig it up.” ???

When George and Paul just jump into harmonizing together when they’re talking about The Long and Winding Road arrangement? Their voices are like magic together. I wish they would’ve had George sing that part in the final thing, actually.  

A style selection, 1956-1969.

A continuation of sorts from this post.

“[George’s] idea, which he ordered [in Liverpool in the 1950s], was a four-button jacket with cloth-covered buttons. Two breast pockets which were slitted (jetted) and in the shape of a bird in flight, the two side pockets corresponded. The cuffs had to be folded back with a cloth-covered button. His trousers had no pleats in the front, not normal in those days, and he was by far the very first person to have two slits at the bottom side seam of the trouser and he wanted them folded back with cloth covered buttons to match the cuffs on his jacket. The workshop queried the order when they received thinking we had gone bonkers. George got his suit and was pleased with the outcome. Later lots of guys were walking about town with cut back cuffs and side seams on their trousers, but George was the first.” - Rollo Torpey, The Beatles and Me (2015)

“At Iris’s 14th birthday party, I remember George turned up in a brand-new, Italian-style stuff with covered buttons. He looked very grown-up.” - Violet Caldwell (mother of Iris, and Alan, a.k.a. Rory Storm), The Beatles Monthly September 1965

“[George’s mother Louise] took an unusually benign view of George’s luminous pink shirts, yellow waistcoat, and drainpipe trousers.” - Pete Shotton, The Beatles, Lennon, And Me (1984)

“Going in for flash clothes, or at least trying to be a bit different, as I hadn’t any money, was part of the rebelling. I never cared for authority. They can’t teach you experience; you’ve got to go through it, by trial and error.” - George Harrison, The Beatles: The Authorized Biography (1968)

“At the Institute, George was known from the beginning as a way-out dresser. Michael McCartney, Paul’s brother, was a year below him. He remembers George always having long hair — years before anybody else did. […] ‘George used to go to school with his school cap sitting high on top of his hair,‘ says Mrs. Harrison. ‘And very tight trousers. Unknown to me, he’d run them up on my machine to make them even tighter. I bought him a brand-new pair once and the first thing he did was tighten them. When his dad found out, he told him to unpick them at once. “I can’t, Dad,” he said. “I’ve cut the pieces off.”’” - The Beatles: The Authorized Biography (1968)

“I’d started to develop my own version of the school uniform. I had some cast-offs from my brother. One was a dog-toothed check-patterned sports coat, which I’d dyed black to use as my school blazer. The color hadn’t quite taken, so it still had a slight check design to it. I had a shirt I’d bought in Lime Street, that I thought was so cool. It was white with pleats down the front. and it had embroidery along the corners of the pleats. I had a waistcoat that John had given me, which he’d got from his ‘uncle’ Dykins (his mother’s boyfriend), Mr. Twitchy Dykins. It was like an evening-suit waistcoat — black, double-breasted, with lapels. The trousers John also gave me, soon after we first met — powder-blue drainpipes with turn-ups. I dyed them black as well. And I had black suede shoes from my brother. […] That outfit of mine was very risky, and it felt like all day, every day, for the last couple of years I was going to get busted. In those days we used Vaseline on our hair to get the rock n’ roll greased-back hairstyle. Also, you were supposed to wear a cap and a tie, and a badge on your blazer. I didn’t have my badge stitched on, I had it loose. It was held in place by a pen clipped over it in my top pocket, so I could remove it easily, and the tie.” - George Harrison, The Beatles Anthology (2000)

“He was always a pretty snappy dresser, and he did always like that waistcoat look. And he used to wear a V-neck Fair Isle jumper. Sometimes he’d be a little too outrageous, like purple trousers with bright green, but it was fine. Everything seemed to be fine then.” - Pattie Boyd, interview for the British Beatles Fan Club

“The boys are wearing all sorts of fantastic clothes for their film and introduce a very new, unusual gimmick. If they’re wearing corduroy, for example, then they have corduroy boots to match. If they’re seen in velveteen suits, then they’re coupled with velveteen boots. George first thought of the idea two years ago, but when he put the idea to a local bootmaker, he told him it couldn’t be done. Well, that’s one cobbler that’s been proved wrong.” - The Beatles Monthly, June 1965 (x)

The Beatles interviewed for East at Six Ten, ahead of their concert at the Regal Cinema in Cambridge, 26th November 1963

Drawings by Paul McCartney of John Lennon and George Harrison | 1967

You can immediately spot John Lennon’s sideburns and glasses, as well as George Harrison’s distinctive hair and eyebrows. The artist of the exquisite pen sketch? Their bandmate Paul McCartney.

It was 55 years ago today (or thereabouts) when the Beatle was asked by the journalist Hunter Davies how Lennon and Harrison had looked when they played in their previous incarnation, the Quarrymen. Rather than answer the question, McCartney grabbed a notebook and drew them.

Beatles’ biographer donates his magical mystery hoard The Sunday Times | 25 September 2022

finally some good fucking journalism

George by Klaus

Clip from The Today Show, 1986; interview conducted by Rona Elliot.

Rona Elliot: “How have you managed not to be stuck in time, to just keep your life going?” George Harrison: “I don’t know… there’s no other thing to do except, as the man said, The only thing I knew how to do was to keep on keeping on like a bird that flew. Anyway, you just keep going and past, you know, the past is gone — that’s another thing this guy that built my house [Friar Park] said: 'Past is gone, thou canst not that recall, future is not, may not be at all. Present is, improve the flying hour, present only is within thy power.' So I mean, that’s all there is to it, there isn’t anything — nothing exists except now. You know, the past is gone and the future doesn’t exist until you get to it and it’s the now. So you just have to be here now, and do your best.” -The Today Show, 1986 “‘One of [George’s] favorite things to say was, “Be here now,”’ [Olivia] says. His song by that title, from his 1973 album ‘Living in the Material World,’ remains one of her favorites, and it’s one she plays any time she feels in need of a booster shot of moral support. ‘Sometimes he and Dhani would be talking and Dhani would ask, “Well what if this happens?” or “What if that happens?”’ she says. ‘George would say, “Be here now. Be here now.”’” - The Los Angeles Times, March 9, 2005 “‘Be here now because it’s not like it was before.’ Occasionally it’s nice to have somebody tell you that. He offered advice about living. He didn’t preach, he would just say, Oh don’t let that get to you. Be here now, the past is gone. I listen to that on purpose so I can remind myself.” - Olivia Harrison, The Times, September 24, 2014

Stella shocked us across the generation gap when she pointed to our blue Beatles' 10th Anniversary t-shirt, "That's Ringo!" she exclaimed, pointing both to the likeness of Mr Starkey and the man joking with her father a few feet away. "And that's daddy, but who's that?" she asked, pointing to the picture of John Lennon

Paul Gambaccini, 1975