When They Were Boys (21 page)

And Bill and Virginia Harry were the chroniclers, not just for the Beatles, especially in those lonely early days when the tight path between success and failure lived for a while in the basement of the Jacaranda.

CHAPTER SIX

HE WAS JUST SEVENTEEN

“He was a bit younger than the rest of us. But he was a great guy—would just do anything for you.”

—Colin Hanton

“George was so sweet. My family, especially my mother, loved him.”

—Pauline Sutcliffe, sister of Stuart Sutcliffe

“You have no idea what George would give to just be able to walk down

the road to a pub and have a drink.”

—Louise Harrison, sister of George Harrison

George was on a journey in 1960. And it ended in failure. Did he know when he joined the rickety band that he would literally be ejected from a country? Did he realize that before the age of eighteen he would be treated like a criminal, become dejected beyond despair, and consider quitting the band?

Like his future bandmate Richie Starkey, George Harrison was not a great student. Also like Richie, George came from a loving family, and despite the warm radiance of father Harry and mother Louise, George seized on a bit of deception to make his way through school—at one point asking the parent of a friend to sign a grim report card so his affectionate parents would not discover his educational deficiencies. Despite this problem, the future guitarist and songwriter scored well on standardized tests and made it into the prestigious Liverpool Institute, adjacent to the Art Institute famously attended by John Lennon and his pack, including John's closest man friend, Stuart Sutcliffe. At the Liverpool Institute, and on many bus rides, his relationship with a fellow student and future bandmate flourished.

Getting into the Liverpool Institute brought him in continuous contact with James Paul McCartney. In the long run, this would be a good thing, for
it was Paul who pushed hard in 1957 to get George into John's band.

At first, John seemed to resist taking such a “young guy” into his band, but Lennon “got over it,” as he said to me in 1964, seven years after first meeting George.

“He had a real kind of wild style on the guitar. It's as though . . . you know, that he and the guitar were joined together. He also looked like a Teddy Boy, but as you know, Larry, he was hardly that.”

Hardly. Sensitivity to others was George's great talent as a human being. On the aircraft and in the hotel suites, it was George who was always asking, “Everything all right, Larry?”

I remember George's “Scouse” accent. When I first interviewed him, his accent was much thicker, and stronger. George was supposed to be the quiet Beatle, but that's not quite accurate. He just didn't talk unless he had something to say, as I remember. Some suspect that he was difficult to communicate with. But was this true?

Colin Hanton says, “Oh, I had no problems. He was a bit younger than the rest of us. But he was a great guy—would just do anything for you. They [the Beatles] all were, and I didn't have problems with any of them.”

Julia Baird, John's sister, loved George's presence and his attitude.

“Larry, you had to love George. He was such a lovely person, so family-oriented. When we first met him, he seemed to be a boy reaching out to find what life was all about. My mother admired him. I think Mimi did, too, although I can't say for sure. I know John really loved him and his uncomplicated way.”

George was warmly welcomed by Millie Sutcliffe, Stuart's mother. Pauline Sutcliffe, Stuart's sister, recalls, “He had a quiet kinship with Stu, and our mother felt he was the most courteous of the boys. Of course, Stuart was always protecting his sisters from the ‘menace' of John and Paul. George in many ways was more centered than all of them. Much like Stu, he had an inner spirituality.”

During a BBC interview, Astrid Kirchherr recalled how sweet he was to her after her boyfriend Stuart's death, and described a special moment in her studio:

W
ELL, FIRST OF ALL
, I
TOOK ONE PICTURE AFTER
S
TUART
'
S DEATH OF
G
EORGE AND
J
OHN IN THE ATTIC
[
WHERE
] S
TUART USED TO PAINT
.
A
ND . . . IF YOU COULD SEE THE PICTURE
, J
OHN LOOKED SO VERY LOST AND LONELY AND SAD
. A
ND
G
EORGE IS STANDING BEHIND HIM
. H
E WAS ONLY EIGHTEEN YEARS OLD, AND HE LOOKED SO WISE
. A
ND, TO ME, HE HAD AN EXPRESSION ON HIS FACE JUST SAYING
, “I
WILL LOOK AFTER YOU
, J
OHN
.” Y
OU KNOW, SO THAT IS ONE OF MY FAVORITE PICTURES OF THE TWO OF THEM
. A
ND
I
TOOK SOME MORE PORTRAITS OF
J
OHN AND
G
EORGE THEN, AND THEY LOOKED SO GROWN UP ALL OF A SUDDEN, ESPECIALLY
J
OHN, YOU KNOW
. B
UT YOU COULD SEE HIS SADNESS, BECAUSE HE HAD GONE THROUGH SO MUCH PAIN AND LOSSES IN HIS LITTLE LIFE, THEN
.

Several early cues suggest George's leadership qualities but have gone unnoticed by most writers. After Stuart's sad death in Hamburg, it was George who worried most about the impact on John's emotional well-being. When John and George made that visit to the apartment that Stuart shared with Astrid, the young photographer remembers, George displayed a sense of almost brotherly love.

“He had so much respect for John. And he always treated me with so much sweetness. I think he understood real love, deep love, more than the others. Professionally, I always remember how serious he was . . . how determined he was to make sure that I received the creative credit I deserved. George was a sweet man, who, despite reflections on him by others, was really the least complicated of the Beatles . . . at least to me.”

John paid him back. What an irony that John, in his very devilish and confused years of 1970 through 1975, offered constant attention to George as the younger ex-Beatle launched both his solo music career and his long journey searching for the meaning of life.

There is also evidence of the well-meaning but sometimes indifferent attitude that Paul, and even John, had toward the sublimated creative side of George.

In the acclaimed 2011 documentary by Martin Scorsese called
Living in a Material World
, there is an older film interview with Paul McCartney. The discussion is about the art of songwriting. And Paul says, quite calmly, “Even our guitarist, George Harrison” is writing songs now. In his using the term “our guitarist” the question remains: Is that the way Paul viewed George, as “our guitarist”? Because in the musical makeup and legacy of the Beatles, George is much more than merely the guitarist. In recent years, and especially during live
concerts from 2010 on, Paul definitely cherishes George's memory and contributions, with a poignant and quite emotional tribute to his friend from Liverpool. Paul's rendition of George's sensitively written and performed masterpiece “Something” is enough to bring you to tears.

On the Beatles' tours, George was the most uncomplicated of the four, enjoying the ride and providing an extraordinary sense of humor in times of turmoil, like during the emergency landing of the chartered Electra airplane in Portland, Oregon, during the 1965 North American tour. While John and Paul were sweating nervously, George yelled out to me, “Remember, Larry, if anything happens, it's Beatles and children first!”

As a reporter who spent so much time with the boys in those early years of success, I was deeply impressed by George's willingness to express his feelings, many times with the sense of humor he expressed in that “special landing” in Portland. His composure during that event is even more compelling when you consider that airplanes were George's least favorite form of transportation. On another occasion, in August 1964, astrologer Jeanne Dixon had forecast that our airplane would crash on the flight from Philadelphia to Indianapolis. In the dressing room at Philadelphia's Convention Hall, George told me how upset he was at the prediction.

“Will you go on the plane tonight?” I asked.

“No, I'm going to ride a bicycle,” he declared, laughing.

Just for the record, the flight, white knuckles emerging as people grasped their seats, was uneventful and ended with a safe touchdown and loud applause, led by George.

Fears aside, George was an excellent traveler, and was even more amazing to watch on stage. He developed an onstage habit that began at the Casbah and the Cavern, and continued on from there, that was always fascinating to watch. He would gently nod his head downward, as though listening to his guitar, although, frankly, at most locations, with the roar of the crowd and the high-pitched screaming, I couldn't imagine that he could really hear anything.

Quite the contrary. During a noisy flight on the Electra that carried us across North America, I quizzed him about the noise level in the arenas. Could he hear the music?

“I can hear everything,” he said. “I know when it's right, and I know when it is not good.”

Promoter Sam Leach recently offered me his early take on George from 1961.

“Very quiet—not an introvert like Pete, but very quiet and shy. He had more of a boyish immaturity. He said only what he had to say—he was not a talker, but when he did say something it was usually funny. He had a dry sense of humor and a quick wit.”

Leach lamented George's early career, and the circumstances that laid a professional straightjacket around his abilities:

W
HEN
G
EORGE DIED
, I
WAS IN
C
HICAGO DOING A SHOW WITH A LOT OF BIG ARTISTS
—S
PENCER
D
AVIS AND ABOUT TWENTY OTHER REALLY BIG STARS
. G
EORGE HAD DIED THE DAY BEFORE. I DID AN INTERVIEW WITH THE PRESS AND IT WENT WORLDWIDE
. I
TOLD THEM THEN THAT
G
EORGE WAS NOT USED PROPERLY WITH THE
B
EATLES
. H
IS TALENT WAS OVERLOOKED
. N
OT DELIBERATELY, THOUGH
. P
AUL AND
J
OHN WERE SO POWERFUL THAT
G
EORGE GOT SHOVED INTO THE BACKGROUND BECAUSE HE WAS QUIET
, I
THINK
. I
AM A LITTLE DISAPPOINTED WITH
P
AUL
M
C
C
ARTNEY
'
S OUTPUT IN RECENT YEARS; IT
'
S ALL THE SAME
. I
THINK
G
EORGE
'
S ALBUM
B
RAINWASHED
WAS THE BEST SINGLE SOLO ALBUM FOR TWENTY YEARS
. H
E WAS OVERLOOKED AND SO UNDERRATED
.

That sentiment is echoed by author and world-class Beatles researcher Ron Ellis, who was also a witness to the very early concerts, and a regular supplier to the boys of American records:

M
C
C
ARTNEY, EVEN AT THAT YOUNG AGE, FELT LIKE HE WAS THE BUSINESSMAN
. I
THINK HE WAS THINKING LIKE
, “‘W
E
'
VE GOT A GOOD THING GOING HERE
, I
WANT TO BE IN CHARGE OF THIS
. . . .”

G
EORGE
'
S AMBITIONS WERE
, I
THINK, HELD IN CHECK FROM A SONG-WRITING STANDPOINT
. I
WOULD SAY
G
EORGE WAS AS GOOD AS
M
C
C
ARTNEY AND
L
ENNON, YET . . . HE WASN
'
T ALLOWED TO DO IT
. . . . L
ENNON AND
M
C
C
ARTNEY WERE CONTROLLING WHAT WAS SAID
. “W
E
'
LL GIVE GEORGE A SONG, WE
'
LL GIVE
R
INGO A SONG
.” I
THINK THEY PUT
G
EORGE IN THE CATEGORY OF
R
INGO—THEY WERE THE TWO PEOPLE WHO COMPLETED THE MAKEUP OF THE GROUP, BUT NOT RUNNING IT
.

From the beginning, and consistently, George Harrison was a wonderful friend who believed in performing little kindnesses. It's a quality he seems to have gotten from his upbringing. Beginning in 1963, his parents felt obliged to answer thousands of fan letters, which brought them a lot of joy but also caused them to lose many hours of sleep.

The guitar man himself liked Sundays, especially the times when he would drive his new Ford Anglia, the first car he purchased, over to Tony Bramwell's house.

“He would drive up,” Bramwell remembers, “and ask my mum and I to take a ride. We had such fun, and George loved making other people smile. He would drive up and say, ‘Hi, Mrs. Bramwell, want to go for a ride?'”

Family was always on George's mind. After the initial success of “Love Me Do,” and when money started to arrive in larger quantities, the Harrisons moved into a nicer home in Hunts Cross, not far from the Bramwells.

The house was soon overrun by fans who offered to wash the dishes, iron the shirts, and perform other chores and activities. As Bramwell remembers it, these fans became part of the Harrison family.