George and John in Hamburg, 1962. Photo by Astrid KIrchherr.
“December 9, 1980. The police and media have gathered in a tense vigil outside Friar Park. […] A car approaches and is ushered through the gates. Inside is Dave Mattacks, ex-Fairport Convention drummer, who’s been booked for a George Harrison recording session. Most Harrison biographies state that he cancles this session, to grieve for Lennon in private. But that is not true. George wants musicians around him today; the session goes ahead. Mattacks, uncertain what to expect, is struck by the fatalistic atmosphere inside the house and studio. George is pensive, saddened, like a man who’s had his worst suspicions confirmed. ‘It wasn’t doom and despondency, it was more like… very sad resignation,’ Mattacks reflects now. ‘We got to the end of the day, and we were talking about John, and I’ll never forget George’s phrase: “All I ever wanted to do was play guitar in a band. And this is the result…”’ - Uncut (August 2008) “[At Friar Park, George] wrapped his arm about my shoulder, and we walked silently into the kitchen for a cup of tea. ‘I just felt I had to communicate with someone who’d understand,’ I finally said. ‘Yeah, Pete,’ he said. ‘I know what you mean.’ We exchanged a few quiet words; then George briefly left the table to take a transatlantic call from Ringo. An hour or so later, musicians started to arrive for the recording session that George had already scheduled for that afternoon. I looked across the table at him. ‘Are you going ahead with the session, then?’ I said. ‘Well,’ said George. ‘There’s really nothing else we can do, is there? We’ve just got to carry on.’” - Pete Shotton, The Beatles, Lennon, And Me (1984) Q: “George, how did you hear?” George Harrison: “I was in bed at the time, in England, and I don’t know, the call came through sometime in the morning, four or five in the morning. I didn’t take the call, Olivia took the call, and she said, ‘John’s been shot.’ And I thought, ‘Oh, how bad is it?’ You know, I just thought maybe a flesh wound or something like that. […] I believe what it says in the scriptures, in the Bhagavad Gita it says, ‘There was never a time when you didn’t exist and there’ll never be a time when you cease to exist.’ The only thing that changes is our bodily condition. The soul comes in the body and we go from birth to death, and it’s... death how I look at it is like taking your suit off. You know, the soul is in these three bodies and one body falls off. And I feel like that. I can feel him around here.” - Aspel & Company (1988) “[Al Kooper recalled] ‘I told Ray, I think we should go to the studio today and maybe take [George] away from that. Just before you pick me up, go to a liquor store and buy a few bottles of wine. And that’s what we did.’ When they reached their destination [Friar Park] ‘there was a coterie of reporters standing at his gate. They said, “Who are you?” I said, I’m just here to fix the telly. George was white as a ghost.’ 'We were actually in the middle of recording a song George had written for John,’ remembers [Ray] Cooper. 'George hadn’t finished his vocal and we decided maybe that was one of the best things we could do. It was as cathartic as music can be. You play your heart out or sob your soul out. It was an awful, awful day. The Atlantic and other things separated them, but they were beginning to talk and George was looking forward to seeing John again.’“ - MOJO (November 2011)
