Harrison is unlikely to veer towards today's fashion and music when seeking to add names to his roster. Unlike his contemporaries, who felt they had to make the scene with statements about the state of pop in the embryonic '60s, George was merely a staunch Tamela Motown supporter who later went Indian, and that was just about that.
"I'm still basically in favor of the thing I liked in the old days, Smokey Robinson, Stevie Wonder, those sorts of things. No, I've never even been interested in Black Sabbath. Heavy metal? Oh, that's what they call it? Oh no.
In some ways, I feel I'm out of touch, particularly with what's going on in America. There's still a chance of picking up something fresh and interesting, possibly because the industry is much bigger, making it less likely for these groups to form cliques. England does tend to get very clicky as far as I can see. To tell you the truth, I still never heard the Bay City Rollers."
He did add that he would like to hear them, just to form his own opinion. "But I must say, I'm not all that keen on the Slades and the Muds. I think out of the English people I've heard so far, the best one probably is not so commercial, though, is Peter Skellern. He reminds me of Harry Nilsson, full of potential. In fact, I just played one of his new tracks, 'Make Love, Not War'."
-- Interview with Ray Coleman, Melody Maker (1975)
"While we talked, a few flies would buzz around from the garden and Mrs. Harrison went to hit them. She said she couldn’t do that when George was there because he believed that everything had a right to live – no matter how small."
-- Susan Maier on meeting George Harrison's mother, Louise Harrison, in 1969. "A Special Day," Harrison Alliance (1979) [x]
Louise Harrison standing in her kitchen in Liverpool. (1964)
Photo from: Rolls Press/Popperfoto
NOTE: I recommend reading this whole story at MeetTheBeatlesForReal because it is lovely!
"[In June 1969] Mrs. Harrison, Sima and I sat on the porch and talked. I told her how upset I was because we had missed seeing George, by just a couple hours a few days earlier (He was off to Sardinia with Pattie). Mrs. Harrison told us that George had called them before he left and said he would be gone two weeks, but if the weather was good, they might stay longer. She told us about the time George walked out of the 'Let it Be' sessions. Pattie was away modeling or visiting her family at the time, so George drove home to them. Mrs. Harrison tried to convince George that the other three were conspiring against him by playing too loud while he sang. She played him various cuts to show him, but George didn’t see it that way.
She talked to us about John and wondered 'what was happening to him!' (Sima didn’t like this since she is a John fanatic!). Mrs. Harrison had even asked George if she should go down to London and talk some sense to John, but George told her it wouldn't do any good.
Another time, she went to visit Paul’s father because he had been ill. When she got there, Paul answered the door and introduced Linda to her. 'I want you to meet my girlfriend.' Mrs. Harrison said she did a double take and wondered where Jane was! The house was full of relatives and Heather (being only 5 at the time) was excited being in a new place and all and didn’t finish her dinner. Linda wouldn’t let her have dessert and sent her off to bed instead. Mrs. Harrison thought that was horrible!
While we talked, a few flies would buzz around from the garden and Mrs. Harrison went to hit them. She said she couldn’t do that when George was there because he believed that everything had a right to live – no matter how small."
-- Susan Maier, "A Special Day," 1979 issue of the Harrison Alliance
“He was looking the other way and so I said, ‘Hey George!’ He turned and saw [the pillow], and put his hand out like he didn’t know what I wanted, for him to autograph it, take it, look at it or what, but he finally took it and I got out of the way. Just as I turned around back toward the car, I heard his gorgeous voice say, ‘Thank you.’ So I said, ‘You’re welcome.’ Barb said he was looking to see who had given it to him as he said it. I couldn’t see his face, but I could see the pillow in his hands and he looked at the front and then back and then front again, and he was still looking at it when the limo pulled away [...] I saw him get out of the car and got there in time to take one pic of him on the stairway, and he looked straight at me and had a funny little look on his face and he was carrying the pillow on the plane himself! He didn’t ditch it or give it to anyone else, so I guess he really liked it.” - Char Bass (1976)
“I remembered I’d brought a small present for him -- one was a drawing I had done of Krishna. George brought out the picture slowly. He studied it and kept saying, ‘That’s really good.’ I was embarrassed as I thought it wasn’t good enough but my mum said I should give him it, but he really seemed to like it. I just hope he really did. The other was a toy spider which was my favorite spider his name was George (of course). ‘Here’s my favorite spider for you.’ George began to laugh. Olivia shrieked, ‘Oh God!’ and George laughed [...] ‘This is a nice one, isn’t it. Look at his eyes!’ laughed George [...] George put the spider on top of the clock on the mantel piece. I was so pleased that he liked the things I brought him. I know they don’t sound like much but the drawing took me hours to do and the spider I’ve had for ages and meant a lot to me. George is the only person I’d give them away to.” - Angela Rennie (1977)
“He picked the first gift off the seat and started to rip the wrapping paper off as I said, ‘This one was made by a friend of mine for you.’ George unfolded it and layed it on the steering wheel so he could see it better. It was a rug with the OM design in red on bright yellow. ‘Oh! That is very nice. And she made it herself?’ ‘No, HE did. He wanted to make you something nice for Christmas, and I promised him that if I saw you I’d give it to you, so there it is.’ ‘Oh, that’s nice! Tell him thank you for me.’ - Leslie Bart (1977)
“I remembered the t-shirt I’d brought along, just in case, so I hurried over and called out to George. He finally turned around, and looked at me. Me: ‘May I give you something?’ George: ‘Oh, Yeah.’ He walked over to me, as I opened the shirt. George held the ends as he checked it out, then said, ‘Oh yeah, that’s nice.’ He let go of it and began to walk away, which totally confused me, so I called out to him again. George turned back around and I said, ‘Will you take it?’ George came back to get it and said, ‘Oh yeah...sure!’ Then he and Olivia walked up the ramp to the garage, on his way, George again opened the shirt, held it up to check it out again!” - Karen Dyson (1978)
"He would always say, no matter what it was, 'Oh, that’s nice.’ Sometimes people would make up an award and send it because they like him and he’d go, 'Oh, that’s nice.’ And he’d kind of put it on the table and it would just be there. Probably people don’t realize that he did appreciate it whether it was the biggest award in the world or the smallest little award or a flower left in the gate…He might have some hokey little thing beside an Oscar on the shelf and it was all the same to him." - Olivia Harrison (2009)
Aum badge and autograph both from MeetTheBeatlesForReal
From MeetTheBeatlesForReal: All it takes is Guts and Persistence
Harrison Alliance
December 1974/January 1975 issue #16
It would take page upon page to explain exactly how it happened, but somehow my friend Madeleine S. became acquainted with Bill Graham, the promoter of the tour. She had been to at least six shows by the time Madison Square Garden rolled around, and if I remember correctly, she had met with Bill or his associates at least once every gig. Bill had promised to get her backstage but so far he had let her down.
Thursday afternoon after lunch, Madeleine went down to the Garden to speak to Bill, while the rest of us went back to the hotel to rest up. I had been up all night save two hours, in order to finish embroidering the Dark Horse logo on a t-shirt, and I was dragged by the long bus ride into the city, so I had to get some sleep. Madeleine came back a few hours later to tell us she had spoken to Bill, and he had promised to take her backstage to meet George between shows on Friday. She showed us a little black Aum badge with a sky blue background that Bill had given her to get through security, and she said he had told her to meet him at the stage at the afternoon show and he’d see what he could do. Well, we figured if the badge would get her through security on Friday, it could get me through that night! It was certainly worth a try!
I was really disappointed with the seats I had for Thursday night even though they were $9.50 seats, but I managed to get a seat in the 2nd row behind the stage, which were more to my liking. I really didn’t think the badge would work that night because they used a different badge each show, and I was content with where I was sitting, but Jennie prodded and persisted and said the least they could do is send me back to my seat; so just before the house lights went down after intermission, I made my way down to the lower loge runway. Security tried to move me, so I showed them the badge and one of the guards started hassling me, that I should know better than to be up on the walkway, that I should be in the orchestra where I belonged! Well, I didn’t want to upset the poor man, so I came down to the orchestra and made it into the fenced in part (the first 30 rows were fenced in and heavily guarded) with the badge. This was during “For You Blue.”
I walked all the way up the side aisle where the security guard had been; I think he talked to me a bit, but I was so intent on watching George I don’t really remember. I do think that the Dark Horse shirt I embroidered helped me look a bit more official. I then crossed over and made it to the left center aisle to about the 10th row and crouched there for a while; I was determined! The next thing I knew he had finished the number and the formal introductions, and I found myself walking directly up the center aisle, with George dead ahead! I somehow managed to get to the 2nd row; George was standing directly above the aisle; the only thing between us were a photographer, a security man, the stage barrier and 10 feet of space! I remember the song was “Give me Love,” and him getting into his acoustic, then standing at the mike bathed in yellow lights, but that’s all. Funny how the rest of the world melts away when you’re that close! Since I wasn’t a working photographer, I couldn’t stay in the aisle for long, but I stayed until they asked me to leave. I wasn’t going to leave on my own accord, but when they did ask me, I didn’t push it and went.
A lot of what exactly happened is hazy, but I remember a security man pulling me over to some big-wig for Garden Security, and this man telling me, “What are you doing out here? Get backstage where you belong!” It was flipping me out, what was happening, and it’s a weird story, but eventually, I ended up backstage – walked right through security. As soon as I got backstage down the hall a ways, I was approached by a roadie. He asked me if I had ever been backstage before. I told him tonight was my first time backstage. He asked where I got the badge, and I told him Bill Graham had given it to me after I had bugged him for it all week. He then gave me some story about this and that, and how I couldn’t’ take photos backstage, so not wanting to push it, and not wanting to bump into Bill, who wouldn’t have known me, I went back out on the floor. As soon as I went back out, the ushers and security men were trying to push me backstage again, only by a difference entrance, one near the special box Mr. Harrison and Geoff Briton had been watching the show from. Unfortunately by some other security man. I went back and tried to cut across the orchestra floor again, and the ushers and security men were still trying to push me backstage again, so I told them that “they” wanted me on the other side of the Garden; they sent me out into the hall and I had to go around that way. Meanwhile, the band played on. I think I remember hearing “Maya Love” while walking back. I think I hung around the orchestra for a while, went to talk to Jenn, went back down again, and went back to my seat to be with Jenn for the end of the show. I remember boogieing back to talk to Jenn to “Tomcat” and later, he was just finishing “While my guitar gently Weeps.” I should’ve stayed in the orchestra for the end of the show, but I had a really fantastic time with Jenn for the last bits. It was so funny to her because I kept asking her if he had already sung this or that before they started Billy’s two songs. It was so incredible that something like that came about so unexpectedly, and it really left me incoherent, and so supercharged. It means as much as a front row ticket would have meant to me.
Friday afternoon Madeleine used the badge, and she left us during the Indian music set. She met Bill down front, and he took her backstage during intermission. She had the same problem with the ushers shoving her backstage before she got to even meet up with Bill. When she met with Bill she asked him to speak to George about her so that George would have something to say because she was afraid she’d be so tongue-tied in the shock of it all. Bill took her through several curtains and rooms and they finally stopped; he told her to wait there. The exact story of getting there is hazy Madeleine was so incoherent from shock when she related it to us. Bill took her into the room and said “Good Luck” and then left.
Olivia was in the room and asked Madeleine her name. The next thing she knew, George was walking across the room directly to her, and as if they were old friends, put his arms around her! She was so overwhelmed and she automatically put her arms around him and hugged him back. He asked her her name, and she told him it was Madeleine. She said something to the effect of “I love you George” in her cute and charming way, but George only replied, “It’s Krishna that you love.” He was told by Bill how many concerts she had attended, so he asked, “This is your 11th?” In her shock, she said yes, but when he asked again, she said no, it was her 8th concert. He was knocked out that she had gone to that many. She told him, “I would have gone to all 50 if I could,” to which he jokingly replied, “If I could I wouldn’t have!” During this time George was holding both her hands in his. A roadie popped in and told George he had one minute before he had to be back on stage, but he acted like he had all the time in the world. Madeleine asked him to sign her book of autographs and showed him where his father had signed it last summer. “Where do you want me to sign?” he asked. She gave him a clean page; he asked her her name again, and this time she spelled it to him so he’d get it right. The results you see with this article. She thought that asking to have a photo taken would be a bit much as he had already signed for her, so she didn’t bother. She remembers that both George and Olivia were very nice to her. For those interested, he was wearing plaid pants and a white silk shirt when she met him.
After she had stumbled out into the hallway, the roadies congratulating her for finally making it in to meet him, she was interviewed by a writer for Rolling Stone, which caused her to miss much of the 2nd half of the show. She was so flipped out, it didn’t really matter.
So congratulations to Madeleine and thanks to her for sharing such a precious moment in her life with us. A very special thanks to her from me personally, for loaning me her badge!
"After meeting George you realize that he is a human being, and a fine one. The looks he gives you while sitting on the steps are for you alone, the smiles are for you alone, when he stares into your eyes he’s looking at no one but you! He respects you and what you have to say. You realize he’s one of the nicest people on earth and you love him."
- Patti Claire, Sept/Oct 1975 issue of the Harrison Alliance [x]
MeetTheBeatlesForReal: Welcome to Crackerbox Palace (final part)
part 1
part 2
part 3
I remembered I’d brought a small present for him – one was a drawing I had done of Krishna. George brought out the picture slowly. He studied it and kept saying, “That’s really good.” I was embarrassed as I thought it wasn’t good enough but my mum said I should give him it, but he really seemed to like it. I just hope he really did. The other was a toy spider which was my favorite spider his name was George (of course). “Here’s my favorite spider for you.” George began to laugh. Olivia shrieked, “Oh God!” and George laughed. “You’re like my mum,” I said. She only said, “Uh!” “This is a nice one, isn’t it. Look at his eyes!” laughed George. “That’s a good one to put in someone’s bedroom,” said Olivia. I said that I’d put it in my mum’s bed once and she got the fright of her life. George put the spider on top of the clock on the mantel piece. I was so pleased that he liked the things I brought him. I know they don’t sound like much but the drawing took me hours to do and the spider I’ve had for ages and meant a lot to me. George is the only person I’d give them away to.
I brought the stuff out I wanted signed; I had the cover to 33&1/3, the same photo of him, and two or three Extra Texture postcards I was getting signed for friends. When George saw my album cover he said “I’ll tell you what…” then called to Olivia. “Liv, go into the office and bring me a couple of copies of uh..” “The album?” she asked.“Yeah, because she’s got the English one but the American one is so much better.” Then he turned and said to me, “I’ll give you one of the American ones, it’s really good…”
He signed a few things. I then gave him a letter that a friend and her husband had asked me to give to George as it meant such a lot to them. On the envelope was the name of a guru (Sai Baba) and when George saw it he said, “I had that book when you walked in.” He turned to Olivia, “Livy, did you just move that Sai Baba book?” “Yeah, it’s right here.” She said, getting it for him. He showed me what Sai Baba was like in his last life and a picture of him in this life. When George was looking for that pic I noticed some writing on one of the pages. It said something like “to my son George” or something like that; I think Sai Baba had signed it and had written a little message for George. George seemed to be happier when he was talking about religion and I’m interested in it so I didn’t mind.
He signed all my things (humming a bit), asking me if he should sign the front or the back of the postcards. Just then Olivia said, “oh no!” and we looked outside. It was pouring with rain. George said, “It’s incredible, it just comes from nowhere…” Leslie interjected, “And we had nothing last year.” “Yeah, and this year it just won’t stop.” He really looked gorgeous when he said that.
George began to hum as he picked up the American 33&1/3 lp, “See, this is the American one – it’s much nicer and inside – let’s just open it up (he split the shrink wrap with his thumbnail). It’s also a better pressing. I mean, that won’t make any difference unless you’ve got a really good record player. It’s better, a bit better quality, coz the factory in England…” When he finally got the wrapping off he crumpled it up and was going to put it in the wastepaper bucket, then without thinking I dove and grabbed the paper from his hand. “Oh okay,” he laughed. “No comment, “ said Leslie. “Look, see, this is all silver.” George began. “Is that Dufax, the process?” asked Leslie. “Don’t know, it’s expensive and that’s why they’re reducing the cost in Britain and this is like they have to print this picture in one place, then they have to send all the album sleeves to another factory where they do this (the silver lettering) and it’s hot-stamped but this is nicer, you see, it’s all silver, but it’s all silver inside too. So there, you can have one each.” He also gave me a little book about all the religions. It had sayings from Jesus, Buddha, Krishna and one or two others.
Leslie asked him why he had left at the interval when he went to see the play, “John, Paul, George, Ringo … and Bert” in London. When he answered her I nearly died coz he screwed his face all up. “The thing I didn’t like about it, they, the audiences, especially since a lot of them were tourists and that, were watching and they think that that’s what it was you know. It’s such fiction! The writers heard a few rumors about what it was and they read a few books and stories about it and somebody’s written a script, and it’s a totally fictitious story. Everybody watching it was looking at it as if it was the real thing, as if it was a historical documentation.” “Yes sir” said Leslie. “Like Robert Stigwood’s tentatively making a lot of money out of the Beatles too.” “Which you won’t get anything out of…” said Leslie sarcastically. “That’s not the point really it’s just that some people are more determined than others of ways of..”
Leslie asked if we could leave our bags inside while we went outside to take pictures. George said, “Yeah sure.” So we went out into the garden. I told him beforehand he had a nice garden. He was quite proud of it and told us about how it was so overgrown when he bought the house and the house itself was one step away from being bulldozed down. George went out first and I followed behind him. We saw the gremlins and said how nice they were. Leslie started arranging her camera. George asked if I was staying with Leslie and I said yes. I remembered I’d brought a camera. It was really simple so I couldn’t break it. I went into the house to get it. Leslie told me later that when I was in the house she told George that she saw herself in me. George replied, "We’ve each got a part of each other.”
I came out again and started to try and take a pic. I took one while shaking! But when it came to advance the film in the camera, the camera wouldn’t work, it jammed. George told me to come to him. He fixed it for me and I went to take another. This time George told me my finger was over the lens. I didn’t even see it, who was paying attention, all I saw was him. I managed to take a second picture, then my camera jammed again, so I let it go at that. Olivia came outside and took two pictures of George, Leslie and I. Leslie wanted one with Olivia in it, so I started to walk away, but George said, “No, you’re in it too!” and pulled me back hard. Then he put his left arm around Olivia and his right arm around me and pulled me right into him when he did that.
Olivia went inside; Leslie was setting up her camera again. I said to George, “I can’t get over how small you are! I thought you’d be really tall.” He said that it was those Beatle boots with the high Cuban heels that did it. He said he was only 5 foot 9 or 10; he bent down to my size, then stood up again and said, “I’m not that much taller than you.” I said, “I know!” I really loved it when he did that, he was so cute!
We got one more pic, and went back into the house to collect our things. We said goodbye to Olivia, then George walked us round to the front to the car. When we got to the car Leslie wanted one more picture. While we were waiting for her to get her camera ready, I said “Please don’t get back together.” He said, “Pardon?” and bent over and put his ear next to me. I repeated what I’d said and he said, “I can’t see it ever happening, we all live in different places, we’re all on different paths.”
Leslie took her pic, and then let her dogs out of the car. Leslie shaves the dogs’ bottoms, and George noticed this commented, “you shouldn’t shave their bums, it’s cruel.” One of the dogs went up to a tree in the yard and did something on it. George said, “Well I don’t think it will kill it.”
I asked George what kind of car he had and he said a Porsche, a German car. I told him he had a beautiful house and he said, “It’s Crackerbox Palace!” I asked how old it was. He told me it was about 150 years old, but that it took 25 years to build it.
I also asked him to tour again. He said he’d probably go someplace like Japan first, then Britain. The problem was, he said, getting a band together and a place to rehearse. I told him he could rehearse at my house! He laughed and said he meant a country ‘cause if he did Britain first he’d get slagged for not warming up the band. I said he was always getting slagged by the press and that was all they were good for. He said, “Yeah.”
George then said he really had to go, and as we’d spend over an hour and half with him I knew how lucky I had been. So we said goodbye. I was trying not to cry. I said, “Don’t forget to tour and do Edinburgh!” He said he wouldn’t forget and walked away. I stood and watched him and when he got to the corner of the house he waved and smiled.
