The Beatles brought a huge amount of content to their fans over the years. All four members of the band worked together to bring the best music they could write to their vast array of albums. Although John Lennon and Paul McCartney were the main songwriters in the team, Ringo Starr and George Harrison were not ones to shy away from a challenge.
Despite this, when George Harrison eventually asked Lennon for some help, he really didn’t want to do it.
Harrison didn’t write as many songs for the band as McCartney and Lennon did over the years.
Although his output was ultimately smaller than his colleagues, Harrison did write a mean song.
With such wondrous ballads as While My Guitar Gently Weeps under his belt, Harrison was certainly a prolific writer in his own right.
But, whilst speaking to PlayBoy in 1980, Lennon explained how he almost turned his friend down when he asked for help.
The song in question was Taxman – a song based on the band getting taxed so much after finally making some money.
“I remember the day he called to ask for help on ‘Taxman’,” Lennon recalled in the interview. “One of his first songs.
“I threw in a few one-liners to help the song along, because that’s what he asked for.”
Going on to detail the relationship he had with Harrison and McCartney, Lennon added: “He came to me because he couldn’t go to Paul, because Paul wouldn’t have helped him at that period.
“I didn’t want to do it. I thought: ‘Oh, no, don’t tell me I have to work on George’s stuff. It’s enough doing my own and Paul’s.’
“But because I loved him and I didn’t want to hurt him when he called that afternoon and said: ‘Will you help me with this song?’ I just sort of bit my tongue and said ‘OK’.”
Explaining why he was so reluctant, Lennon concluded: “It had been John and Paul for so long, he’d been left out because [Harrison] hadn’t been a songwriter up until then.”
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While it makes sense for Lennon to be reluctant to write even more songs for the band, he also assisted in writing some incredible songs with the pal.
Harrison did eventually get one back on his colleagues, as he brought Eric Clapton on to record While My Guitar Gently Weeps years later.
Speaking in Anthology, Harrison recalled that Lennon and McCartney didn’t want to help him finish the song.
Because of this, he said, he looked for some outside help.
He said: “The next day I was driving into London with Eric Clapton. And I said: ‘What are you doing today? Why don’t you come to the studio and play on this song for me?’”
But Clapton was reluctant, as Harrison added: “He said: ‘Oh, no – I can’t do that. Nobody’s ever played on a Beatles record and the others wouldn’t like it.’
“I said, ‘Look, it’s my song and I’d like you to play on it.’”
Eventually Harrison managed to convince Clapton to perform in his song.
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