As Paul recounted in the band\u2019s 2000 autobiography, Anthology<\/em>: <\/p> \u201cI remember walking up through Woolton… with John one morning… [asking] \u2018Should we? Should three of us write, or would it be better just to keep it simple?\u2019\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote> They decided to keep the songwriting partnership between the two of them.<\/p> Except George didn\u2019t stay in his lane. He broke through the gatekeeping to release a massive triple solo album in late 1970, filled with masterpieces that had been shelved or ignored during the Beatles years. All Things Must Pass <\/em>didn\u2019t just top the charts\u2014it became a cultural phenomenon, achieving a level of critical and commercial success that proved, once and for all, that George had been a giant in hiding all along.<\/p> The story of how George went from dismissed sideman to vindicated genius is one of the most satisfying underdog tales in music history, and it starts with John Lennon fundamentally misunderstanding the \u201cquiet\u201d Beatle.<\/p> Let\u2019s set the scene: When George joined the Quarrymen in 1958, he was just 15 years old\u2014a grammar school kid who looked up to John Lennon with absolute hero worship. John was already an art student, older, more experienced, more confident. Paul was John\u2019s songwriting partner and intellectual equal. George? George was the guitarist they were lucky to have, but he wasn\u2019t part of the creative brain trust. That hierarchy got established early and hardened into concrete over the years. 🎭<\/p> John admitted this dynamic years later with remarkable candor: <\/p> \u201cGeorge\u2019s relationship with me was one of young follower and older guy. He was like a disciple of mine when we started. I was already an art student when Paul and George were still in grammar school.\u201d <\/strong><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote> Translation: George was the kid, and kids didn\u2019t get to write songs for the Beatles. John further acknowledged it was a \u201clove\/hate relationship\u201d and that George bore \u201cresentment toward me for being a daddy who left home.\u201d<\/p> George hadn\u2019t been a songwriter… because John and Paul never let him be a songwriter. They controlled access to the recording studio, they decided which songs made the albums, and they had an actual gentleman\u2019s agreement to keep George\u2019s contributions to a minimum. 💔<\/p> So George was excluded because he lacked experience. But how do you gain experience when you\u2019re systematically excluded? It\u2019s the musical equivalent of \u201cyou can\u2019t get a job without experience, but you can\u2019t get experience without a job.\u201d<\/p> George\u2019s first original Beatles song was \u201cDon\u2019t Bother Me,\u201d which appeared on their second album, With the Beatles<\/em>, in 1963. The story behind it is both mundane and revealing: George wrote it while sick and bored in a Bournemouth hotel room during a tour. He was literally killing time with a guitar, seeing if he could actually write a song. The result was… fine. Not great, not terrible\u2014just fine. It\u2019s a competent but unremarkable track that sounds exactly like what it was: a first attempt by someone teaching himself to write songs while his bandmates had years of practice. 🏨<\/p> Songwriting is a skill you develop through practice, something that most people struggle with during the first five or ten years. John and Paul had been writing together since they were teenagers, churning out dozens (maybe hundreds) of songs before the Beatles ever recorded their first album. George was starting from scratch in his early twenties, trying to learn in public while working alongside two of the most naturally gifted songwriters in rock history, and a pair of huge egos.<\/p> George himself acknowledged the struggle: <\/p> \u201cThe most difficult thing for me is following Paul\u2019s and John\u2019s songs. \u2026 They obviously got better and better, and that\u2019s what I have to do.\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote> George wasn\u2019t demanding equal time. He was apologizing for even suggesting his songs might be worth recording. That\u2019s what years of being shut out will do to you. 🎵<\/p> So when did John Lennon finally realize George Harrison was a serious songwriter? The answer: 1967\u2019s <\/strong>Sgt. Pepper\u2019s Lonely Hearts Club Band<\/strong><\/em>.<\/strong><\/p> George contributed only one song to that groundbreaking album\u2014\u201dWithin You Without You\u201d\u2014but it was a quantum leap forward in quality and ambition. Influenced by his time in India and his friendship with Ravi Shankar, George created something entirely unique: a philosophical meditation set to Indian classical music that somehow fit on an album full of psychedelic pop experiments. It wasn\u2019t trying to be a Lennon song or a McCartney song. It was unmistakably, undeniably a George Harrison song.<\/em> ✨<\/p> Years later, in 1980, shortly before his death, John finally gave George credit for \u2018Within You Without You\u2019\u2014the credit he\u2019d withheld:<\/p> \u201cOne of George\u2019s best songs. One of my favourites of his, too. He\u2019s clear on that song. His mind and his music are clear. There is his innate talent; he brought that sound together.\u201d <\/strong><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote> That was the moment John could no longer deny what was becoming obvious to everyone else: George Harrison had found his voice, and it was spectacular. 🌅<\/p> But here\u2019s the beautiful irony: John actually helped<\/em> George become the songwriter who would eventually challenge the Lennon-McCartney monopoly. George credited John with giving him crucial advice that changed his entire approach: \u201cJohn gave me a handy tip. He said, \u2018Once you start to write a song, try to finish it straight away while you\u2019re still in the same mood.\u2019\u201d<\/p> That single piece of advice helped George complete \u201cSomething\u201d\u2014which John himself later called \u201cthe best song on Abbey Road<\/em>\u201c and which Frank Sinatra declared \u201cthe greatest love song of the past 50 years.\u201d 💕<\/p> By 1968-69, George was on an absolute tear. \u201cWhile My Guitar Gently Weeps.\u201d \u201cSomething.\u201d \u201cHere Comes the Sun.\u201d These weren\u2019t just good songs\u2014they were great<\/em> songs, songs that could stand alongside anything John or Paul had written. George had gone from writing one forgettable track per album to creating genuine classics that would define the Beatles\u2019 legacy.<\/p> But recognition came with a bitter edge. By 1969, during the contentious Let It Be<\/em> sessions, the Beatles\u2019 internal dynamics had become toxic. George briefly quit the band, frustrated by his continued second-class status. When the band tried to regroup and plan their future, John Lennon proposed something radical: each songwriter\u2014John, Paul, and George\u2014should get four songs per album, with two more slots available for Ringo if he wanted them. Equal space. Equal respect. Equal status. 🤝<\/p> Paul McCartney rejected the plan.<\/p> Paul, who often positioned himself as George\u2019s ally, said no. The Beatles never recorded another album together.<\/p> Here\u2019s where the story gets deliciously ironic: In 1970, the Beatles broke up. Each member went solo. And George\u2014the dismissed kid brother, the songwriter who\u2019d been rationed to one or two songs per album\u2014released All Things Must Pass<\/em>, a massive triple album that became a critical and commercial smash. The guy they\u2019d kept in the shadows for a decade immediately proved he had a catalog\u2019s worth of incredible songs that never got recorded because there wasn\u2019t room on Beatles albums.<\/p> George\u2019s exclusion might have made him better.<\/strong> Being shut out forced him to find his own voice instead of trying to write Lennon-McCartney pastiches. Being dismissed made him determined. Being the underdog made him hungry. When he finally got his moment in the spotlight, he was ready\u2014and he had years of pent-up creativity to unleash. ⚡<\/p> The tragedy is that by the time John fully recognized George\u2019s talent and tried to give him equal status in the band, it was too late. The Beatles were done. The \u201cyoung follower\u201d had become a master, but the teacher would never get to fully appreciate the student\u2019s graduation.<\/p> Paul and John had a deal to silence George, then he released an album that outsold both of them<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"amazonpipp_noncename":"","amazon-product-isactive":"","amazon-product-single-asin":"","amazon-product-content-location":"","amazon-product-content-hook-override":"","amazon-product-excerpt-hook-override":"","amazon-product-singular-only":"","amazon-product-amazon-desc":"","amazon-product-show-gallery":"","amazon-product-show-features":"","amazon-product-newwindow":"","amazon-product-show-list-price":"","amazon-product-show-used-price":"","amazon-product-show-saved-amt":"","amazon-product-timestamp":"","amazon-product-new-title":"","amazon-product-use-cartURL":"","amazon_featured_post_meta_key":"","_amazon_featured_alt":"","amazon-product-template":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[33,1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2x2Mt-cEGVA","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weberbooks.com\/kindle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187014170"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weberbooks.com\/kindle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weberbooks.com\/kindle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weberbooks.com\/kindle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weberbooks.com\/kindle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=187014170"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.weberbooks.com\/kindle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187014170\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":194564219,"href":"https:\/\/www.weberbooks.com\/kindle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187014170\/revisions\/194564219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weberbooks.com\/kindle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187014170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weberbooks.com\/kindle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187014170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weberbooks.com\/kindle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187014170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}The Young Follower<\/strong><\/h2>
The First Attempts<\/strong><\/h2>
The Turning Point<\/strong><\/h2>
The Floodgates Open<\/strong><\/h2>
The Ultimate Vindication<\/strong><\/h2>
The Lesson<\/strong><\/h2>
Visit my Beatles Store:<\/a><\/strong><\/h2>
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