1 of George Harrison’s Most Upsetting Childhood Memories Involved the First Record He Ever Bought
George Harrison‘s childhood was enjoyable. However, one moment in his youth didn’t quite go to plan. Receiving his first record should’ve been a happy memory, but it turned out to be one of George’s most upsetting. He never forgot about it.
George Harrison’s childhood was full of little performances
From an early age, George liked giving his family little performances.
According to Joshua Greene’s Here Comes the Sun: The Spiritual and Musical Journey of George Harrison, one of George’s earliest memories was “standing on a leather stool and singing folk singer Josh White’s ‘One Meatball’ to his family’s great delight.”
“He had these animal puppets,” his sister, Louise, said, “and he’d do skits with them for us. He was funny and outgoing and the family doted on him.”
George wrote silly songs like “I’m a Pink Toothbrush, You’re a Blue Toothbrush” and yodeled along with Hank Williams on “Blue Yodel 94.”
When he came home from school, he’d turn on the radio. He listened to tunes from Jimmie Rodgers, Big Bill Broonzy, Slim Whitman, and various English music-hall numbers.
In 1992, George told Timothy White (per George Harrison on George Harrison: Interviews and Encounters), “I think the first person who really got me interested in guitar was Jimmie Rodgers—’The Singing Brakeman.’
“And my father had some records, and he used to go away to sea, and he brought back this big wind-up gramophone and Jimmie Rodgers records. ‘Waiting for a Train,’ it was called, and ‘Blue Yodel.’ And so I always remember that from when I was a little kid of about eight or seven.
“Later, when I was a little bit older than that, there was this guy from Florida, and he was a huge success in England during the ’50s, and he was called Slim Whitman. Again, there was a singer with a guitar. And then it turned into Bill Haley. And then in Britain we had this big craze called skiffle music, which came out of a traditional jazz, which is kind of Dixieland jazz.”
One of George’s most upsetting childhood memories involved the first record he ever bought
Around 1956, George started hearing rock ‘n’ roll on the radio.
“The main thing that really buzzed me, I remember, even before I heard Elvis, was Fats Domino’s ‘I’m in Love Again,'” George told White. “When I heard Elvis’s “Heartbreak Hotel,” I was on my bike passing somebody’s house, and they must have had a gramophone playing. I couldn’t believe the sound of that record.”
Buying his first record wasn’t as happy an experience as hearing the new genre of music for the first time.
“I can tell you something that was a real disappointment,” George said. “I’d got the money and I wanted ‘Rock Around the Clock’ by Bill Haley, and I asked somebody to get it for me, somebody in my family, and I couldn’t wait to get that record.
“They said they’d buy it for me, because I was so into wanting this record. Because for me, all the saxes and Franny Beecher, that guitar player on the Bill Haley record, was just unbelievable. And they came home, and they gave me this record and said, ‘Oh, they sold out of Bill Haley so I got you this one.’
“It was the Deep River Boys. I thought, ‘Aw no, f***in’ hell!’ It was such a disappointment. That was the first record I didn’t get. Before I had any money, my brother had a record player, but he had records like West Side Story and music like that. I think I got a Lonnie Donegan record.”
He started playing guitar like his idols
Buying his first album should’ve been one of George’s happiest childhood memories. However, buying his first guitar made up for it.
George wanted to perform like Rodgers and all his other childhood idols. His friend offered to sell him a guitar for three pounds, 10 shillings. He asked his mother, Louise, for the money.
He practiced on the cheap beginner’s guitar until it broke, but Louise had to buy him a better one. Eventually, he got good enough to impress his future bandmates, Paul McCartney and John Lennon.
