The ‘Cloud Nine’ Track That Describes How George Harrison Felt in His Career at the Time
A track on 1987’s Cloud Nine perfectly describes how George Harrison felt in his career at the time. Even though George spent years claiming he didn’t have a career, “Wreck of the Hesperus” talks about how he felt about working in the music industry.
George Harrison had a complicated career
It’s complicated to say that George had a career because he didn’t exactly. After The Beatles split, he never pursued a solo career. He only released All Things Must Pass as a reaction to leaving the group.
However, when that triple album did well, George continued to make music and release it. Toward the late 1970s, though, things got complicated. The record companies started demanding certain music. George just wanted to be left alone to make the music he wanted. He didn’t mind if no one liked it.
So, George essentially did what he wanted, when he wanted. He even stopped making music for a time.
In 1992, George told Timothy White (per George Harrison on George Harrison: Interviews and Encounters) that he didn’t have a career. “There’s a lot of people out there who really plan what they’re doing,” he said. “But mostly it’s just me…. It’s all just been haphazard.”
During an interview with Rockline’s Bob Coburn (per George Harrison on George Harrison), George said he didn’t take care of his career. “I’m not very career-minded, you know?”
George added to Entertainment Tonight that it became more about whether he wanted to live up to anyone’s expectations. When fans, the press, or record companies demanded things of him, he pulled away. “The pressure, you know, of the people expecting you to do something,” he said.
He tried to be “an ordinary person and play a few tunes but they won’t let you do that,” George said. “They want you to come out there with flames coming out of your fingers, singing all these things that don’t really exist. It’s just all in their concept of what it was. Then is then, and now is now.”
‘Wreck of the Hesperus’ conveys what George thought of his career at the time
By the time George made Cloud Nine, he’d come to terms with many things, including being a Beatle and his career. He’d taken years off of releasing music because he didn’t like what the record business was doing. However, George stopped caring about what they, or anyone else, thought about him or his music. Letting go liberated him.
On “Wreck of the Hesperus,” George speaks a bit about it. He might have aged, but he’s still free to do what he wants. He sings, “I’m not the wreck of the Hesperus/ Feel more like the Wall of China/ Getting old as Methuselah/ Feel tall as the Eiffel Tower/ I’m not a power of attorney/ But I can rock as good as Gibraltar/ Ain’t no more no spring chicken/ Been plucked but I’m still kicking/ But it’s alright, it’s alright.”
During an interview, Ray Martin (per George Harrison on George Harrison) said the song was about getting better as you get older. George agreed. He said, “Everything gets easier. I’m less worried about stuff, and I think worries and paranoias and things like that just get in the way, and I seem to have got shut a lot of that out in my system and consequently I feel better.”
Reporter Anthony DeCurtis said “Wreck of the Hesperus” was George’s way of “making fun of perceptions of you, again, as this person retired, in the big house, and sort of removed….”
George didn’t know if people actually thought about celebrities getting old, but he thought they might be thinking something. Nothing goes unnoticed.
The end of the song became more of an attack against the press
For most of his semi-functioning career, George felt that the press constantly tried to nail him for whatever reason. That was another thing George came to terms with in the 1980s. He started not to care what they said. However, he still unleashed an attack on them in “Wreck of the Hesperus.”
George called out the press directly in the lyrics, “Poison penmen sneak, have no nerve to speak/ Make up lies then they leak ‘m out/ Behind a pseudonym, the rottenness in them/ Reaching out trying to touch me…/ Brainless writers gossip nonsenses/ To others heads as dense as they is/ It’s the same old malady/ What they see is faulty.”
George explained to Martin that “the line of fire” meant he stopped sitting through pointless interviews where reporters asked him private or stupid questions.
He added to DeCurtis, “It’s just really a funny song. When I started to write the song, I just opened my
mouth and it came out, ‘I’m not the wreck of the Hesperus, I feel more like the Wall of China,’ and I just continued along that theme.
“Except to when it gets to the middle eight, and then suddenly I go into a vicious attack on the press! [Laughter.].”
George made peace with many of the things that annoyed him. As a spiritualist, he couldn’t let it all eat him alive. Like a yogi, he let things wash off him.
