George Harrison Came Across as a ‘Dour, Humorless’ Complainer, Said a Beatles Engineer
George Harrison was the youngest Beatle and, according to an audio engineer, the least fun to be around. Geoff Emerick, who worked with the band on several albums, had a hard time understanding Harrison. While he empathized with the struggle he faced in the band, Emerick wasn’t the guitarist’s biggest fan. He believed he was a bit too snide.
George Harrison was a mystery to a Beatles audio engineer
In his time with The Beatles, Emerick was the friendliest with Paul McCartney, but he liked John Lennon and Ringo Starr as well. The same could not be said about Harrison.
“George Harrison was always kind of a mystery to me,” Emerick wrote in the book Here, There and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of the Beatles. “Although he was kind and generous with many of my EMI colleagues throughout the years, he and I just didn’t have good chemistry together.”
Emerick found Harrison, who became known as the “Quiet Beatle,” standoffish and prickly.
“He struck me as a dour, humorless man who complained a lot, and he always seemed suspicious of everyone outside The Beatles’ inner circle,” Emerick wrote. “He didn’t interact or converse with me very much, even when we were working on one of his songs.”
Emerick also noted that Harrison was distant and appeared tired of The Beatles. In truth, by the mid-1960s, he was ready to move on from the band.
“George often seemed preoccupied, like he had something on his mind other than being the Beatles’ lead guitarist,” Emerick wrote. “Maybe at a certain point he simply didn’t want to be in the band anymore — certainly it appeared that he felt trapped by his fame and celebrity.”
He shared what he liked least about the Beatle
Emerick didn’t enjoy the chilly relationship between himself and Harrison, but the primary reason he disliked Harrison had to do with his worldview.
“Probably the thing I liked least about George Harrison was that he always seemed to be making snide remarks — not necessarily about me personally, but about the world in general.”
Emerick grew increasingly affected by the tensions within the Beatles. Harrison’s sarcastic stand-offishness likely did little to raise his spirits.
The Beatles audio engineer still sympathized with George Harrison
Though Emerick may not have liked Harrison all that much, he still felt a degree of sympathy toward him. He desperately wanted to be a songwriter like Lennon and McCartney, but they wouldn’t let him.
“To be fair, Harrison faced an uphill battle against the massive talents of Lennon and McCartney,” he wrote. “For one thing, he was the youngest band member and was therefore frequently treated like a kid brother, not to be taken seriously. For another, he didn’t have a songwriting partner to bounce ideas off of.”
While he could see that McCartney often brushed off Harrison, Emerick maintained a close relationship with the Beatles’ bassist. He wondered if this was why Harrison was never all that friendly with him.
