George Harrison Said Beatles Biographer, Philip Norman, Wrote ‘Shout!’ Because He Was ‘Desperate to Have an Identity’
George Harrison didn’t enjoy how Beatles biographer, Philip Norman, portrayed him and his bandmates in his 1981 book, Shout!: The True Story of The Beatles. He said the biography was a complete fabrication and claimed Norman only wrote it because he was “desperate to have an identity.”
The former Beatle said authors wrote books about the group out of malice
In 1987, George told Charles Bermant (per George Harrison on George Harrison: Interviews and Encounters) that most authors wrote books about The Beatles out of malice.
“A lot of the stuff in the books are [sic] wrong,” George said. “A lot of them are written out of malice, or from people with axes to grind for one reason or another. And they’ve perverted certain things for their own gain.
“Not many are actually factual and honest. There is a saying in the old house that I have, it’s in Latin, translated it says, ‘Those who tell all they have to tell tell more than they know.’ So you probably know more about the Beatles from reading those books than there actually was.”
On what people miss, George said, “Well, there’s that expression, you don’t see the forest for the trees. Basically, the Beatles phenomenon was bigger than life. The reality was that we were just four people as much caught up in what was happening at that period of time as anybody else.”
George would’ve considered Norman part of the group of Beatles biographers who were malicious.
George Harrison said Philip Norman wrote ‘Shout!’ because he was ‘desperate to have an identity
In 1988, George told Q Magazine (per Harrison Stories) that Norman wrote Shout! because he was “desperate to have an identity.”
“I know Paul wasn’t very pleased by it,” George said. “What people don’t realise is that there’s parts of us in each of the others. John’s the acid one. Paul’s the diplomat, Ringo’s…I don’t know what he was…and I’m supposed to be the quiet one.
“John was the acid one but sometimes John was gentle and sweet. To say Paul was this, John was that, it’s just too cut and dried.”
Q said, “Philip Norman suggests that you learned the sitar because you were desperate to have some identity within The Beatles.”
George replied, “That Philip Norman wrote that book because he was desperate to have an identity is probably closer to the truth. All these people who think they know everything…they don’t know anything. What it makes me realise is that there’s so much that they’ve written about The Beatles that is wrong.
“I mean, if they’re wrong about us, now. We haven’t even died yet. History must be totally twisted.”
Q added, “Paul appears to still care enormously that the record is set straight, that he feels he didn’t get the credit he deserved.”
“Well if he doesn’t think he got the credit he deserved, what about me and Ringo? You know, sometimes people got carried away – including Paul – and thought that they did it all, but there were actually other people involved – more in some things than others, granted. There was my guitar sound, Ringo’s drum fills…all that was part of the Beatles’ sound.”
George said he couldn’t do anything about authors like Norman
Unfortunately, George couldn’t do much about authors like Norman. He told Rockline’s Bob Coburn (per George Harrison on George Harrison) that he couldn’t control what authors wrote.
George said, “The thing that does bother me is the information that they know, where what they think they know about me is correct. Because a lot of the time you’re reading stuff, which is absolutely wrong, and you get an impression, or a writer has given you the impression, that his concept of what I am. And that’s the only problem, that’s the thing that bothers me.”
Coburn asked, “What do you do in those cases? Sometimes just let it slide, and others you go, ‘Hey, I can’t put up with this…’?”
George replied, “I think, ninety-nine percent of the time I’ve let it slide. Because the moment you get uptight [and] I start saying, ‘Hey, that book stinks, it’s not true,’ all I do is give the book more publicity.”
So, George couldn’t do anything about Norman or his book. However, that didn’t mean the former Beatle couldn’t let the public know everything was false.
