George Harrison Said The Beatles’ Producer, George Martin, Apologized for Pushing Him and His Songs Aside
George Harrison didn’t always have the best relationship with The Beatles‘ producer, George Martin. Like Paul McCartney and John Lennon, Martin pushed George and his songs aside.
Years later, George said Martin apologized.
The Beatles’ producer pushed the guitarist’s songs aside
In the early days of The Beatles, John and Paul were the chief songwriters. They took on that responsibility because George never showed interest.
In 1992, George told Guitar World that he didn’t initially think about writing songs. “To get it straight, if I hadn’t been with John and Paul I probably wouldn’t have thought about writing a song, at least not until much later,” George explained. “They were writing all these songs, many of which I thought were great. Some were just average, but, obviously, a high percentage were quality material. I thought to myself, ‘If they can do it, I’m going to have a go.'”
In 1963, George experimented to see if he could write a song as good as John or Paul’s. The result was “Don’t Bother Me.”
However, it complicated the group’s dynamic once George started writing more. Rather than welcome George’s songs, John and Paul turned most of them down. They gave him a quota of one to two songs per album, which slowly increased later. Martin thought they had a right, as the hitmakers.
Martin didn’t like George coming forward with songs. He wanted “to concentrate on the guys who were giving me the hits,” Martin told CNN. He didn’t like George coming in and thinking he could be just as great. Initially, George’s songwriting was “kind of tolerated,” Martin said. “‘Oh, yes, we must have a George song on this thing,'” Martin would say condescendingly.
Martin also thought George’s songs were boring until Let It Be. “He’d been awfully poor up to then,” Martin said (per Culture Sonar). “Some of the stuff he’d written was very boring.”
George abruptly quit during the Let It Be sessions. He was sick of being treated like a glorified session man. John nonchalantly suggested they get Eric Clapton to replace him. Martin was also less-than sympathetic. Neil Aspinall tried defending George, but Martin didn’t care.
“They’re our songwriting team and he’s his own team,” Martin explained. “And if he’s not working on his own songs…” Martin was insinuating that George threw a tantrum whenever he wasn’t working on his own material. Regardless, Martin had to look after John and Paul, the hitmakers.
George Harrison said George Martin apologized for pushing him aside
Eventually, long after The Beatles split, Martin regretted treating George poorly. Martin said (per Udiscovermusic), “I think the trouble with George was that he was never treated on the same level as having the same quality of songwriting, by anyone – by John, by Paul or by me. I’m as guilty in that respect.
“I was the guy who used to say: ‘If he’s got a song, we’ll let him have it on the album’ – very condescendingly. I know he must have felt really bad about that. Gradually he kept persevering, and his songs did get better – until eventually, they got extremely good. ‘Something’ is a wonderful song.
“The impression is sometimes given that we put him down. I don’t think we ever did that, but possibly we didn’t encourage him enough,” Martin said. “He’d write, but we wouldn’t say, ‘What’ve you got then, George?’ We’d say, ‘Oh, you’ve got some more, have you?’
“I must say that looking back, it was a bit hard on him. It was always slightly condescending. But it was natural, because the others were so talented.”
During a 1988 press conference, George revealed Martin had personally apologized. “The Beatles producer, George Martin, said recently how he always felt sorry that-because he concentrated more on them-and he should’ve paid more attention to me,” George explained.
“He said to me, personally, ‘I hope you’ll forgive me’ [Laughs]. But I think I’m quite happy with my role in The Beatles. It split up because all those problems because there were too many songs and because we got too close to each other. But I’m quite happy with the way things went.”
By then, George had come to terms with being a Beatle.
George and Martin remained friends until George’s 2001 death
Despite how the producer treated him, George and Martin remained friends until George’s 2001 death. During a 1976 interview with Rolling Stone, Martin said he and George didn’t have bad blood.
“George and I are good friends, we were chatting on the phone the other day,” he said.
In 1992, George told Guitar World that “they’ve all apologized to me for all that over the years.” He continued, “Look, the thing is, so much has been said about our disagreements. It’s like… so much time has lapsed, it doesn’t really matter anymore.”
In 2007, Martin said (per Yahoo!) George visited him while he was recovering from ear surgery. George pulled up in his McLaren F1 and gave Martin a statue of Ganesha, the Hindu elephant god. They remained close after that.
“I went to see George at his home in Henley recently and he brought out this bottle of Château Lafite 1990 – £1,000 a bottle,” Martin said. “I said, ‘George you need a special occasion for this,’ and he said, ‘This is the special occasion. What else do I do with my money?'”
Martin told CNN, “All of George’s influence on the Beatles was very benign and tremendous. His message was: Love each other.” At least the producer finally realized that.
