George Harrison Said It Didn’t Matter if the Press and Fans Constantly Changed Their Views of The Beatles
George Harrison said it didn’t matter if the press and fans constantly changed their opinions of The Beatles. He grew sick of the back and forth. The Beatles made their music completely ignorant of the thoughts of others.
George Harrison said it didn’t matter if fans and the press changed their opinions about The Beatles
In 1987, George told Anthony DeCurtis (per George Harrison on George Harrison: Interviews and Encounters) that it didn’t matter if fans and the press changed their opinions about The Beatles.
DeCurtis said he thought the press spared The Beatles of harsh ridicule. He asked George if he saw it differently. George said the fans and press ridiculed The Beatles in many ways.
“We were loved for one period at a time, and then they hated us, and then they loved us, and then they hated us,” he said. “In the history of the Beatles, we went from being the cute, lovable mop tops into being these horrible, weird hippies, and back out of it again.
“And the press, you know what they tend to do is, you get so big—and not just for the Beatles, they do it all the time, I mean, with anybody… And they put so much praise on you that the only thing left to do is then start knocking you down. So we’ve been through that, and it got to the point where it didn’t even matter even if they had a full broadside on us, they still couldn’t really knock us down.”
George said it was a ‘big joke’ that people tried to figure out The Beatles and their creative process
When the press loved The Beatles, they tried to figure out the ins and outs of their creative process. Everyone wanted to know their secret to success. They didn’t exactly have one, according to George. The Beatles just made music.
During a 1967 interview, Melody Maker (per George Harrison on George Harrison) asked George if he could explain where The Beatles were at musically.
“We’re not trying to do anything,” George said. “This is the big joke. It’s all Cosmic Joke. Everyone gets our records and says ‘wonder how they thought of that?’ or ‘wonder what they’re planning next?’ or whatever they do say.
“But we don’t plan anything. We don’t do anything. All we do is just keep on being ourselves. It just comes out. It’s the Beatles. All any of us are trying to do now is get as much peace and love as possible. Love will never be played out because you can’t play out the truth. Whatever I say can be taken a million different ways depending on how screwed up the reader is.
“But the Beatles is just a hobby really … it’s just doing it on its own. We don’t even have to think about it. The songs write themselves. It just all works out. Everything that we’re taking into our minds and trying to learn or find out… and yet the output coming out the back end is still so much smaller than what you’re putting in.
“Everything is relative to everything else. We know that now. So we’ve got to a point where when people say ‘there’s nothing else you can do,’ we know that’s only from where they are. They look up and think we can’t do anymore, but when you’re up there you see you haven’t started.”
The Fab Four were hassled
The Beatles didn’t exactly have a straightforward creative process. They just absorbed as much music as possible and regurgitated it.
George explained he and The Beatles wouldn’t know what they were doing until they did it. “We’re naturally influenced by everything that’s going on around us,” he said. “If you weren’t influenced, you wouldn’t be able to do anything. That’s all anything is, an influence from one person to another.
“We’ll write songs and go into the studios and record them and we’ll try and make them good.” However, they were hassled by the press and even the record companies. Ultimately, The Beatles made the music they liked, not what the press, the fans, or even the record companies wanted.
