George Harrison Said He Had a Tendency to Defend Paul McCartney, Despite How His Bandmate Treated Him
George Harrison and Paul McCartney didn’t have the best relationship as bandmates. However, George still always defended his fellow Beatle whenever the occasion arose. Other times, he spoke his mind about Paul.
George Harrison said Paul McCartney pushed him aside
Once George started writing songs in 1963, his relationship with Paul crumbled. Paul, John Lennon, and sometimes, The Beatles’ producer, George Martin, often pushed Geoge’s songs to the side. They allowed him two songs per album. However, as George’s songwriting increased, that wasn’t enough to get all of them out.
On top of barring him from recording most of his songs, Paul started treating George like a glorified session man. He told The Beatles’ guitarist when and what to play. Toward the end of The Beatles, George claimed Paul stopped asking him to play on his songs altogether.
In 1976, George told NME (per Harrison Archive), “When you’re so close, you tend to lock each other up in pigeonholes. Musically, with Ringo and John, I had no problem. But with Paul, well, it reached a point when he wouldn’t let me play on sessions. It was part of our splitting up.”
Eventually, during the Let It Be sessions, George grew sick of Paul’s domineering and abruptly quit the group.
George and Paul were the least compatible musically. George told Rolling Stone in 1979, “I don’t know about being in a band with him, how that would work out. It’s like, we all have our own tunes to do.
“And my problem was that it would always be very difficult to get in on the act, because Paul was very pushy in that respect. When he succumbed to playing on one of your tunes, he’d always do good. But you’d have to do fifty-nine of Paul’s songs before he’d even listen to one of yours. So, in that respect, it would be very difficult to ever play with him.”
George still defended Paul
Once The Beatles split, George and Paul’s relationship didn’t get much better.
For the most part, George had conflicting thoughts about Paul. He said they were tentatively rebuilding their relationship after not talking for 10 years during an interview on Aspel & Co.
“I didn’t really know Paul and never really saw much of him through the last 10 or 12 years,” George explained. “But more recently, we’ve been hanging out and getting to know each other, going for dinner and meeting and having a laugh.” That didn’t stop Paul from using the band’s then-legal drama as a reason for not showing up to The Beatles’ the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction.
Still, the pair had no problem with each other as people. “Yeah, well now we don’t have any problems whatsoever as far as being people is concerned, and it’s quite nice to see him… we’re cool as far as being pals goes,” George told Rolling Stone in 1979.
On the other hand, George told Mark Rowland (per George Harrison on George Harrison: Interviews and Encounters) that he didn’t have a relationship with Paul. It was nothing personal, though.
“I think of him as a good friend, really, but a friend who I don’t really have that much in common with anymore,” George said. “You know, sort of like you meet people in your life who mean a certain thing; it’s just like you’re married, and then you’re divorced, and you wish the other person well, but life has taken you to other places, to friendlier … whatever the expression is … confines.”
However, George was always willing to defend his former bandmate. He told NME, “But at the same time, I have a tendency to defend Paul — John and Ringo too — if anyone else said anything without qualification about them. After going through all that together, there must be something good about it.
“It’s just that around 1968 everyone’s egos started going crazy. Maybe it was just a lack of tact or discretion.”
The pair never feuded, even though George never hid his opinions of his bandmate
George might’ve defended Paul whenever necessary, but he didn’t keep his own opinions of him a secret. During a press conference, George explained, “For the last few years, I’ve said my mind to him, you know, just whenever I felt something.”
George was shocked when he found out Paul wanted to cover older Beatles tunes and even some of John’s hits. “Paul? Maybe because he ran out of good ones of his own. It’s true,” George said to MuchMusic.
Whatever happened during their life-long relationship, George and Paul never feuded, despite what the newspapers wrote.
“But it’s definitely just one of those things that these people sit around and think, ‘Let’s have a fight between George and Paul, now,’ you know,” George said on Aspel & Co. “But actually, I love Paul, he’s my mate, and it doesn’t matter what they say in the papers, they’re not going to get much mileage out of that one.”
