George Harrison Said Yoko Ono Slept ‘Under the Piano’ While The Beatles Made This Album
More than any other wife of a classic rock star, Yoko Ono is famous for her eccentric behavior. George Harrison revealed Yoko slept under a piano while The Beatles’ albums was coming together in the studio. George explained that completing the album in question proved difficult. John Lennon revealed that Yoko inspired multiple songs on the record.
George Harrison said 1 of The Beatles’ albums was recorded under ‘a lot of strain’
During a 1987 interview with Entertainment Weekly, George discussed the creation of The White Album. “The White Album did have a lot of strain,” the quiet Beatle recalled. “I was feeling really quite good when we started it, because I’d just come out of three months of heavy meditation in the Himalayas, and I came back to the world feeling quite good.
“But there were all kinds of strange things starting to happen,” he said. “John and Yoko had just got together, so she was sleeping under the piano all through the [recording of the] album, which was a bit weird.”
George Harrison said that some of The Beatles’ records were more collaborative
George was asked about the idea The White Album could accurately be described as four solo albums combined into one. “Yeah, I read that,” he replied. “It may be true in a way, but a lot of them are like that, as well; it wasn’t just The White Album. A lot of the time, it was John’s doing his tune, and we’re backing him up, and occasionally I’d do my tune and they’d back me up.
“There were moments, of course, when it’d all fit together and everybody’s contributing,” he recollected. “On loads of them, like Rubber Soul, it was very much a group effort.” George also cited Abbey Road as a group effort, noting the members of the band had to learn harmonies together for “Sun King” and other songs in the medley that concludes the record.
John Lennon named 2 songs from ‘The White Album’ that were about Yoko Ono
The book All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono features an interview from 1980. During that interview, John discussed Yoko’s impact on The White Album. He wrote the song “Everybody’s Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Money” because he felt he and Yoko were the only ones who weren’t paranoid during the White Album sessions. In contrast to everyone else, John felt he and Yoko experienced clarity because they were in love. The “Imagine” singer also related the track’s title to the way the couple lived their lives out in the open.
Another White Album tune influenced by Yoko was “Happiness Is a Warm Gun.” John recalled penning “Happiness Is a Warm Gun” because his relationship with Yoko was very sexual at the time. When those two weren’t in the studio, John recalled, they were in bed!
The White Album is one of the Fab Four’s all-time classics — even if Yoko displayed some unusual sleeping habits while the band recorded it.
