George Harrison Thought It Was Funny That Paul McCartney Wanted to Write Songs With Him in the 1980s
George Harrison thought it was funny that Paul McCartney suddenly wanted to write songs with him in the 1980s after 30 years of friendship. During their time with The Beatles, Paul usually pushed George and his songs aside. It was clear to George that Paul’s suggestion was a farce.
George Harrison said Paul McCartney pushed him and his songs aside
When they were kids, George and Paul were best friends. If Paul hadn’t told John Lennon about George’s guitar playing, George would’ve never joined The Beatles.
However, their friendship started cracking when George began writing songs. Paul and John had agreed that they were the group’s sole songwriters. They didn’t take kindly to George’s tunes. Then, Paul started treating him like a glorified session man.
Eventually, it became evident that George and Paul were the least compatible musically.
“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,” George told Rolling Stone in 1979. “But 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. But, you know, we’re cool as far as being pals goes.”
George thought it was funny that Paul suddenly wanted to write songs with him in the 1980s
After The Beatles split, the Fab Four had many legal issues. Paul sued his bandmates to dissolve the band, and they filed a countersuit. Then, there was the issue of Apple and The Beatles’ music catalog. By the 1980s, George and Paul were back on speaking terms, well, mostly.
George thought his former bandmate was a hypocrite for not attending The Beatles’ Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction in 1988. They’d begun hanging out again, yet Paul used some past drama as an excuse not to attend. Despite that, Paul wanted to work with George on a song. George thought it was funny.
During a press conference, he explained, “For the last few years, I’ve said my mind to him, you know, just whenever I felt something.
“Paul had asked, had suggested maybe the chance of me and he writing together something, and it’s pretty funny really because I mean, I’ve only been there about 30 years in Paul’s life. It’s like now he wants to write with me but I think it may be quite interesting.”
Writing songs with George wasn’t Paul’s only strange idea. George had some opinions about Paul covering some of The Beatles and John’s songs and his musical direction in the 1980s.
George said his bandmate didn’t have any more hits of his own
George thought it was funny that Paul suddenly wanted to write songs with him after being around for 30 years. However, George knew another reason why Paul wanted to write songs with him out of nowhere. He’d run out of hits.
Paul was doing many things in the 1980s that suggested he’d gone stale in the songwriting department, and George recognized them. He didn’t know why Paul chose to cover so many old Beatles songs for his film Give My Regards to Broad Street.
Paul covered six Beatles songs: “Good Day Sunshine,” “Yesterday,” “Here There And Everywhere,” “For No One,” “Eleanor Rigby,” and “The Long And Winding Road.” George told the press that he thought that was strange.
“I’ve not really heard it all, I’ve heard ‘Eleanor Rigby’ and ‘For No One,’ I think,” George said at a press conference. “It’s OK, it’s OK. I can’t understand why he did it. Makes me think it must be because he got the publishing of it or something.” George said Paul had every right to do what he wanted with his songs. However, it suggested that Paul didn’t have many more new tunes.
“I think he would have been better off to have not done so many of them and had more new tunes. But he’s not doing so bad,” George added.
Around the 1980s, Paul revealed he was also thinking of covering other older Beatles tunes and even some of John’s hits like “Beautiful Boy” and “Imagine.” George was shocked. “Paul? Maybe because he ran out of good ones of his own. It’s true,” George said to MuchMusic.
Whatever Paul was doing in the 1980s, George was not impressed. He saw right through Paul wanting to write a song with him. He knew it was because Paul wasn’t coming up with any good songs. That’s why Paul also thought of covering old Beatles and John Lennon tunes. However, whether the pair would’ve gotten together to write a song is a wonder.
