Paul McCartney Seemed ‘Embarrassed’ by George Harrison’s Musical Limitations

Paul McCartney and George Harrison met on the bus to school and had a close relationship. McCartney looked at Harrison as his younger brother, even long after they’d both grown into adulthood. This ultimately became a problem for Harrison. He didn’t feel respected by McCartney or John Lennon in the studio. It didn’t help that McCartney always made his frustration with his younger bandmate clear.

Paul McCartney grew frustrated with George Harrison in the studio

In the early half of the 1960s, Lennon and McCartney worked head-to-head on their songs. They wrote together and consulted one another while listening to their records. They consulted with Harrison far less frequently.

“George was more of a loner; he was the outsider in a way,” audio engineer Geoff Emerick wrote in the book Here, There and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of the Beatles. “As the ‘bottom tier’ Beatles, he and Ringo seemed to have developed a strong friendship, and I often saw him huddled with Lennon, working out guitar parts, but I rarely noticed much positive interaction between George and Paul.”

While McCartney and Harrison had known each other longer than the rest of The Beatles, they bickered often. McCartney even seemed embarrassed by Harrison when he made mistakes in the studio.

“Paul sometimes actually seemed a bit embarrassed by Harrison’s musical limitations; certainly there were many instances of eye-rolling when poor George was wrestling unsuccessfully with a solo or lead part,” Emerick wrote. “I imagine in those circumstances that Paul was frustrated, probably thinking that he could have mastered the part faster and played it better.”

Geoff Emerick said George Harrison had a tough time working with Paul McCartney and John Lennon

While Emerick said he wasn’t as close with Harrison as the other Beatles, he still empathized with him.

“To be fair, Harrison faced an uphill battle against the massive talents of Lennon and McCartney,” he wrote. “For one thing, he was the youngest band member and was therefore frequently treated like a kid brother, not to be taken seriously. For another, he didn’t have a songwriting partner to bounce ideas off of.”

Emerick added that while Lennon sometimes helped Harrison when he was bored, McCartney rarely did. Emerick believed that McCartney thought Harrison should figure it out for himself.

The Beatles guitarist didn’t feel respected by his bandmates

By the mid-1960s, Harrison wanted to take a more prominent songwriting role in the band. Lennon and McCartney were not very welcoming to him.

“I remember walking through Woolton, the village where John was from, and saying to John, ‘Look, you know, it should just be you and me who are the writers,'” McCartney told The New Yorker. “We never said, ‘Let’s keep George out of it,’ but it was implied.”

Harrison eventually grew tired of Lennon and McCartney’s restrictions. By the time The Beatles broke up, Harrison was eager to move on. In his solo career, he had a chance to bring his songs to an audience.