The Song George Harrison Wrote After One of His Albums Was Rejected
George Harrison was an impeccable songwriter and musician after The Beatles broke up. He was the first Beatle to receive a No. 1 hit as a solo artist and continued to find success in the 1970s. However, in the 1980s, he struggled to keep up with the latest musical trends, and his studio wanted him to make more modern music. For that reason, they rejected one of his albums, and Harrison wrote a song to express his frustration.
‘Somewhere in England’ went through a long recording process
Somewhere in England is the ninth studio album by George Harrison and was released in 1981. The 1980s were moving into a new era defined by pop and punk rock. However, Harrison didn’t want to transition into this new era, continuing to release his trademark calm and folksy music. For Somewhere in England, he wanted to return to his spiritual roots.
However, Warner Bros. Records rejected the album, believing it didn’t have enough commercial appeal. So, Harrison went back to make revisions. The album turned into a bit of an unfocused mess, including two covers of Hoagy Carmichael songs. In George Harrison: Reconsidered by Timothy White, Harrison said he had always wanted to cover Carmichael songs and figured this was the opportunity to do it.
“As for Hoagy Carmichael, I’ve been nuts for him since I was a kid,” Harrison explained. “I cut his ‘Hong Kong Blues’ on Somewhere In England, and there’s still a few more of his I wouldn’t mind doing, like ‘Old Rocking Chair’. Maybe one day – not just yet, but one day when I get a bit older – me and Eric can sing ‘Old rocking chair has got me…’”
George Harrison wrote the song ‘Blood from a Clone” after his album was rejected
When his album was rejected, George Harrison was told that a survey was taken to find out what constitutes a hit, and it showed that hits should be love songs aimed at “14-to-20-year-olds.” Harrison believed this excluded him because he didn’t make music for that audience.
To air out his grievances with the evolving industry, Harrison wrote “Blood from a Clone”. The title is Harrison’s way of saying that modern music lacked originality and the lyrics reflected his ire with the studio’s direction. In a 1987 interview with Creem, Harrison said the track was his way of shedding “some of the frustrations.”
“They were telling me: ‘Well, we like it, but we don’t really hear a single.’ And then other people were saying, ‘now, look, radio stations are having all these polls done in the street to find out what constitutes a hit single, and they’ve decided a hit single is a song of love gained or lost directed at 14-to-20-year-olds.’ And I said, ‘Shit, what chance does that give me?’ So anyway, I went in and wrote that song just to shed some of the frustrations. And there’s things in there like ‘There is no sense to it, pure pounds and pence to it… They’re so intense, too, makes me amazed.”
‘Somewhere in England’ wasn’t a major hit for Harrison
While George Harrison tried to make the album more appealing for a mainstream audience, Somewhere in England failed to strike a chord. It peaked at No. 13 in the U.K. and No. 11 in the U.S. It was the first album released by Harrison in his solo career that failed to reach gold status.
The one hit from the album was “All Those Years Ago”, Harrison’s tribute song to John Lennon. The song reached No. 2 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, and Somewhere in England benefitted from having the track in its song listing.
