Over Easy:Meet The Beatle

I was excited to hear the 50th anniversary edition of George Harrison’s “All Things Must Pass”. The remixes of The Beatles’ “Sgt Pepper”, “The White Album”, and “Abbey Road” had been revelatory. I thought for sure the infamous Phil Spector ‘wall of reverb’ would finally be torn down, revealing the phenomenal collection of songs that made up the original 1970 release with the clarity they deserve. So when I sat down to listen, with the phone on mute, and a glass of wine at hand, it was far from the experience I expected. The songs sounded as good as ever and Harrison’s vocals had greater presence but the 50 year old production was still grandiose in the way it had always been. I’d figured like McCartney’s “Let it Be Naked” remixes that there’d be a dramatic overhaul of the sonic approach. “All Things Must Pass” had been a statement, a moment of musical liberation for the songwriter whose work had been underappreciated within the world’s most famous band, but who had contributed arguably the best songs on their last album, “Here Comes the Sun” and “Something”. (Let the dispute begin!) Listen to the beautifully understated version of “Isn’t It a Pity” on the outtakes disc and consider that George had unsuccessfully presented the song for possible inclusion on albums from “Revolver” onwards. As for the remixes, George’s son Dhani and remix engineer Paul Hicks had to grapple with tough questions in working on this epic recording and as I continued listening, I better understood the choices they made.

But all of this took me back to March 28, 1988 when George Harrison walked into MuchMusic for a live interview, one that had been set up and cancelled without explanation a few weeks earlier, and which we were strictly forbidden from telling our viewers about in advance.

For the first time in its existence, the MuchMusic studio was quiet. It was packed with people who’d drifted down to witness this in person rather than on a monitor in their offices. The air felt different. As technical director Sylvie Marcoux said, “when George walked in, the studio was like a church’.

George was reserved at times, wickedly funny at others, but always an ideal interview subject, one who listened closely to the questions and answered them with candour. Before starting he grabbed a quick ciggie, as he did throughout his visit. He talked about making the video for “When We Was Fab” with Godley and Crème.

“I said, just go home and smoke something and listen to this and come up with an idea.”

This was in contrast to the short pieces The Beatles used to make for songs like “Strawberry Fields Forever” or “Rain” when they’d “just go in a field and do it. It wasn’t ‘how to spend $200,000.00 on three and a half minutes of rubbish’.”

When I mentioned “Magical Mystery Tour” as an example of easy spending, he replied,

“That was just a couple of 16 mil cameras and a bunch of loonies on a bus.”

My most nervous moment came as George went down an extended rabbit hole on Beatles’ tech, fascinating for me, but perhaps not for 99% of our viewers. He talked about a tambourine on the Beatles cd that he’d never heard before and which sounded like “an old garbage can lid. I don’t know where that came from.”

He brought up the making of “Tomorrow Never Knows”, which he credited to being on “Rubber Soul”, as opposed to “Revolver”. I did not correct him.

“We all made little abstract sounds on our home tape machines. There was a bit in the 60’s when we all bought Stockhausen (German experimental composer) records and went avant garde… avant garde a clue.”

I got us back on safer ground by asking about the recent Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame event, when The Beatles were inducted, but which Paul McCartney skipped.

“It was ‘get the lads here, give them a pat on the back and give them a medal’. It’s a shame he (Paul) missed it because he contributed so much to it.”

Harrison named James Brown’s version of “Something” as his favourite cover of one of his songs. “It was a ‘B’ side, so I sent him a postcard saying they should make it the ‘A’ side. It’s a killer!”

I still love the quaintness of George sending James Brown a postcard.

The mention of “Something” gave me an entrée to ask about a car commercial using the song, and brought a direct response.

“Somebody conned me into it by giving me lots of money. I regret doing it because I always hated hearing “California Girls” selling peanuts.”

Cue my most famous 30 seconds on the web (about 2.5 million YouTube views). I asked George what he thought of Paul’s versions of Beatle songs on “Give My Regards to Broad Street”. George said he’d heard it once, but “didn’t notice that they were new versions.” Laughter in the studio followed. I wondered if he had heard that McCartney was considering covering some other songs including some by John Lennon like “Beautiful Boy” and “Imagine”. George looked genuinely surprised.

“Paul?”

“Yes”

“Well maybe cause he ran out of good ones of his own.”

More laughter in the room as your nonplussed host said,

“Well now we’ve got that on record.”

To which George replied,

“It’s true.”

The most memorable quote from George was this one.

“You don’t have to be in the public eye to exist.”

And the best moment for me came after the interview was over and we’d gone to video, when George said,

“We got into stuff there which I never dreamed of. It’s good cause it makes it different to all the other stuff I’ve been talking about.”

And the postscript, delivered as he surveyed the chaos that was MuchMusic,

“This is a very casual program.”