george harrison (+ john lennon) on the set of magical mystery tour, 1967
Maybe i’m literally just fucking crazy but also it feels like a callback to idiot wind
“i woke up on the roadside” “i’ve been sleeping on the road” and then talks about what’s in his head . now obviously the going going gone line is more specific to the fact he’s been on tour for a year during the rolling thunder revue, but still.
and holy fucking shit the line about diamonds and rust. BEFORE it’s all diamonds and rust . he’s saying that he feels he can salvage their relationship and not leave it in this “diamonds and rust” memory, that they can still be friends and have some sort of nuance - but first, for joan’s own good, and bobs, joan has to let go. joan has to stop loving him. and he knows it too, and he’s saying the same to himself too.
the first time he sings this verse he’s more gentle. he also admits that he’s still in love with joan. literally just right then and there. he says i’m in love with you, but you have to understand that freeing yourself means letting go of me. the next time he just says “i’ve been telling you baby”, being a bit more mean and direct. he still calls her baby but it’s still way more like “come on just get over it”.
i think it can also connect to this line from winds of the old days about being set free -
this entire song is about bob, but this line directly references a hard rains a gonna fall. there’s so much analysis to be done of this line and how it’s about bob moving on from protest song and also how bob not only lies to all the reporters, but to his loved ones. “the sixties are over so set him free” means leaving that all behind, and i think yes she’s singing to bob but here she’s singing a bit to herself, saying that her and bob will never be together, it’s no longer the sixties so she needs to let their potential child go. and i think bob is directly responding to this: you want to be free, it’s you who needs to let go, not me. and this goes back to bob Not Taking Responsibility like in a simple twist of fate. i forgot if i yapped about it here but like when joan changed the lyrics to simple twist of fate, bob was originally just “i was born too late blame it on a simple twist of fate” but joan said basically i’m better than this, she adds “i was born too late to blame it on a simple twist of fate”, meaning i’m not just going to simply blame it on fate, i know what i’ve done and i’ve taken my own actions. and bob does the same thing here, he refuses to acknowledge that he also initiated shit with joan . and holy fucking shit this song is insane
This is just my 2 cents, but I think the way Get Back is framed as Paul being the only one who cared is incorrect.
It's not that George didn't care. He was in good spirits at the start, offered songs, offered suggestions to make the songs as good as they could be, etc. The others weren't interested.
At one point George mentions Magical Mystery Tour, and I think that's significant. George decided to stay silent and let things play out when MMT was being filmed, and it turned out to be a bit of a disaster. It was like he could see Get Back was going to end the same way unless he spoke up. He was determined to prevent The Beatles from repeating a mistake.
To me, that's the opposite of not caring.
And look what happened as a result. The Beatles did change course, and the Get Back sessions became monumentally better.
Paul said once that George was the one who always got them out of doing things none of them actually wanted to do because he wasn't afraid to put his foot down, and this was one of those cases imo. It might not make him the most popular with fans, but George saved the band a lot of grief by being that person.
Paul McCartney & George Harrison in Tokyo, Japan | July 1966 © Robert Whitaker
bob dylan and george harrison couples halloween costume
Great “behind the scenes” pic from Magical Mystery Tour.
George Harrison in A Hard Day's Night (1964) Directed by Richard Lester
Not used lyrics for i'd have you anytime are insane
"All that i can say is not enough/it comforts me to know we're so much in love" "(without a doubt)"
"Let me hear you" "let me say it to you"
"I've got a song" "it isn't long"(? I think?) "Let me play it to you"
And of course whatever the hell "and i'm so glad that you're my love" is supposed to mean
George Harrison & Bob Dylan “If Not For You” Concert For Bangladesh rehearsal, July 31, 1971.
Bob Dylan & Joan Baez, 1964 © Daniel Kramer.