“The Musicians Crowded Around Center Stage For Final Bows, Cheers Washed Up In Waves From The Audience,

He is the funniest guy ever like why did he lie about his birth date by 13 days and why did he lie about is height. Bob cmon you're NOT 5'11.

A letter to Alistair Taylor from George Harrison, and the photo in question; images courtesy of Heritage Auctions.

“Sometimes, being the Beatles resident Mr Fixit didn’t seem such a great idea. Like the day George sent me a note from America. I’m not sure exactly where it was from, but then neither was he. The address was given as ‘Somewhere in America’ and the date as ‘Sunday the something’. George told me he had seen a great picture of him in the US papers taken in an unguarded moment when he was pulling an angry face and flashing a well-known two-fingered salute. George thought this was the most hilarious photo of him ever taken. He enclosed a scrap of a newspaper with this image on and my task was to track down the original. He wanted to buy the negative, have a lifesize print made of it, and have it mounted on hardboard and have it screwed on the outside of his front door. There are a lot of photographers in America and tracking down the one who had taken this particular snap took a great deal of time and effort. But eventually a friend in Fleet Street provided a vital contact and I managed it. George was delighted with the result, but the lifesize image was so alarming he did relent enough to switch it to his bathroom door. And he had them printed on the front of his Christmas card with the seasonal greeting ‘Why don’t you…?’ George always did have a rather individual sense of humour. George wrote, ‘To Al and Lesley, without whom it would not have been possible.’” - Alistair Taylor, With The Beatles (2003)

This might connect with another anecdote:

“The Beatles don’t collect pin-up photographs of themselves, but love anything a bit off-beat. In the spare bedroom, next to George and Patti[e]’s, there’s a massive 6-ft. high photograph of George, propped up against a wall, looking as though he’s about to hit somebody. George thinks he’s getting a bit tired of it, though, and might throw it out.” - The Beatles Book, January 1967 (x)

bob dylan, woodstock, ny, 1967

Joan Baez & Bob Dylan, Newark, New Jersey, 1964 © Daniel Kramer.

Okay I’m curious, what exactly is the story of George Harrison at Woodstock?

I will try to be brief.

Ok, so in 1968, right after the white album was released, George was invited to go to woodstock for the thanksgiving. As he said on I Me Mine; "I was invited there by The Band. It was Thanksgiving time and I'd just finished producing a Jackie Lomax album, directly after the Beatles 'White' Album."

He also mentions in an interview — I think it's for Musician, in 1987? — that he thinks he was invited there by Robbie Robertson.

Robbie mentions the visit in his memoir, Testimony, and he says that he had to convince Albert Grossman to let George stay at his house, and also that "Bob [Dylan] was keeping a very low profile, and when I asked him if he wanted to see George while he was in town, he too was a little iffy at first."

It's a very known fact that George was a big fan of Bob Dylan — he mentioned that in a lot of interviews, and everyone around him mentioned that too, besides the fact that he was always quoting Bob —, and during that time in Woodstock, he wrote two songs with Bob.

The first one is I'd have you anytime:

I have a post about the unused lyrics for that song that might be interesting for now.

George mentions in I Me Mine that "He [Bob] seemed very nervous, and I felt a little uncomfortable — it seemed strange, especially as he was in his own house.", and he also says that the song was written in the third day there. Later, Olivia mentioned that, when George wrote the lines 'Let me in here, I know I've been here, Let me into your heart', he was "directly talking to Bob".

The second song that they wrote together was...

One thing about this song: it wasn't finished. There are only demos of it. But it still is a very interesting song... in the lyrics on I Me Mine, there is this unused part:

That was substituted with "I get tired of being Beatle Jeff" / "I get tired of being Beatle Ted".

One fun fact about that song is that it had different names through the years. This was mentioned the George Harrison website: "Nowhere To Go was a collaboration between George and Dylan from their 1968 Thanksgiving visit that also yielded ‘I’d Have You Anytime’. It was first called ‘Thingymubob’, then ‘When Everybody Comes to Town’. ‘I Get Tired’ was also a working title and finally, by the time of the All Things Must Pass sessions, it is titled ‘Nowhere To Go’."

George mentioned the song using the title 'Thingymubob' in a letter to Bob, where he wrote the chords of the song.

Going back to The Band, Robbie said this, on testimony: "I was very curious about recording techniques the Beatles had discovered. George described their process as extremely experimental and sometimes accidental. I could definitely relate to that. When George inquired about the Band’s recording methods, I could barely keep up with him. For every question I posed to him, he asked me two about [Music From] Big Pink and The Basement Tapes [...]"

He also said this: "But George was one of the most open people I’d ever met, and Pattie was one of the prettiest and sweetest. George spoke incredibly candidly about the problems within the Beatles. John, he said, was far out on a limb, testing his balance. “Kinda crazy,” he laughed. And our dear Ringo was following in the tradition of many a hard-drinking Brit—apparently he had threatened to quit the band at one point. George was quick to admit there were serious tensions between Paul and him. 'Whenever I present a tune, the Lennon and McCartney songwriting team will ignore it as long as they can,' he said. 'Sometimes I even have to fight for my guitar parts. Paul has such a clear idea of how the song should go that he tells me what to play, or he wants to play it himself.'"

Two very interesting things here: the fact that George was talking about the problems in the Beatles, and also the fact that he was very interested in asking about the band records.

From I Me Mine; "When I wrote 'All Things Must Pass', I was trying to do a Robbie Robertson-Band sort of tune and that is what it turned into." He also mentioned that, while writing the song, he always thought about Levon singing it. (I'm not sure about where he mentioned that, tho.)

There are some songs that Bob showed to George on that time and he played later — for example, I threw it all away, a song that was released on Nashville Skyline, was played by George during the get back sessions, in january 1969, even before Bob recorded his version, and also I don't want to do it, that was released by George in 1985 —, and that travel was basically the start of a long collaboration in music, between George and Bob.

Also, George talking about the problems in the Beatles during that travel makes Nowhere to Go have even more sense. And then, when the beatles got together to record an album, it was on the get back/let it be sessions.... when he famously quit the beatles for some days.

Well, i think I've talked a lot, but that's basically the story. George also gave a guitar to Bob, but I'm not sure about when that happened — especially because he used that guitar during the get back/let it be sessions, and then on the abbey road sessions...

Anyway, here are two pictures; in the first, Bob and George, and in the second, Robbie and George.

AND THAT'S IT! i think. Sorry if this wasn't brief at all. It took me one hour and a half to write all this, so i think i probably got lost somewhere and maybe i am forgetting something.

i want to cry. i threw it all away. fucking unreleased. he remembered it all from playing it with bob and listening to bob sing it to him . please. someone hold me

In July [1971], the music press gave reports of the many people George was assembling for the concert. It was rumoured that his friend Dylan might even turn up, but Terry [Doran] told me George was having slight problems with Bob. Dylan had not performed for quite a while. Now George was asking him to make his 'comeback' in the hardest of all performing situations: at Madison Square Gardens with a bunch of musicians he had never played with before. One day during rehearsals, Dylan apparently got uptight and said he just couldn't do it; he was too nervous. George went wild: "You're nervous! What, are you crazy? I've never performed without the other three. At least you're used to performing on your own!" Dylan then explained that the concert was becoming a hassle. Again, George went wild. "I'm the one trying to put it together. All you have to do is sing!" Dylan walked out of the rehearsals. (He was not seen again by George, or anyone else, until the night of the concert. George didn't know if he was coming or not. So when the time allotted for Dylan came in the concert, live and on stage, George looked into the stage wings. There was Dylan, ready to come on. George still didn't know he was going to perform until Dylan started to stroll on stage. Dylan was a major hit, possibly the limelight of the show. It did Dylan good, too. He had regained his confidence and returned to the road for a tour shortly after the concert.)

Waiting for the Beatles: An Apple Scruff's Story, Carol Bedford (1984)

george suggesting bob dylan should join the beatles was like when a couple opens up their relationship to try to save the marriage

“When Julian went to George’s concert the next day, Neil Aspinall, John, and I went to talk with Lee Eastman, Linda’s father. While there, Julian called with a message from George: “All’s forgiven, George loves you and he wants you to come to his party tonight.” We did go the party at the Hippopotamus Club, where George, John, and Paul hugged. John, Julian, and I left New York the following day to spend Christmas in West Palm Beach, Florida.

On December 29, 1974, the voluminous documents were brought down to John in Florida by one of Apple’s lawyers. “Take out your camera, Linda,” he joked to me. Then he called Harold Seider to go over some final points.

When John hung up the phone, he looked wistfully out the window. I could almost see him replaying the entire Beatles experience in his mind.

He finally picked up his pen and, in the unlikely backdrop of Disney World, at the Polynesian Village Hotel, officially ended the greatest rock ’n’ roll band in history by simply scrawling John Lennon at the bottom of the page.”

– FROM MAY PANG’S INSTAMATIC KARMA (2008)