~

INT: Who are some contemporary artists you admire most?

George: There are so many, I'm madly in love with Smokey Robinson, from the old Miracles. When the Beatles first came here everybody was amazed that we all liked Tamla/Motown which was at that time a relatively new company. I like Smokey but just to try and pick one or two, Smokey Robinson is my favorite. I like Dickey Betts, there are a lot of guitar players – Ry Cooder I think is sensational and I hope Warner Bros. will try and sell a few more of his albums.

— George interviewed by Steven Rosen at Warner Bros. Records offices in Burbank, California (1974)

~

“Pure Smokey started out with nice chord changes. I’ve always liked Smokey Robinson and he’s probably one of the best songwriters around. He writes great lyrics and great melodies, and he is fantastic to see in concert, because one tends to forget how many good tunes he has written. He brought out an album called Pure Smokey, and I’ve met him once or twice.

Sometimes you get an idea and write a specific song, but other times – often – it turns itself into whatever it’s going to be – with the effort put into it – and it turned into Pure Smokey.

I’m trying to make the point – if I like someone I want to say ‘I like you’. I don’t want to die and then to think 'Oh I forgot to tell them I liked them’.

Throughout my lifetime I’d hesitate I’d feel some joy But before I showed my thanks It became too late

So this song turned into an all purpose thing of generally trying to show appreciation, and then to focus on my appreciation of Smokey.”

— George Harrison, I, Me, Mine (1980)

~

“Of all Tamla-Motown acts, George listened hardest to The Miracles, whose leader, Smokey Robinson had an ‘effortless butterfly of a voice**’ that he would never bring himself to criticize.”

— Alan Clayson, George Harrison (2001)

** “It’s hard to see the greats go, and I’m a big fan of so many kinds of rock and popular music, from Bob Marley to Cole Porter to Smokey Robinson to Hoagy Carmichael. I mean, I wrote ‘Pure Smokey’ on 33 1/3 as my little tribute to his brilliant songwriting and his effortless butterfly of a voice. The Beatles did Smokey’s ‘You Really Got A Hold On Me,’ and there was a song John did that was very much influenced by Smokey - ‘This Boy.’ If you listen to the middle eight of ‘This Boy,’ it was John trying to do Smokey. It suddenly occurs to me that there’s even a line on ‘When We Was Fab’ where I sing, ‘And you really got a hold on me.’”

— George Harrison interviewed for Musician Magazine (November 1987 Edition)

More Posts from Thusspokejade and Others

thusspokejade

1 year ago

"George Quoted Bob Like People Quote The Scriptures"; A Small Compilation Of People Talking About//mentioning

"George quoted Bob like people quote the scriptures"; a small compilation of people talking about//mentioning George Harrison quoting Bob Dylan's lyrics.

Tom Petty in an interview about George [x] // Mark Seliger shares an anecdote about George where he quoted Tangled Up in Blue [x] // Jim Keltner talking about the Traveling Wilburys in an interview about Bob Dylan [x]//Olivia Harrison in the introduction of the extended version of I Me Mine//Bob Dylan interview for Rolling Stone, january 26, 1978 [x]

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thusspokejade

1 year ago

The thing about I'd have you anytime and behind that locked door is that both songs started with george trying to get to bob. He started I'd have you anytime with "let me in here, I know I've been here, let me into your heart" bc bob was distant in that trip to woodstock. Behind that locked door is an entire song with a similar idea but he also wants to show to bob that he is loved by everyone ("the love you are blessed with this/world is waiting for") and by george himself ("with only this short time/I'm gonna be here with you") and also how much george loves to listen to him ("and the tales you've told me/from the things that you saw/makes me want our your heart"). And then on the concert for bangladesh when bob goes there and play in the concert he is basically opening himself to that possibility, yknow??? And when George says "I'd like to bring an old friend of us all, Mr Bob Dylan" he is reinforcing those ideas he mentioned on behind that locked door, that Bob is loved by everyone, but he does it in a much bigger scale somehow

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thusspokejade

1 year ago

Rollin’ Rain and Hard Thunder - A Compilation Film by Swingin’ Pig from Swingin’ Pig (alternate account) on Vimeo.

PLEASE READ:

Here it is. I spent about a month editing this video together. I ripped the footage from a bootlegged tape of “Renaldo & Clara,” a 1978 film that was edited by Howard Alk and Bob Dylan himself. Some snippets are from Martin Scorsese’s incredible Netflix documentary “Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story.” If you’d like to see “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” and “One More Cup of Coffee” (both of which are in this compilation) in 4K quality, do yourself a favor and watch it. There are other incredible performances in it that weren’t in “Renaldo & Clara.”

Anyway, as I was saying, this footage is from a source tape and some of the best quality versions that are available at the moment. Someday these performances will be rescanned, restored and released, but for now, this is what I have to work with visually. I did my best to correct the faded colors, correct the lighting, and sharpen the image a bit, but please realize that this was recorded from a television broadcast in the 1970s, and unaltered since then, so the images won’t be perfect.

The audio is a different story, luckily. It took a long time to do, but I successfully overdubbed all of the original low-quality audio (it had a lot of hiss and was broadcasted in mono) with the soundboard recordings released on the Rolling Thunder Boxset. This took longer than I had expected because the footage and audio were sped up in the bootleg tape. But I eventually calculated the difference in speed and was able to synchronize them.

So, please enjoy this labor of love! Below is somewhat of a setlist and some of my personal thoughts on “standout” performances in this video.

CHAPTERS: 0:07 - It Ain’t Me, Babe 5:26 - It Takes A Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry [Excellent, rocking version] 8:32 - Fascinating historical commentary by David Blue 9:20 - A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall [released on YouTube and on Netflix’s “Rolling Thunder Revue” documentary] 14:15 - Romance in Durango 19:05 - Isis [Incredible performance, superior to the one in the documentary. His voice is sheer power and cuts like a knife. I dare say it’s Dylan’s best-filmed performance of the tour. The way he moves his arms and hands makes you feel like you’re looking into another dimension] 24:20 - Never Let Me Go [feat. Joan Baez] 27:05 - Interesting footage of the revue visiting Niagra Falls 27:32 - One More Cup of Coffee (Valley Below) [released on YouTube and on Netflix’s “Rolling Thunder Revue” documentary] 31:35 - Sara [Gorgeous version with some beautiful footage I edited together in the beginning. The verse starting at 34:54 has incredible enunciation] 36:21 - Just Like a Woman [This is my favorite version of the song. Just watch listen to the whole thing, uninterrupted. It’s just phenomenal. The bridge (“It was raining from the first”) is some of the strongest singing I’ve ever heard from Dylan and then in the subsequent verse, he abruptly drops into this sweet tone. Just phenomenal] 40:32 - Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door [Beautiful version, superior to the one released in the Netflix documentary. The instrumental at 42:56 gives me chills] 44:35 - An emotional and cathartic ending.

Enjoy this gem while you can!

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thusspokejade

1 year ago

idk if you guys ever saw this but here's a clip of the first and only interview george gave in brasil

the guy in the background is basically saying ''look at this men with this dirty ass shoes, he looks poor asf, you probably don't know he's actually a fucking beatle''

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thusspokejade

1 year ago