George Harrison In A Recording Session, July, 1969.

'Way Out' George Harrison at Chiswick Park in London, England | May 1966 © Robert Whitaker

'Way Out' shows George Harrison during a cigarette break in the Chiswick Park filming. George wears his sunglasses and appears oblivious to the crowd gathered behind him, locked out of the park, but within spitting distance of him. It was the afternoon, and children from the local school were returning home – and realised what was going on in the park. A crowd soon gathered, hoping for a glimpse of their heroes. This dramatic photograph succeeds in epitomising, in a single image, the glamour, fame and magnetism of the Beatles. "Somehow one schoolgirl got through the security net. You can imagine how thrilled she was. It was quite touching – The Beatles were so friendly towards her and behaved like perfect gentlemen", Robert recalls.

ONE THING ABOUT GEORGE HARRISON IS HES GONNA DANCE WHILE PLAYING HIS GUITAR !!!

THE BEATLES during their MBE Interview. June 12, 1965.

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)

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

Miss O'Dell: Hard Days and Long Nights with The Beatles, The Stones, Bob Dylan and Eric Clapton / Romeo and Juliet; Dire Straights / If Not For You; George Harrison and Bob Dylan / George Harrison for Creem magazine; 1987 / Tom Petty for Rolling Stone; 2002 / Romeo and Juliet; Dire Straights / Bob Dylan for Rolling Stone; 2001

When I say George Harrison is not appreciated enough I mean it in the sense of his massive impact on music and western culture is always ignored or overlooked, if credit is given it is always in a diffused. for eg. the hippie movement would never have happened if it hadn't been for george (or it would have very different imagery and aesthetics if it did) but you never see people say that. some will credit the beatles trip to India as the ideological start of the hippie movement but never credit george directly

george was also the first to make music truly international. Not only in terms of influence but he was willing to learn from and share his platform with artists whose formats were very different from what pop music of the time was used to. george's influence opened up pop music which had been v one dimensional at the time. and as i said while the beatles are credited for it, it's always unilateral when it had always been just george ploughing on with his interest for the most part, inspite of often being ridiculed by his friends and bandmates for it

also concert for Bangladesh! While music had long been political he was the first to use his platform to do something that would have a tangible, real life consequence. The Bangladesh/Pakistan situation wasn't very different from Israel/Palestine today because Pakistan was being backed by the US, and george was warned against it but he still went ahead! Who has the guts to organise a Concert for Palestine today? King of using his privilege and I'd have that any day over the vaguely "political" music of early bob dylan, pete seeger et all with left wing jargon and folk tunes appropriated from poor black ppl.