The Fact He Drops Shit Like This Mid Convos Is So Sexy

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

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)

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“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)

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“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)

Bob Dylan “Love Minus Zero / No Limit” Newport Folk Festival, July 24, 1965.

“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)

John Lennon & George Harrison backstage at the Liverpool Empire | 1963 © Philip Jones-Griffiths

"The highlight was the reading of letters from female fans that shocked the group. ‘How do they even know about this stuff!’ was one remark." - Philip Jones-Griffiths

George Harrison in the Beatles’ suite at the Tokyo Hilton, Tokyo, Japan, photographed by Asai Shimpei. (June 30th?, 1966)

Bob Dylan & Joan Baez, 1964 © Daniel Kramer.

1970

Photo by Bill Zygmant.

The Harrisong “Sour Milk Sea” was recorded by Jackie for his album Is This What You Want? (as George recalled in I Me Mine, the song was “really about meditation.... I used ‘Sour Milk Sea’ as the idea of — if you’re in the s***, don’t go around moaning about it: do something about it.”) Also while in California, 55 years ago… “Because he knows exactly what Jackie is after on his records, George is the ideal producer for him. They share a lot of feelings together and have this great musical sympathy as it were. George spent a lot of time with orchestras doing arrangements whenever these were necessary.” - Mal Evans, The Beatles Monthly, January 1969 “George was a champion. He made time for me and was protective even, inviting me to his home. I felt really privileged. It was incredible. To have my name associated with The Beatles – what better thing could happen to a budding artist?” - Jackie Lomax, Apple Records website After George’s passing, Jackie wrote and recorded the song “Friend-A-Mine” in his honor; it appears on The Ballad of Liverpool Slim. (x)