I don't know if they were soulmates, lovers, something else or all of the above; there's no doubt they loved each other. I know there's a lot of quotes but these touch my heart the most <3
PAUL
- Me and John, we’d known each other for a long time. Along with George and Ringo, we were best mates. And we looked into each other’s eyes, the eye contact thing we used to do, which is fairly mind-boggling. You dissolve into each other. But that’s what we did, round about that time, that’s what we did a lot. And it was amazing. You’re looking into each other’s eyes and you would want to look away, but you wouldn’t, and you could see yourself in the other person.
- I was thinking the other day, ‘I wish I had sat and just hugged John all the time when we were together. (…) I’d just sit around and hug him forever. That’s the depth of my feeling for him.
- But the great thing about me and John was it was me and John, end of story.
- When I painted him recently, I found myself saying "How do his lips go? I can't remember". Then I would think, "Of course you know. You wrote all those songs facing each other".
- John and I were perfect, really, for each other.
- We grew up literally in the same bed because when we were on holiday, hitchhiking or whatever, we would share a bed.
- I dream about him.
- I mean, we had a wonderful... I had a wonderful time with one of the most world's talented people. - John and I were two of the luckiest people in the twentieth century to have found each other. The partnership, the mix, was incredible. We both had submerged qualities that we each saw and knew. I had to be the bastard as well as the nice melodic one and John had to have a warm and loving side for me to stand him all those years. John and I would never have stood each other for that length of time had we been just one-dimensional. - We wrote our first songs together, we grew up together and we lived our lives together. And when we’d do it together, something special would happen. There’d be that little magic spark. I still remember his beery old breath when I first met him here [Woolton church fete] that day. But I soon came to love that beery old breath. And I loved John.
JOHN
- I've compared to a marriage a million times and I hope it's... understable. For people that aren't married. Or any relationship. It was a LONG relationship. It started many, many years before the American public, or the English public for that matter, knew us. Paul and I were together since he was 15, I was 16.
- How can you be suprised by your brother since you were 15?
- We were recording the other night, and I just wasn't there. Neither was Paul. We were like two robots going through the motions. We do need each other alot. When we used to get together after a month off, we used to be embarrassed about touching each other. We'd do an elaborate handshake just to hide the embarrassement... or we did mad dances. Then we got to hugging each other.
- I think it's [writing songs] partly something natural - and partly something that Paul and I spark off in each other. [...] Some people say it's a speculative stock because no one knows how long Paul and I will stay together. But we intend to stick together and if you can write songs, you can write them all your life.
- Throughout my career, I’ve selected to work with – for more than a one-night stand, say, with David Bowie or Elton John – only two people: Paul McCartney and Yoko Ono. I brought Paul into the original group, the Quarrymen, he brought George in, and George brought Ringo in. And the second person who interested me as an artist and somebody I could work with was Yoko Ono. That ain’t bad picking.
- Nobody ever said anything about Paul's having a spell on me or my having one on Paul! They never thought that was abnormal in those days, two guys together, or four guys together! Why didn't they ever say, 'How come those guys don't split up? I mean, what's going on backstage? What is this Paul and John business? How can they be together so long?
- But the only - the person I actually picked up as my partner, who I'd recognised had talent, and I could get on with, was Paul. Now, 12 or however many years later, I met Yoko, I had the same feeling. It was a different feel, but I had the same feeling. So I think as a talent scout, I've done pretty damn well! - I’d like to thank Elton [John] and the boys for having me on tonight. We tried to think of a number to finish off with so I can get out of here and be sick, and we thought we’d do a number of an old, estranged fiancé of mine, called Paul. This is one I never sang. It’s an old Beatle number and we just about know it.
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 & John Lennon at Dromoland Castle in Ireland | 27 March 1964 (II)
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)
bob dylan (first printing, second edition) lyrics 1962-1985 signed copy to george harrison, 1986. reads: "to george ; you're great and always will be!- best wishes ; bob dylan ; 3/'86"
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Another favourite moment from ‘Get Back’ is when George is complaining about delaying takes for ciggies, tea and wine so they immediately turned the recording light on him. He was ready tho.
"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]
The Basement Tapes (Trailer, 2015)
George Harrison photographed by Bill Zygmant in 1968
THE BEATLES during their MBE Interview. June 12, 1965.