Despite Paul McCartney’s sometimes unkind treatment of him throughout their time together as bandmates, George Harrison always stood up for his fellow Beatles.
As bandmates, George Harrison and Paul McCartney didn’t always get along. But George never shied away from standing up for his fellow Beatles when the need came. He expressed his opinions regarding Paul at other times.
George Harrison said Paul McCartney pushed him aside
George’s marriage to Paul broke down in 1963 when he began penning songs. Geoge’s songs were frequently ignored by Paul, John Lennon, and occasionally by George Martin, the producer of The Beatles. For every record, they let him have two tracks. But even with George’s growing songwriting, it wasn’t enough to eliminate them all.
Not only did Paul forbid George from recording the majority of his tunes, but he also began to treat George like a glorified session musician. He advised the guitarist for The Beatles on what to play and when. George said that Paul ceased asking him to play his songs entirely towards the end of The Beatles.
George said to NME in 1976 (via Harrison Archive), “When you’re so close, you tend to lock each other up in pigeonholes. Musically, with Ringo and John, I had no problem. But with Paul, well, it reached a point when he wouldn’t let me play on sessions. It was part of our splitting up.”
George eventually became tired of Paul’s controlling behavior during the Let It Be meetings and abruptly left the group.
Musically, George and Paul got along the least well. “I don’t know about being in a band with him, how that would work out,” George said to Rolling Stone in 1979. We all seem to have our songs to sing.
“And my problem was that it would always be very difficult to get in on the act, because Paul was very pushy in that respect. When he succumbed to playing on one of your tunes, he’d always do good. But you’d have to do fifty-nine of Paul’s songs before he’d even listen to one of yours. So, in that respect, it would be very difficult to ever play with him.”
George still defended Paul
George and Paul’s friendship didn’t get any better when The Beatles broke up.
Most of the time, George’s feelings for Paul were mixed. In an interview on Aspel & Co., he revealed that they were tentatively reestablishing their relationship after a ten-year breakup.
George explained, “I didn’t really know Paul and never really saw much of him through the last 10 or 12 years, But more recently, we’ve been hanging out and getting to know each other, going for dinner and meeting and having a laugh.”
Paul continued to use the band’s legal problems at the time as an excuse for missing The Beatles’ induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, notwithstanding this.
Still, the two got along just as well as individuals. George told Rolling Stone in 1979, “Yeah, well now we don’t have any problems whatsoever as far as being people is concerned, and it’s quite nice to see him… we’re cool as far as being pals goes.”
George said, “I think of him as a good friend, really, but a friend who I don’t really have that much in common with anymore, You know, sort of like you meet people in your life who mean a certain thing; it’s just like you’re married, and then you’re divorced, and you wish the other person well, but life has taken you to other places, to friendlier … whatever the expression is … confines.”
But George was always ready to stand up for his old friend. He stated to NME, “But at the same time, I have a tendency to defend Paul John and Ringo too if anyone else said anything without qualification about them. After going through all that together, there must be something good about it.”
“It’s just that around 1968 everyone’s egos started going crazy. Maybe it was just a lack of tact or discretion.”
The pair never feuded, even though George never hid his opinions of his bandmate
Though he might have stood up for Paul when needed, George wasn’t shy about sharing his thoughts on him. George clarified during a news conference, “For the last few years, I’ve said my mind to him, you know, just whenever I felt something.”
When George learned that Paul intended to cover some of John Lennon’s successes as well as classic Beatles songs, he was taken aback.
George said to MuchMusic, “Paul? Maybe because he ran out of good ones of his own. It’s true.”
Despite what the tabloids said, George and Paul never had a falling out over anything during their lifetime together.
George said on Aspel & Co. “But it’s definitely just one of those things that these people sit around and think, ‘Let’s have a fight between George and Paul, now,’ you know, But actually, I love Paul, he’s my mate, and it doesn’t matter what they say in the papers, they’re not going to get much mileage out of that one.”