Paul McCartney had a complex, and sometimes tumultuous, relationship with fellow Beatle
George Harrison. Here's a look at George and Paul's moments of incompatibility
as bandmates and their ultimate harmony as friends.
George Harrison met Paul McCartney at school in 1954. McCartney was a year older,
but the two bonded over their love of the "skiffle" genre of music.
A few years later, McCartney introduced Harrison to John Lennon and their skiffle-centric band the
Quarrymen. Though reports of the exact date vary, historian and Beatles biographer Mark Lewisohn
has estimated that the three future Beatles met on February 6, 1958. George Harrison
is quoted as saying in Barry Miles' The Beatles Diary Volume 1: The Beatles Years,
"I'd been invited to see them play several times by Paul but for some reason never got
round to it before. I remember being very impressed with John's big thick
sideboards and trendy teddy boy clothes. He was a terribly sarcastic bugger right from day one."
McCartney recalled Harrison's audition during a 2008 interview for Uncut:
"He pulled out his guitar and played 'Raunchy,' and that was it — he was
in the band. He was a bit too young, almost out of the age range for us,
a little too baby-faced, but he was just a great player."
The Quarrymen disbanded a couple of years later. But as the 1960s began, so did the Beatles.
On January 21, 1966, George Harrison married model Pattie Boyd, forming a union that would go down in
rock 'n' roll history, as noted by Vogue. Although the wedding took place in the midst of the
Beatles' fame, Paul McCartney was the only other member of the band to attend the ceremony — and he
was Harrison's best man, according to Boyd's 2008 memoir Wonderful Tonight: George Harrison, Eric
Clapton, and Me. Boyd noted that McCartney sat between Harrison's parents during the ceremony.
During a lull, McCartney took it upon himself to entertain
Boyd's younger half-brothers, David and Boo. Boyd wrote:
"When Paul realized that David and Boo were bored, he took them outside in search of fun.
In a disused loo, with hundreds of fan letters waiting for Mrs. Harrison's attention,
they found George's bow and arrows. Paul showed the boys how to use it."
The creation of the Beatles' 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
marked a shift in power dynamics for the band. According to the Independent,
the album was based primarily on Paul McCartney's ideas. In the years that followed,
McCartney continued pushing to lead his own projects, including Magical Mystery Tour.
Then, in 1968, the Beatles traveled to India to learn transcendental meditation. The trip was
largely motivated by George Harrison's interest in Eastern philosophy and how it might inspire
the band. But his bandmates were not quite as "present" as he was. While being interviewed for
The Beatles Anthology, McCartney had this to say about Harrison's interest in Eastern philosophy:
"He was quite strict. I remember talking about the next album and he would say,
'We're not here to talk about music — we're here to meditate.'
Oh yeah, all right Georgie Boy. Calm down. Sense of humor needed here, you know."
The following year, when McCartney called Harrison to discuss the band leaving Apple Records,
Harrison replied, quote, "You'll stay on the f---ing label. Hare Krishna."
George Harrison did not receive recognition equal to John Lennon and Paul McCartney until
1969, when the Beatles recorded and released the album Abbey Road. It was the last album
the band recorded, and the first one for which Harrison was duly recognized for his
songwriting with two of the album's standout songs, "Here Comes the Sun" and "Something."
The latter song was subsequently covered by icons including Ray Charles, Elvis Presley,
Smokey Robinson, and Frank Sinatra. Lennon once said it was the "best track" on the album.
But by the time the Beatles recorded Abbey Road in 1969,
the band was already on the outs due to various grievances, and Harrison's was his lack of both
creative control and recognition. These frustrations came to a head that year,
as is apparent in a conversation recorded by writer Anthony Fawcett and included in Barry
Miles' 1998 biography Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now. McCartney said to Lennon:
"Well, the thing is, I think that until now, until this year,
our songs have been better than George's. Now this year his songs are at least as good as ours."
Harrison seemed to reject McCartney's backhanded compliment, telling Fawcett,
"That's a myth, because most of the songs this year I wrote last year or the year before, anyway.
Maybe now I just don't care whether you are going to like them or not, I just do 'em."
On January 10, 1969, during the infamous Let It Be sessions, George Harrison quit
the Beatles. As Harrison is quoted as saying in The Beatles Anthology, Ringo Starr had briefly
quit the band once before, and John Lennon was getting itchy feet, too. Harrison recalled,
"For me, to come back into the winter of discontent with
the Beatles in Twickenham was very unhealthy and unhappy."
The fact that the sessions were being filmed for Michael Lindsay-Hogg's documentary Let It Be
only heightened tensions. Harrison said,
"One day there was a row going on between Paul and me. It's actually in the film [...] I thought,
'What's the point of this? I'm quite capable of being relatively happy
on my own and I'm not able to be happy in this situation. I'm getting out of here.'"
So he told the band he was quitting. Harrison revealed to Guitar World,
"At that point in time, Paul couldn't see beyond himself. He was on a roll,
but... in his mind, everything that was going on around him was just there to accompany him.
He wasn't sensitive to stepping on other people's egos or feelings."
Harrison ended up rejoining the band two weeks later,
but his brief break was fruitful. The day he quit, he wrote the song
"Wah Wah," which became a standout track on his album All Things Must Pass the following year.
By 1969, trouble was brewing among the members of the Beatles.
"It got to a point where it was stifling us. There was too much
restriction. You know, it had to self destruct."
When George Harrison briefly quit the band during its Let It Be sessions that year,
he used his newfound freedom to pen some of the songs that would contribute to
the success of his solo album All Things Must Pass. According to Far Out magazine,
one of these songs took direct aim at Paul McCartney. The track in question,
"Run of the Mill," appears on the second side of All Things Must Pass and features lyrics such as,
"No one around you / Will carry the blame for you"
and
"You've got me wondering how I lost your friendship"
Harrison wrote in his 1980 memoir I, Me, Mine,
"I liked the words to 'Run of the Mill. It was when Apple was getting crazy [...] Paul
was falling out with us all and going around Apple offices saying 'You're no
good' — everybody was just incompetent [...] It was that period — the problem of partnerships."
On February 11, 1994, George Harrison, Paul McCartney, and Ringo Starr reunited
in McCartney's studio. The group, which was nicknamed the "Threetles," were collaborating on
reviving some unused John Lennon demos. According to the Independent, Harrison was assertive at the
sessions, pushing for a mellow, melodic guitar solo on one song. McCartney said of Harrison's
guitar solo, as quoted in Still the Greatest: The Essential Songs of the Beatles' Solo Careers,
"I felt that the song shouldn't be pulled in any way. It should stay very Beatles. It shouldn't get
to sound like me solo or George solo [...] It should sound like a Beatles song. So,
the suggestion was made that George might play a simple bluesy lick rather than get too melodic."
Harrison also insisted that his friend Jeff Lynne act as producer.
McCartney later recalled to the Independent,
"It was George who said, 'No, we need a producer.' It could be dangerous
just to all get in the studio. Could get nasty. You've got egos flying around."
According to Ultimate Classic Rock, the pair also disagreed on which lyrics would
best complete "Free As A Bird," which was started by Lennon years earlier.
McCartney told Mark Lewisohn later that year,
"That was really like working on a record with John, as Lennon/McCartney/Harrison,
because we all chipped in a bit on this one. George and I were vying for best lyric."
Despite their disagreements in music,
Harrison and McCartney remained friends until the former's death.
George Harrison died on November 29, 2001, at the age of 58. According to The New York Times,
he'd undergone surgery for throat cancer in 1998
and treatment for lung cancer and a brain tumor in 2001.
"I mean, we're all going to die one day but I'm not going to die for you quite yet."
During a 2008 interview for Uncut,
Paul McCartney recalled visiting Harrison in the hospital. McCartney told the outlet,
"I sat with him for a few hours when he was in treatment just outside New York.
He was about 10 days away from his death, as I recall. We joked about things — just amusing,
nutty stuff. It was good. It was like we were dreaming."
Paul went on to add:
"He was my little baby brother, almost, because I'd known him that long.
We held hands. It's funny, even at the height of our friendship — as guys — you
would never hold hands. It just wasn't a Liverpool thing. But it was lovely."
The day after Harrison's death, McCartney talked to reporters about his late friend:
"He's a great man and I think he'll be remembered as a great man in his own right."
Paul McCartney's daughter, Stella, was born in 1971. George Harrison's son,
Dhani, was born in 1978. Today, the Beatles offspring have a sibling-type relationship.
Speaking to Interview magazine in 2012, Stella praised Martin Scorsese's George
Harrison documentary, Living in the Material World, telling the outlet:
"I wanted to cry when Dhani was reading out George's parts. It's really important that
people know more about George, because obviously he didn't get as much attention as the others."
When Dhani got married in 2012, Stella designed the bride's wedding dress, according to E! Online.
When Stella — a successful fashion designer — was honored at a Corporate Fund gala in 2014, Dhani
surprised her with a performance of her father's song "Live and Let Die." Dhani, who carries on
his father's legacy as a musician, also played Stella's favorite song, The Everly Brothers'
"Love of My Life." In talking about his friendship with Paul's daughter, Dhani once remarked,
"Stella has looked out for me my whole life."
Paul still talks to George
After decades of friendship and collaboration, it's no surprise
that George Harrison's devotion to the spiritual realm has impacted Paul McCartney.
As McCartney said during a 2020 interview for NPR's All Things Considered,
Harrison's spirit is still fully alive in his life. McCartney said:
"George was very into horticulture, a really good gardener. So he gave me a tree as a present:
It's a big fir tree, and it's by my gate. As I was leaving my house this morning, I get out of the
car, close the gate and look up at the tree and say, 'Hi, George.' There he is, growing strongly."
For all their ups and downs, Harrison and McCartney remain connected,
if only in an abstract sort of way. McCartney told NPR:
"As the years go by, every time I look at it I go, 'That's the tree
George gave me.' George has entered that tree for me. I hope he's happy with that."
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