Expert: Melissa Davis - 6/7/2008

Question
QUESTION: How many months or years did George learn master the guitar?
I know he started at 13 but what age did he get real good at it?

ANSWER:
Hi Ava,

Good to hear from you again!

We've talked about George's guitar playing - whether he started at 11 or 12 or 13 (depending on the source of information) and this is a great follow-up question.

The answer to your question depends a little bit on what someone considers 'really good.' One of the ways to look at it is that the other Beatles thought he was great at it and not only never considered replacing him, but didn't take a turn recording lead until the recording of their last album, Abbey Road. That says a lot, considering the level of recording they were doing.

So, consider that George started playing that L3 guitar in 1956; I think you've probably already heard that even at the beginning, he wanted to play melodies and would practice until his fingers bled.

Paul met John in July 1957 and started playing with the Quarrymen in September, playing in public the first time in October (Paul 'tried' to play lead, but got 'sticky fingers' and never wanted to play lead again after that!). Paul and George were already friends and rode to school together on the bus everyday talking about music, guitars, Elvis, chords, etc. Somewhere in between September of 1957 and February or March of 1958, George was asked to play a song that was a strong lead guitar part, Raunchy, for John (and possibly the rest of the Quarrymen at the time). Paul meant it as an audition for his young friend; John was not thrilled with letting someone join who was 2 1/2 years younger than he, but let him play and was too impressed to say 'no.'

George didn't exactly join right away, he sort of went around to wherever they were playing and hung out until he just became a member of the band. So, he was already good at picking out a melody on the guitar, rather than just strumming chords, which is what John and Paul did.

From 1958 - August 1960, they played at their own families' parties and things like George's brother's wedding receptions. Talent contests (they never won), street fairs, church socials, union hall Christmas parties (George's father got them a few jobs there because he was with the busdrivers' union in Liverpool). They played for free food or beer sometimes. They were getting better with practice, but none of them was great at anything in particular.

George never took lessons - none of the Beatles did. He just played and played and played as much as he could. They learned to play by listening to their favorite songs repeatedly, playing along to learn the parts through repetition. These were Chuck Berry riffs, Eddie Cochran and Elvis's lead guitar player. George especially loved the American guitarist, Carl Perkins. Paul said sometimes they would hear that a guy in another part of town knew a chord that they didn't, so they'd get on the bus and ride all the way across Liverpool to learn it.

In August 1960, they went to Hamburg, Germany for a 3 month job playing at a club in a very rough part of the city. It was more or less SINK or SWIM - they had to improve every night to bring in customers so they could get paid. They also had to play for very long hours, sometimes 12 hours out of 48 - one hour on stage, one hour off around the clock, getting plenty of practice. They were playing mainly to people who didn't understand English, so they had to communicate on stage through their music. You can see between all these factors - they all started getting to be a good band.

By the time they returned to Liverpool in December 1960 - they were very, very good! The crowd at the first dance they played just after Christmas went wild for them. Funnily enough, they thought they were from Germany, because the poster for the show read: DIRECT FROM GERMANY! All the other bands in Liverpool suddenly wanted to go to Hamburg to play.

During 1961, they went back to Hamburg, met Ringo (they even recorded with him playing drums instead of their usual drummer, Pete Best) and also recorded a single as a back-up band. On the B side, they got a chance to record a song of their own and chose a George composition - a minor tour de force for an untrained, 18 year-old. It's called Cry For A Shadow and it demonstrates his already distinctive style.

All these things added to the practice hours they were putting in on their instruments. Paul took over playing the bass when their bassist, Stuart Sutcliffe, decided to stay on in Hamburg to go to art school there and be close to his new German girlfriend.

If you listen to the first singles they recorded - Love Me Do the lead is really contributed by John's harmonica, not by lead guitar. None of the guitar work stands out on the song. Please Please Me, on the other hand, has a lot more exciting guitar sound - it starts out with George doing the intro that is so recognizable now, which is repeated throughout the song.

Beatle songs began to feature what they called 'the middle 8' referring to the middle section of a song structured with an intro, 2 verses, chorus, middle 8 (or break), verse, chorus, coda. The middle 8 (usually 8 measures - you can count it out as you listen)  changed the tempo, featured a lead vocal or a lead guitar part, and shifted the song's meaning toward the resolution of the last verse.

Listen to PPM (or better still watch their Ed Sullivan appearance on youtube). You can hear George at the end of the middle 8 (when John sings, "I don't want to sound complaining, but you know it's always rain in my heart..." Count it out and you'll immediately get the hang of their middle 8 section.

The point is, that those two parts - the intro and the middle 8, very rapidly became something that gave George a chance to shine at lead. Listen to I Want to Hold Your Hand. He does the intro and the end of the middle 8 ("And when I touch you, it's such a feeling I can't hide...". You can hear that he's much more prominent in the music than he was in LMD.

Probably the biggest sign that he was very, very good came just a few months later when they released A Hard Day's Night. The intro was a huge departure from anything anyone in music was playing and signaled that his style was experimental, as well as technically good. Just as important was the way he played the accoustic lead in And I Love Her (from A Hard Day's Night), which actually almost Baroque in style and addes shades and textures to the music making it much more than just another love song. You can see his versatility by this time.

Another big step - I Feel Fine. It opens with feedback (it was an accident in the studio, but they liked it so they replicated it for the song). By this time, you can hear that he plays a lead, melody part throughout the song. Listen to the middle 8 on that song - it's a complete solo. See if you don't hear someone who is getting to be very, very good. Eight Days A Week - same thing. Day Tripper. People were pretty much blown away by these intros that were becoming a trademark of George's.

George also showed that he was good at country style with Baby's in Black and pure rock - Dizzy Miss Lizzie (he'd been playing that for years by then). Those are just a few examples that come to mind - if you play the albums in order, you can see him developing with every release. Listen to In My Life. The song is instantly recognized by the little bit of introduction and it sets the tone for the rest of it perfectly - and sums it up at the end, as well. It's perfect.

The HELP! era introduced him to the sitar, which shows up on Rubber Soul, and was a major influence in music at the time starting a new genre of music caled Raga Rock.

A very distinctive George Harrison style had emerged by this time - listen to Taxman and you'll immediately be struck by how intricate his work was. Another example: And Your Bird Can Sing.

Another good way to hear his work is on some of the outtakes you can find on youtube - I'm thinking particularly of Helter Skelter (Take 2) as they are just figuring out where they want to take the song.

His solo work after the break-up of the Beatles is especially evocative and emotional - listen to just about anything from All Things Must Pass and you'll hear it.

I don't think George would have ever thought he had in any way 'mastered' the guitar. He was too modest for that. He might have agreed, however, that his work added not only distinctive texture and style to the songs the Beatles recorded, but that it was always meant to be part of the whole composition. A complement to the rest of the song - not an excuse for the long, rambling, meandering ego-trips that some lead guitarists resort to when they don't have his gift of expression and which up-stage the music and lyrics, overwhelming a song.

George's guitar work was tasteful in many cases beautiful, even exquisite but always just right for the piece. His guitar is a big part of the subtle emotion in their work and when you listen to it, it's hard to imagine the song without that special touch. That may be one of the reasons their music has lasted as long as it has - they are complete compositions in an almost classical structural sense that the Beatles themselves would not have understood, but seem to have felt instinctively.

I hope that helps; write with a follow-up if you need.

In the meantime, put on the albums and listen - and ENJOY!

MDavis


---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Can The Beatles read music?
I've read in some interviews when Paul and John say "none of us can read msuic" but my guitar teacher says that they could and that they were jazz musicans? They know cords like A minor so is that reading music or is that just cords?

ANSWER: Hi again, Ava!

This is an easy answer - NO and NO!

This is what makes Beatle history interesting, but also really frustrating - people think they know something as a fact and tell other people and end up spreading all kinds of misinformation.

First: none of the Beatles ever learned how to read music EXCEPT your George - who only learned how to read Indian music. Period.

Paul's father wanted him to take lessons and he went a few times when he was a kid, but he thought the teacher's house 'smelled a bit funny,' so he stopped going. As a matter of fact, Paul auditioned for the boys' choir at Liverpool Cathedral and he didn't make it - one of the reasons was: he couldn't read music.

When they moved to London, Paul thought about taking lessons from his girlfriend's mother, who was a piano teacher, but he didn't have the time or the patience to take the lessons on a regular basis and practice. So, that was the second time he almost studied music, but didn't follow through.

None of the others even attempted it.

They knew the names of guitar chords, like many guitarists do, based on the position and formation of the fingers. For instance, they might know, B minor LOOKS like this on the guitar. John and Paul would literally sit across from each other and look at their hands to see what the formation of their fingers looked like and then mirror that. So, Ringo, for instance, says that he can play C on the piano. That means he can look at the keys and see where Middle C is based on the configuration of the black and white keys, make a triad using 3 fingers and that's it. Despite having much more ability, Paul plays the same way - the shape of the chord tells him it's A or F or whatever.

Much of what they did musically had to do with NOT knowing that it couldn't or shouldn't be tried. For instance, in Penny Lane, Paul wanted the piccolo to play a certain riff, but Martin told him it was beyond the range of the instrument. Paul asked the piccolo player to try anyway. Paul feels that if he had studied music, he would have 'known' that it couldn't be done and wouldn't have even asked - and then the little part in Penny Lane - which, by the way was played and recorded, wouldn't exist.

Sir George Martin, the man who produced all their music as a group and much of Paul's solo work, including his very recent classical pieces, continues to say that he tried to talk Paul into studying music because, with his talent and ability, there was 'no telling what he could write,' but Paul felt very strongly that whatever gift or ability he has is natural; he doesn't want to complicate or confuse it.

Interestingly, when Paul composed his most recent classical work for Oxford, Ecce Cor Meum, he sang and played the parts on a recording and provided it to a transcriber who used a computer to complete a musical score. When they tried it with a real boys choir, some of it could not be replicated, so they had to work together to rewrite it. In this case, clearly it would have been easier if Paul could read music, but at this point, he says he doesn't want to learn. So that... as they say... is that!

Second question - Absolutely wrong! The Beatles - all of them - HATED jazz. Jazz was popular in the late 50s and a lot of students at John's art college liked it, but the Beatles were strictly into rock and roll and it was you either loved it or hated it. Either side of the fence, but not both. They saw it as establishment psuedo-intellectual avant garde music - exactly the opposite of rock and roll.

They tried to play at a trad jazz club (traditional) in the very early days, insisting on playing their own music, and were booed off the stage, not paid for the few minutes they were on, and never had a return engagement at that club.

One good clue: have you ever heard a Beatle song that sounded even remotely like jazz? At all? No. You can hear country, Indian, symphonic, classical, polka, swing, choral, boogie woogie, rhythm and blues, skiffle, rock, psychedelic, big band - even marching band... you can hear it all, but you don't hear any jazz reference in their music.


Another thing you never hear are jams or free-form improvisational pieces from them, even on later works when they certainly had the freedom to record whatever they wanted in whatever format they chose. If they wanted to do a 7 minute and 11 second single - they could and did. It was Hey Jude, not jazz.

Another clue: In the thousands of interviews they did, whenever they were asked who they liked, who they listened to, who had influenced them... did they ever respond with a jazz reference? Sorry - not a one. Elvis. Buddy Holly. Chuck Berry. Eddie Cochran. Little Richard. Jerry Lee Lewis. Lonnie Donegan. Gene Vincent. Motown. Smoky Robinson and The Miracles. The Shirelles.  The Ronettes. Some early rhythm and blues artists. Carl Perkins. Jimmie Rodgers. Frankie Laine. Roy Orbison. The Everley Brothers.

What you never hear are the names: Duke Ellington. Ella Fitzgerald. Louis Armstrong. Count Basie. Dave Brubeck. John Coltrane. Oscar Peterson. Miles Davis. Charlie Parker. Theolonius Monk. Charlie Mingus. Herbie Hancock. Stan Getz. Cab Calloway.

When they were in New York for their first Ed Sullivan Show appearence on February 9, 1964, Dizzy Gillespie was playing around the corner from the CBS Theatre and he went over to see Cab Calloway, who was also performing. Gillespie bumped into the Beatles on the stairway in the theater and introduced himself and they were polite - but had no interest or even recollection of the event. George Harrison's sister remembers it - they never did.

Their music is more closely related to Irving Berlin or Cole Porter of an earlier era - the search for exactly the right note, the perfect melody and harmony.

I have a very early British 'profile' of the Beatles written by their fan club where John is quoted as listing among his HATES: traditional jazz. He then is quoted as listing modern jazz in the LIKES column, but this was, written by a teenage member of the fan club in Liverpool who was trying not to offend any readers who did like jazz. In the 1968 biography by Hunter Davies, the only one they agreed to be interviewed for and a surprisingly candid book, John is quoted as saying, "We always hated jazz like shit."

If your teacher has a source where they are quoted as saying they liked jazz or played jazz, or admired jazz musicians or can find any examples of them playing jazz, I'd be interested in that information - but frankly, I'd be surprised.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: You said The Beatles never liked Cab Calloway.
I saw George in an interview saying he likes Cab Calloway and 30's music.
Dis George like Counrty/Western?

Answer
Hi Ava,

George did indeed like Cab Calloway - as a person. As I said, Calloway was on the Sullivan Show and met them, liked them, and wished them luck. They always appreciated any of the support and good wishes that the more established entertainers passed along to them because initially people like Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby were dismissive and actually insulting about them. Calloway was different and they appreciated that. The songs Calloway performed that night were NOT jazz, but 'standards' - the big one was Old Man River, which is from Showboat, very 1930s, an early, early precursor of rhythm and blues or soul. Almost gospel.

George did like 1930's music like Hoagie Carmichael - again nothing at all like jazz.

George loved country and western, though. He liked Carl Perkins style so much that when they all adopted 'stage' names for a few weeks in 1959, George chose 'Carl Harrison' as his name - in honor of Perkins. He covered a lot of Perkins' work and played with him a few times - there are two very memorable youtube clips I will send you. One of them is from Perkins' funeral service when George was asked to play - and did. It was very moving for the family.

When George visited the United States in the fall of 1963 - four months before the Beatles arrived in New York City for their appearence on the Ed Sullivan Show in February 1964, he stayed in southern Illinois, which if you are not familiar with the United States is almost the South. The people, the traditions, and the music are Southern - what used to be called 'hillbilly.' He was thrilled to meet someone who had played The Grand Ol' Opry and sat in with a local band at a Saturday night VFW dance. The band expected that George would want to play 'his own type of music,' which they knew would be rock 'n' roll, but instead he chose songs by Hank Williams, Carl Perkins, and other country standards. He didn't play any Beatle music whatsoever that night - he just enjoyed playing country swing with the locals.

I hope that clarifies the Cab Calloway confusion. I'll look up the youtube clip links and send them along.

MDavis

P.S. How's the reading coming along? Have you been able to find the Lewisohn books?

****************
FOLLOW UP
Ava, This is George at Carl Perkins' funeral. He didn't know that they would ask him to step up to the altar and sing, but how wonderful that he did. I think this is classic George. Hope you enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfoxeweJ6tg

2nd FOLLOW UP

Cab Calloway on the Ed Sullivan Show, February 9, 1964. You can see how this is a show tune and it is - from Showboat. I think on any other Sunday night, this would have been the highlight of the Ed Sullivan Show... just not THAT particular night!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhkysLd1X34