Expert: Elizabeth - 4/30/2007

Question
QUESTION: Can u tell me some rare facts about George Harrison?
(fav color, girls, education, food, music, band, and possibly quotes?)
ANSWER: If you're looking for facts that would have been published in a teeny bopper magazine back in 1964, sorry, but the Beatles lied about most of what went in there.

Favorite color - who knows.

Girls - I'll go with his wife.

Education - Barely passed secondary school, tried to be an apprentice electrician, thankfully for all of us turned to rock and roll instead.

Food - George mentioned once in a British magazine in 1963 that he liked Jelly Babies, a soft candy.  They don't have those in the US, so they threw jelly beans at him during concerts instead.  Oops.

Music/Band - That list would be too long to list here, and with good reason.  George's musical tastes were very eclectic and ranged from Indian ragas to Carl Perkins.

Quotes - here's my favorite George quote (I'm doing this from memory here, so I apologize if it's not 100% perfect):

"I believe that those who truly can live a life in music are telling the world, 'You can have my love, you can have my smiles.  Forget the bad parts, you don't need them.'  Just take the music, the goodness, because it's the very best and it's the part I give most willingly."

Thanks for taking your time to ask me a question.


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

QUESTION: Hello, I like the song strawberry feilds forever too!
What is Strawberry Feilds Forever about?
And George wrote a song called Savoy Truffle. What is that about? Food?


Answer
Strawberry Fields Forever was written by John Lennon, actually.  Strawberry Fields was an orphanage with (I believe) a park-like field that John used to walk through as a child.  I think the facility finally closed just a few years ago.  As for the song, one of the verses refers to John believing himself to be crazy or a genius.  "No one I think is in my tree" - I don't know anyone like me.  "I think it must be high or low" - I am a genius or crazy.

And yes, Savoy Truffle is about food.  A box of Good News chocolates, in fact; the brand is name checked in the song.  George's best friend Eric Clapton was very fond of the chocolates, and George wrote an entire song naming the flavors in the box, and warning his friend that his teeth could rot if he ate too much candy - "But you'll have to have them all pulled out after the Savoy Truffle!"