Hull and Taylor Interview Harrison
Beat Magazine
April 7, 1965
Derek: With the
gentle swish of the Caribbean behind me, this is Derek Taylor sitting
thankfully in the sun on the beach of Nassau with George Harrison, who is
wearing a straw hat and blue jeans, and looks extremely well. His long, dark hair is curly. He’s of course, of the two single Beatles and
I think the first to buy a house. He
bought a house in Surrey which he takes considerable interest in. Anyway, George, let’s say first it’s nice to
see you after about three months away.
George: Nice to see
you again, Derek.
Derek: How do you
like it here?
George: I like it
fine except that we’re up at 7:00 in the morning every day on the set
filming. It’s good really because if you’re
off work there’s nothing much to do. It
gets boring just sitting in the sun, and we’d all prefer to be up and working.
Derek: I asked you because it may seem like a paradise to people
who can’t get into the sun to think of spending two or three weeks in the Bahamas. But of course you are working very hard all
day.
George: Yeah, that’s
right. Well, we get up at 7:00 and we
usually start about 8:00 or 8:30, right through and then have lunch for about a
half hour, and then we work right through until the sun goes and there’s no
more light, which is usually about 5:30.
Derek: The pattern of
your life now seems to be with not so much touring. Now that you can record 11 numbers in five
days you can have an awful lot of leisure.
Do you have too much leisure, do you find?
George: No. We haven’t had a great deal, really. This year, maybe, because after the film I’m
not too sure what we’re doing. I think
we may have a week or so and then we go to Europe for about a week.
Derek: Are you
touring Europe?
George: I think we’re
doing six concerts—two in France and two in Italy and two in Spain.
Derek: You’re been in
France. You haven’t been to the other
places before?
George: We’ve been to
Spain. Paul, Ringo and I went.
Derek: you didn’t
play there, though.
George: No.
Derek: When that tour
is over you presumably will then have a lot of time before visiting America.
George: That’s
August, I think. In the meantime we’ll
have a new record out, doing TV and things in England. And then with a bit of luck the film will
probably be out around about that time.
So then we’ll have the film songs out to plus and we’ll have a premiere. And then I think it’ll be the American
trip. Or maybe the premiere will be
after the American trip, which is in August.
Derek: so in fact the
pace in life seems to be almost as hot as it was. It appears deceptive.
George: We can’t
tell, really, because we haven’t really been told exactly what’s
happening. We just vaguely know that it’s
America, and then for all we know we may start on our third film after the
America trip, in which case, you know, we’ll be…
Derek: I notice that…you
seem to be doing two films in one year.
George: We’re trying
to. I hope so because we enjoy it so
much more than anything else.
Derek: You prefer
films?
George: Yeah, it’s
great and when the film’s finished you get more satisfaction from it. You feel as though you’ve done something
worthwhile more so than a tour.
Derek: Brian Epstein
did say once – I don’t want to commit you to anything that you don’t’ want to
talk about – but he did say once that is might be you’d go more and more into
filming, and into isolated shows. Is
this going to be sooner than we expected?
George: I don’t
know. This depends on when we expected
it.
Derek: He means in
terms, I think, of next year.
George: We’d like to
do more films and naturally a little less touring because….
Derek: Touring’s
tiring.
George: Yes it
is. People don’t’ realize that each day
you jump out of bed onto an airplane and fly two thousand miles to do a
show. You know that’s not much fun,
really.
Derek: The American
trip destroyed almost everybody.
Everybody was a bit off their heads when it was over.
George: Yeah.
Derek: Now going back
to leisure, how do you spend your free time when you’re home? Like spend a Sunday off?
George: On Sunday I
have a lie-in, I suppose, and then…
Derek: You’re a great
sleeper…a sleep worshiper, really.
George: Yeah, but I
do like it if I can. It’s just trying to
get up. Since I’ve gotten my house I
used to just lie around in the backyard last summer when it was quite hot. But now, as it is sort of freezing cold in
England, on a Sunday I just get up and have a late breakfast about 12 o’clock.
Derek: Have you got
help in the house?
George: I’ve got a
woman who comes in each day. She cooks
dinner for me and keeps the place tidy.
Derek: What’s her
name?
George:
Margaret. Mrs. Walker. I read the Sunday papers and go out for a
drive and sometimes go out for lunch with some people
Derek: Do you eat
more out than you do in?
George: Uh, I think
so because I usually just eat in on the weekends. I usually, on a Sunday, have friends over
and just stay in and have dinner and watch TV.
Derek: You’ve got a
pretty good garden. You don’t do it
yourself, do you?
George: No.
Derek: Do you like
gardening?
George: Well, I like
a sort of nice garden, but it’s too much trouble, really. But the good thing about my garden is that
most of it is just lawn. It’s just lots
of big lawn with trees and things.
Derek: It’s a new
house though?
George: It’s a
bungalow, actually, just a big long bungalow.
Derek: Bungalow is
what we call a one-level house, I think.
George: Anyway,
originally the fellow who built it is the fellow I bought it from was an
Australian. He built it like an
Australian ranch bungalow. It’s about
ten years old. Two years ago he had a
new part built on the end so it’s ten and two years.
Derek: do you take an
interest in the house in improving it or is it simply a place to live?
George: I like it.
Derek: Are you a house-proud
man? Do you talk about your house to
other people?
George: Well, to friends
and things I suppose. I like the idea of
it looking great in the way I like it.
Derek: Are your
tastes in interior decorating simple?
George: Really being
the first house ever of mine I’ve just tried to get it so that it pleases
me. At first I got some fellow to get
some furniture and he bought a lot of rubbish.
Since then I decided I didn’t really like it. He just bought odd stuff just so I could move
in straight away. Since then I’ve
changed it around a lot. Things I’d like
to do if ever I buy another house is stay in this one until I get the new one
furnished just how I like it and then move.
I’m not a great believers in interior design and all that because it
ends up you’re living in the designer’s house and I’d much rather do it myself.
Derek: Yes, I quite
agree. You were going to have a pool put
in, I think, the last time I saw you. Is
that still happening?
Derek: They started
about two weeks before we left England and actually the morning we left the
airport there was a massive great hole dug out and mud all over the place, and
one of these big diggers in the backyard.
The workmen have got sheds built up.
Every time I go out there I just hear music in the little shed and they’re
all playing cards and singing. They
never seem to do any work. I’m hoping by
the time I get back most of the mess will be gone.
Derek: Have you spent
a lot of money on the house since you got it?
George: Uh…not
really, no.
Derek: What’s it
called, by the way, has it a name or a number or what?
George: It has a name
but somebody pinched it.
Derek: The fans know
where it is, do they?
George: Well, some of
them do. Actually there’ s a girls’
school right next to it but the head mistress was good and she told the kids to
give me a bit of privacy.
Derek: Pursuing the
point of leisure but now forgetting about the house, it has for a long time
been quite easy for you in certain places to move around London as a normal
human being in your own car. Can you
explain how you’ve been able to do this because I’ve never never know how you
managed it. How you park and how you get
the car to the theatre?
George: The thing is,
if we’re doing a show then that’s the only time there is going to be thousands
of people, really. If we’re not doing a
show and just going out for the night somewhere, there’s not liable to be
millions of people waiting for you to arrive at the restaurant because they don’t
know where you’re going.
Derek: But you still
have the autograph books.
George: Oh yeah.
Derek: How do you
avoid that? Do you go to selected places?
George: Now, you
know, through experience, you just do it by…if you go to a place and quite a
good time and you’re treated all right, then naturally you go back again. And usually the managers of the places like
you to go there so it’s in their own interest, really, to make sure you’re
having quite a good time. But generally
in London it’s quite good.
Derek: You’re very fond
of London, I think?
George: Yeah, I think
it’s fabulous.
Derek: Do you go home
very often?
George: to
Liverpool? I went there about three
weeks ago. I was up there for a
week. My brother got married.
Derek: I saw the
picture in the paper.
George: Yes. Really there are so many people and friends
to see in the short time I was there.
Derek: you’re like
most people you left the place you were born and you’ve grown very fond of
London. It happens in most countries of
the world. You probably grow away from
places and grow up a bit. Never been any
suggestion of your living outside England?
George: No.
Derek: This is a good
place to live here, of course.
George: Thing is,
with a place like, say this beach we’re sitting on now. I think it’s marvelous and I’d love a house…but
probably after two or three weeks of this I’d get fed up. I wouldn’t mind living in a place like this…nice
beach, nice sea, and sort of hot climate.
But it’s so boring after two weeks.
But still I wouldn’t mind a place like that say…every time I got fed up
with the cold in England you could just fly out here. But still I prefer to live in a place like
London anytime.
Derek: Well, there’s
an awful lot happening in London and in Los Angeles, where your voice will be
heard pretty soon – as soon as Dave Hull and I get back there. Los Angeles has a climate similar to this
only cooler in the winter and always much drier. Well, George, Iw on’t keep you any more because
I know you have to get on the set. It’s
been nice to see you and I’ll see you later on today. I’ll turn you over to Dave Hull now.
George: Okay, see
you, Derek. Bye Bye
Dave: How’re you,
George?
George: Hello, Dave,
how’re you?
Dave: Good. You look comfortable, you’ve got on a pair of faded blue Levi’s and an old
straw hat…
George: They’re not
Levi’s
Dave: Well they’re
jeans. In America we call them Levi’s. That what we call anything that’s blue and
faded. You got a straw hat on. Where’d you find that straw hat?
George: Just bought
it here.
Dave: I see you stole
my dark glasses.
George: They’re
yours, are they?
Dave: Yeah.
George: No they’re
not. I bought them.
Dave: No you didn’t,
you just stole them from me. I just set
them on the sand.
George: No you didn’t. They are mine.
Dave: No they’re not.
George: They’re
not. I’ve had these on for days.
Dave: Listen…
George: Don’t believe
this man…they’re mine.
Dave: Listen, this
idol out there in the water that we’re watching, is going to be a one-shot
take, and it comes up and it’s got ten arms.
What has this got to do with the movie?
George: This is Kali
and…it’s the sacrificial god or something.
It’s a bit involved. I’ll wait
until they finish making the film and then I’ll go and see it and then I’ll know
what’s happening.
Dave: how come it has
to be a one-shot take?
George: This thing is
20 feet high and it’s taken them two hours to submerge it under the water. They can do it again but they’ll have to wait
another two hours before they can get the thing down on the bottom again. It’s a lot of work, so if they can do it in
one take, it saves a lot of time and trouble.
Dave: How do you feel
about this movie compared to “A Hard Day’s Night.” Is the script different? Is there a lot of spontaneity?
George: The only
thing, really that’s the same as “A Hard Day’s Night” is the fact that we’re
still playing ourselves. But I mean,
this one has got a story line to it whereas “Hard Day’s Night” didn’t,
really. It was more or less like a
documentary.
Dave: you mean this
one’s got a plot?
George: Yeah, this
one’s got a plot.
Dave: Are you
ad-libbing a lot of lines? A lot of
scenes that were in “A Hard Day’s Night” were spontaneous and when you had to
go back and cut the scene came out completely different form the way it was
before. Is this happening now or not?
George: Yeah, there’s
a lot of things that if we think of on the actual day of shooting – if the
director can think of something or we can – that will make it a little bit
better, then we’ll change it a little bit.
But, you know, so far we seem to be sticking to the script.
Dave: I didn’t ask
John or Paul or anyone about the songs in the movie, but can you give me an
idea? You have seven new ones, is that
correct?
George: Well, we
recorded 11 the last week before we left England.
Dave: But you’re only
using seven, are you?
George: We’ll only
use about seven in the film, but even if we use only about five in the film, we’ll
still have about 10 or 12 tracks on the LP.
Dave: Can you tell me
what the titles are? I bet you can’t,
can you?
George: I can’t, no.
Dave: Can you give us
a hint, then, what they’re like?
George: It’s so hard,
really, because when you record eleven all in one week, you just work on one
until you’ve finished it then completely disregard that and go on to something
else. By the time the week’s over, you’ve
forgotten, really what you’ve done. You
know vaguely, but not until we start doing the songs do we remember them one at
a time. It’s a mixture.
Dave: I want to ask
you a questions about your mother and father, if I may for a moment. They had planned on coming to America and to
Hollywood. Do you know if your mother
and father have continued with their plans?
George: I don’t
know. I don’t think so. I think they’d like to go for a holiday. They’ve mentioned to me that they may
go. I don’t think they’ve made any sort
of definite plans.
Dave: You probably
haven’t seen them for some time anyway.
George: I saw them
three weeks ago when I went to Liverpool for my brother’s wedding.
Dave: Oh, that’s right. Your brother, Peter, is it not?
George: That’s right.
Dave: you were best
man?
George: That’s right.
Dave: When did that
all take place?
George: It was
January.
Dave: Well, you’ve
been a best man now. What about your
plans? Do you have any plans for the
future as far as Pattie Boyd or anything like that, can you say?
George: Well, you
know, I wouldn’t make sort of long arrangements long before hand. At the moment I have nothing in mind at all.
Dave: Have you talked
to Pattie recently?
George: Not
since I was in England.
Dave: you haven’t
called her then?
George: No, not yet.
Dave: We’ll be seeing
you tonight. I see you’ve got your feet
buried in the sand. It’ll cool you off a
bit.
George: Okay, see you
then, Dave.
Dave: Thank you very
much.
seemed a bit wearing for George by the time Dave started - it must have been so boring for the lads to continually be asked the same questions and the intrusion of their women
ReplyDeleteSara, geez, thanks for typing these all out!!!
ReplyDeleteI actually have the audio for all the Derek interviews (you probably do too!)