Sitting around the table

 George on the radio promoting the George Harrison album in 1979.  

Henley for the first time

 

Henley for the first time

By Dorothy Morton

With a Little Help From my Friends

January 1980    

 

My friend Lila and I went to Henley on her birthday (September 27, 1979), the 4^th day we were in England.  We got there around 10:30AM.  We had a fright on the way – Lila misplaced her rain cape and we thought it was on the other train after we changed at Twyford, but we were asking the station man in Henley, a man ran up with it!  Miracle #1.

We got out your letter with the directions – I had butterflies in my whole body – writing this now, I am feeling that same feeling of excitement at the opportunity of seeing George after waiting too many years.  “What will happen?  Will he speak to us?  Or worse – will we speak to him?!”  Or should I say will we be ABLE to speak to him?!  We walked along the quaint narrow roads of Henley – every step we came nearer to George!  When we reached the center of town we took the road up the hill to George’s that is to the right of Town Hall, West Street – my reasoning being it’s a one-way street down the hill so if George was driving down the hill, we’d see him.  Anyway, we got close to the end of the road and saw the distinctive light and dark bricks of George’s wall with a turret on the corner.  We walked around it and WOW – there is was!  The gate to George’s house with the sign proclaiming “Friar Park.”  It was closed – not that we would have gone in, the sign inside the gate says “private property, trespassers will be prosecuted – beware of guard dogs.”  The other sign says “drive slowly.”

I had to take notice of the signs to bring myself back to reality because I was so stunned by the beauty of George’s house, not to mention the possibility of actually seeing George.

Well, we took photos of every angle you could think of – Lila by the gate, me by the gate, the gate alone, etc.  While we were doing this, George did not come out.  So we decided to walk up the country road, Gravel Hill, to see if we could see over the fence – with barbed wire, I might add. 

It was a bright, beautiful warm day.  We found the laced where we could look over the fence and see the main house.  Someone had placed a concrete road marker in the right place to stand on and take a photo of the main house.  There were some ripe berries to eat while looking Being there was only one angle for photos, we took a few and walked up the road further to “see what we could see.”  We came to another house at the edge of the property.   It’s much smaller than the gatehouse.  There were two men working on the house, scraping moss off the tile roof.  I wanted to ask them if George was home but I was too shy and didn’t want to appear foolish.  Although I’m sure they knew what we were there for!  We went on further up the road and walked down a small road that went by George’s back gate.  It was open and some trucks drove in.  Being adventurous, we walked down a path around the rest of the property and found a wooden gate off the hinges, so we slowly and quietly crept in the yard about 25 feet when we heard someone coming by about two feet away, so we ran out of the gate!  We continued around the property along the path and could hear men working on the other side of the fence – it was about 10 feet tall.  The path runs into a residential area so we went back the way we came.  We noticed Lila had dropped her wallet so we started to look for it.  We found it by the open gate.  Miracle #2.

We retraced our steps back to town.  On the way back, I got up enough nerve to ask the men on the roof if George was in and they said yes.  We didn’t believe them, because the pirate flag was not up, at least we didn’t see it.  Anyway, we went back to town and had lunch.  We couldn’t believe how all these people could be just carrying on their daily life when George was less than a mile away!  After lunch, we walked back up the road to George’s.  As we were approaching his house, a car drove in.  WE speeded up our pace and arrived at his gate at the same time that an “old time” car (like a Model-T) came driving out of the gate.  An older man was driving.  He stopped the car just outside of the gate.  I said, “That’s a beautiful car.  Is it yours?”  The man was getting out of the car and laughed and said, “no.” He walked around the car and opened the hood and started fiddling with someone inside.  I realized that the gates were open and I could take a photo f the road up to his main house without the gate in the way.  So  I walked past the car and got ready to take a photo.  I’m nearsighted, so I wear glasses, but I have to take them off to take a photo.  So, I took them off and had the camera up to my face and was just about to take a photo when a man walked out of the gatehouse and said “Get back, no pictures!” as he waved his arm at me as if to shoo me away.  Well, I didn’t take a photo.  I was startled and stepped back a few steps, as the man walked toward me. I looked at him trying to figure out if it was George’s brother Harry.  He didn’t look old enough.  Then I thought maybe he was a workman – he had on a down vest and shirt and jeans and work boots.  As he walked up and finally stood at the other side of the gate, I realized it was George! Miracle #3.

 

He had really short hair and a thin mustache and looked like he hadn’t shaved for a week.  I was shocked!  He’d told me to “get back” but he didn’t say anything when he walked up.  He just stood there and looked at me and then I said, “You don’t want me to take pictures?”  “No.”  I didn’t think he was mad because he didn’t tell me to get lost and never come back.  Another man started talking to George (I don’t know where he even came from).  They were talking about the car.  It had stalled and the older man was still trying to get it started.  I asked George, “Is that your car?”  He said with a smile and shake of his head and a look in his eye.  “No, it’s his,” pointing to the older man.  I Said, “But he said it wasn’t his!” with a look like “I know it’s your car!”  George and the other guy talked for a while and I suddenly returned to reality long enough to walk over to where I’d left my tape recorder and I walked back to the gate, but not up to where George was, and recorded him saying “No, Olivia’s out.”  I guess the guy had asked about George’s wife.  Well, at that time, the man got the car started and turned it around, and drove it back into the yard and up the road.  George and the other fellow got in another car and followed up the drive – George looked back at us as the car left.  We just stood there for a few moments looking up the empty road. 

I started to take the photo I was originally going to take and a lady stepped out of the house and said, “No picture please.”  I did take that one.  I guess it was George’s sister-in-law.  So we then gathered our coats and things and walked across the street.   We stood there with our mouths open and stars in our eyes!  Oh, during this whole thing, Lila stood behind me always and behind the pillar, not daring to look at George too much – she couldn’t control herself if she had looked at him too much.  We could barely speak to each other – needless to say, I didn’t remember the train ride home.  I still haven’t recovered and I never will!

 

 

George does not like punk or disco - visit to Brazil

 

George Harrison in Brazil ‘79

Beatles Unlimited

March/April 1979

 George was the first of the Beatles to come to Brazil.  The reason for his trip was the Formula One Race that took place at Interlagos, Sao Paulo. 

 

The Arrival:  Since early in the morning of January 31, 1979, the Rio’s International Airport Galeao was taken by hundreds of people of all ages, who waited impatiently for the ex-Beatle George Harrison (rumored to arrive at 7:45a.m.), but the Concorde didn’t land in Rio until 4pm.  George, who arrived through the main gates of the airport, accompanied by his pal Jackie Stewart, got frightened by what he saw.  At first, he did not understand what it was all about.  The screaming girls crying his name and the constant blinding lights of the flashbulbs in his direction were enough for him to try and “escape.”  The police had to interfere in order to calm the place down so that George would be able to get into a waiting car.  “Never thought I was famous here,” declared George later to the press.  He stayed in Rio one day at an unknown place (said to be the house of the millionaire Jorge Guinle).  The next morning George set out for Sao Paulo where he stayed at the Hilton Hotel.  Soon people found this out and surrounded the entrance of the hotel equipped with their cameras in hope to catch a glimpse of George.

 

The Visit:  George’s intention was to remain unnoticed, going along with the arrangements at the Boxes of the cars in peace, but instead, he spent most part of the time running away from the fans (which he is very good at) and the photographers, who could not let him alone.  He said, “You should photograph the cars.  They are more important than I am.”  However, George did give his autograph to many who asked him.  Back in Rio, Harrison gave two collective interviews.  One to Globe Television and one to the Manchete magazine.  He also talked to many D.J’s including pressmen from Bandeirantes Radio Station and Cidade.  Always very polite, he answered all the questions and posed for photos.  He talked about many things:  Beatles, religion, sports, his previous records, music in general (he said he hated Punk), his involvement with Formula One, and the song “Faster” that he wrote, dedicated to Ronnie Petterson.  He said he liked Brazil very much and intends to come back in 1980. 

 

The following answers George gave at several press conferences during his stay in Brazil.  The interviews were transcribed by Erik M. Bakker and edited by Evert Vermeer.

Q:  The 60s, do they still mean anything?

G:  Well they are past aren’t they?  What is left is in the history books and from what we’ve learned and if we learned anything from it, it means something.  If we haven’t, it is best to forget them.  There were quite happy times and turbulent times, a lot of wars, a lot of change.

Q:  Is anything left of these changes?

G:  Yes.  I think so.  For a start, it made some young people, and older people as well, more conscious of the fact that you don’t have to be particularly limited in your ideas.  It opened up ideas like everybody is asking me about Indian music or Indian philosophy.  15 years ago at the beginning of the 60s, people would think you were a freak if you did yoga exercises.  But now a huge percentage of the world does yoga exercises.  I think the 60s did help to broaden understanding.  You know, when someone liked long hair or didn’t wear a tie, people used to think they were broken.  One thing was a disappointment.  At the end of the 60s, beginning of the 70s, the idea of “All you need is love,”; which was a good idea disappeared and it all got back into disco music and music for idiots.  People started fighting again and all that.  So I hope maybe the 80s may bring back “start planting flowers” again and having a bit more love really.

Q:  Do you think there ever will be any group which will substitute the Beatles?

G:  Well, there may be groups that can sell as many records.  But the Beatles were unique because of the four personalities.  “The Beatles” was bigger than the four people separately.  There is always someone like Sinatra and Elvis and the Beatles, and maybe somewhere down the line there will be something bigger, but not now.   Not like the Bee Gees, they make good records but they don’t’ have whatever it was the Beatles had.

 

Q:  Are there any unreleased tracks by the Beatles?

G:  “Not Guilty” is on the new album, actually.  I wrote that song for the White Album in 1967 and I forgot all about it.  I remembered it last year and we re-recorded it and it’s really nice, it is good, sort of jazzy.

 

Q:  Which one of your songs do you like best?

G:  I don’t know, whichever you like best, is the best for me.  “Something” was good for me because it had about 150 cover versions.  It is nice if other people make recordings of your songs.  But there are some other songs that are better.  There is a song on the last album I  think was as good as “Something,”  “Learning How to Love You.”  And there is a song on the new album, “Your Love is Forever,” which is as good as “Something.”  But it might not be as popular because it was The Beatles who made “Something.”

Q:  We heard your latest record is dedicated to races?

G:  Only one song out of the ten songs.  One song is about my wife, one song is about the moon.  But all songs are about different things, and well, there is one song about races, because when I went to the races all the time, everybody kept asking me “are you going to write a song about it?”  and so, in the end, I thought I’d better write a song.  It took me 6 months thinking how do I start because I just didn’t want to write about engines and wheels and noises.  So I had to think of a way of approaching which had some meaning.  It’s called “Faster” and I think the words are good because it is abstract, it is not about one person.  It could be about anybody and not just about cars and engines.  It is about the circus around it you know, and the feelings people have and the jealousy, all that sort of things.  The song really was inspired by Jackie Stewart and Nikki Lauda, and I got the title from a book Jackie had written back in 1973.

 

Q:  What is your opinion of Brazilian music?

G:  You know, I like the more wild music.  I don’t mean noise or discotheque.  More original music.  If Warner Brothers have any good Brazilian music in their catalogue, I’ll take them home with me and study them.  You know, in Europe, for 150 or 100 years it was very popular to do the rumba, samba and that sort of thing, so in broad contents, everybody is aware of Brazilian music, conga drumming, that type of thing.  But I must say I’m very ignorant when it comes down to more specific things.

Q:  Do you think disco music as a relation to Brazilian music?

G:  No, no.  Disc music is a result of people who are very determined of making a lot of money.  It’s like a recipe.  When you want to cook something, you just follow the instructions.  If you want to make a disco hit, just follow the instructions, you have the bass drum, the cymbal, the violin going and that’s called disco.  Rubbish!

Q:  What about Punk music?

G:  Rubbish, total rubbish.  Listen to the early Beatles records.  They were simple too, but it still had much more depth and meaning.  It was innocent or trivial, but it still had more meaning than Punk music which is destructive, aggressive.

Q:  Did you have any more problems with “My Sweet Lord” lately?

G:  Well, in America it’s all become a complete joke because the man who wrote the song “He’s So Fine.”  They were suing me about, died years ago and the company was taken over by his accountants, who were suing me for all this money.  What happened was that we were going to court and the judge told them, there was no way that I copied that song, but because of the similarity, we must talk about a compensation.  Then the mother of the songwriter starting suing her own company who was suing me.  And then, Allen Klein, who used to be the Beatles’ manager that we got rid of (Klein had been suing us for years and then we made a settlement), and he was unhappy having no lawsuits again the Beatles.  So when that man died, he bought the case. So it’s Klein against me.  But Klein was the one who was promoting “My Sweet Lord” so it is a very funny position and the judge doesn't like it.  Ten years ago, Klein did interviews saying that MSL had nothing to do with this other song.  And now it’s the other way round just to get some money off me.  So, it is just a joke, but for a few years, it made me depressed.  Having to go to court and do these things, it’s terrible.  It’s a pain in the ass.

Rolling into Heathrow

 

Just George

 

Even birds love George

 

George makes his way through the airport

 

Japanese summer visit

 

Emi Sugiyama is a cook who is starting to add a vegan day to his restaurant.  He shared this photo of himself with the Lennons and has these memories:

Actually, I started to be conscious of" vegan "when I was young. I happened to have a relationship and was blessed with the opportunity to eat with John Lennon's family and my family in Karuizawa. However, they didn't touch the meat dishes among the various dishes on the table. I was wondering about that, and when I asked my mother later, they said, "They are vegan. They are people who only eat vegan food. ”So, I was surprised by the child's heart that there was such a way of eating, and I remembered it strongly later. When I think about it now, they eat ice cream. I was eating, so I wasn't vegan at the time, but a vegetarian (laughs).

 A precious summerat that time, I wouldn't shot of interacting with John Lennon's family. Playing with my son Sean on soap bubbles and frisbee is a lifelong memory. And have thought that the experience at that time would affect Mr. Sugiyama now! Yoko's right-hand side is Mr. Sugiyama, and his left-hand side is Mr. Sean when he was young.

an exciting time to be in Brazil

 

Linda's not cool with the dinner menu

 

Linda does not want a photo taken

 

What every Paul girl wants under her tree this year....

 

John carves the turkey

Photo taken by Fred Seaman

 

Thanksgiving at Cold Spring Harbor 1979.

John does his fatherly duties of carving the Thanksgiving turkey -- we don't want any cold turkey on Thanksgiving.   (bad John Lennon joke, but it made me chuckle).   

Always the cute one

 

October 25, 1979 

Just making bread

 

This is such a great photograph.   We've heard so much about how John enjoyed baking bread.  We've seen a photo of one of his loaves when he "broke bread" with Allen Klein.   For the first time, we get to see this great shot of John hard at work in the kitchen to make a loaf.   

Egypt Station '79

 

January 22, 1979

I love these photos because they are such typical tourist photos.   

That time when Ringo's house he rented from Harry was on fire

 

Linda is the Back to the Eggman

 

I had a good chuckle at the Ebay listing for this photo.  It said that Linda was eating a cookie.   Photo from June 11, 1979.

Catching up with Paul

 

The Most Honored man in Music