Meet the Beatles for Real: George Harrison

Showing posts with label George Harrison. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 28, 2024

Without You-The Tragic Story of Badfinger: A Book Review Ba

Badfinger performs at the original Cavern Club

Badfinger with George Harrison

Harry Nilsson with Pete Ham and Tom Evans (writers of Without Out)

Mal Evans with Kathie Molland

Many books are called "The Tragic Story," but I think the story of Badfinger truly deserves those words. In reading the book Without You: The Tragic Story of Badfinger, I really realized just how tragic it was for these Apple music recording artists. It was a long book, and while I knew how the story ended, I kept waiting for things to get better. It never did -- things just get worse and worse.

Badfinger (originally called The Iveys) started out as a band during the height of The Beatles but never tried to be like them. However, because they caught the attention of Mal Evans and got signed onto Apple Records, plus Paul McCartney wrote their first hit song, they were constantly compared to The Beatles. They HATED it. As much as they loved the Beatles and appreciated everything they did for them, they quickly were tired of answering questions about the Beatles and being treated as 2nd-rate Beatles.

That didn't stop them from associating with the Fab 4. George Harrison especially appreciated Badfinger and asked them to perform at Bangladesh and on All Things Must Pass. It Don't Come Easy was first offered to Badfinger before it was given to Ringo (can you imagine anyone but Ringo singing that song?)

But even with hit songs for themselves, concert tours all over the world, and a #1 song for Harry Nilsson that they wrote -- Badfinger could never make it big. They were always broke. They were mismanaged and lost money. Joey Molland's wife, Kathie, was the cause of a lot of issues for the group. The drummer, Mike, left the group for a while, and they had another drummer until they got Mike to come back. Promises were made to them that never happened. Egos seems to get in the way. Badfinger should have been a lot bigger than they were. And it all lead up to the sad death of Pete Ham and later Tom Evans.

The book was very interesting, and I read a lot about the group that I never knew. I didn't think it painted Joey Molland in a very good light, but then again, it didn't paint much of anyone in a good light. The Badfinger story is messy, and the author did a good job of telling the story in spite of the difficult subject. I thought the book was longer than it needed to be, but that might be because the chapters were long. I don't like to stop reading in the middle of a chapter, and that might be why it felt like such a long book. This book was written in the early 2000s, and it is now outdated in some parts, but overall, it was an interesting book.

https://amzn.to/3TfAKYl

This is the affiliate link to purchase the book from Amazon. For every purchase using this link, I get a very small percentage of the purchase. Any money made from Amazon links is used for the annual fees to keep this site going.

Monday, February 26, 2024

Traveling with the Beatles

Sunday, February 25, 2024

George and Drew (Datebook inteview from 1965)

This interview was posted in Datebook magazine in 1965 after the Beatles 1965 N. American tour.

Atlanta's Paul Drew, one of the most influential disc jockeys in the nation, has been the mainstay of WQZI's talk-and-music schedule since he took over in 1963. With his straight-from-the-shoulder, no-kidding-around approach, Paul has managed to garner the enthusiasm of both teenagers and adults in and around Atlanta on weekdays from 7 to 11p.m. and Saturday from 6 p.m. to midnight. The kids really listen to what "Paulie" has to say on station "QUIXIE" because they know he's a phony baiter from way back. On his show, you can hear the latest in pop as well as authentic regional music. Paul Drew's favorite composers? Paul McC and John L.

Paul traveled with the Beatles on both their American trips. Following are excerpts from the series of interviews he had with the Beatles as he accompanied them on their last tour.

Drew: Who is Steve Bimbo and the Alligators? I heard you mention him yesterday.

George: Steve Bimbo is nobody.

Drew: Who made it up?

Geroge: John. It's one of these things that we do if somebody is having a discussion or talking about something. And one of us just doesn't quite catch a name and says who, and the other one, instead of telling him the name, he'll make the name up, and that's what John did the other day.

Drew: Oh, this is a brand new joke from yesterday?

George: You see, I was drying my hair with a weird hair dryer that actually shook my head so that I couldn't hear what everybody was talking about, so I kept sticking my head out, saying "Who" or "What?" And every time I do, John would say, "Steve Bimbo and the Alligators." Just a little joke, you know.

Drew: Have you done any shopping for any of your friends in England since you've been in America?

George: No, we're all slow. We just bought a few T-shirts and hats, but you know we haven't bought anything spectacular; all we bought was a portable radio, you know, a transistor. We usually have to get somebody to come down from the shop and bring everything he has, and then we end up buying quite a bit of stuff. But you know, there's nothing really that we can think of that we want.

Drew: And I guess it does take some of the fun away not to be able to go out and buy it yourself?

George: Yes that's the thing, 'cause you know I like going in a shop and then seeing something and then buying it. for us, we've got to know what we want beforehand and send for it. But when somebody who owns a shop brings down a whole lot of stuff, he usually brings stuff that we never thought of, but we like, you know.

Drew: I notice you have a comb in your pocket, do you comb your hair much? Or do you just usually let it lay naturally?

George: Well, I just usually comb it when I get up in the morning, trying to get it going right. Because it's usually like a tree when I wake up in the morning. Then I comb it before I go on to the show.

Drew: Have you had a haircut since you've been on this tour?

George: I clipped a bit off of it myself last night.

Drew: What did you do with the locks? Everyone will be interested.

George: I wrapped it up in a few pieces of tissue and threw it down the toilet.

Drew: Shame on you. Those poor fans who'd like to have a lock of your hair!

George: Never mind.

Drew: Any particular reason why you don't sing one of your two songs on the American tour?

George: Yes. We like to do songs that are older ones that people know more about. You know, it's bad enough for them trying to hear what we're doing as it is. At least if they know the song, then they don't worry about hearing it as much. you know they can all join in or do what they like.

Drew: If you could play, just for the fun of it, with any other group of your choosing, just say the other Beatles would say, "Go ahead, George, have a ball, go play with such and such, and give it a good go." Not professionally, and not for a future, but jsut for the fun of it, who would you like to sit in with?

George: I don't know. I'd like to sit in with the Byrds I think.

Drew: Have you ever done this, sat in with another group?

Geroge: Yes. Last trip to America. LAst year we ended up in Key West 'cause we couldn't land in Jacksonville because of the hurricane, and we stayed in a little motel there, and the Bill Black combo was on the trip with us, set up the equipment in the bar, and later when everybody had gone home, we had a sssion, just on our own, and it was nice. I never enjoyed playing so much for ages. It was great.