George meets with Marco

 May 24, 1988 -- George meets with a Brazilian fan named Marco at his home in L.A. 

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.

John greets one of his biggest fans from South America

 

October 10, 1980

Paul in Brazil- a magazine review

I try to review something every Wednesday for what I like to call "Wednesday Reviews."   This one is a first---it is a magazine called Revolution and it is printed in Portuguese, which I do not read or understand at all.

One of the readers of this blog, Marcus was super kind enough to send me this magazine from Brazil through the mail.  

It is published by Macro Mallagoli who has met all four of the Beatles and is quite a Beatles expert and respected fan.

Macro and family meet the McCartneys in 1990

This magazine focuses on all of the times Paul McCartney performed in Brazil over the years.   Of course the first time he was there was in 1989 as part of the World tour.    From what I am can tell, there some stories of fan meeting Paul during that tour and then in English there is the setlist and a load of great, rare photos!  And they are all in color on glossy paper. 

That is the pattern of the magazine---every tour stop with great photos and setlists (including the soundcheck set lists) until 2014!    And even as someone who cannot read the text, I find this magazine to have a great layout and to be fun to flip through.   Photographs do not speak a language and there are so many of them that were new to me!

Something else I liked about this magazine is that it wasn't filled with advertisements.   There were a few in the front and in the back, but mainly you are just immersed  in the world of Macca concerts.

I would recommend this magazine to anyone who knows how to speak a little Portuguese or anyone who loves Paul McCartney and is a completest.     I know for me, it is neat to see that fans from all around the world love and go wild over Paul the same way as the fans I have seen in the United States.

http://www.beatlesrevolution.co.uk/index.php/loja/publicacoes/694-lancamento-da-revista-paul-in-brazil-pelo-fa-clube-revolution

George in Brazil

October 1980

Here is another story about when Brazilian fan, Marco, met John on October 10, 1980.  It was taken from repeat of the article that appeared in the last issue of "With a Little Help from my friends."   It was written by Ann Lawter and also includes her story of when she witnessed the Lennon family waving to President Jimmy Carter as his motorcade drove by the Dakota on October 13.   Interesting side note, President Carter had gotten a death treat prior to his drive through New York (as part of the Columbus Day Parade).   Someone had called and said that they were going to shoot him, which happily did not happen and this turned out to be a nice family outing for the Lennon family.

Marco and the other Lennon fans along with Steve the doorman at the Dakota

The John Lennon autograph Marco got that day.

Check out those red socks!

Waiting for the King

 

From “With a Little Help from my Friends”  Issue #32 October 1980

Ann Lawter writes a wonderful article about seeing John in NYC with Terry Klemmer, Pam Pritchard, Marco Mallagoli, and John Colman, a fan that bore such a striking resemblance to Mr. Lennon that even Sean said, “You look just like my Dad!”  Then on October 10^th…

About 3pm Marco and I were standing on the sidewalk directly in front of the archway of the Dakota.  We weren’t paying much attention to what was happening because we knew we’d have advance warning before John came out with the limo pulling up under there.  I glanced over and suddenly saw John.  He was strolling toward us!  I nearly passed out.  He was wearing tight straight-leg jeans with about a 2” cuff on them.  He had on (wait for it) RED socks, which were quite visible, as his jeans were rolled up a bit.  He had on the usual white sneakers, but they had a red stripe on them, making him so color-coordinated.  He had on a big, bulky soft-looking, whitish-blue jacket, orange glasses with the dark lenses, and was carrying a shoulder bag.

 I said the first thing that popped into my head, brilliant though it was, “Well, Hi John!”  He smiled and said, “Hi, how are ya?”  The smile was encouraging, not to mention breathtaking.  I managed to blue out, “John, could I please take your picture?”  He said, word for word, “sure ya can, darlin’.”  I felt faint again, but while Marco detained him, I started taking pictures.  John didn’t seem to be in any hurry.  Marco asked him about coming to Brazil when he toured, and John allowed as how he had been considering it, and had gotten the letter Marco had sent regarding it.  John referred Marco to his business manager, saying he could set up an appointment with him to talk about it.  Marco asked John for his autograph, and they shook hands.  They had finished their conversation, and as soon as I got all of John in the view-finder, he started walking toward the limo.  Just as he started to duck into the limo, I called out, “Thanks John!”  He stuck his head up above the door of the limo, looked at me, and said, “What?”  I repeated it, and he said, very nicely, “Oh yeah….yeah…” Then he sat down on the back seat.  Just as the doorman was closing the door I peeked inside and saw Yoko sitting there.  How she’d gotten by me I’ll never know, but I’m sure King Kong could’ve walked through there and I wouldn’t have noticed, as absorbed as I was in John.  Before the door closed, I called out, “Hi Yoko!” The door closed, and she smiled, nodded and waved.  Then the limo took off.

 John Colman had told me he would be around the Dakota this particular day, so the whole time this was happening, in the back of my mind I was thinking, “Where is Colman?”  I, among others, were anxious to see John’s face when he met his mirror image.  As luck would have it, Colman was, on this afternoon, standing out front of the Hit Factory.  And just guess where John’s limo was headed when I saw him?  Colman and Annemarie, his wife, were out front along with two other girls.  The limo pulled up.  John got out, strode over to Colman, taking large stride, and stuck out his hand to shake.  With no prompting from Colman, John said, “Hi, how are ya?”  Colman was shocked but managed to say “hi” and ask for John’s autograph.  As they stood there, Colman said, “Did Sean tell you about me?”  John looked up form what he was signing and said, “Oh, so YOU are the one…” and he didn’t say anything else!  When John finished signing he walked over to Annemarie, who was busy taking pictures.  He pointed to her camera and said, “Is that a Brownie?” referring to her ancient camera.  She was quite shook but managed to say yes, it was.  About that time, a guy came walking up to John and said “Who are you?” rather stupidly.  Colman said John got almost defensive and said, “My name is Yovie!”  He folded his arms over his chest while saying this.  We still haven’t figured out what or who “Yovie” is.  With having been totally confused, the guy left.  These other two girls had been standing there observing the whole time.  They said Yoko stood there the whole time just staring at Colman and smiling really big.  So we know she saw it, but John didn’t even seem to react to the similarity.

I had one other encounter with the Lennon family.  This one was extremely surrealistic.  It was three days later, on Monday October 13.  I had gotten in the habit by this time of going to the Dakota about 1pm every day.  That seemed to be prime time.  As I neared 72^nd Street on Columbus Ave, I noticed a big crowd gathered at the corner of those two streets.  I thought probably there had been an accident or something.  As I got there I noticed there was a cop directing traffic at the corner and they were blocking the street off.  I walked up to someone and asked what was happening.  They told me that President Carter’s limo was due to come through there on 72^nd Street in just a minute.  Although I’m not exactly a big fan of the Carter’s, I’ve never seen a real live President, so I thought this was pretty neat!  I could tell the motorcade would have to come down 72^nd street, which would mean it would go by the Dakota.  I decided to walk on up there.  As I arrived, I noticed there were three limos parked out front:  one up under the archway, one in front of that one across the sidewalk out front, and a 3^rd out in the street, double parked.  The one that was across the sidewalk was John’s!  I saw that there were bunches of people out front but they all seemed to be waiting for the President.  About 5 minutes after I arrived a police car came out of Central Park slowly, with its lights flashing, and started down 72^nd St.  as though maybe it were leading the motorcade.  I got my camera all set and stood right on the edge of the driveway in front of the Dakota.  I heard Steve, the doorman, say “Here they come!” and I anxiously craned my neck to see the President.  Stupid me.  I noticed out of the corner of my eye that someone had just come running up from behind me and stopped beside me. I glanced over and it was Yoko!  She was standing just to my left and standing just to her left was John!  To his left was al little Oriental girl who must have been about 20 years old.  Standing in front of her was Sean.  She had her hands on Sean’s shoulders as though to keep him from running out into the traffic.  The Lennons were just lined up here along 72^nd St., just waiting to see the President.  John Lennon, who could get an appointment with the President, The Pope or Mick Jagger any damn time he wanted, had brought his kid to stand out front and wave at President Carter.  I started taking pictures quickly before they moved anywhere else.  I needn’t have worried.  Yoko was quiet, Sean was animated.  The nanny was just trying to keep Sean under control.  John spoke, “Sean, now the King is gonna come by here in a minute, and we’re all gonna wave at him!”  We all just stood there, me stiff as a board with John continuing a steady barrage of small talk.  Nobody was saying anything to the Lennons.  Nobody asked for photos or autographs.   That was the best part about it.  Usually when you see John he’s being bugged by fans hanging around (like me) and he’s in a bit of a hurry to be done with it and out of there.  Now he was just hanging around being a semi-normal human being.  It was so incredible.  He was cold, and kept saying how cold it was.  He’d bounce up and down a d bit and blow on his hands.  He kept telling Sean that the “King” was about the drive by.  If he said “The King” once, he said it 50 times.  I think John could use a lesson on American government.  Lord only knows, Sean will need one; he won’t know if it’s the King, the President, or the Emperor!  At one point, after he’d been waiting about 5 minutes, John commented that it “sure is taking him a long time to get here…he must have stopped in Central Park to pick up a couple of future voters!”  A lady standing on the other side John from where I was, was Mrs. Warner LeRoy.  Her husband is probably the second-richest man in the building.  Mrs. LeRoy is a really nice young girl.  She stepped off the curb about 6 inches into the street.  As she did, John looked at her.  He pointed at her feet and said gruffly, “LeRoy, get back up here on the curb!  You know they don’t allow that when the President’s in town!”  John kind of laughed in a funny way, but without smiling.  Mrs. LeRoy laughed too and stepped back up on the curb.  We must have been waiting there about 8 minutes.  I finally decided that a lot valuable picture-taking time was going to waste here but the problem was that because we were lined up, I couldn’t really get any good photos without stepping out into the street and I’d already seen the results of that move.  I leaned over to Yoko and said, ‘Yoko, as long as we’re all just standing here, would you mind if I took a couple of picture of  you?”  She hesitated and then said, “OK, fine.”  I stepped out into the street in front of her, John, Sean, God and everybody, and turned toward them.  JUST as I did that, here comes damn President Carter!  So I stepped back into line.  I heard John say, “C’mere Sean!”  and Sean came over to him.  John picked him up in his arms and once again reminded him to wave at the King.  Jimmy drove by, smiled and waved.   John, Sean, Yoko and the entire assembled multitude waved back.  After he was gone, John put Sean down and turned around toward his limo.  Lauren Bacall was standing behind him.  She said, “Oh John, I meant to tell you happy birthday!”  John said, “Thank you.” And politely put his arm around her and kissed her on the cheek.  Then john said, “Ok, let’s go,” and the four them, nanny included, ran back and got into the limo, then they took off.

Marco and George in 1988

On May 24, 1988, Marco Mallagoli, the well-known Brazilian Beatles fan did something that every Beatle fan dreams of doing.   He won a contest to go to L.A. and spend 2 hours with George Harrison.  His story and photos appeared in the very last ever issue of 'With a Little Help from my Friends.'

Marco and George

Reading through Marco's newsletter, Revolution

A woman from Warner Called “P.G.” picked me up at my hotel and she went with me to the house where George was staying.  When we arrived, the vice president of Warners pulled up in another car at the same time.  He was very kind, and as we walked up to the house, he called out for George, who had been taking a shower.  George appeared in the window and told us to come in and to wait for a moment.  We walked into the house.  There was a Gretsch guitar (I think the one he got on ‘Rockline’) and on the other side of the room another different Gretsch, an old one he acquired recently.   There were some –shirts from Gretsch, and some magazines telling about Gretsch guitars.

When George came into the room, it was a wonderful moment.  We shook hands and began to talk.  He asked me about the contest I won.  I told him as president of the Revolution fan club, we sent 50,000 letters to the radio station, and so I won it.  He kept telling people in the house, “He won me in a contest!”

He told me he loved Brazil when he was there in Feb. ’79, and I had to show him a photo of him taken there that I was in too, and then he remembered me.  He’s a very good person.  He gave me his complete attention.  He’d shaved, has no beard or mustache, and his hair’s shorter.

He was very friendly and he talked easily about the Beatle days.  He said that in ’64 when the Beatles came to New York for the first time, the factory gave him some guitars, but with time, most of them got stolen.  He told me about the guitar on the cover of “Cloud Nine” I have him a newsletter of “Revolution” where on the first page there’s a photo of him at the Cavern with the same guitar, and he told me it was great to see that picture.  He liked the other photos in the newsletter and some drawings by Paulo Balk.

I have him some gifs and some for Dhani, and he loved them.  He told me Dhani is playing piano very well and that he likes some Beatles’ songs.  He said he’s writing new songs with Jeff Lynne and that toward the end of this year or the beginning of next year he hopes to start a new LP.

I asked if Paul is or is not in “When We Was Fab” and George said, “Yeah.  Well, he didn’t want to be seen.”  I said, “But he was playing the walrus with the mask and everything?”  George:  “Yeah.  Pretending.”  I asked, “So you, Paul and Ringo played together in the video?”  “Yeah” George said again, “But in secret!”  When I asked if the media stories going around lately that he might write a song with Paul were true, he said, “Maybe.”  I asked if he, Paul and Ringo would ever do a song together and he said, “Maybe just a couple of songs…we wouldn’t make an album but maybe if we did ever finish a film. You know, some of this old Beatle film stuff (The Long and Winding Road??) then maybe we’d write a new song for it. 

He said he isn’t planning doing Prince’s Trust on the Nelson Mandela concerts in June as he won’t be in London either time, and he also didn’t know that according to the press he’s supposed to be participating in HBO’s Robbie Robertson special in a segment he was supposedly taping in N. Y. in June!

I  played for him the tape my friend Marcus Rampazzo recorded, playing George’s songs on guitar and George seemed impressed, saying he was a great guitar player.  He said Marcus can play songs that he can’t even remember how to play anymore, and he knows they’re among the most difficult songs to play on guitar that he’s written. He heard the entire tape and asked if he could keep it to play for Jeff Lynne, he thought Jeff wouldn’t believe how good it was! 

He played some bits of songs on his guitar like the solo of “Something,” but he wouldn’t let me record it.  There were some papers with some lyrics he’d written to some new songs.  I looked at it but couldn’t get a copy (unfortunately!).

I asked why “This is Love” was the new single in America as I’d thought the next one would be “Devil’s Radio.”  George said, “Well, in America, you see…they put out, all over the world, they usually put the same single, because it’s easy to go with the same song.  In America, ‘Devil’s Radio’ can’t be a single because they already played it so much on FM radio.  You, when the album first came out they played it to death!  So in America I don’t’ know if they could put it as a single.  So therefore … maybe it will come to the rest of the world sometime. “

It was fantastic to talk to him for those two hours.