GEORGE ON DYLAN, THE BAND, BEATLES

[theDingle]

George was interviewed by Timothy White in the November 1987 issue of Musician magazine. Here is an exerpt I found:

WHITE: You mentioned knowing Albert Grossman. I always wondered how The Band came to invite you up to Woodstock in November 1968. You wrote I'd Have You Anytime with Dylan during that visit.

HARRISON: I wrote All Things Must Pass there as well. To this day you can play STAGE FRIGHT and BIG PINK, and although the technology's changed, those records come off as beautifully conceived and uniquely sophisticated. They had great tunes, played in a great spirit, with humor and versatility.

I knew those guys during that period and I think it was Robbie Robertson who invited me down. He said, "You can stay at Albert's. He's got the big house." I hung out with them and Bob. It was strange because at that time Bob and Grossman were going through this fight, this crisis about managing him. I would spend the day with Bob and the night with Grossman and hear both sides of the battle.

Artistically, I respected The Band enormously. All the different guys in the group sang, and Robbie Robertson used to say he was lucky, because he could write songs for a voice like Levon's. What a wise and generous attitude. The hard thing is to write a song for yourself, knowing you've got to sing it. Sometimes I have a hard time singing my own stuff.

WHITE: You once remarked that you were trying to write a Robbie Robertson kind of song with All Things Must Pass.

HARRISON: The Weight was the one I admired, it had a religious and a country feeling to it, and I wanted that. You absorb, then you interpret, and it comes out nothing like the thing you're imagining, but it gives you a starting point.

We used to take that approach with The Beatles, saying, "Who are we going to be today? Let's pretend to be Fleetwood Mac!" There's a song on ABBEY ROAD, The Sun King, that tried that. At the time, Albatross was out, with all the reverb on guitar. So we said, "Let's be Fleetwood Mac doing Albatross" just to get going. It never really sound like Fleetwood Mac, just like All Things never sounded like The Band, but they were the point of origin.

[maccastheman]

George always talked about what a great time he had hanging out with the Band. He and Eric Clapton. It's amazing how much influence those guys had on everything. (Compared to how many albums they sold) It's almost like the Velvet Underground.

Thanks for the article!

[theDingle]

Tanx! My brother got BIG PINK when it came out, I bought the rest, I was Band-batty.

George's last comment about Fleetwood Mac intrigued me. That was the more bluesy-jammin' Fleetwood Mac incarnation. I never heard Albatross until '72 or so when I got curious about their earliest stuff. Believe it or not, regardless of what George said later, when I first heard it, I said to myself, "HMmm, nice, that sounds like Sun King."!!!

[Berkeleyan]

I never understood why The Band broke up consciously in ´76, with a final concert and all ("The Last Waltz"). Does anyone know why they did so when they had so much going for them ?
Any internal conflicts ? [?] BTW, I love Dylan´s choices of tunes to play at the concert (I Shall be Released, Baby Let me Follow You Down)

[theDingle]

quote:Originally posted by Berkeleyan
I never understood why The Band broke up consciously in ´76, with a final concert and all ("The Last Waltz"). Does anyone know why they did so when they had so much going for them ?
Any internal conflicts ? [?] Same old same old, Berks: power struggles, ego trips, financial squabbles, artistic differences, and of course, sex, booze and drugs. According to the 2 books that I know about that have been written about The Band, these were problems they had from before they were even famous.

Levon Helm said in his book, Wheels On Fire, that when it came to doing THE LAST WALTZ, he just wanted to "do it, puke, and get out," lol. His heart wasn't in it, so it sounds like the break-up was a long time coming. There was definitely bad blood between them going into the 80s over some deal Robertson worked out to take the lion's share of the loot. PBS did a documentary on them a few years back which mentioned that. Manuel committed suicide, Danko has passed away, and now Helm can't even sing anymore, having had to deal with throat cancer. It's all a shame.

Helm had a periodic solo career, and there were a few Band CDs sans Robertson in the 90s that had some good stuff.

[Berkeleyan]

Thank you for your insight, theDingle. Throughout so many years of Rock and Pop, so many talents have succumbed to selfishness, egos, greed, drugs and the works....The Band was so influential to so many other talents but could not handle their success. How sad is their story. [V]

[theDingle]

Thanks Berks. I've listened to Robertson's post-Band stuff, but I can't say it flipped my switch.

You know, the irony here is that George went to hang out with all those guys so he could chill from Beatle pressures, but they were all having the same problems.

Sort of reminds me of when George brought Preston in to do piano, or Clapton in to do the solo on While My Guitar Gently Sleeps. The Beatles stopped being "so bitchy," as he said. I guess George helped The Band guys to chill temporarily by hanging out w/them for awhile, too.

[Berkeleyan]

Yes, you must be right. He was giving them so much attention and credit and they were quite possibly in awe of him, A BEATLE ! George gave them all his love, plus great vibrations and positive thinking. This package was surely a great help to them (The Band, Preston, Clapton, Delaney & Bonnie....).

[maccastheman]

quote:Originally posted by theDingle


George's last comment about Fleetwood Mac intrigued me. That was the more bluesy-jammin' Fleetwood Mac incarnation. I never heard Albatross until '72 or so when I got curious about their earliest stuff. Believe it or not, regardless of what George said later, when I first heard it, I said to myself, "HMmm, nice, that sounds like Sun King."!!! [/font=Comic Sans MS][/b]


You always hear about the Beach Boys/Bob Dylan influences on the Beatles, but you hardly ever hear how any of their other contemporaries influenced them. That's pretty cool.

George told a great story about Bob Dylan during the Traveling Wilburys sessions. He said one day Dylan walked in and said, "I want to do something funky like Prince." That totally cracks me up. I think the song they ended up doing was "Dirty World." (Which doesn't sound hardly anything like Prince) It's just funny how some of these songs have their origins.

[theDingle]

quote:Originally posted by maccastheman
....one day Dylan walked in and said, "I want to do something funky like Prince." That totally cracks me up.WAD! mtm, coming from Dylan that sounds so off the wall! You really can't pigeonhole your own heroes, but I know that I also listen to a lot of oddball stuff that isn't anywhere similar to my big-time favorites like the Beatles.

I also like it when Paul does something that's so uncharacteristic of his usual style. My faves off DRIVING RAIN were She's Given Up Talking and the Kahne remix#2 of From A Lover To A Friend, sometimes I put those on repeat mode. He may take criticism for albums like MCCARTNEY II or LIVERPOOL SOUND COLLAGE, but they're OK with me. Better that than an album like some of the of substandard cuts from OFF THE GROUND , lol.