Friday, June 16, 2006

Interview: John Lennon, Doncaster - December 10, 1963

This Lennon interview is interesting as John refuses to provide the nice “personality” piece that the interviewer seeks, and instead challenges most questions and dismisses the rest with one-liners. John does, however, oblige the interviewer in reading one of his new poems, which would become “Neville Club” in Lennon’s first book, In His Own Write, published three months later.


Q: It’s said, John Lennon, that you have the most Goon-type humor of the four Beatles.

Lennon: Who said that?

Q: I think I read it in one of the newspapers.

Lennon: You know what the newspapers are like.

Q: I don’t know. What are they like?

Lennon: Wrong.

Q: [laughs] This is going wrong…I want to get a nice “personality” bit.

Lennon: I haven’t got a nice personality.

Q: [laughs] Is this evidence of Goon-type humor?

Lennon: No, I don’t think I really have Goon-type humor. That’s just an expression people use.

Q: What has the success you’ve enjoyed with the Beatles meant to you personally?

Lennon: More money than I had before. That’s the good bit.

Q: Is it going to make any difference to your life the way you live it after, say, this calms down…the enormous excitement you’re generating at the moment?

Lennon: I don’t know, you know. Really.

Q: Do you think your career as a comic might open up to you?

Lennon: No. [laughs] I don’t stand a chance being a comic.

Q: Why not?

Lennon: I’m not funny enough.

Q: You were interested in poetry in school.

Lennon: Who said?

Q: It’s printed in a book compiled by the Beatles and entitled, The Beatles.

Lennon: [laughs] I haven’t read that book. We don’t normally write those things.

Q: Written any good comic poems lately?

Lennon: Yes.

Q: [laughs] I just happened to have it here by sheerest coincidence.

Lennon: “Dressed in my brown…” Oh no, I’ve lost it. Hold on. I can’t read it, you see. I’ve only just written it. Well, that’s how it starts, actually!

Q: [laughs]

Lennon: “Dressed in my teenold brown sweater I easily micked with crown at Neville Club, a seemy hole. Soon all but soon people accoustic me saying such thing as ‘where the charge man?’ ” I’m turning it over… “All too soon I noticed boys and girls sitting in a hubbeled lump, smoking Hernia and taking Odeon, and getting very high. Some were only 4 foot 3 high, but he had Indian Hump which he grew in his sleep.” But things like that just help me keep sane.

Q: Is this business enough to drive you insane?

Lennon: No, I’m quite normal really. If you read in the Beatle books…it says I’m quite normal.

Interview: John Lennon, London - June 22, 1963

Juke Box JuryLennon was invited early in the Beatles’ career to appear on Juke Box Jury, a records review show that allowed a panel of guests to deliver opinions on the latest songs of the day. Lennon’s appearance became infamous for his negative comments regarding every song that was presented. His reviews are honest, and the negative reviews he provides are largely due to the fact that the songs were not in the R&B or rock ‘n’ roll genres that he preferred. Though some viewers wrote in to the British press complaining about John’s harsh words, the audience at this particular appearance certainly seemed to enjoy his jokes and put downs of the records. His comments on Elvis here he would repeat for the rest of his life – how Elvis had changed after he joined the Army, and became “middle-aged” – and the other Beatles agreed with this sentiment. The other panel guest John converses with at one point is Katie Boyle, a TV presenter who was a regular guest on the show. The first song reviewed, “Southend” by Cleo Laine, does not appear on the available recordings, and so Lennon’s comments begin with the second song presented.

The Tymes – “So Much In Love”

Lennon: I thought it was a Rolf Harris at first. And then I thought, oh, it’s the Drifters. The style was all right, but it wasn’t good enough in that idiom.

Elvis Presley – “(You’re The) Devil In Disguise”

Lennon: Well, you know, I used to go mad on Elvis, like all the group. But, you know, not now, I don’t like it. And I hate songs with “walk” and “talk” in it, you know, those lyrics. “She walks, she talks,” you know, don’t like that. And I don’t like the double beat, um-cha-um-cha, that bit, it’s awful. Poor old Elvis.

[audience laughs]

Lennon: I’ve got all his early records, and I keep playing them thinking, he must make another like this. But somebody said today he sounds like Bing Crosby now and he does.

[audience laughs]

Lennon: You’ll get these people writing in now I know and saying, “What do you mean?” But I don’t like him anymore.

Q: Thank you. Katie.

Boyle: If he did sound like Bing Crosby, would it be bad?

Lennon: Well, for Elvis, yes.

[audience laughs]

Miriam Makeba – “The Click Song”

Lennon: If it was in English, it would mean even less. It’s intriguing because it’s foreign, you know, but you can pick them out a mile away, all the gimmicks and all the different styles.

Tom Glaser – “On Top Of Spaghetti”

Lennon: Well, I can’t stand these “all together now” records, you know. I like the idea of back-…one shouting and one answering, but, you know, not that. I prefer the recent Little Eva, “Smoky Locomotion,” folks.

[audience laughs]

Lennon: But not that. It’s like, you know, an outing, a coach trip.

Q: Coach trips are very popular.

Lennon: Yeah, they don’t sell, though.

[audience laughs]

Russ Conway – “Flamenco”

Lennon: I like pianos and things, you know, but not sort of pub pianos playing flamenco music…it still sounds honky, you know. Didn’t sound anything like flamenco…he hasn’t pinched the best bits out of real Spanish music, I don’t think. Sorry.

Paul & Paula – “First Quarrel”

Lennon: Well, I like their first record [“Hey Paula”]. Because I like the octave singing, her singing, you know, one above him, and it wasn’t bad, I didn’t buy it. And the second one, you know, wasn’t worth bothering. This…and this had Jim in, you know, and all these American records are always about Jim and Bobby and Alfred and all this.

[audience laughs]

Lennon: I don’t like it, you know.

Julie Grant – “Don’t Ever Let Me Down”

Lennon: I can’t think of a thing to say. At the beginning I thought, oh, it’s one of those with an intro, but the intro wasn’t strong enough. No, you know, I don’t want to say anything about…

Q: Do you like girls records or not?

Lennon: Yeah, well I like girl singers, I like the Shirelles and the Chiffons, you know, they’re different. But I don’t…I can’t think of any girl in particular.

Q: But not that particular record.

Lennon: No.


The show took up most of John’s evening up until 9:15 pm, and he was also scheduled to appear at a show in Abergavenny later that evening. The Beatles’ manager Brian Epstein arranged for a helicopter to take Lennon to the concert, which arrived at the Penypound football ground at 9:50 pm, in time for the show which earned the Beatles £250.
Three records reviewed on the show that never aired included “Lies” by Johnny Sandon and the Remo Four, “Too Late To Worry” by Richard Anthony, and “Just One Look” by Doris Troy. Both the Remo Four and Doris Troy would later work with George Harrison, with Troy releasing an album on the Beatles’ Apple label in 1970.

Thursday, June 15, 2006

Interview: The Beatles, Odeon Cinema - September 6, 1963

Date: 6 September 1963
Location: Backstage at the Odeon Cinema, Dunstable Rd, Luton, Bedfordshire
Interviewer: Chris Hutchins
Published: 13 September 1963
New Musical Express, page 10

George hopes plane exits stay shut!
Flight fear before American holiday

Next week Beatle George Harrison flies to America for the holiday of a lifetime - but after an aircraft incident last week that might have robbed Britain of one of its top foursomes, the forthcoming trip over the Atlantic is causing him some concern - reports Chris Hutchins.

Backstage in a theatre at Luton at the weekend George told me of the hair-raising incident which, for a few fleeting moments, he thought had put paid to much more than his singing career!

"We were taking off from Liverpool for one of our frequent flights across the country, when the plane suddenly came to a halt just as it was about to leave the ground. They gave me the jitters but what was to follow will make me sympathise with Elvis Presley's fear of flying for the rest of my days!

"As we made the proper take-off the emergency exist by which I was sitting suddenly flew open!

"I had heard stories about people being sucked out of aircraft, and I don't mind admitting I was pretty terrified. Our manager, Brian Epstein, who was sitting next to me, grabbed my arm and I yellow out for the air hostess - but she thought I was fooling as we often do since we fly in this plane so frequently."

The exit was finally sealed, but for George, who frequently had nightmares as a child, the experience was one he won't forget in a hurry. Certainly not by the day next week when he steps, with his elder brother Peter, into a jet airliner that will carry them to the U.S.

After engagements this weekend, all four Beatles start a sixteen-day holiday and George will be visiting in St. Louis a sister he hasn't seen for nine years. "It's a trip I've always dreamed of and you can bet I'll make the most of it," he told me, though hastening to add, "Mind you, I wouldn't like to stay there."

John Lennon will start his holiday in Paris, the city where he first found The Beatles' haircut during a working visit last year.

"I intend to ramble through Europe just like we used to through England. Only difference is that this time I'll be able to pay my pay," John told me.

Nursing a heavily bandaged hand that he burned on the radiator of his car, Ringo Starr told me of his vacation plans with Paul McCartney.

They will be heading for the hot sunshine of Greece, taking in Athens on a trip that's "partly to look at the gear we've read about in the history books and partly because we feel we need a suntan after working under arc lights for so long," said Ringo.

Incidentally Paul will be taking a cine-camera with him. It's the latest craze for himself and George.

Paul told me: "Happily we've spent a lot of this year in front of television cameras. We've only just finished a film documentary for the BBC.

"Now George and I have got a yen to be on the other side of the camera and we aim to take movies of our fans in various parts of the country."

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Interview: George Harrison, Educational TV - early December 1967

Q: The things you've said in interviews, I guess the accepting that Indian music is only part of it.

George Harrison: Yeah, but for me the Indian music was a stepping stone for the spiritual things, because the music really is very much spiritual. It depends how spiritual the performer is, who's playing it, and also the type of raga that's being played. The music is, it's really, there's no words because it's guided so subtle, and I've found that like most things, the more that you know about it, the more you see there is to it.

Q: When you first heard it, how much did you know about it?

GH: I didn't know anything about it at all.

Q: When was that?

GH: About two or three years ago now.

Q: And how did it happen that you heard it?

GH: I heard a few people over a period of about eighteen months mention to me Ravi Shankar, I just kept hearing his name. And a friend of mine in America said, "You ought to listen to this." So I went home and bought the record of it, I couldn't believe it. Because really, it's hard to explain, I just felt as though I knew it, somehow. I'd never heard it before as far as I know, never heard it before in this life.

Q: Is it totally foreign to your own musical experience, was it a brand new thing that you had to learn?

GH: Not really, it's like any music, you start with do re mi fa so la ti do and all the exercises, whatever it is, you learn the finger exercises. Same as sitar, sa re ga ma pa dha ni sa, which is the same.

Q: And how many scales are there?

GH: I think there's a lot.

Q: And how many do you think you know? I mean, I'm just curious.

GH: Oh, I don't know, you see. I think there's about 72 basic ones, but I think there's lots more.

Q: But you don't need that?

GH: No, the thing is, the main, the obvious thing, you see with their music they have to learn how to handle the instrument, they have to learn all the scales, all the exercises, it's all really disciplined. And I think actually years and years of strict exercises, then they don't start the improvising until maybe eight years later. And then they sort of absorb the music into themselves. I mean, this is the thing really, Ravi Shankar is the music, really, himself. Because he's absorbed it all into him so, and he sits to play it, anything can come out, you know, anything, it depends entirely how he feels.

Q: Mr. Shankar and Indian music have meant more to you than just simply a new mold of music, I mean it's been a whole. . .

GH: I think it's the discipline, really. I mean, being in my position, they were the things really I liked about Ravi Shankar. I'd met in my career, I'd met all sorts of people, film stars and all this sort of thing, and yet there wasn't really one person that I had a lot of respect, that much respect for. Because there wasn't one person I'd met who was that good in my estimation, until I met Ravi Shankar. Because he really is, you have to meet him to know, the discipline and just the respect that he just has for all that music and the culture. And he just, he knocked me out, really. And the whole thing of, for him to sit and show me the very first exercise on sitar, and he enjoyed doing it himself. It's really amazing that somebody that great can come down to a low level and do it completely.

Q: It has a great deal to do with humility, you've spoken about his humility, do you think that some of these qualities of mind have to do with the way the young people have. . .

GH: You've got to really be in a pure state of mind to really accept it, the true form of this music. And the only way that he's got to that position is by this self-renunciation and by the discipline of years and years and years of practice. And so, lots of people really think of the East as, you know, smoke a bit of opium and then you can play like that, but you can't, you know, because the original thing is actually so straight spiritually and mentally and physically to be such a great performer.

Q: He's made it very clear in his statements about drugs and about tobacco.

GH: And really, people, like in India it's an understood thing, they have great respect for musicians or for any people like that, who really, whatever they do, if they do it that great, like doctors, scientists and philosophers, and all their saints, and the musicians. The musicians, you see, they walk down the street and the people bow and touch their feet and be very humble. And they really put the musician on a really high pedestal. Whereas over here, the people, you know, they don't know anything like that, and so they do tend to come and they smoke cigarettes and lie around watching it, and they can't perform with those conditions, you know. So Ravi always makes a point of telling the people "no smoking," and "don't do this, and don't do that." And it's right really, because if he had to have that much respect for the music in order to play it like that, then they should at least have a little respect for the hour or so that they sit there to watch him.

Q: Do you feel that this Indian music and this Eastern music is going to be more and more a part of what you're playing and writing?

GH: I hope so. In fact, since my interest in Indian music, I've had trouble with chords actually, with modulation. I didn't realise this for some time, but I got completely into the Indian music and just practised sitar as much as I could. And now I realise I was neglecting the guitar and all that thing, so then I became a Beatle again, and then I found I'm neglecting this. And it's very hard, you know, because obviously I can't become an Indian musician, can't become a sitar player. And if I stop doing everything else and just concentrate on that which I can't do, because I'm a Beatle and I've got to be a Beatle.

Q: Is it affecting their music?

GH: Yeah, well maybe. Yes, I think it is a lot. They've all seen Ravi perform and you know, I tried to get Ringo interested in playing tabla. I think now he's ready, you know, to learn a little bit. About two years ago when he first saw it, it was so far out for him, you know, it was just too much, he couldn't, you know I think he got scared by it because it's so deep and so involved.

Q: But you think that there's a particular reason why people are ready for Ravi Shankar now, where they wouldn't have been fifteen or twenty years ago.

GH: Yeah. I think the reason is because the evolution, you know, obviously like one generation, a struggle against the older generation, and then the younger generation become the old generation and the generation then has that struggle again. Most of all the time, it's changing and slowly getting better and better all the time. I think we've reached a state now where all these influences have all got to, they've manifested themselves onto this level of life. Not just with the music, with the spiritual thing like in New York in particular, there's so many swamis and people. I think there's so many people now, doing, going in for all this, for yoga, meditation and things like that. I think it's just got to a time now when people want something a bit more solid in their life. Something they can rely on, and they found most of the things . . . there's nothing in it, you've got to go a bit beneath the surface to get something real out of life. And I think the younger generation are more aware of this than say the old people. I think that the next generation will be even more aware of it.

Q: Do you think this is what Shankar and his music and his world is offering?

GH: Well, I think it's all part of the big plot, the music and the spiritual thing. And all they are, among the younger generation that want something more out of life, it's all part of the big thing that's going to change the world eventually. It may take two thousand years more, I don't know. But the climax of it all will be the golden age and everybody will be very spiritual and very friendly, there'll be no wars, and in actual fact, earth will be heaven, as it were.

Monday, June 12, 2006

Interview: George Harrison, KPPC-FM - November 4, 1968

Q: Well, I would just like to know . . . your new album will be a double pocket LP, is that right?

George Harrison: Right, four sides, 95 minutes, 31 tracks.

Q: Right. How many of them did you write this time, George?

GH: Four.

Q: Four this time? All right, good.

GH: I've been slacking.

Q: And Ringo?

GH: Ringo wrote one. A sort of country and western number. But Ringo sings another one as well, one song John wrote called "Good Night."

Q: I see. Is this on a Sgt. Pepper-type trip you are returning to, or are you just going to be. . .

GH: No, it's not really like Pepper with that concept, you know, of a show, it's nothing really like that. It's more just like a regular album, but it's a different thing altogether. I'll play it to you after this.

Q: Okay.

GH: You'll get the idea.

Q: I'm looking forward to hearing it. When will it be released for American. . .?

GH: First of December.

Q: First of December, I see. With the Apple people.

GH: Pardon?

Q: With your company, the Apple.

GH: Yeah. Apple, apple, apple.

Q: Are you having fun with that? It's working out good?

GH: Yes, it's working fine, yeah. Quite a lot of work involved, but it's good, you know. The thing that comes out of it is good. It's worthwhile.

Q: Are you signing more artists and everything?

GH: There's quite a few people, yeah. We've got a singer whose album should be out in the States in a couple of weeks' time, James Taylor. He's a guy who writes all his own material. So, a couple of groups, you know, a few singles, there's plenty of things coming out.

Q: I understand the uppermost thing in like the company, I was reading is like the sound is primary, you're really producing good sound first, you know, in production and everything. That's something that. . .

GH: It should be. Really, we shouldn't put out records - cream and sugar - we shouldn't put out records that have, you know, that we don't like.

Q: Really.

GH: That's really what it . . . all it amounts to. You know, there's plenty of good music and we'll just try and keep a high standard so that, you know, everything's nice. It doesn't have to be a hit, I don't suppose, but as long as it's good.

Q: I saw your film about five times in colour. We had it over here a couple of months ago.

GH: Which one, the Submarine?

Q: The Magical Mystery Tour.

GH: Oh, Mystery Tour.

Q: In colour.

GH: Did you like it?

Q: Yes, very much. I was very moved. In fact, a couple of the scenes were very moving, as a matter of fact.

GH: Yeah, it's quite old now for us, it's like a year old.

Q: Well, they haven't released it, they were talking about putting it on American TV and like we got an advance film of it and showed it at one of the local places.

GH: Really, just a few critics in England screwed that up, just by giving bad reviews, they spoiled most of America from seeing it. I believe it's going out in the colleges, so it's going on tour.

Q: It would be appreciated there. It's a matter of . . . what's a very . . . it's a fast thing, it's involved. I watched it five times, everyone watched it like five more, without realising what's happening.

GH: The critics didn't really like it because it was like a home movie, a big home movie, which it was, you know. But, I mean, they didn't try and see anything else in it.

Q: There's a lot more there. I was sort of like tripping on some of the parodies in there, touches of other filmmakers too.

GH: Yeah.

Q: You know, the Grand Prix-type thing, with the . . . and then the scene, well, my favourite scene on the beach with the older couple. It was a beautiful scene.

GH: Yeah, but you know the BBC wanted to cut that out, they thought it was obscene!

Q: Oh, that's obscene?

GH: Yeah.

Q: Old people can't be in love or have. . .

GH: No, no, they're not allowed to.

Q: What is the . . . I haven't seen the. . .

GH: Next week sometime. Yeah, that's great, you know, I enjoyed that much more than I thought I would. And there's lots of nice things in it, like the Sea of Holes, there's a lot of Bosch-type things, if you're familiar with Bosch.

Q: Just a little.

GH: Like just strange creatures where the submarine goes through all different . . . the Sea of Holes is good, it's like the relativity, the time and space thing. And they go through another place where there's a lot of very strange Bosch-type creatures dancing around, like a vacuum cleaner thing, it's very good.

Q: What about the lever-puller, Ringo?


GH: Which?

Q: When he pulls the lever, he goes, "I just love to pull levers."

GH: And he pulls the lever.

Q: Yeah.

GH: And then what happens?

Q: Something opens up on the picture. I haven't seen it, I was just told about it.

GH: Oh, I can't remember. You really need to see it a couple of times, there's a lot going on in it.

Q: Just like the Magical Mystery, I watched it like five times in a row. They ran it twelve times that day, and we just stayed down and watched it.

Q: When you were first getting started with the Maharishi, a lot went down, like we saw you know, on television different things said about how you'd become disenchanted and things like that. While you were into the Maharishi thing, I personally was into a Zen thing. Every morning at four o'clock I'd go down and meet with this Zen master in Gardena out here. And he kept putting down the Maharishi too, because he said the Maharishi was too non-committal and he, like, one time on television he said to avoid war, you build bigger bombs and he kind of disillusioned. . .

GH: You see, the problem is, well, it's not really a problem, only if you make it a problem, but the thing is that everything in the world is right and wrong, and yes and no, and up and down, and like good and bad. And good is only held in its position by bad, you know, you can only measure one by the other. But in actual fact, they're both the same thing. So really, the Maharishi was great, you know, and there was a lot of things that he was . . . and even down to the idea of doing Johnny Carson's show. I mean, from one side of it you can accept everything, and from another side, you can't accept anything. It really depends, and at first, you know, we wanted . . . I mean really, I still now I'd like the whole world to wake up and just to know who they are and what they're supposed to be doing. And then it would be a great place. I thought, that's why we really went along a lot with the things like with TV shows and you know, I didn't mind too much the idea of somebody like Maharishi going on TV. Even though it's so out of context, a person like that, it is so out of context. Yet, at the same time, you know. . .

Q: How do you spread the word to the people?

GH: Especially now, like where this is the jet age, so we play jet age-type music. And I think other people should, like in a way, Maharishi was the jet age yogi. And that can't be bad entirely, and it can't be good entirely. You know, this is the terrible thing, the truth is something that isn't good or bad, you know. It's beyond all that. And once you try and say what it is, then you bring yourself into that relativity of good and bad, you know, so it's really best just to find it yourself.

Q: Well, this thing about good and bad is like I know Lennon got busted just recently, kids all over the United States are getting busted for you know, they're making criminals out of marijuana smokers all of the country. Kids are getting records and everything. You know, where is the good and where is the bad now, who do they look to?

GH: Yeah, I noticed on a police car in Los Angeles, it says, written on the door, "to serve and to protect." And that really sort of buzzed me, I was starting to wonder like, who are they serving and who are they protecting? I mean, that's where it's really at. Because maybe they do serve and protect, but you know, themselves? Or you know, like, who?

Q: In the old days, you know, when I was a kid anyway, the policeman was something to . . . he was the man on the corner. And you'd go up to him and you'd rap with the guy and he was there to help you. But now, and not all of them, you know, certainly, but the principals they live by and the rules that they have to enforce now are so archaic that they're made out to be and in most cases they probably are because they're so dedicated. . .

GH: But that's the trick, you see, because they say, well it's not me, it's somebody up there telling me what to do. And you can never find who, like who is the guy up at the top. Because they shift the load, you know. Take a load off, Annie.

Q: What's the overall scene in England right now, so far as people our age is concerned, I was in England in '64 and '65, in fact, I saw you at a theatre with I think Roy Orbison, that's where it was at then in '64.

GH: It's not bad, you know, like compared to America, it's really the same. It's the same all over the world. It's that thing, you know, outside agitators.

Q: Dissonant elements. . .

GH: The thing is that we have it, but it's again, like everything is just that bit smaller than America, you know, less money, less industry, less everything. So there's less revolutionaries, -ists.

Q: You can see the changes happening in this country, though.

GH: Oh, you can see them happening there, but it's still, it's like relative in size to America, you know, so the changes are smaller, because there's less people trying to change it. But there's less people who don't want it to change as well, which is good. Knowing in England, because it's generally smaller, you know. The thing is, there was to have been a big demonstration, I think just last week sometime. And it was going to be like the biggest demonstration of all time, because all the demonstrators, they're just getting together now, and they have roughly the same sort of thing as that in Chicago, you know. They have police coming around with their horses and sticks and all that. But they're getting more determined as they are in America.

Q: To return to a sort of a music scene, do you think, you know, music to me has always been sort of a mirror, you know, of the culture, of the society, and they have a big insurgence now of blues and everything. And I noticed, your music has mirror a difference perspective still, you know, you haven't gone into that as John Mayall and other people. What do you think the music in more or less in what direction will we be mirroring in the next few years?

GH: Well, this new album of ours is really generally, with the exception of soft, sweet songs, generally have got a bit heavier. Much heavier. The thing is, I mean, we never got into like that purist thing, like John Mayall, and I mean that's one thing I don't entirely agree with. Well, not for us, anyway. You know, I think I like so much different music, I wouldn't like to just get hung up doing one thing like the blues, and then that's it for the rest of your life, playing twelve-bar. But this new album has got much heavier and there is a blues track on it, actually.

Q: Oh really?

GH: Called "Yer Blues." And which is quite bluesy, I don't know how the purist blues people are going to take it, but you know, it's still as valid as any other blues.

Q: Yeah, what is blues?

GH: Yeah.

Q: Really.

GH: "I'm so lonely, I want to die. So lonely I want to die. If I ain't death already, woo! You know the reason why." Something like that, really.

Q: Yeah. I noticed, you know. . .

GH: T-bone Lennon and B.B. Harrison.

Q: . . . that I heard an interview with Donovan and he was speaking of returning to you know, the old minstrel. . .

GH: To go back to the R&B like he used to do.

Q: Right, just himself and perhaps another person.

GH: Don's thing is really, I think, I never enjoyed Donovan's records as much as enjoy him just singing with a guitar. You know, he was with us in India where he wrote "Hurdy Gurdy Man" and lots of the things off his new Hurdy Gurdy album.

Q: Probably "Tangier" too.

GH: And it's so nice, you know, he does them so great. And then he goes in the recording studio and something happens, you know, for my personal taste, I'd rather have him completely as he is with his guitar, or to go into the studio and do it really, you know, amazing. But it always falls like half and half when he records. Great fellow though, good old Don. "We love you Donovan, oh yes we do."

Q: We could return to another . . . what are your feelings here right now in the USA, you feel the thing of they're having elections now. . .

GH: I think it's, it's funny you should say that, the elections. I feel that, you know, from time to time I feel that there's no difference between past, present and future, it's all the same. And particularly today, when there's three bad guys to pick from, so it's going to be the most popular of these three guys is going to suddenly be the president. And we all know he's not the one, he's not going to do it, whoever it is isn't going to be the one. And so, we've already past that, I mean, if you put yourself now, suddenly imagine in two years time, when whoever, which one of these three is going to be out there doing it. Then you know, there's no difference, it's all like a waste of time. It's very sad really, but when you know that the future isn't going to be a lot of change. . .

Q: Well, a lot of people are hoping that Wallace gets in so it'll come down faster. So it'll all change faster, you know.

GH: I think Paulsen, Pat Paulsen, he's my man.

Q: Really?

GH: Yes, or you should have Tommy Smothers, get him in there.

Q: Well, do you think there's a possibility, you know, in this country, or either in England of a man becoming the leader or president or whatever, whose interest is in the common man?

GH: I don't know, I can't see it, you see. Anybody who's generally interested in the country and the people. . .

Q: Gets killed.

Q: Really?

GH: Yeah, either gets killed, or doesn't make it for long enough. Whereas the other people who become presidents don't, it doesn't seem to have anything to do with the country or the people, you know. It's completely their own scene, their ego, the thing of "I'm the prez, watch out" so as then, they can die as the famous president who did this and who did that. And you know, it's on such a crummy level that it's not worth talking about. It's a joke, it's a joke, you know, all that . . . presidents and prime ministers, they're all the same.

Q: Heads of the protectorates of the status quo.

GH: Forgive them for they know not what they do.

Q: When I was fourteen years old, I knew I wanted to ball the Queen, but I don't know, that might have. . .

Q: I went to see the Queen, she wasn't there.

GH: The Queen, yeah. The Queen's all right though, actually. The Queen's, you know, it's not, it's different like the prez over here, the prez seems to be the heavy guy. Whereas the Queen just like goes around waving all the time. And you know, it's really her karma, her you know, the fickle finger of fate pointed at her and she happened to, you know, she didn't split and she had to go around waving. But she is, she's a nice lady and that makes it even worse somehow.

Q: How's Prince Charles?

GH: Well, Prince Charles, I don't know, and Prince Anne, [laughs] Prince Anne, they seem to be getting more hip. I mean, she's now got her miniskirt two inches above the ankle, so she's really coming on. Actually, they're good though. The Royal Family are quite hip, you know. Margaret and Tony Anson Jones and Princess Alexander, you know, they all, they're the same, they have their big thing of like, "We got the new Apple records now, and have you heard this one?" You know, they're not as stodgy as it's made out. The fault lies in the houses of Parliament and Guy Fawkes was a good guy. Do you know about him?

Q: No.

GH: There was this guy called Guy Fawkes, who, I'm not sure about the dates here, but some years ago, probably a couple of hundred years ago, he sailed up the River Thames to blow up the houses of Parliament, but they caught him, and he never made it. So every fifth of November, in England, it's a big scene where they have big fires burning in people's gardens and streets and they throw dummies of Guy on the fire. And other people drive around London with stickers on their car saying "Come back Guy Fawkes, we need you."

Q: How's everybody's health? John and Paul, how are their health?

GH: How are they? Their health? Quite good, actually, considering what we've been through. The last summer has been very busy for us, you know, with trying to set up this Apple thing and trying to get ourselves together. Because we had to really find out everything about our own personal affairs and the group and business affairs since Brian died. It was really hard, because there was nobody else who could do it, except us. So, we had to do it, and at the same time we had to try and make this album. So, just at the moment, everybody, we just finished the album, and everybody's just going away for a break, having a holiday. So I think we've made it. And we come back refreshed to Christmas with the family.

Q: Do you have problems combining the business trip and the music trip? They are different, aren't they?

GH: Not really, no, because music is my business. So, it's quite easy.

Q: George, are you going to release a Christmas record this year?

GH: You mean one of those fan club records?

Q: Right.

GH: Yeah, yeah, we'll do that. But it's still only available to people in the "Official Beatles Fan Club."

Q: Because we've got two, '64 and '66, and we'd like to get the other ones.

GH: Well, really that's something that we were doing especially for the fans.

Q: How many fans are there over there in England?

GH: There's quite a lot, but you see, the thing is, they pay their money and they get their pictures and information and that, but the main thing they really get, by being a fan, is this Christmas record we do. And it's pointless if we put it out so everybody can buy it, because then, you know, they don't get anything special. But we'll be doing that again, yeah, we'll do it probably first week in December.

Q: Is there any such thing as an underground, unquote, radio in England.

GH: No, there's nothing. The underground radio, or that you could compare to underground was on the sea, which were the pirate ships. And there were about three or four pirates stations and the government formed, had some new laws made you see, because I mean, you're not allowed to have radio in England, you know. They're allowed to have radio, but we're not. So, we go on now wailing on with the BBC, which is a joke, and there's no pirate stations left at all, except there's this good guy who started the first pirate ship and who has a little plan, so maybe if that works out we'll have another pirate radio and TV station. He's planning to pirate TV, colour TV, and the whole bit.

Q: That'll be out of sight.

GH: Yeah, if it works. But then, you know, they'll make another law and somebody will make some other plan and then they make another law and it just goes on and on.

Q: We've been kind of lucky so far, we've been on the air for a year, and very very few problems so far with the FCC.

GH: Who's the FCC?

Q: The Federal Communications Commission. "Them," as you say.

GH: Them. Yeah, are you in the union? Have you paid your dues?

Q: No, we're paying our dues now in a different way.

Q: I think we better just wrap it.

Q: Yeah, I think we'll just close it out now, it's really been a pleasure talking to you George.

GH: Thank you. Pleasure being here. Wonderful K-P-P-P-P-C.

Q: In Pasadena.

GH: In Pasadena, yes. "Where my home, Pasadena." Is the grass really greener in Pasadena? So, I'll say my name, to make it official. I'd like to say, this is George Harrison of the Beatles, on wonderful K-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-C, where the grass is greener in Pasadena. Thank you.

Q: Thank you very much George.