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George Harrison should have had a bigger role in The Beatles
1 February 2016
11.17am
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Derek_Francis
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But I think the Beatles could have stayed alive longer and had a few more classic albums if Paul did the following:

A – Encourage Lennon to write his experimental songs with The Beatles

B – Allow George 4 or 5 songs per album instead of just 2.

C – Allow Ringo a creative role of some kind in each song.

1 February 2016
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Starr Shine?
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But would it of been worth it if they stayed longer?

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1 February 2016
12.52pm
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Derek_Francis
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They all had the creativity to do it.  They just needed to have a better working relationship.

1 February 2016
1.11pm
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meanmistermustard
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Derek_Francis said
But I think the Beatles could have stayed alive longer and had a few more classic albums if Paul did the following:

A – Encourage Lennon to write his experimental songs with The Beatles

B – Allow George 4 or 5 songs per album instead of just 2.

C – Allow Ringo a creative role of some kind in each song.

Why is it just Paul?

John openly said he wasn’t willing to give up his song space for more George because of the ego’s.

And Ringo did have an input to the songs.

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1 February 2016
2.04pm
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KaleidoscopeMusic
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Derek_Francis said
They all had the creativity to do it.  They just needed to have a better working relationship.

Their “working relationship” really never was since they had more of a friendship, which made them care about their music. If they were “professional” and cared more about the intricacies of business than making music, they wouldn’t be the Beatles. ,–They let their managers get them famous and didn’t worry about the rest. I would have loved to see them stay together, but the break-up is what makes them so great, isn’t it? I’d rather see them break up than go down anticlimactically because there was nothing left for them to do.

EDIT: It’s amazing we’re still arguing about this 46 years after it happened.

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1 February 2016
2.34pm
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Derek_Francis
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Their solo careers, while good, were not nearly as good as The Beatles.  They needed each other to keep themselves on point.

Also, I don’t think replacing Maxwell’s Silver Hammer and Maggie Mae /Dig It for a 3rd George song would have been anything radical.

1 February 2016
3.32pm
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Going by Mal Evans write up of the unreleased ‘Get Back ‘ album in ‘The Beatles Book Monthly‘ ‘Maggie Mae ‘ was more of a link track, however the bigger issue is George didn’t have anything else ready to go. There was really only ‘For You Blue ‘ from that period; Paul, Ringo and George went into the studios in January 1970 to record ‘I, Me, Mine’ as there wasn’t a suitable recording of it available.

I doubt anyone can seriously argue that the solo careers aren’t as good as the group years but there is some incredibly fine music that we wouldn’t have gotten and i’m very grateful for that. And I agree it was better in the long run for them to quit on a high than go out after releasing lesser quality albums due to going thru the motions. 

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1 February 2016
5.58pm
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JPM-Fangirl said
George left the Let It Be sessions over an argument with John, not because of anything Paul said. But please, let’s just agree to disagree. Life is very short, and there’s no time for fussing and fighting a-hard-days-night-paul-9a-hard-days-night-george-9

I mean if we’re going to pretend Paul played no part in causing tension in those later sessions then that’s cool. lol

1 February 2016
6.00pm
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Into the Sky with Diamonds
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I actually think the Beatles were far more democratic than most other bands. In how many bands does one of the two main singers say to the guitarist, “Hey why don’t you take the lead vocal on this one?”

Years from now (if not already), people will think of Lennon and McCartney as the Mozarts and Beethovens of their time. How incredible that they were in the same band! As pointed out above, introducing a third person to that level would have required a major ego re-working of the band. Wasn’t going to happen. And plus, let’s face it. Harrison was great, an integral member of the band, the key to introducing them to all things Indian, etc… but years from now he will not be seen as being on the L-M level.

As idealistic as it would have been, I can’t see McCartney or Lennon saying, “Yeah, take this song of mine off Abbey Road and let’s put in “All Things Must Pass ” (though many of us if not most would have swapped “Maxwell” for “All Things”). Can you imagine the rumors and the questions? “What, McCartney has just one song on side one?” “Has he abdicated to George?”

Of course, out would have come “Get Back ” and “Let It Be ” and all would have been well.

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1 February 2016
6.27pm
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When this thread is in the “New/Recently Updated Topics” list on my PC it looks quite naughty.

I’m glad to find it isn’t.

I think George grew into his role quite well; it’s a shame things were falling apart around him just as he was starting to hit his prime – but I think his musical blossoming was one of the major beneficiaries of the split.

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1 February 2016
6.42pm
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I personally am not a fan of All Things Must Pass so I think it was better the way it was.

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2 February 2016
3.04am
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I do like All Things Must Pass , but I don’t consider it George’s best. I very much appreciate how it goes from what was, to what is, to what will be. That’s quite clever. But as a whole, it lacks something. There’s no change in it, it’s basically the same thing three times over. It’s still beautiful, though. 

I do like Maxwell’s Silver Hammer . It’s so quirky. I love those songs that combine a cheerful melody with some rather disturbing lyrics. John and Paul both did that, and I like those songs a lot.

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2 February 2016
7.19am
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It depends what version of ‘All Things Must Pass ‘. Its a great song but the album recording is too squished with instruments thanks to Spector, its a much better song stripped back and the demo on ‘Anthology 3 ‘ is gorgeous. On ‘Abbey Road ‘ it would have vastly different under George Martin’s production; actually would have interesting to see what Spector would have done with it if John and Paul had bothered their backsides and put some effort into the track during the ‘Get Back ‘ rehearsals.

 

As said above the biggest problem George had was that he was always below John and Paul in their eyes and he was always going to stay there in the band. Its fine saying he should have been given more space but it was never going to happen that he would get equal album time as John and Paul didn’t see him as an equal song-writing wise regardless of what he was writing until ‘Abbey Road ‘ and by then it was too late.

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2 February 2016
4.09pm
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Zig
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Derek_Francis said 
… giving Harrison a lead role would have eased the tensions in the band.  First, it would give him less motivation to want to mount a solo career so soon.  

Tensions might have been eased for George, but what about John or Paul? Would there have been less tension for them having had tracks taken away from albums in favor of George’s? I highly doubt it. Frankly, I think that would have increased the tension within the band as J & P’s egos would be bruised and/or they would have harbored resentment.

As for his motivation for leaving, more songs on albums would have brought his reasons for wanting out down from 1,000 to only 999. There was a lot more to it than just the amount of songs.

It’s sometimes fun to think about how things may have differed under alternate circumstances. As a Harriphile, I feel George’s role in the band was perfect – I feel that way about all of them, actually – and would not change a thing.

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2 February 2016
4.16pm
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I personally think All Things Must Pass is lovely just the way it is, it’s hard to go wrong with a song that great (in my opinion). 

However, I would be interested in hearing what George Martin and John and Paul could’ve done with it, had it gone that way and they’d done it properly. I still prefer it as a solo George release though. 

Just my two cents, and I agree with Zig about the rest. 

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4 February 2016
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Zig said

Derek_Francis said 
… giving Harrison a lead role would have eased the tensions in the band.  First, it would give him less motivation to want to mount a solo career so soon.  

Tensions might have been eased for George, but what about John or Paul? Would there have been less tension for them having had tracks taken away from albums in favor of George’s? I highly doubt it. Frankly, I think that would have increased the tension within the band as J & P’s egos would be bruised and/or they would have harbored resentment.

As for his motivation for leaving, more songs on albums would have brought his reasons for wanting out down from 1,000 to only 999. There was a lot more to it than just the amount of songs.

It’s sometimes fun to think about how things may have differed under alternate circumstances. As a Harriphile, I feel George’s role in the band was perfect – I feel that way about all of them, actually – and would not change a thing.

They already let him have 3 songs on Revolver though. I don’t see why giving him at least 3 songs again would be a big deal. Obviously they had other problems to sort out as well, but realistically if Paul wanted the band to keep going, or at least to get George on his side, then I think he and John needed to bring their egos down a notch. It’s a bit much to expect George to just accept the fact that nothing was going to change for the sake of Paul and John’s feelings. 

4 February 2016
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O Boogie
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I think George saw himself as an equal to John & Paul quite from the start because he knew he contributed more than what could be seen, but they didn’t. You know, “If John & Paul can write, anyone can write” ? Most of us are quite fine with George’s role, but was he? However, I don’t think George being given more album space would’ve eased the tensions or that the band would’ve lasted longer, it went deeper than that, I think.

I’m not really a big fan of saying that The Beatles should’ve gone on longer, but I’m just sad about the way it ended.

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4 February 2016
11.33am
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P3pperish said

I’m not really a big fan of saying that The Beatles should’ve gone on longer, but I’m just sad about the way it ended.

Hear, hear. a-hard-days-night-john-5 

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4 February 2016
11.37am
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There are worse ways for bands to end.

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4 February 2016
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