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14 September 2023
4.11pm
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Joe
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‘When We Was Fab’ is the sixth song on George Harrison’s eleventh solo album Cloud Nine.

The song, written by Harrison and Jeff Lynne, looked back to the Beatles days. It contains various musical and lyrical references to the 1960s, including quotations from songs by Bob Dylan and Smokey Robinson. See more…

That one – it sort of was growing and growing… We called it, incidentally, as a working title, – we called it ‘Aussie’ because we were in Australia; that song, you know, we wrote in Australia. So we just put a working title of ‘Aussie Fab’, so that we could remember that it was like a Fab song… and so the ‘Fab’ bit sort of stuck, you know, right up until we just had to come up with the lyrics. Then after the engineer went home one night – which is what we sort of did with all the songs that we wrote together – we just had a microphone up in the control room. And then the engineer finished, when we’d finished our serious bit, we’d just have a beer, we’d just sort of sing onto the thing, find which words fit it, and you know, just tried to refine it down, and it turned out like that. It’s got complete joke words.

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20 April 2013
4.29pm
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Beatles in the Blood
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Other than the name, what other Beatles messages are in this songs lyrics and mysic video.

One I know of is that in the music video there is a guy in a walrus costume, and thats all I saw but I know theres more.

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20 April 2013
6.09pm
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Adam1
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A few things that spring to mind from the lyrics are, “…when income tax was all we had.” This could relate to George’s song “Taxman .” Also, “You’ve really got a hold on me,” is a line taken from a Miracles song. The Beatles did a cover of it, and George wrote at least two tributes to Smokey Robinson. Finally, “still the life flows on and on,” is very similar to the theme of “Within You Without You .”

I haven’t seen the video in a while, but I think I remember someone eating a green apple! I’m sure others will be able to chime in with some more references!

20 April 2013
6.14pm
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AppleScruffJunior
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Ringo is in the video :) and an album with John’s face on it, I can’t remember what album though :/ I haven’t seen that video in yonks

 

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20 April 2013
6.23pm
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Beatles in the Blood
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What in the bloody hell is yonks?

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20 April 2013
6.31pm
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Adam1
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Well, I went ahead and watched the video! As AppleScruffJunior pointed out, a pedestrian walks by holding the John Lennon album Imagine , (which George played on!) and John’s face can be seen on the back cover. Also, for a brief moment, George is dressed in his Sgt. Pepper costume.

I remember now that the green apple is eaten down to its core and discarded onto Ringo’s timpani drum! The apple core definitely reminds me of the joke on the back cover of the original Extra Texture LP!

20 April 2013
6.34pm
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AppleScruffJunior
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Beatles in the Blood said

What in the bloody hell is yonks?

XD I’m not sure if it’s a word I made up or not but I take it as meaning “in ages” So I haven’t seen it in yonks/I haven’t seen it in ages

 

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22 April 2013
2.32am
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Gerard
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Elton John is in the video, Paul was supposed to be the walrus but I think he had other plans. Aside from what was mentioned above, I think the outro was a reference to the usual Indian outros did before.

22 April 2013
3.48pm
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Joe
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I think yonks is a Britishism. I use it Now And Then . See also: “I haven’t seen it in donkey’s years.” I’ve no idea of the etymology of that one.

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22 April 2013
5.53pm
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fabfouremily
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I think the saying started as ”donkey’s ears” and then was later changed to ”donkey’s years” when someone realised that it could be slang for ”a long time”, as donkey’s tend to die old.

stay-on-topic I love the ‘WEWF’ video. I think George remained quite bitter about The Beatles all throughout his life, so it was nice that the did this video, honouring them. And, of course, I believe he payed a lot of money to buy back his Sgt. Pepper costume especially for it.

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22 April 2013
6.42pm
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Ron Nasty
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There is another reference that no one seems to have mentioned yet. I don’t know what happened in other countries, but this is the picture sleeve used for the UK single release.

http://991.com/NewGallery/George-Harrison-When-We-Was-Fab-27560.jpgImage Enlarger

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22 April 2013
7.05pm
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Von Bontee
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Was the song actually written about the Beatles, or was it just the video full of allusions after-the-fact to give that impression?

I don’t think I’ve seen the video since it was new, and no more than once or twice even then. (And I haven’t heard the song itself in, uh, “yonks”.)

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22 April 2013
7.19pm
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Ron Nasty
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George made this comment about the song in an Australian interview, “…until I finalized the lyric on it, it was always called ‘Aussie Fab’. That was it’s working title. I hadn’t figured out what the song was going to say … what the lyrics would be about, but I knew it was definitely a Fab song. It was based on the Fabs, and as it was done up in Australia there, up in Queensland, then that’s what we called it. As we developed the lyrics, it became ‘When We Was Fab’. It’s a difficult one to do live because of all the all the little overdubs and all the cellos and the weird noises and the backing voices.”

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24 April 2013
9.36pm
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fabfouremily
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a-hard-days-night-ringo-8 Interesting, I thought he wrote it specifically (Paul’s ‘Here Today ‘, etc.). It’s good how there’s always something new to learn.

 

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23 May 2013
2.11pm
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DrBeatle
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I always liked the “gear!” thrown in right after the “fab” during the choruses near the end. Also, the van that says “Fab Gear” with music gear on the side of it.

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23 May 2013
4.33pm
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AppleScruffJunior
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About the whole “yonks” thing I was talking to a lad today about something and it went like this “Sure I haven’t seen that in yonks”, followed by him saying “Yonks? Who the hell says yonks”. I actually sound more distinguished on the internet then I do in real life as I’ve got quite a thick country accent, so if you’re 1st language is’int English you probably won’t understand me a-hard-days-night-george-10 And the random “culchie” phrases I say:
“Gluck”
“I wouldn’t ride him into battle”
“He’s as thick as pigsh**e
“Fair bit, good bit, brave bit”
“I was happy out”
“There’s a great stretch in the evenings”
“Yoke”
“Ye can bate the wife but you can’t bate the craic (not literally of course)
(Can only be said by lads/lesbians) “If you can’t lift her, don’t shift her” and “If ya can’t hide her don’t ride her” Darty expressions a-hard-days-night-george-10

Game time: see if anybody can get what these mean ^^^
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23 May 2013
4.49pm
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DrBeatle
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I always thought George saying “take you away….” at the end of the middle section was a reference to MMT (the song).

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24 May 2013
11.45pm
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Long John Silver
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AppleScruffJunior said
Ringo is in the video :) and an album with John’s face on it, I can’t remember what album though :/ I haven’t seen that video in yonks

 

 

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25 May 2013
4.46pm
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Egroeg Evoli
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DrBeatle said
I always thought George saying “take you away….” at the end of the middle section was a reference to MMT (the song).

 

Yeah, me too. And (if I remember correctly) there’s an effect on his voice during that part of the song which reminds me of Blue Jay Way .

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25 May 2013
10.59pm
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DrBeatle
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DrBeatle said I always thought George saying “take you away….” at the end of the middle section was a reference to MMT (the song).

  Yeah, me too. And (if I remember correctly) there’s an effect on his voice during that part of the song which reminds me of Blue Jay Way .

 

Yes, it’s got that classic phasing effect on it. 

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