There aren’t many who have seemed to crack the code on pop songs quite like the members of The Beatles. Even though George Harrison came relatively late to the party in terms of composing, his knack for melodies was enough to rival John Lennon and Paul McCartney towards the end of their run in the late 1960s. While it would never be the same without all of the Fab Four together, Harrison thought that the next best thing would be to get Jeff Lynne into the mix in the late 1980s.
For a good long while, though, it looked like the business had finally broken Harrison. He had tried in vain to get people to experience his spiritual connection with music, but no matter how hard he preached, no one wanted to hear him when making albums like Somewhere in England or the abysmal Gone Troppo.
However, when Harrison started to work with Lynne, it was an unintentional match made in heaven. The quiet guitar genius finally had someone who understood the sounds he was going for in his head, and Lynne had his wildest dreams come true by getting an actual Beatle to work alongside him.
Because, really, what is Electric Light Orchestra if not a Beatles cover band without the covers? From the minute that ‘Mr Blue Sky’ or ‘Do Ya’ comes on, it’s evident that Lynne is pulling from Lennon and McCartney’s playbook, only with a bunch of cellists surrounding him instead of guitarists half the time.
Even though Harrison’s Cloud Nine could come dangerously close to sounding too much like The Beatles, ‘When We Was Fab’ is the best nostalgia trip someone could ask for. There are still many ‘I Am the Walrus ’-adjacent production choices, but Lynne knows exactly when to pile on the production and when to push it into the background ever so slightly so that Harrison isn’t lost.
Even years after working with The Beatles, Harrison figured that Lynne was among the best to have come along since then, saying, “I think he’s one of the best pop songwriters around. He’s a craftsman, and he’s got endless patience. I tend to feel, ‘Okay, that’ll do,’ and go on, and Jeff’ll still be thinking about how to tidy what’s just been done.”
If anything, that restlessness is what made him the ideal substitute for George Martin during the sessions for The Beatles Anthology. No one was going to settle for anything less than perfect if it was about doing justice to Lennon’s memory, so that meant Lynne having to crack the whip if need be when it came time to tighten up a harmony or make sure the voices blended well.
But the most sincere tribute that Harrison gave to Lynne was entrusting him with the tapes of his final album, Brainwashed, before he passed on. This was the moment when Harrison would depart from this world forever, and while his fate was in God’s hands, his musical life fell into Lynne’s in the months after he was gone.
