It’s unsurprising that a band as influential as The Beatles would be a melting pot of divergent opinions. While John Lennon was most renowned for his outspoken nature, his bandmates were not immune to voicing their own perspectives. George Harrison, often labelled ‘The Quiet One’, also wielded his share of pointed critiques from time to time, contributing to the dynamic exchange of ideas within the group.
This might seem strange for those who subscribe to the typical story that Harrison was a somewhat comically quiet, brooding individual who rarely said anything and let his bandmates do the talking. Yet, beneath the calm demeanour was a complex storm of emotions, and when the correct cheat code was punched in, he could explode in furious rage or be calmly cutting, like a sickle silently gliding through the shrubbery.
Although Harrison is mainly known for his incisive socio-political takes, when it came to other musicians, he could be even more damning than we might have even expected his old bandmate Lennon to be. From contemporaries to newcomers changing the face of the game just like he and his old band had, no one was safe from Harrison’s vitriol if they did not fit in seamlessly with his view of music and the world.
Find the list of five musicians George Harrison hated below.
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Five musicians George Harrison hated:
Neil Young
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Almost anyone with an alternative musical inclination loves Neil Young, but not George Harrison. The former Beatles guitarist had much to say about his Canadian contemporary and asserted that he was not a fan of his widely influential guitar playing, a rather strange reality when you note that Harrison is also deemed a pioneer of the six-string.
In footage taken from a session in the studio in 1992, when Harrison provided vocals on Dave Stewart’s cover of his 1975 solo effort ‘This Guitar’, where Bob Geldor and Chuco Merchan were also present, the Liverpudlian was asked about the work of the ‘Cinnamon Girl’ songwriter.
At one point, Geldof asked Harrison whether he had heard Young’s ‘Around the World’, a relatively innocuous question that prompted an unexpected response. “I’m not a Neil Young fan,” he replied. Geldof then praised Young’s guitar playing, prompting the former Beatle to interrupt him bluntly: “I hate it, yeah I can’t stand it”.
Harrison mimicked Young’s playing the guitar, adding: “It’s good for a laugh. We did this show with him, I saw it from the other side of the stage and looked around. I looked at Eric and said, ‘What’s going on?’ He did the solo in the middle then he kind of looked at me like – ‘don’t look at me, it’s not me’.”
Oasis
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Many musicians of the classic rock period have made their disdain for Manchester’s Oasis known. One of the most prominent and significant for the Britpop outfit was George Harrison, a man who made an indelible mark on their leader, Noel Gallagher, with The Beatles, the band Oasis loved the most.
In 1996, Harrison said of Oasis’ music: “The music lacks depth, and the singer Liam is a pain, the rest of the band don’t need him.”
It was an unbelievable sleight in frontman Liam Gallagher’s eyes; in response, he threatened to sock the middle-aged Harrison. He told MTV: “If any of them old farts have got a problem with me, then they should leave their Zimmer frames at home, and I’ll hold them up with a good right hook.”
The Hollies
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Despite The Beatles and The Hollies both hailing from the Merseyside area, instead of being brothers in arms, their rivalry was something akin to that between the two main football teams from their respective cities. It all started when The Hollies covered Harrison’s Beatles composition ‘If I Needed Someone’ in 1965, issued on the same day it arrived on Rubber Soul.
Harrison hated the cover, decrying it as “rubbish” when speaking to the NME in December of that year. The reporter, Alan Smith, wrote: “George was getting ready for the first house performance, and I asked him about songwriting. ‘I see you’ve written one for The Hollies.’ George turned sharply away from the mirror. ‘Tell people that I didn’t write it for The Hollies,’ he said bluntly.”
He continued: “It’s called ‘If I Needed Someone’, and they’ve done it as their new single, but their version is not my kind of music. I think it’s rubbish the way they’ve done it! They’ve spoilt it. The Hollies are all right musically, but the way they do their records, they sound like session men who’ve just got together in a studio without ever seeing each other before. Technically good, yes. But that’s all.’”
Understandably, Harrison’s critique commenced a feud with The Hollies. Just a week after the interview was published, The Hollies’ leader, Graham Nash, proclaimed that he was “sick and tired” of everything The Beatles said being taken as gospel.
Sex Pistols
While The Beatles might have harboured something akin to the punk spirit before anyone knew what it was, the first wave of the genre hated them for the most part. In addition to this, they’d also been inactive for the best of a decade. Famously, though, the aversion remained. Sex Pistols songwriter and bassist Glen Matlock was allegedly kicked out of the group partially due to his love of Lennon, Harrison and the band.
Harrison wasn’t bothered that the Sex Pistols hated his work, as he disliked them. After punk had imploded, he told Rolling Stone in 1979: “As far as musicianship goes, the punk bands were just rubbish – no finesse in the drumming, just a lot of noise and nothing”.
He continued, “I felt very sorry when the Sex Pistols were on television, and one of them was saying, ‘We’re educated to go into the factories and work on assembly lines’, and that’s their future. It is awful, and it’s especially awful that it should come out of England because England is continually going through depression; it’s a very negative country. Everybody wants everything, and nobody wants to do anything for it.”
Elton John
Although Harrison respected Elton John as a person, you wouldn’t find any of his records in his extensive record collection. At the peak of his dedication to transcendental meditation and Indian music, Harrison revealed that he wasn’t a fan of Reg Dwight’s sonics.
Speaking to India Today in 1976, Harrison professed his love for Indian music once more and discussed the state of the era’s mainstream sounds, which he wasn’t a fan of. He said: “There isn’t too much going on that I seem to like. When The Beatles started off, our influences were Tamla-Motown and Chuck Berry, and that’s the music I still like. My favourites are Smokey Robinson (I’ve written two songs about him) and Stevie Wonder. Otherwise, George Benson and, of course, anything Dylan does is worth a listen.”
He continued: “Well, Elton John’s music is something I’ve never thought much of. It all sounds the same, though I think he’s written a good song once (many years ago, of course). His music is made to a formula: throw in lyrics, throw in four chords, shake well, and there it is, the new Elton John super-hit!”
