According to Beatles biographer Philip Norman, George Harrison was the only member who could tell the group’s story faithfully. However, George wouldn’t have cared about Norman’s claims.
Beatles biographer, Philip Norman, claims George Harrison the only Beatle who could tell the group’s story
During a 1987 interview, Norman explained George’s early life. He liked privacy, even as a child, and when he became a Beatle, that changed dramatically. However, by 1987, George had recovered from the entire ordeal.
“When he was a small boy, he told his mother not to talk about him to the other mothers; he didn’t want nosy mothers knowing about him,” Norman said. “Well, of course, with someone private to become one of The Beatles, I mean it was a fairly heavy psychological disaster.
“The Beatles is not a normal story, it’s a supernatural story, and the pressure was supernatural, and it required supernatural luck and forbearance to recover from it. And he has recovered from it.”
Norman explained that only George could tell The Beatles’ story faithfully.
“He’s the one that we’re going to have to ask about The Beatles,” the author said. “There’s no one else to ask now because McCartney won’t tell you, Ringo can’t tell you, John isn’t here.”
The interviewer asked Norman why Paul wouldn’t tell The Beatles’ story. He replied, “He rewrites history all the time.” “And Ringo can’t tell you?” the interviewers continued. Norman said, “He doesn’t know [Laughs]. No, he just-he drank the drink, he smoked the joint, he had the girls, and he drummed the drums; that was Ringo.”
Interestingly, Norman said Paul McCartney rewrote history because some would say the author was often guilty of that. It’s hard to distinguish fact from fiction regarding Norman. George and Paul despised what he said.
George didn’t like how Norman wrote The Beatles’ story in ‘Shout!’
George wouldn’t have been pleased about Norman’s assertions that only he could tell The Beatles’ story. In 1988, George told Q Magazine (per Harrison Stories) that Norman wrote 1981’s Shout!: The True Story of The Beatles because he was “desperate to have an identity.”
“I know Paul wasn’t very pleased by it,” George said. “What people don’t realise is that there’s parts of us in each of the others. John’s the acid one. Paul’s the diplomat, Ringo’s…I don’t know what he was…and I’m supposed to be the quiet one.
“John was the acid one but sometimes John was gentle and sweet. To say Paul was this, John was that, it’s just too cut and dried.”
Q said, “Philip Norman suggests that you learned the sitar because you were desperate to have some identity within The Beatles.”
George replied, “That Philip Norman wrote that book because he was desperate to have an identity is probably closer to the truth. All these people who think they know everything…they don’t know anything. What it makes me realise is that there’s so much that they’ve written about The Beatles that is wrong.
“I mean, if they’re wrong about us, now. We haven’t even died yet. History must be totally twisted.”
Q added, “Paul appears to still care enormously that the record is set straight, that he feels he didn’t get the credit he deserved.”
“Well if he doesn’t think he got the credit he deserved, what about me and Ringo? You know, sometimes people got carried away – including Paul – and thought that they did it all, but there were actually other people involved – more in some things than others, granted. There was my guitar sound, Ringo’s drum fills…all that was part of the Beatles’ sound.”
Fans didn’t like what Norman had to say in his obituary for George
If George disliked Norman’s Shout!, he would’ve hated the author’s obituary for him even more. Norman’s obituary for George was distasteful, tacky, and downright insensitive.
“Harrison was never the world’s greatest guitarist, vocalist or songwriter,” Norman wrote. “Beatles fans who screamed for George were a curious but dedicated minority, like those who pick the green ones in packets of wine gums.”
When Norman met The Beatles in 1965, he said George was in the background, looking like “a bit of a miserable git, but I did not dream how right I was.” These were the lesser harsh comments.
Fans were and still aren’t pleased by it. Someone who posted the obituary wrote, “Sometimes I have to remind myself why I dislike this man so intensely. You probably don’t want to read this drivel.” One Reddit page calls it “obnoxious.”
Norman was wrong in his obituary and about George being the only Beatle to tell the group’s story. Maybe the author wanted to rewrite history.
