There are few more outstanding honours imaginable for a musician than having an artist as esteemed as George Harrison write a song with them in mind. It seems ludicrous to imagine anybody passing up the opportunity to record one of his compositions, yet his close friend Eric Clapton elected to turn down the track ‘Cheer Down’.
The pair had been confidantes since the 1960s, with Harrison even inviting Clapton into recording sessions with The Beatles. Famously, the latter played with the Fab Four on ‘When My Guitar Gently Sleeps’, and his musical partnership with Harrison flourished once The Beatles went in their separate directions.
Harrison and Clapton occasionally collaborated, with The Beatles hit single ‘Here Comes The Sun’ being born out of one of their sessions. Furthermore, Harrison’s final tour in 1991 saw him traipse across Japan for a series of co-headline shows with the former Cream guitarist. Their friendship even survived his ex-wife, Pattie Boyd, marrying Clapton, a wedding which also saw Harrison perform at the ceremony.
Perhaps the strength of their friendship is why Clapton had no qualms about rejecting ‘Cheer Down’, despite Harrison penning it with the intention of the track being recorded by his associate. At the time, Clapton was in the middle of making his eleventh studio album, Journeyman, but didn’t feel the song fit into his plans.
Eventually, the duo found a home for ‘Cheer Down’ on the soundtrack for Lethal Weapon 2 in 1989, which Clapton was curating. According to Harrison, his frequent collaborator was still hesitant to green-light the song, but the decision was taken out of Clapton’s hands.
In the book Harrison on Harrison, the former Beatle explained: “There’s a song here when Eric was doing the Journeyman album, and I wrote this song for him, but he didn’t use it. I think we made an attempt at it, we just ran through the song, and at that time, he was working with Michael Kamen doing the music to Lethal Weapon 2, and the director Dick Donner heard this song, and he wanted it in the film.”
“And Eric didn’t really want it – he didn’t want to have a single out from the movie – so Dick Donner asked me if I’d record the song, which I did,” he added. “I wrote it for Eric originally, and Tom Petty helped me write the lyrics to it. It’s called ‘Cheer Down’. So this is one of my newer songs that was included in the Live In Japan set”.
Although Clapton turned down the chance to make ‘Cheer Down’ his own, he later performed the track with Harrison when they toured Japan.
Admittedly, Clapton’s choice not to accept ‘Cheer Down’ seems preposterous. Yet Harrison’s slide guitar solo on the song is utterly dazzling, and his voice also fits perfectly. Therefore, while the rejection makes little sense, it allowed ‘Cheer Down’ to be recorded by its rightful owner.
