The Bob Dylan Song That Was Only Recorded by George Harrison and Ended Up on This Campy ’80s Soundtrack

During sessions at Bob Dylan‘s home in Woodstock, New York, in 1968, he and George Harrison worked on the opening track to the former Beatle’s third album, All Things Must Pass, “I’d Have You Anytime.” On the album, Harrison also covered Dylan’s New Morning track “If Not for You,” and their collaborations also spanned “Nowhere to Go” (“When Everybody Comes to Town”), a song they co-wrote in the late ’60s that was later recorded at Dylan’s home in Greenwich Village in New York in 1970. Years later, the two would also share several co-writes with the Traveling Wilburys, including “End of the Line” and “Handle With Care.”

In 1975, Dylan also recorded “Abandoned Love” but didn’t release it for another decade on his 1985 compilation album Biograph. Harrison also recorded a demo version of the song, but never officially released it. He also performed the Blonde on Blonde classic “Absolutely Sweet Marie” during Dylan’s The 30th Anniversary Concert Celebration at Madison Square Garden in New York City in 1993.

“Bob Dylan is the most consistent artist there is,” said Harrison. “Even his stuff, which people loathe, I like. Every single thing he does represents something that’s him. He may write better songs tomorrow, sing high on this album and low on another, go electric or acoustic, go weird or whatever, but the basic thing that causes all this change is an incredible character named Bob Dylan.”

Videos by American Songwriter

[RELATED: 5 Songs George Harrison Wrote or Co-Wrote With, and For, Ringo Starr Solo Projects During the 1970s]

“I Don’t Want to Do It” and ‘Porky’s Revenge’

By the early 1980s, Dylan and Harrison already had a solid track record of collaborations. In 1985, Dylan gave Harrison a song that ended up on the soundtrack for the third installment of the 1981 raunchy comedy, Porky’s. In Porky’s Revenge, released in 1985, the students of Angel Beach High are on the verge of graduating and must stop their nemesis from rigging a basketball game.

Co-produced by singer-songwriter Dave Edmunds, who had worked with Paul McCartney, the Stray Cats, and more artists, the Porky’s Revenge soundtrack featured several of the producer’s songs, including the main theme for the film, “High School Nights,” along with contributions by Willie Nelson, Carl Perkins, and Jeff Beck.

The soundtrack also featured another song written by Dylan but recorded by Harrison: “I Don’t Want to Do It.” Originally written by Dylan in 1968, Harrison recorded an acoustic demo of the song during the All Things Must Pass sessions, before rerecording it in 1984 for the film.

Dylan’s coming-of-age lyrics added some lines of maturity to the campy film.

Looking back upon my youth
The time I always knew the truth
I don’t want to do it
I don’t want to say goodbye

To go back in the yard and play
If I could only have another day
I don’t want to do it
I don’t want to make you cry

To go back on the hill beside the track
And try to concentrate
All in all, the places that I want to be
You know, it shows you that I could not wait

“He was a giant, a great, great soul, with all of the humanity, all of the wit and humor, all the wisdom, the spirituality, the common sense of a man, and compassion for people,” Dylan told Rolling Stone in 2002, a year after Harrison’s death. “He inspired love and had the strength of a hundred men. He was like the sun, the flowers, and the moon; we will miss him enormously. The world is a profoundly emptier place without him.”

Today, there are still no known recordings of Dylan performing “I Don’t Want to Do It.”

Photo: Bettmann / Getty Images