The mid-1970s were a tumultuous time for George Harrison, marking a period he called a “bit of a bender” as he spread himself thin on multiple music projects, partook in plenty of drugs and alcohol, and watched his relationships falter (or fail completely). Interestingly, his former bandmate, John Lennon, was going through a similar phase during what would become known as Lennon’s “lost weekend.” Several years had passed since The Beatles split, and the comedown was proving to be rather difficult.
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For Harrison, this translated into some rather lackluster and divisive music, including a track he released on November 18, 1974. The ex-Beatle released two singles in the States: “Dark Horse” as the A-side and “I Don’t Care Anymore” as the B-side. The latter track had clear country and skiffle influences, harkening back to Harrison’s early days with The Beatles in Liverpool. But aside from this rootsy homage, the song did little to impress critics. Most seized the opportunity to reference the song title, claiming that the performance and lyrical content showed Harrison really didn’t care. If he didn’t, they wondered, why should they?
“The singer begins by announcing that he needs a B-side number,” one review read. “One can’t take him very seriously after that, and thank goodness. The lyrics, which wantonly defend an adulterous relationship, must be condemned, to borrow from ‘Devil’s Radio’, as ‘words that thoughtless speak.’ This is not what we need to hear from anybody.”
George Harrison Proved Just How Much He Really Didn’t Care Anymore
The glamour of the rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle can and often does gloss over the fact that sometimes, musicians are churning out records not because they want to but because the record label wants them to. That can be understandably frustrating for the artist, and when you’re as famous as George Harrison, you get some leeway to express those grievances in not-so-subtle ways. Speaking to Timothy White in 1987, Harrison recalled recording “I Don’t Care Anymore” just because he needed a B-side, and that he did it in “one take. The story was in the attitude: I-don’t-give-a-s***!” And indeed, he made that pretty clear.
Even Harrison’s body seemed to be struggling to keep up. Describing the “bad domestic year” that was 1974 in his memoir, I Me Mine, Harrison described working on a “Splinter album and a Ravi Shankar album and my own album, and then during rehearsals, I was trying to finish my album. In the end, [business manager] Denis O’Brien carried me out of the studio to my first concert because I was trying to finish the album in time to get it out to coincide with the tour, which is the way the ‘business’ needs it.”
All of this overworking caused Harrison to contract a bad case of laryngitis, which is audible in his gruff, raspy tone. The laryngitis continued throughout the tour Harrison mentioned above, leading critics to call it the “Dark Hoarse Tour.” (Low-hanging fruit is still fruit, we suppose.) Ultimately, “I Don’t Care Anymore” isn’t Harrison’s best or most beloved track. But biographically speaking, it serves as an interesting mile marker in the rock star’s life.
Photo by Steve Kagan/Getty Images
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