George Harrison might have had the moniker of the “Quiet Beatle,” but that doesn’t mean he didn’t speak up whenever he felt it was necessary, including turning rants into songs. Although Harrison’s songwriting contributions to the Beatles paled in comparison to John Lennon and Paul McCartney (much to Harrison’s chagrin), a handful of Harrison rants did make their way into the Fab Four catalogue.
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Other emotional songs, many of which were directed at his former bandmates and business associates, came later in Harrison’s solo career, unhindered by commandeering co-workers.
“Taxman”
George Harrison might not have had as many songwriting credits to his Beatles legacy as John Lennon and Paul McCartney, but their 1966 album Revolver opened with one of his more fiery songs: “Taxman.” As Harrison recalled in Anthology, “I had discovered I was paying a huge amount of money to the taxman. You are so happy that you’ve finally started earning money. Then you find out about tax. In those days, we paid 19 shillings and sixpence out of every pound, and with supertax and surtax and tax-tax, it was ridiculous.”
Now, my advice for those who die: declare the pennies on your eyes ’cause I’m the taxman. You’re working for no one but me.
“Run of the Mill”
Toward the end of the Beatles’ tenure together, George Harrison made his frustrations with his bandmates and business associates more obvious. “Run of the Mill,” which Harrison released on All Things Must Pass, describes these strained relationships. “It was when Apple was getting crazy,” Harrison recalled in I Me Mine. “Ringo wanted it blue, John wanted it white, Paul wanted it green, and I wanted it orange. The problem of partnerships.”
Everyone has a choice when to or not to raise their voices. It’s you that decides which way you will turn while feeling that our love’s not your concern. “It was the first song I ever wrote that looked like a poem on paper,” Harrison said in his autobiography.
“I Me Mine”
The combination of psychedelic drugs and Eastern philosophy proved to be particularly potent for George Harrison, who underwent a significant emotional and mental transformation in the late 1960s. Harrison turned transcendental musings and rants into songs many times, including with the last track the Beatles ever recorded, “I Me Mine.” The song sees Harrison wrestling with the concept of ego, prompted by an LSD trip. “Having LSD was like someone catapulting me out into space. Suddenly, I looked around, and everything I could see was relative to my ego,” he said in his autobiography.
All through the day, I me mine, I me mine, I me mine. All through the night, I me mine, I me mine, I me mine.
“Within You Without You”
“Within You Without You” marks another instance where George Harrison converted his frustrations with the Beatles and, more generally, his celebrity into a song. This track opened the B-side to Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, meaning that Harrison was wrestling with these rants about ego, identity, counterculture, and fame years before the Beatles would officially call it quits. “I don’t personally enjoy being a Beatle anymore,” Harrison admitted shortly after Sgt. Pepper’s release. “All that sort of Beatle thing is trivial and unimportant. I’m fed up with all this ‘me, us, I’ stuff.”
We were talking about the love that’s gone so cold and the people who gain the world and lose their soul. They don’t know. They can’t see. Are you one of them?
Photo by David Magnus/Shutterstock
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