McKinzie Brantley III, Lifelong Music Fan (1966-present) writes ...
Originally, John and Paul wrote songs for Ringo AND George so each would have a vocal on the albums. This was generous, but also helped cement their individual roles within the band. Paul/John were the writers. Geo played guitar. Ringo drums.
These roles, defined early, proved hard for Harrison to break out of—particularly as he began writing many more songs in ’66 and beyond. While some groups would welcome the contribution of another songwriter to share the workload, Lennon and McCartney were relatively prolific in their own right and didn’t need help. And, to be blunt, the more songs they put on albums, the more money they made. This is not to say that they locked Harrison out, but simply they didn’t see him as an equal AND didn’t regard his songs as comparable to theirs.
As Harrison’s talent developed, unfortunately for him, Lennon and McCartney’s (and George Martin’s) dismissive view of his songwriting talent never changed. So, he was basically slotted 2 songs per album—no matter how many he wrote or submitted for inclusion.
To be fair, Lennon and McCartney were great songwriters and didn’t need album holes to be filled often, but there are times. after ‘67, when they include songs of their own of dubious quality and reject arguably better Harrison songs. For example:
- Isn’t It a Pity - Released as a solo tune in ‘70, Harrison reports writing this in ’65 where it was rejected for Rubber Soul and several other Beatles records—An easy case can be made that the tune is better than Think for Yourself or The Word or Wait.
- Not Guilty - This was one of 7–8 songs that Harrison had for the double lp, The White Album. Despite having that many to choose from, only 4 made the album…Not Guilty is a solid song and easily better than several songs ON the album—Wild Honey Pie, Revolution 9, (Do we really need two versions of Revolution on the album, anyway?) a few others, too.
- All Things Must Pass- Another song presented to the Beatles, which they actually played. Rejected for Let It Be while terrible songs like Dig It and Maggie Mae make the cut.
To be fair, and for context, ALL of the Beatles had songs changed/rejected for various albums—the band urged John to speed up Please Please Me AND Revolution in order to be released. The other Beatles also rejected his What’s the New Mary Jane and Cold Turkey (the latter released by the Plastic Ono Band as a solo single.) Paul also felt the editor’s sting applied by the rest of the group - “Junk” and “Teddy Boy” were both rejected for the White Album and LIB. etc.
So, Harrison finished the band with albums worth of songs ready to go. What was frustrating for him was that his songs weren’t always rejected b/c they were poor…he was not allowed to exceed his unspoken allotment.
It must have made him angry and hurt, too.
