TB writes:
During his time in the Beatles his frustration stemmed from the terrible sound systems the band was essentially forced to use when performing. In our current time we’re used to bands being their own amplifiers, mixing boards, speakers and so on. It wasn’t like that at all back in the 1960s. Bands then used whatever sound system was available in that auditorium or arena and usually the sound systems those places had wasn’t designed or set up to produce very good quality music, especially amplified and electrified music. Most were used to Big Bands who typically didn’t use amplification and sedate audiences who weren’t screaming at the top of their lungs. Elvis changed that and the Beatles did the same thing. As a result, when you see live footage of them playing live all you can hear is the screaming, you can barely hear the music. That’s because the primitive sound systems were fine for a sedate crowd, but an over-enthusiastic screaming crowd produced far more decibels than the poor sound systems could. Then you had the rabid fans trying to literally tear the clothing right off them. It had to be absolutely terrifying, and in interviews Harrison would speak to how scary that aspect was. Several times the band had to stop concerts to have security or police intervene to stop rabid fans who got onstage (as shown below), and it was far worse off stage!
Harrison was the primary instigator for getting the Beatles to stop touring and he had valid points. It was hard to be heard over the crowds, the crowds were increasingly out of control, and as their music became more complex it was essentially impossible to re-create it live. The Beatles were true innovators in creating wildly experimental music incorporating a wide variety of instruments, but it’s one thing to put them all on a record, like Sgt Peppers (1967), but it would be impossible and impractical to recreate it live. This was the same obstacle the Beach Boys ran into with re-creating music from Pet Sounds (1967) and Brian Wilson’s more experimental recordings. And so, the Beatles stopped touring. Then they broke up in 1970. But it wasn’t long before all of the former Beatles, including Harrison, found they had to face the conundrum of having to tour solo.
Harrison faced a particular challenge in that he was something of a perfectionist in the studio. He wanted his songs to be just right before recording them, and once in the studio, wanted them to sound just right before he’d consider releasing them to the world. Harrison certainly isn’t unique in that regard. Walter Becker and Donald Fagen of Steely Dan, like Harrison, were perfectionists in the studio and hated the limitations of reproducing that quality live. They started out playing live and touring but in 1974 called an end to performing live and focused instead on their studio craft. There’s an eerie parallel with Harrison here as Harrison also had his one and only major US tour in 1974 and was so displeased with the reviews and how the tour went, he also called an end to performing live that lasted until 1991 when he toured Japan with his friend Eric Clapton. To be sure, Harrison played at the Concert for Bangladesh, which he organized in 1971. But many of his close friends played that concert as well, so he had support. It was also close-ended and not a tour spanning several months. He could rehearse and get it right beforehand as well. The sound system was also what he wanted and needed to reproduce the sound well. His Dark Horse Tour (1974) was roundly criticized by the music media of the time as he was having vocal problems, but if you listen to bootlegs from the tour, he actually sounds pretty damn good in concert! But again, Harrison was a perfectionist and the criticism stung. Thereafter he stuck to limited performances and playing with friends, like Paul Simon on Saturday Night Live, and so on.
Harrison’s last tour was in 1991 in Japan with Eric Clapton, as previously mentioned. By then there were many advancements in the technology of performing live and properly reproducing sound that made Harrison more at ease, but truthfully, he was more happy jamming with friends away from a studio and just cutting loose and having fun. There was no pressure, no goals, no objectives. That was how the Travelling Wilburys started, was just him, Tom Petty, Bob Dylan, and Jeff Lynne jamming away at Dylan’s house, like Harrison and Dylan had done so many years before. People forget what a huge inspiration those sessions with Harrison, Dylan, and The Band were in helping him break loose from all the “Beatleness” of his existence. So that he could just be George Harrison and not part of the biggest band on earth. It helped him cast off everything that built up around him. And that was a big part too Harrison hating performing live: the expectations. If it didn’t live up to everyone’s ridiculously high expectations then they went away disappointed. And Harrison was his own worst critic in that regard. He wanted his live performances to be perfect rather than just letting them be what they were. And so he stayed away from performing live.
