Review: 'George Harrison: Behind the Locked Door'

John may have been the one who sang "I got a chip on my shoulder that's bigger than my feet," but that line could have just as easily applied to George. Why was he so sour? George Harrison hadn't tragically lost a parent at an impressionable age, as John Lennon and the far more affable Paul McCartney had. He did not spend his childhood fatherless and infirm, as Ringo Starr had. Little George was loved by a doting family. He was not well-to-do, but he did not want either. He was a healthy, happy kid, and one who genuinely seemed to look up to his future bandmates John and Paul.

What seemed to change George, at least according to George Harrison: Behind the Locked Door, was being a Beatle. If there's one major, sad takeaway from Graeme Thomson's book, and there are quite a few, it's that George Harrison loathed being a Beatle. He loathed the fame that intruded on his peace. He loathed performing for audiences that wouldn't listen. He loathed how former role models John and Paul treated him, how they patronized him, didn't support his songwriting, controlled his contributions to their recordings, and often shunted him aside to take over his role as lead guitarist. 

At the same time, George gladly took advantage of the spoils of being a Beatle, the money and the easy access to drugs and sex and preferential treatment. Another big takeaway from Behind the Locked Door was that George was also a bit of a hypocrite, which is not unusual for someone with a tendency to be judgmental and sanctimonious.

Sour, ungrateful, judgmental, sanctimonious, hypocritical. Despite a lot of quotes from those who knew him insisting that he was a really nice guy, this is how George Harrison mostly comes across in Thomson's book. 

Is that how George Harrison really was? Fans who love him for his spiritual, easy going persona certainly won't want to believe it. Does Thomson have an axe to grind? He certainly doesn't seem to be a fan of a lot of George's music, aside from his few contributions to Revolver, Sgt.Pepper's, and Abbey Road, as well as most of All Things Must Pass (though not that album's magical production nor "Let It Down", one of its most powerful tracks), and oddly enough, the mostly dour Living in the Material World.

Personally, I don't think axe-grinding is the case. While Thomson is very willing to address George Harrison's dark side, there is no underlying tang of nastiness. He widely draws on interviews he conducted with people who loved George and say so, even if he wronged them, which is certainly the case with his first wife Pattie Boyd. This is where the good side of George comes through, the very nice guy that the people who new him loved. In the end, the Beatle who seemed the most benign, the easiest to ignore, "the quiet one" was just as complex as the two who got the most attention, were just as lovable and unlovable in equal proportion. In other words, people, not gods. The author's tendency to focus on the less lovable side of George Harrison doesn't make for a particularly joyful read, but it doesn't feel dishonest either. 

George Harrison: Behind the Locked Door was originally published in 2013, and it is now being reprinted by Omnibus press with a new foreword by musician Steve Earle.