George Harrison’s wife Olivia being interviewed by Martin Scorsese. From the documentary film Living In The Material World
“Sometimes people say: what’s the secret of a long marrage? It’s like: you don’t get divorced.” For everyone I’ve spoken to, these 53 seconds were the highpoint of the whole three-and-a-half hour documentary.
That said, the way she managed to halt the murderous knife attack on her husband in 1999 by Michael Abram (below, after she’d finished with him) was also pretty impressive.
For me George’s most interesting music came in the late 80s when Jeff Lynne from ELO produced his platinum-selling album Cloud Nine. Equally good was their collaboration on the first Travelling Wilburys album with Tom Petty, Bob Dylan and the late Roy Orbison – a fine swansong for the Big O and still a landmark record.
Watching Scorsese’s film, Harrison was obviously a complex and private man. A huge charitable donor who loathed paying taxes, a peace-loving mystic who wasn’t above punching police and reporters.
If I Needed Someone and My Sweet Lord are all very well, but this is the song that still does it for me every time: the Quiet Beatle still at the height of his powers looking back to a “long time ago when we was fab”. It’s deft, funny, yearning and elegaic – with a lightness of touch that never takes itself too seriously.