![\"George](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/George-Harrison-1967-Musician-The-Beatles-Far-Out-Magazine-1140x855.jpg\")
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(Credits: Far Out \/ Alamy)<\/p>\n
Fri 10 April 2026 9:07, UK <\/p>\n
Despite their laidback and open attitude, Paul McCartney and John Lennon are two of the most driven men in music history. That strange mix meant that George Harrison<\/a> was both deeply involved and also \u201cdominated\u201d, and one moment typifies that paradox like no other.<\/p>\n As pop maestros, The Beatles largely invented the notion of wild studio innovation. The group\u2019s long and often laborious studio sessions may have produced some of their finest and most experimental work. But they were made without a care for the costs that they were incurring, all underwritten by the knowledge that, at some points, the group had simply become too big to fail and not recoup their expenditure on the studio. <\/p>\n Without an impending tour, flushed with unlimited expenses, and George Martin pretty much working as their own personal producer, the Fab Four found themselves in favourable circumstances to try and figure out the sound of the future. But a vital tenet from their early days further helped with this endeavour: The Beatles were initially known for their ferocious efficiency. <\/p>\n With unlimited studio time at their disposal, it would\u2019ve been easy for them to dwell and become laboured. But they weren\u2019t the dwelling type\u2026 or at least when it came to an idea put forward by Paul McCartney or John Lennon.<\/p>\n When it comes to their pace, the legends surrounding their recording of Please, Please Me in a single day are well documented, and their impossibly arduous schedule meant that they could spend little more than a few days in the studio to produce a new album. Every six months or so, there needed to be a new LP, so the band dutifully entered Abbey Road, laid down a few takes, and that was that. For a while, the studio was simply a place to get in, record, and get out of as soon as possible. <\/p>\n Once touring became a non-issue for the band, though, the studio became their primary setting. With millions of fans now waiting for every smoke-smelling breath the band took, the idea that those fans could wait a little while longer became more prevalent with every release. But there was another reason for the extensive studio session run times: innovation. <\/p>\n Being able to utilise the most groundbreaking advancements of modern technology, The Beatles began pushing the limits of what sounds, styles, and symphonies could come out of a rock band. The days of whistling through a few songs in a single session were over \u2013 The Beatles were meticulous with their writing, arranging, and production.<\/p>\n But the newfound freedom within the studio also allowed for a certain amount of malaise to creep into the proceedings. Without explicit deadlines, songs could be tracked over and over without much progress or any solid ideas about what needed to be changed. With songs like \u2018Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da\u2019 and \u2018Maxwell\u2019s Silver Hammer\u2019,<\/a> Paul McCartney began to impart an exacting perfectionism over his compositions, leading to some pushback from his bandmates who bemoaned his attempts to polish songs that they could barely stand in the first place.<\/p>\n But McCartney wasn\u2019t the only one guilty of this approach. In fact, on a song dealing directly with guilt and pointed fingers, George Harrison engaged in a gruelling amount of refinement for a song that didn\u2019t even wind up on a single Beatles album.<\/p>\n During the recording of The Beatles, better known as The White Album, Harrison presented a new contribution that dealt directly with the ill feelings after the band returned from the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi\u2019s retreat in Rishikesh, India. <\/p>\n Harrison had instigated the band\u2019s association with Indian instrumentation and the teachings of the Maharishi, but when rumours began to spread about the potential inappropriate advances to female students, The Beatles quickly left the ashram and denounced the Maharishi. Keith Richards would later quip that they had simply encountered a conman.<\/p>\n McCartney and Ringo Starr were never fully on board with the path to enlightenment, but John Lennon, in particular, was stung by the false prophet he naively believed in, resulting in the song \u2018Sexy Sadie\u2019.<\/a> Harrison\u2019s similar commentary didn\u2019t criticise the Maharishi himself, but rather the way that his band members were treating him as a result of their dalliance with the Maharishi: \u2018Not Guilty\u2019. <\/p>\n \u2018Not Guilty\u2019 is a stinging and defensive rebuke to his bandmates\u2019 recrimination. It stands defiantly as Harrison stands up for himself both inside and outside of the group. The song was indicative of a more significant issue that surrounded Harrison\u2019s place within the group dynamic. <\/p>\n An emerging songwriter, Harrison\u2019s compositions were routinely ignored or taken on reluctantly by McCartney and Lennon, even when both were printing material that paled compared to Harrison\u2019s. \u201cI\u2019m not trying to be small \/ I only want what I can get,\u201d Harrison bemoans as stinging harpsichord and distorted guitar add a bitter and vindictive punch to the song\u2019s arrangement.<\/p>\n Despite his desire not to \u201cupset the apple cart\u201d, Harrison spent two days trying to get his bandmates to learn the song, eventually utilising 102 takes, the most numerical attempts at a song ever recorded at a Beatles session. Still, he felt somewhat frustrated that his songs weren\u2019t being given a fair crack.<\/p>\n While only about 20 of these were complete takes, the amount of time spent trying to flesh out the song was likely indicative of McCartney and Lennon\u2019s ambivalence towards learning or putting much effort into Harrison\u2019s songs. When they were the subjects in the track\u2019s vitriolic admonishment, the motivation to make it sound good was nearly nonexistent.<\/p>\n Harrison had managed to pull together a workable backing track on the 102nd take, and the song received a proper edit and mixdown before being determined to be finished. But Harrison received another blow when the band assembled the tracklisting: \u2018Not Guilty\u2019 was not included. Songs like \u2018Wild Honey Pie\u2019, \u2018Why Don\u2019t We Do It In the Road\u2019, and \u2018Revolution 9\u2019 were included, but Harrison\u2019s labour-intensive effort was not.\u00a0<\/p>\n With such notions in mind, it is easy to see how Harrison would become increasingly frustrated with his position in the band. The Beatles, it would seem, had little time to allow him to express himself as fully as he intended. So, when rare chances arrived, the atmosphere strangely felt both charitable and pressurised. Neither were inducive to Harrison seamlessly bringing his ideas to fruition. <\/p>\n The reason why \u2018Not Guilty\u2019 was left off the final cut remains disputed. The track was obviously a solid musical addition, having made it to the final discussions of track assembly. Harrison and George Martin apparently favoured its inclusion, but McCartney and Lennon allegedly were unhappy with airing the band\u2019s dirty laundry in public. There were also whispers that the two wanted Harrison to have a few contributions to the album. With four songs already approved, a fifth might have seemed like one too many to Lennon\/McCartney. As such, Harrison was restricted to having one song for each side of The White Album.<\/p>\n![\"George](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/George-Harrison-Musician-The-Beatles-1964-Far-Out-Magazine-1024x768.jpg\")
<\/a>(Credits: Far Out \/ Harry Pot \/ Anefo \/ Dutch National Archives)<\/p>\n![\"John](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/John-Lennon-Paul-McCartney-George-Harrison-Ringo-Starr-1967-The-Beatles-Far-Out-Magazine-1024x768.jp.jpeg\")
<\/a>(Credits: Far Out \/ Alamy)<\/p>\n
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<\/a> The Far Out Beatles Newsletter<\/p>\n