Anatomy of a quote from ‘The Beatles Anthology’
What exactly did George Harrison say about the Greek island, and when?
Read more:
Desertion, theft and a stay in hospital: Alf Lennon’s eventful war
George Harrison on Monolia?
Recap: what we’ve learned about the Beatles’ Greek island mystery
The announcement that The Beatles Anthology multimedia project is to be rebooted this autumn recently caused a considerable stir. Alongside an updated release of the TV documentary, there will be a reissue of the book (originally published in 2000) and a new audio compilation.
For me, this news recalled a puzzle that I’d come across when comparing two quotes from George Harrison about the group’s intention to buy a Greek island – one in Anthology, and another in a book published sixteen years earlier.
The Anthology book presents the Beatles “in their own words”, including extensive quotes from the group. It’s billed as being “in effect, the Beatles autobiography”, and as such, it’s an important source for anyone interested in their history.
But where do the quotes originate? Many come from the same interviews with Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr that were used for the TV documentary. According to the introduction to the 2000 edition, “further major interviews were conducted with Paul, George and Ringo specifically for this book”.
A close look at the section about the Greek island suggests that the Anthology book may also draw on material from other sources. This, at least, seems to be the case with a quote from Harrison on page 258 of the 2000 edition.
This quote begins very similarly to Harrison’s comments in the Anthology TV series, where he says:
“Somebody had said 'you should invest some money', and we thought, 'well let's buy an island'. We'll just go there and drop out.' We rented a boat and we drove this boat up and down the coast from Athens, looking at islands. And we came to this island that we'd arranged to go and see."
The first three sentences of Harrison’s quote in the book are very similar to those in bold above. Presumably they come from the interview for the docuseries – although the order, and some of the wording, has been changed (for example, in the book it says they “sailed” rather than “drove” the boat).
Material from Derek Taylor’s memoir
However, the next part of the Anthology quote appears to derive from another source: Fifty Years Adrift, the memoir of the Beatles’ press officer Derek Taylor, published in 1984. Taylor’s book includes numerous direct quotes from George Harrison – including one on the Greek island plans. In the extract below, from Harrison’s quote in Anthology, the first few sentences are exactly the same as those in a George quote from Fifty Years Adrift:
“It was a great trip. John and I were on acid all the time, sitting on the front of the ship playing ukuleles. Greece was on the left; a big island on the right. The sun was shining and we sang ‘Hare Krishna’ for hours and hours. Eventually we landed on a little beach with a village, but as soon as we stepped off the boat it started pouring with rain. There were storms and lightning, and the only building on the island was a little fisherman’s cottage – so we all piled in: ‘Scuse us, squire. You don’t mind if we come and shelter in your cottage, do you?’”
Since these books were published more than fifteen years apart, the most obvious explanation for this identical content is that the Anthology quote draws on material from Taylor’s book.
The second part of the Anthology quote above is not identical to that in Fifty Years Adrift, but there is considerable overlap. The quote in Taylor’s memoir includes the phrase “eventually we landed on a little beach with a village”. It also says that after encountering thunder, lightning and pouring rain, the Beatles’ group “ran for cover into somebody’s hut and all the local fishermen were friendly and gave us glasses of wine”.
The final part of the Anthology quote also includes content that is very similar to that in Fifty Years Adrift (identical parts are in bold below):
“It was about the only time The Beatles ever made any money on a business venture. To make the purchase, we’d changed the money into international dollars or some currency. Then, when they changed the money back, the exchange rate had gone up and so we made about twenty shillings or so.”
However, in the Anthology quote, this content has been re-ordered and slightly re-worded (in the original quote, the parts about changing money and then changing it back are addressed separately – at the beginning and the end of Harrison’s quote).
Why the details matter
In one sense, it doesn’t matter where the material for the quote in Anthology comes from. Harrison signed off on the book, so he agreed for those specific words to be attributed to him. However, if we’re trying to work out the actual history of the attempted Greek island purchase, it does help to know what the sources are.
Because while the broad outline of the quotes in Fifty Years Adrift and Anthology are similar, the differences are significant. It matters, for instance, that the quote in Taylor’s book says the group ran into “somebody’s hut” for shelter, while the Anthology quote states that the group went into a “little fisherman’s cottage”, said to be the “only building on the island”.
These distinctions might seem pedantic, but here it does make a difference whether it was a “hut” or a “cottage” that the Beatles took refuge in. On Monolia (the group’s likely target) at this time, there were ‘kiosks’ – shelters used by fishermen that that could reasonably be described as huts, but not cottages. And it’s plausible that the Beatles and their companions ran into one of these.
It also makes a difference whether there was a village on the island or just one building. In the 1960s, Monolia had several buildings, rather than only one – so it matches the former description, but not the latter. Here, the quote in Anthology not only contradicts the account in Fifty Years Adrift, but also itself – confusingly stating that the island had “a village” but also only one building.
So while the quote in Taylor’s book contains small details that help identify the likely location, the quote in Anthology includes aspects that arguably obscure it. This confusion may arise from the way the latter seems to be a composite of different sources.
The Anthology quote also includes some quotations within it: the one above beginning “Scuse us, squire” and another from Magic Alex, saying “we’ll have the military come” to carry away the big pebbles that covered the island. I don’t know what the source is for these comments – but while they add colour to the narrative, they don’t concern anything substantive about the events in question.
The quote from George Harrison in the Anthology book, then, seems to combine at least two different sources: the interview for the TV series and Derek Taylor’s memoir. And there are additional details that so far have no identified source: these must either come from parts of the filmed interview that weren’t screened, or another source (or sources). What’s more, some of the information from these seems to be contradictory.
I don’t know whether any other quotes in The Beatles Anthology blend material from several sources in this way. But it helps to realise that this may be the case – and where possible, to try and work out what these sources are.
Read more:
Desertion, theft and a stay in hospital: Alf Lennon’s eventful war
George Harrison on Monolia?
Recap: what we’ve learned about the Beatles’ Greek island mystery