George Harrison was a stoic and quiet individual. He had no shortage of talent both in The Beatles and as a solo artist, and the latter of which was (in my opinion) where he truly shone. He wasn’t the big smack-talker, either. But George Harrison did have a few choice words for some of his musician contemporaries, and even disliked a few famous bands and musicians. Let’s look at a few examples, shall we?
Oasis
I’ll be honest, I was surprised to see this band mentioned in my research for this list of musicians that George Harrison famously disliked. Oasis? Really? A lot of people had some choice words for the Britpop band back in the day, but I wouldn’t have thought George Harrison, formerly of The Beatles, would be paying attention to them, specifically.
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Well, it appears that this one is true, and George Harrison was not a big fan of Oasis in the 1990s. In fact, in 1996, Harrison pretty directly said that their music “lacks depth” and that “singer Liam [Gallagher] is a pain, the rest of the band don’t need him.” Ouch. No wonder Gallagher threatened to punch him.
Sex Pistols
The Beatles, in a roundabout way, were pretty punk rock for their time. Nobody was making music like them in the 1960s. They got into trouble for controversial lyrics on more than one occasion. And yet, most punk bands of the 1970s would not consider The Beatles punk.
That didn’t bother Harrison. In fact, he had a few choice words for punk bands as a whole, as well as Sex Pistols, specifically. Though, he also sympathized with the band to a degree.
“As far as musicianship goes, the punk bands were just rubbish,” said Harrison in 1979. “No finesse in the drumming, just a lot of noise and nothing. […] I felt very sorry when the Sex Pistols were on television, and one of them was saying, ‘We’re educated to go into the factories and work on assembly lines,’ and that’s their future. It is awful, and it’s especially awful that it should come out of England because England is continually going through depression; it’s a very negative country. […] But you don’t fight negativity with negativity. You have to overpower hatred with love, not more hatred.”
Neil Young
Neil Young is beloved by songwriters around the world. And yet, he wasn’t loved by George Harrison; in fact, it appears as though the former Beatles disliked Young’s music. In a clip taken from a 1992 recording session, Bob Geldof can be heard asking Harrison what he thought about “Around The World” by Neil Young. His response was about as direct as it gets.
“I’m not a Neil Young fan,” Harrison said. “I hate it, yeah, I can’t stand it. […] It’s good for a laugh.”
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