When They Were Boys (55 page)

Louise was actually engaging radio stations during the height of the payola scandal (pay for play), and she had nothing to give away but her own enthusiasm.

G
RADUALLY, OVER SIX MONTHS
, I
WAS PASSING ALL OF THIS INFORMATION ON TO
B
RIAN AND
I
GOT LETTERS BACK FROM HIM SAYING
, “I
WROTE VERY CAREFULLY EVERYTHING YOU WERE SAYING
.” I
TRIED VERY, VERY
HARD TO TRY AND GET THINGS GOING
. I
WAS WATCHING THE
E
D
S
ULLIVAN
S
HOW
AND STARTED PUTTING A
P.S.
AT THE BOTTOM OF MY LETTERS
—P.S. G
ET THEM ON THE
E
D
S
ULLIVAN
S
HOW
. I
T WAS KIND OF INTERESTING, BECAUSE TOWARDS THE END OF THE YEAR
E
D
S
ULLIVAN HAPPENED TO BE IN
[
THE
] L
ONDON AIRPORT AT THE SAME TIME THAT THEY WERE COMING BACK FROM THEIR LITTLE
S
WEDISH TOUR, AND HE SAW THIS BIG HULLABALOO WITH ALL THESE PEOPLE HERE
. S
O HE TRACKED DOWN, YOU KNOW
, [
ASKED
]
WHAT'S THE
B
EATLES
? H
E GOT IN TOUCH WITH
B
RIAN, AND IT WAS FUNNY BECAUSE BY THAT TIME
B
RIAN WAS STARTING TO GET A LITTLE BIT BIG-HEADED
. H
E KIND OF FANCIED HIMSELF THE PROMOTER AND EVERYTHING
. H
IS EGO WAS TREMENDOUS
. E
VERY WEEK
I
SENT HIM
E
D
S
ULLIVAN
, E
D
S
ULLIVAN
, E
D
S
ULLIVAN, SO FORTUNATELY HE TOOK THE PHONE CALL AND OF COURSE WE ALL KNOW WHAT HAPPENED AFTER THAT
.

It's hard to say what might have happened without Louise's constant flow of information. Brian Epstein was a smart and intuitive man, but he had limited information on America. If he really knew the American scene, why would he have hired a shaky turboprop for the tours rather than a jet? The distances surprised him. Britain is small compared to the United States. Why didn't he hire scores of security guards, instead leaving the Beatles in the hands of Neil Aspinall and Mal Evans, a devoted army of two? And why would he have invited me, a twenty-one-year-old news journalist from Miami, to travel in their official party on the greatest musical tour of all time, rather than a seasoned music journalist? No complaints here.

On the business side, Louise would prove to be a gem. But yet, after all these years, and all of her support, she credits George's success to her father's uncompromising view of love, laughter, and steadiness.

“He was like a lighthouse . . . calm, steady, on the rocks . . . shining the light to show you . . . to keep you away from the hazards of life.” She adds, with tears welling up in her eyes,

M
Y PARENTS, THEY REALLY STARTED WHAT
I
CALL MY GLOBAL FAMILY
. T
HERE WAS, OF COURSE, THE
H
ARRISON HUG
. O
NE OF THE LAST TIMES THAT
I
SAW
G
EORGE . . . HE HUGGED ME, HE SAID
, “P
ASS IT ON
.” A
FTER
HE DIED AND PEOPLE WOULD BE TALKING TO ME, PEOPLE WERE GIVING ME THEIR CONDOLENCES AND
I
WOULD SAY
, “W
ELL, HERE'S A HUG FROM
G
EORGE
.” T
HEY WERE ALSO FEELING SAD ABOUT HIM AND
I
KNEW THEY NEEDED SOMETHING IN RETURN FOR THEIR CONDOLENCES
. I
SAID
, “T
HIS IS A
H
ARRISON HUG, IT'S FROM
G
EORGE,” AND
“P
ASS IT ON
.” S
O
, I
STARTED ENCOURAGING PEOPLE, WHEN THEY GET THE
H
ARRISON HUG, YOU'VE GOT TO PASS IT ON
. I'
VE BEEN GETTING THINGS
. . . I
HAD AN E-MAIL ONCE FROM A LADY IN
A
RGENTINA, AND SHE SAID
, “I
GOT A
H
ARRISON HUG FOR MY BIRTHDAY THIS YEAR; YOU HAD GIVEN IT TO SOMEBODY IN
C
LEVELAND IN 2002
.” A
ND THEN OTHER PEOPLE E-MAILED AND TEXTED ME AND SAID
, “I'
VE NOW GIVEN MY
H
ARRISON HUG TO PEOPLE IN SEVENTEEN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES
.” S
O PART OF THIS WHOLE IDEA OF THE
H
ARRISON HUG IS TO KEEP
G
EORGE'S LOVE CIRCULATING
. T
HE
H
ARRISON HUG DID NOT START JUST WITH
G
EORGE, WE HAD IT ALL OUR LIVES
. N
OT ONLY DID WE HAVE IT, BUT
M
OM AND
D
AD GAVE THAT HUG TO EVERY
B
EATLE FAN THAT CAME INTO CONTACT WITH THEM
. T
HEY FIGURATIVELY HUGGED THEM BY ANSWERING THEIR LETTERS
.

Louise, startled by the Beatles' ascent, made sure that she would be a factor by serving as an unpaid, totally dedicated volunteer. For her work, she was invited to various stages of the Beatles' trips to America, including the two-concert trip in February 1964.

T
HEY WERE FLYING SO HIGH
, I
THOUGHT . . . YOU KNOW HOW THEY TALK ABOUT A NATURAL HIGH
? T
HAT'S THE WAY IT WAS IN THE HOTEL ROOM IN
N
EW
Y
ORK, WHEN THEY WERE THERE TO DO THE
E
D
S
ULLIVAN
S
HOW
. T
HEY WERE IN THE PRESIDENTIAL SUITE AND
I
HAD JUST ARRIVED A LITTLE WHILE EARLIER AND THEY WERE RUNNING ROOM TO ROOM BECAUSE THERE WAS A
TV
SET IN EACH ROOM AND THEIR ARRIVAL IN
N
EW
Y
ORK WAS ON EVERY
TV
SET
. T
HEY WOULD GO, SEE WHAT THEY ARE SAYING HERE, SEE WHAT THEY ARE SAYING THERE
. T
HEY WERE ALL FLOATING ABOUT SIX FEET FROM THE GROUND
. T
HERE WAS ALWAYS
B
RIAN IN THE CORNER, MAKING SURE THINGS WERE BALANCED
.

Keeping George's feet firmly planted to the ground was a priority for the Harrisons and American-based sister Louise.

“My dad had a similar dynamic . . . because with George being the youngest, Dad had to sign to give permission for him to be in the Beatles. So Brian knew and respected my dad. He knew that he had my dad to deal with, and that George, who I think was more grounded than the others, would be influenced by his solid family ties.”

But in time, before their breakout in 1964, young Louise Harrison discovered that even with the sincere, warm optimism of her sweet brother, a certain element of mistrust settled in.

“He started realizing how much they were being manipulated and predatory. Just being ripped off all of the time.”

But the group, unlike the split in the later sixties, managed to maintain a level of unity.

“Later on there was all of that legal stuff, but that was the lawyers creating the [tension]. They themselves—and I know from talking to George—they never really had any animosity towards each other. There was animosity brought in from outside and thrust upon them.”

Louise Harrison is a spiritual woman. From the beginning, she never imagined their long-range influence, their lasting impression. But as time and age have settled in, she sees a level of divine purpose, as she expressed to me in a 2012 interview.

LK: I have to ask you a very difficult question. 1963. Did you ever have any idea that they would become iconic in the way that they are now?

LH: No. I don't think anybody did. And yet when you do look back, and there's a book on that bookcase there about The Beatles and Philosophy, and I've been invited to many, many sermons that have been given by many ministers across the country, and I've talked to many philosophers and theologians, and the general consensus seems to be that in the past, throughout the known history of our species, there have been people who have come along and have been very, very prominent that have had a teaching role in life. They've come along as teachers. People like Buddha, Muhammad, Christ, and whoever else. All of these various teachers have come along to try to give the species some kind of road map as to how we really ought to be behaving toward each other
.

LK: Do you think that the Beatles came around for that reason?

LH: The consensus of opinions of the people that have talked to me have said that it was almost as though the Beatles were the twentieth-century formation of that message, and it had to be done on a different scale to how it had been done in earlier centuries in order for the message to reach all of humanity
.

I want to make one thing clear. Louise is not suggesting that the Beatles were bigger and more important than any of the world's religions. She is not echoing John's 1966 comments, taken out of context, that the Beatles were bigger than Christ. But she does offer us the realistic principle that agents of culture can have enormous impact on people's lives.

In that respect, in some ways, the woman with a direct bloodline to George Harrison, the woman who quietly helped so much in the beginning, seems to reflect the philosophies of her eclectic brother, that a belief system can pass the boundaries of established theology.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

THE BOYS OF THE ROAD

“All three, in different ways, were invaluable on the road to success for the people I named the ‘Fab Four.'”

—Tony Barrow

I
N THE BEGINNING, THE TRANSPORTATION COULD BE AS WICKED AS THE WEATHER
.
Aboard the Lockheed Electra in 1965, in a rare interview, master roadie Neil Aspinall made a comparison.

“This [plane travel] is much finer than our previous modes of transportation.”

That was an understatement. For Aspinall and the boys of the road, those early, bumpy rides would never escape their memory.

For Tony Bramwell—the youngest traveler, hand-holder, equipment guardian, and just plain gofer—one episode will always stand out:

W
E WERE AT A CONCERT A LONG WAY FROM
L
IVERPOOL
. [I
T WAS
]
WINTER
. . . I
THINK
D
ECEMBER 1963 . . . THE POLICE GAVE US AN ESCORT TO OUR VAN AND WHEN WE GOT TO IT, IT WAS COMPLETELY WRECKED—MIRRORS OUT, WINDOWS GONE, HEATER BROKEN
. A
ND WE HAD TO BE IN
L
IVERPOOL, WHICH WAS FOUR HOURS AWAY, FIRST THING IN THE MORNING
. W
E DIDN'T KNOW WHAT WE WERE GOING TO DO
. T
HE POLICE ESCORTS SAID THEY WOULD LEAD THE WAY FOR US, AS WE DROVE THE BROKEN VAN
. W
E GOT IN THE VAN AND WE MOVED THE EQUIPMENT BEHIND THE FRONT SEAT AND THE
B
EATLES SAT ON THE FLOOR BEHIND THE EQUIPMENT, WRAPPED UP IN THE COATS TO KEEP WARM
. T
HE ONLY THING THAT WORKED WAS THE STEERING AND THE ENGINE AND BRAKES, ENOUGH TO GET US THERE IN TIME
. W
E DROVE THROUGH THE NIGHT
. E
VEN
N
EIL WAS A BIT FRIGHTENED
.

Y
EAH, AND WE DROVE ALL THE WAY TO
L
IVERPOOL WITH NO WINDOWS—FOUR HOURS THROUGH THE NIGHT, SITTING ON THE FLOOR BEHIND ALL THIS
EQUIPMENT
. . . . T
HEY WERE STARS, AND THEY DIDN'T ACT LIKE STARS
. T
HIS IS MORE OF A TESTAMENT TO WHO THEY WERE
.

It was also a testament to the people they chose to have with them, led by the quiet and determined Aspinall.

The accounting student used his sharp pencil and sharp tongue—the pencil in his salad days as he played the role of helpful boarder to the Bests, unknowing that he and Mona would present a new life to the world. The sharp wordsmith, a bit shy at times, traveled the path from bookkeeper, to protector of the flesh, and finally, guardian of the entire franchise.

And in the beginning, bereft of contacts, he had an important sponsor. His name was Best.

Like so much about his unusual career, history has never adequately credited Pete Best with the lasting gift he bestowed upon the Beatles: an introduction to Neil Aspinall. Of course, Pete never knew they would actually be related one day. Pete also couldn't possibly predict that turning-point moment when he was sacked, and unselfishly urged his good friend to stay on with the band.

Aspinall's connection to the Best family, explained earlier, brought him unknowingly face-to-face with an event that altered the culture of the world, but like so many who were there in the beginning, he had no idea. He was a worker with a zest for excellence, punctuality, and the one most important characteristic in relationships: loyalty.

Aspinall was one of the boys of the road who got the Beatles where they needed to go—except for the time he got lost while driving the boys to London for their infamous Decca audition. But it would take more than bad weather to stop Neil Aspinall.

I viewed him as the ultimate roadie, with a twist. Aspinall was first and foremost interested in the boys' safety and protection—safety being the art of securing them through secret passageways and narrow corridors away from screaming hordes of teenagers; protection being the assurance that their trysts with women were conducted under layers of secrecy and security that resembled that afforded to heads of state.