A new book about The Beatles has revealed George Harrison‘s inspiration to pick up the guitar.
Due for release this Thursday (April 11), All You Need Is Love is described as “a ground-breaking oral history of the Beatles and how it all came to an end”.
It is comprised of interviews taken from the controversial book The Love You Make (1983), which was written by Steven Gaines and Peter Brown – the personal assistant to Beatles manager Brian Epstein.
In one section, Harrison speaks about what first ignited his interest in becoming a musician.
“I remember being a kid of about twelve, dreaming of big motorboats and tropical islands and things which had nothing to do with Liverpool, which was dark and cold,” he explained to Brown and Gaines in 1980 (via The Times).
“I remember going to see Cliff Richard and thinking fuck it – I could do better than that.”
As Guitar.COM notes, this rivalry would eventually encourage Harrison to perfect his guitar playing – with Richard going on to envy the Fab Four’s fame and success.
In 1964, the singer responded to The Beatles’ performance on The Ed Sullivan Show by saying: “It’s ridiculous! Has everyone forgotten me? What’s going on?”
Despite the competition between The Beatles and Richard, John Lennon reportedly once argued that British music would not have been the same if the ‘Devil Woman’ artist hadn’t come along.
“Before Cliff Richard and ‘Move It’, there was nothing worth listening to in England,” he is said to have claimed (via Gold Radio UK).
All You Need Is Love also includes the claim that Yoko Ono instructed John Lennon how to use heroin and details a Lennon encounter that made The Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger feel “uncomfortable”.
An official description reads: “Based on never-before-published or heard interviews with Paul McCartney, Yoko Ono, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, and their families, friends, and business associates, this is a landmark book, containing stunning new revelations, about the biggest band the world has ever seen.”
In other news, McCartney has praised Beyoncé’s “fabulous” cover of The Beatles’ ‘Blackbird’ for fighting “racial tension”.