The Beatles member George Harrison was increasingly brittle. After a week of rehearsing, John Lennon was derisive of Harrison’s “I Me Mine,” a song that broadly hinted at the egos at work in the Beatles.
Conversation between George Harrison and John Lennon of The Beatles:
Harrison: I’m leaving . . .
Lennon: What?
Harrison: . . . the band now.
Lennon: When?
Harrison: Now.
It was after another sour moment, Harrison made good on his threat, heading home to his estate in Surrey. “See you around the clubs,” he said by way of farewell. That afternoon, he wrote “Wah-Wah,” lamenting his bandmates’ failure to “hear me crying.” Lennon seems unfazed. “I think if George doesn’t come back by Monday or Tuesday, we ask Eric Clapton to play,” he says.
Eric Clapton first met The Beatles (John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr) in December 1964 while Clapton was in The Yardbirds. The Yardbirds were one of the support acts for The Beatles Christmas Show at London’s Hammersmith Odeon. Over the next several years, Eric Clapton would form an abiding friendship with fellow guitarist, George Harrison.
