George Harrison: Behind The Locked Door by Graeme Thomson

George Harrison: Behind the Locked Door, by Graeme Thomson; Omnibus Press

It is said that meeting your heroes is always a mistake, because they never quite measure up to your expectations. I am glad, after reading this book, that I did not meet George Harrison. He comes across as a much more prickly character than I had previously thought.

This biography suffers from appearing about the same time as Mark Lewisohn’s superb masterwork on all four of The Beatles, All These Years: Tune In. Although only one volume of a proposed three has appeared, Graeme Thomson’s book is thin by comparison. It also does not manage to do what Lewisohn has done in walking the fine line between exhaustive biography and hagiography. Whilst Lewisohn has pulled off the trick admirably, I was left with the impression that Thomson has come down a little too far on the negative side. It is a shame, because in digging deeply into some of the less glamorous and attractive parts of the life of George Harrison, he has done much to tarnish him.

George Harrison was a deeply complicated human being. He spent most of his adult life trying to distance himself from being a Beatle. In doing so, he cut a lot of people out of his life. In this biography, Graeme Thomson repeats this conclusion in every possible way. In doing so, he has also painted a picture of Harrison that is rather skewed. Certainly, he was a private man who guarded his privacy fiercely. But he was also a wonderful friend to many people in all walks of life. A little more reflection on this fact would have created a much more balanced picture of George.

I am suspicious of a biography that has many of the major characters missing. It is apparent from the credits and thanks at the end of the book that neither McCartney, Starr nor Yoko Ono consented to be interviewed. All their quotes are therefore second-hand and subject to editing and interpretation. It also seems that Patti Boyd did not speak to the author. It speaks of a writer having lots of doors closed to him.

There are interesting biographical details that are uncovered – the fact, for example, that the Beatle who comes out of this telling with the most credit is Ringo Starr. That when George Harrison’s time was coming to an end, he was given shelter in a private house in Los Angeles owned by McCartney, to avoid the prying eyes of the world. And the fact that it seems there is good evidence to suggest that George was unfaithful to both of his doting wives. This last piece of information reveals as much about Graeme Thomson’s agenda as about the life of Harrison himself.

There is some warmth. The contented Harrison, writing songs for fun at his Gothic Manor Friar Park. The loving father, who involved his son fully in his music-making. And the fabulous generosity of the man who funded many projects without any desire for recognition.

Largely, though, this is a negative book about a man who gave so much in his fifty-eight years. It dwells too much on the paradoxes in Harrison’s life when there was a great opportunity to dig much more deeply into the spiritual side of his existence. After his death, when his friends met to celebrate his life, they all assumed that they were his best friend. This says far more about him than Graeme Thomson managed. He forgot to mention it.