At only 19 years old, the British musician and former member of Genesis participated in the recordings of “All Things Must Pass” (1970), the former Beatle’s first solo album. However, his participation never appeared in the credits so, as an apology, Harrison decided to have a little fun.
“I play a little guitar, write a few tunes, make a few movies, but none of that’s really me,” George Harrison once said. “The real me is something else.”
Ten years of career with The Beatles stand out and more than three decades alone are part of the trajectory of the British, who among his culminating works has the triple album All Things Must Pass (1970), as well as his participation in the super band Traveling Wilburys.
Harrison is known as the most reserved and mystical member of the Fab Four, however, he also had a great sense of humor, as reflected in an anecdote with the former member of Genesis, Phil Collins, that is worth reliving about his birth.
Collins’ connection to The Beatles dates back to 1964 when he was hired as an extra in his first film, A Hard Day’s Night (1964). He was only 13 years old at the time, and he spent all day with teenagers who were ordered to scream at full speed during the climactic television concert scene, yet his musical purism worked against him.
Years later he had a second experience with one of the former members of the band, which was also disappointing: in 1970 he was signed to play congas in a session of The Art of Dying, to be included in his first solo album, All Things Must Pass. .
Harrison himself was unaware of Collins’ involvement until 2001 when he was putting together a remastered album package to celebrate its 30th anniversary. He and Collins had become friends in the decades in between, so Harrison decided to have a little fun.
As an apology for not crediting it on the original release, he sent Collins a cover of the song that he claimed did contain his lost percussion collaborations.
“So now I know, they didn’t go off to watch TV, they went somewhere and said, ‘Get rid of him,’ cos I was playing so badly. Then Jackie rings and says, ‘I’ve got someone here to speak to you,’ and puts George on and he says, ‘Did you get the tape?’ and I said, ‘I now realise I was fired by a Beatle.’ He says, ‘Don’t worry, it was a piss-take. I got Ray Cooper to play really badly, and we dubbed it on. Thought you’d like it!’ I said, ‘You fucking bastard!’”, Collins then reminisced in hindsight, “It was lovely, wasn’t it?”