George Harrison unpublished lyrics on show at British Library

May 8, 2009

George Harrison unpublished lyrics on show at British Library

Jack Malvern




The looping handwriting on the yellowing scrap of paper does not appear to be of any importance, at first glance. The eight-line work is littered with grammatical errors and the last line seems to have been rushed.

However, because the 67 words were written by the late George Harrison it means that, from today, the modest composition will be on permanent display at the British Library.

The unrecorded lyrics were written by Harrison as the Beatles were reaching the height of their creative output. The song, for which no music survives, has emerged after Hunter Davies, the band’s biographer, rediscovered it in his archive of Beatles material. He has lent it to the library indefinitely and told The Times that he intends to leave it to the nation in his will.

He said that he had forgotten that he had the piece of paper, because Beatles memorabilia had little value when he first acquired it. Some 30 years later the demand for such material has become frenzied: a set of handwritten lyrics to A Day in the Life by John Lennon and Paul McCartney sold for £1.3 million in 2006. The Harrison song is thought to be worth tens of thousands of pounds.

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