“DON’T BOTHER ME”
(George Harrison)
Professional songwriting is a true craft. Anyone who has ever written a hit song will guard their early attempts from being exposed to the world with his or her life, most likely out of sheer embarrassment. In almost each case, many years of trial and error precede any success that a songwriter will achieve in his lifetime.
There are, of course, exceptions to any rule. George Harrison is a definite exception to this rule. Buoyed on by the big success and financial advantages of Lennon and McCartney being hit-making songwriters for The Beatles as well as other artists, George saw a potential opportunity for himself. His self-proclaimed main focus within the group was to be the best lead guitarist that he could be, especially considering the enormous success that The Beatles had been enjoying by mid 1963 in the UK and elsewhere. But now his focus suddenly began to shift to songwriting.
In order for him to have lead vocals to sing on their LPs, Harrison was relegated to singing cover songs in their early career, such as “Chains,” or Lennon / McCartney originals like “Do You Want To Know A Secret.” All of that changed forever in August of 1963. As Paul explained in the “Anthology” book: “A lot of the girls were mad on him, so we always wanted to give him at least one track. Then George started to catch on, (asking) ‘Why should you write my songs?’ And then he started writing his own.” Actually, John and Paul were quite agreeable about including Harrison as a songwriter for The Beatles, as Paul continued: “It was an option to include George in the songwriting team. John and I already talked about it. I remember walking up past Woolton Church with John one morning and going over the question: ‘Without wanting to be too mean to George, would three of us write or would it be better to keep it simple?’ We decided we’d just keep the two of us. He wrote ‘Don’t Bother Me.’ That was the first one and he improved from that and became very good.”
What is unique about this situation is that The Beatles were massive stars in Britain by the time George decided to attempt songwriting. Indeed, the band was just about to be introduced to the US market properly. “I used to have a hang-up about telling John, Paul and Ringo I had a song for an album,” he admitted later in 1969, “because I felt mentally, at that time, as if I was trying to compete. And in a way, the standard of the songs had to be good, because (John and Paul’s) were very good. I don’t want The Beatles to be recording some rubbish for my sake just because I wrote it.” Instead of dismissing his very first attempt at writing a song, he confidently asserted himself in introducing that song as a contender for their second album, which was then in the process of being recorded.
George Harrison was credited as co-composer on two previous songs in the band’s history: “In Spite Of All The Danger” with McCartney in 1958 and “Cry For A Shadow” with Lennon in 1961. But as history reveals, Harrison’s first solo composition, “Don’t Bother Me,” appeared on the multi-million selling British album “With The Beatles” as well as the highly successful and influential American album “Meet The Beatles!,” which sold over five million copies shortly after its release. Therefore, George’s confidence was not unfounded. The song fit in quite nicely on both of these LPs and, by extension, earned an appearance in the band’s award-winning and highly acclaimed first film “A Hard Day’s Night.” An impressive feat for an amateur songwriter.
