The Beatles Song George Harrison Wrote While 'Wretchedly Jetlagged'
George Harrison wrote a Beatles song while horribly jetlagged. Here's why a Beatles associate thought it was a simpler song than expected.
In the latter half of the 1960s, George Harrison began writing more songs for The Beatles. While he hadn’t had much interest in songwriting early in the band’s career, he took it more seriously in later years. He was so dedicated to songwriting that he wrote one song while reeling from jetlag.
In 1967, Harrison traveled to Los Angeles with his wife, Pattie Boyd, road manager, Neil Aspinall, and friend, Alex Mardas. He went from the airport to his rental home, where Beatles press officer Derek Taylor was due to meet him. Taylor was running late, though.
“By the time we got there the song was virtually intact,” Taylor said, per the book A Hard Day’s Write: The Stories Behind Every Beatles Song by Steve Turner. “Of course, at the time I felt very bad. Here were these two wretchedly jetlagged people and we were about two hours late.”
Still, Harrison used the wait time to write “Blue Jay Way,” a song he named after the street where he was staying.
Source: Emma McKee/cheatsheet.com
