The Dick Cavett Show Rock Icons DVD disc 3 featured George Harrison’s entire appearance on November 23, 1971. In the wake of his late-era Beatles contributions, ‘My Sweet Lord’, All Things Must Pass and the Concert for Bangladesh – he was arguably the biggest rock star on the planet. Yet, far from plugging his own product, he’s actually more intent on promoting other people’s. George plays back-up slide guitar on a performance of Two Faced Man by Gary Wright and Wonder Wheel, discusses at length Raga, a documentary film about his friend and sitar maestro Ravi Shankar, and introduces a live performance by Shankar himself 38:35, who then joins Harrison and Cavett for the latter stages of the interview 43:47
And, unlike John Lennon who appeared in September 1971
George takes a while to warm to the proceedings and Cavett’s coaxing, his droll responses reflecting an innate disdain of the whole chat show format, as well as commercial breaks and on-going interest in The Beatles. After revealing he’d seen Lennon at the Raga premier the previous evening, he’s asked what he said to him. “Hi. Hello,” George replies. When Cavett then asks what John said to him, George simply says, “Hi.” It’s a amusing but rather awkward beginning, with Harrison adding: “I’m probably the biggest bore you’ve ever had on your show….there’s really nothing to say these days.”
Years later, Cavett was asked about dealing with such a truculent guest, and made the point that the longer formats of talk programs back then allowed people to relax and build up a rapport, and that – in George’s case – the interview got better and better as it progressed. And he’s right. After a few minutes of such guarded, dismissive responses, Harrison begins to settle in and open up about a range of subjects, including The Beatles’ break-up, his development as a songwriter, meditation, Monty Python and US TV (unlike John, he thinks “it’s a load of rubbish”). He talks in depth about the Bangladesh charity show and the legal problems he’s encountering in getting money raised by the show (and resulting live album) to the refugees who need it. And there’s also a fascinating section when he discusses drug use, both within The Beatles and the wider rock community. Source: Free as a Hub
