Unfinished Beatles Song Gets Completed 40 Years Later

Posted on Nov 3rd 2009 6:24AM by Spinner Staff
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A long-forgotten and unfinished Beatles song written by George Harrison has been completed after a 40-year gap.

The Sun reported Harrison scrawled the first ten lines of the song, called 'Silence (Is Its Own Reply),' on a piece of scrap paper which also had details of Beatles manager Brian Epstein's country house in Sussex on the back.

The piece of paper was apparently discarded and lay on the floor of Abbey Road studios before being given to author Hunter Davies. Davies had asked for a sample of each of the Beatles' handwriting while researching his 1968 official biography of the band. The book entitled 'The Beatles' is soon to be republished and includes the lyrics with the blessing of Harrison's estate.

While being interviewed about the book on BBC Radio Merseyside, Davies and radio host Spencer Leigh then speculated on how the song might have been received had it been finished. Leigh later suggested asking a contemporary songwriter if they would finish the song and then approached acclaimed Liverpudlian singer Dean Johnson about doing it.

Johnson said of the task: "Spencer called me out of the blue. When he said he would like me to work on George's unfinished song I found it unbelievable, exciting and a complete honour. My brief was to follow George's sentiment through to its conclusion."

Initially the lyrics were believed to have been based around the theme of love but recent speculation has pointed to a rather different subject, that of Harrison's difficult relationship with John Lennon. The lyrics include the line: "I'm happy to say it's only a dream, When I come across people like you, It's only a dream and you make it obscene."

You can see Johnson performing the finished song and download the lyrics on his official site at http://www.deanjohnsonmusic.co.uk/.