IN AN ISSUE OF NME FROM AUGUST 1963,

George Harrison is found at a table in Liverpool’s Blue Angel club, considering what he might do in the future. There’s enthusiastic talk of opening a go-kart track; Adam Faith is interested in investing. “Weird stuff ” with a tape recorder, that involves John Lennon’s poetry. Perhaps, eventually, even songwriting. “I haven’t bothered in the same way as John and Paul,” he admits, “though I’d like to have a stab sooner or later.”

George Harrison’s time as a great songwriter would come soon enough. But as the extraordinary Get Back series makes so tangible, being heard was not always easy for this most self-effacing of Beatles. “I’ve got a few slow ones… if you want?” he offers hesitantly, as the quartet struggle for inspiration in Twickenham Film Studios.

This month, we examine how George’s songwriting genius emerged. We pinpoint his 30 greatest songs. And we uncover a revealing Paul McCartney inter view about his old friend, and how tricky it was to give him what he wanted when “John and I were writing some… good stuff.”

As, it transpires, was George. Given the opportunity to play one of those slow songs in Twickenham, he opts for one with “no solo or anything complicated”. Its title? All Things Must Pass. Already a masterpiece, it doesn’t make the cut.

JOHN MULVEY, EDITOR