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I'd Have You Anytime

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"I'd Have You Anytime"
Song

"I'd Have You Anytime" is a song written by George Harrison and Bob Dylan in late 1968, when the then Beatle was staying near Woodstock, in upstate New York. It was recorded and released by Harrison as the opening track to his 1970 triple album All Things Must Pass, but it was not a song that Dylan ever returned to. The distinctive lead guitar part on the recording was played by Eric Clapton.[1]

Background and composition

Although the two musicians had met in New York City in 1964,[2] the friendship between George Harrison and Bob Dylan appears to have begun in May 1966, when Harrison, together with John Lennon and Paul McCartney, visited the singer in his London hotel.[3] Dylan’s relationship with Lennon was often thought to have been a testy, competitive one,[4] and he was "cooler" towards McCartney, whose best-known songs he regarded as "sell-outs to soft pop";[5] but in producer Bob Johnston's estimation, Lennon, Harrison and McCartney entered Dylan’s hotel suite as members of The Beatles and departed as three distinct individuals − such was Dylan's philosophical influence on fellow songwriters at the time.[6][7] Following the American singer’s creative peak in mid ’66, Dylan had since retired to Bearsville, New York, with his backing band The Hawks in tow, in order to recuperate from a motorcycle crash and raise a family with his wife, Sara Lownds.[8] Little had been heard from him throughout 1967−68, a situation that simply added to his mystique as the world awaited his return.[9] While Dylan had been famously dismissive of The Beatles' masterpiece Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band,[10][11] Harrison, for one, remained a huge fan of his − Blonde on Blonde being the only Western music the Beatle had seen fit to take with him to Rishikesh in February '68.[12]

Later in 1968, having spent much of October and November working in Los Angeles,[13] George and Pattie Harrison were invited to spend Thanksgiving with the Dylans[14] while staying in the Catskills as guests of manager Albert Grossman.[15] Despite Dylan’s excitement at their arrival,[16] Harrison found him withdrawn and seemingly lacking in confidence,[14] in stark contrast to the outspoken, enlightened individual he’d made a connection with two or more years before.[16] All that changed on the third day, when the guitars came out and "things loosened up”.[14]

Well known for his unsophisticated musical approach,[17][15] particularly in comparison to the Beatle’s broader “harmonic palette”, Dylan was now eager to learn some more-advanced chords[18] − at which point Harrison hit on the opening,, G major 7 up to B♭ major 7 chord sequence to “I’d Have You Anytime”.[14] Keen to break down the barriers that Dylan had imposed during the visit so far, Harrison came up with the song’s opening lines:

Let me in here
I know I’ve been here
Let me into your heart
Let me know you
Let me show you
Let me grown upon you

At the same time, he was pushing Dylan to come up with some words of his own.[14] Dylan duly supplied a rejoinder, in the form of the song’s bridge-chorus:

All I have is yours
All you see is mine
And I’m glad to hold you in my arms
I’d have you anytime.

“Beautiful − and that was that,” Harrison concludes in his autobiography.[14] The lyrics reflect what his widow Olivia has recently described as her husband’s “unabashed” attitude towards demonstrating his love for his close friends, as well as a view expressed by Tom Petty, that Harrison was able to probe the notoriously elusive Dylan in a way that few others could.[19]

He and Dylan wrote at least one other tune together during that Thanksgiving period[20] − "When Everybody Comes to Town", subsequently renamed "Nowhere to Go", being a known example.[21] This one would not make it past the run-through stages for Harrison's 1970 solo album, however.[22] As for Dylan's future output, a number of his songs on Nashville Skyline (recording for which began in February 1969) showed a markedly more complex musical structure than before, a clear departure from his usual three-chord compositions.

"Behind That Locked Door"

The next meet-up between Harrison and Dylan occurred in August 1969, when the latter was in England and scheduled to make his long-awaited return to a major concert stage, at the Isle of Wight Festival.[23][24] The event led to another song, written by Harrison alone, which would likewise find its way onto All Things Must Pass the following year.[25]

At a time when the band was fast disintegrating, three members of The Beatles − Lennon, Harrison and Starr − attended the concert on Sunday, 31 August.[26] Backed by another Harrison favourite, The Band (née Hawks), Dylan’s headlining performance was viewed by a highly expectant music press as a muted affair.[27][28] To Harrison, watching from the front row, Dylan appeared to be holding back his natural warmth again,[29] as at Bearsville, which led the Beatle to pen the song words:

The love you are blessed with
This world’s waiting for
So let out your heart please, please
From behind that locked door.

In I Me Mine, Harrison describes "Behind That Locked Door" as “a good excuse to do a country tune with pedal steel guitar”.[25] For the latter, Dylan later provided him with a phone number for Pete Drake, the legendary Nashville pedal steel player and record producer whose playing had elevated “Lay Lady Lay” and other songs on Nashville Skyline.

Recording

After spending the first four months of 1970 producing sessions for Billy Preston, Doris Troy, Radha Krishna Temple and Jackie Lomax, as well as participating in one-offs for The Beatles and Lennon’s Plastic Ono Band,[30] Harrison’s final detour before starting on All Things Must Pass was to attend a Bob Dylan session in New York City, on 1 May.[31] The pair were said to have recorded a demo of “I’d Have You Anytime” there at Columbia's Studio B,[32] but in fact the source of the subsequent bootleg of this song and "When Everybody Comes to Town" was Dylan's Greenwich Village townhouse, where they'd held a jam session the day before.[31] Regardless, "I'd Have You Anytime" was a track that Harrison soon shortlisted for his own album once recording began in London at the end of the month.

The song was recorded with sparse backing from a rhythm section comprising Klaus Voormann and Alan White.[33] The latter’s drumming (as on “Behind That Locked Door”, “Ballad of Sir Frankie Crisp” and the Dylan cover “If Not for You”[34]) was played using wire brushes instead of drum sticks, forming a marked contrast with the more muscular, rock sound of Jim Gordon which fills much of the album. The eloquent guitar solos were provided by Eric Clapton, while the vibraphone (often mistakenly called a xylophone) is thought to have been played by either White or John Barham.[33] The song’s atmospheric orchestration has been credited as a string section,[33][1] although the dense reverb surrounding this part makes it sound equally like woodwinds.

Going against pop convention − as The Band’s Music from Big Pink had in 1968, by opening with the funereal “Tears of Rage” − the slow, gentle “I’d Have You Anytime” was selected as the first track on All Things Must Pass.[33]

Release and reception

On release in November 1970, much was made of Harrison’s association with Dylan, their New York session having been hyped up as a “monster” recording marathon in the months since.[35][36] Critics were still awaiting Dylan’s return to artistic greatness after two albums (Nashville Skyline and Self Portrait) that had caused confusion in rock-music circles[37] − although, all they found of him on Harrison’s triple set was a “phantom presence”, in the words of Roy Carr and Tony Tyler of the NME.[38] With regards to “I’d Have You Anytime”, Rolling Stone’s Ben Gerson opined that “the two together don’t come up with much”, while to him, “Behind That Locked Door” could be dismissed as “an inexplicable bit of C&W schlock”.[39] Writing a few years later in his book The Beatles Forever, Nicholas Schaffner viewed the “Dylanesque numbers” as “somewhat overshadowed” by those with the obvious Phil Spector production qualities, but identified them as being “far more intimate, both musically and lyrically, than the rest of the album”.[35]

By the start of the twenty-first century, the Harrison−Dylan connection was afforded less expectation and critical scrutiny. Writing in 2002, Mikal Gilmore described “I’d Have You Anytime” and “If Not for You” as “surprisingly beautiful”,[40] while Richie Unterberger of Allmusic lists it as one of the album’s five “AMG track picks”.[41] Simon Leng offers the ultimate praise: “'I’d Have You Anytime’ was evidence that 'Something’ was no fluke. Beautifully sung, it’s a product that reeks of quality.”[42]

In November 2011, an early take of "I'd Have You Anytime" was included on the deluxe edition CD accompanying the British DVD release of Martin Scorsese's George Harrison: Living in the Material World documentary. This version is included on Early Takes: Volume 1.

Personnel

The musicians who performed on "I'd Have You Anytime" are believed to be as follows:[1][33]

References

  1. ^ a b c "George Harrison: I'd Have You Anytime". The Beatles Bible. Retrieved 17 November 2011.
  2. ^ Barry Miles, The Beatles Diary Volume 1: The Beatles Years, Omnibus Press (London, 2001), p. 165.
  3. ^ Howard Sounes, Down the Highway: The Life of Bob Dylan, Doubleday (London, 2001), pp 161−62, 212.
  4. ^ Ian MacDonald, Revolution in the Head: The Beatles' Records and the Sixties, Pimlico (London, 1998), p. 274.
  5. ^ Ian MacDonald, Revolution in the Head: The Beatles' Records and the Sixties, Pimlico (London, 1998), p. 145.
  6. ^ Howard Sounes, Down the Highway: The Life of Bob Dylan, Doubleday (London, 2001), pp 177, 180, 212.
  7. ^ Simon Leng, While My Guitar Gently Weeps: The Music of George Harrison, Hal Leonard (Milwaukee, WI, 2006), pp 16, 274.
  8. ^ Ian MacDonald, Revolution in the Head: The Beatles' Records and the Sixties, Pimlico (London, 1998), p. 190.
  9. ^ Alan Clayson, George Harrison, Sanctuary (London, 2003), pp 242–43.
  10. ^ Howard Sounes, Down the Highway: The Life of Bob Dylan, Doubleday (London, 2001), p. 226.
  11. ^ Ian MacDonald, Revolution in the Head: The Beatles' Records and the Sixties, Pimlico (London, 1998), p. xviii.
  12. ^ Simon Leng, While My Guitar Gently Weeps: The Music of George Harrison, Hal Leonard (Milwaukee, WI, 2006), p. 274.
  13. ^ Barry Miles, The Beatles Diary Volume 1: The Beatles Years, Omnibus Press (London, 2001), p. 313.
  14. ^ a b c d e f George Harrison, I Me Mine, Chronicle Books (San Francisco, CA, 2002), p. 164.
  15. ^ a b Alan Clayson, George Harrison, Sanctuary (London, 2003), p. 243.
  16. ^ a b Howard Sounes, Down the Highway: The Life of Bob Dylan, Doubleday (London, 2001), p. 236.
  17. ^ Ian MacDonald, Revolution in the Head: The Beatles' Records and the Sixties, Pimlico (London, 1998), p. 260.
  18. ^ Simon Leng, While My Guitar Gently Weeps: The Music of George Harrison, Hal Leonard (Milwaukee, WI, 2006), pp 52, 82, 276.
  19. ^ The Editors of Rolling Stone, Harrison, Rolling Stone Press/Simon & Schuster (New York, NY, 2002), p. 224.
  20. ^ Levon Helm with Stephen Davis, This Wheel’s on Fire: Levon Helm and the Story of The Band, A Cappella Books (Chicago, IL, 2000), p. 178.
  21. ^ Simon Leng, While My Guitar Gently Weeps: The Music of George Harrison, Hal Leonard (Milwaukee, WI, 2006), p. 52.
  22. ^ Keith Badham, The Beatles Diary Volume 2: After the Break-Up 1970−2001, Omnibus Press (London, 2002), p. 10.
  23. ^ Howard Sounes, Down the Highway: The Life of Bob Dylan, Doubleday (London, 2001), p. 251.
  24. ^ Simon Leng, While My Guitar Gently Weeps: The Music of George Harrison, Hal Leonard (Milwaukee, WI, 2006), p. 273.
  25. ^ a b George Harrison, I Me Mine, Chronicle Books (San Francisco, CA, 2002), p. 206.
  26. ^ Barry Miles, The Beatles Diary Volume 1: The Beatles Years, Omnibus Press (London, 2001), p. 351.
  27. ^ Howard Sounes, Down the Highway: The Life of Bob Dylan, Doubleday (London, 2001), pp 252−53.
  28. ^ Alan Clayson, George Harrison, Sanctuary (London, 2003), p. 309.
  29. ^ Simon Leng, While My Guitar Gently Weeps: The Music of George Harrison, Hal Leonard (Milwaukee, WI, 2006), p. 89.
  30. ^ Simon Leng, While My Guitar Gently Weeps: The Music of George Harrison, Hal Leonard (Milwaukee, WI, 2006), p. 77.
  31. ^ a b Keith Badham, The Beatles Diary Volume 2: After the Break-Up 1970−2001, Omnibus Press (London, 2002), p. 7.
  32. ^ Alan Clayson, George Harrison, Sanctuary (London, 2003), p. 288.
  33. ^ a b c d e Simon Leng, While My Guitar Gently Weeps: The Music of George Harrison, Hal Leonard (Milwaukee, WI, 2006), p. 82.
  34. ^ Simon Leng, While My Guitar Gently Weeps: The Music of George Harrison, Hal Leonard (Milwaukee, WI, 2006), pp 88, 89, 94.
  35. ^ a b Nicholas Schaffner, The Beatles Forever, McGraw-Hill (New York, NY, 1978), p. 142.
  36. ^ The Editors of Rolling Stone, Harrison, Rolling Stone Press/Simon & Schuster (New York, NY, 2002), pp 179−80.
  37. ^ The New Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll, Rolling Stone Press/Fireside (New York, NY, 1995), p. 291.
  38. ^ Roy Carr & Tony Tyler, The Beatles: An Illustrated Record, Trewin Copplestone Publishing (London, 1978), p. 92.
  39. ^ Gerson, Ben (January 21, 1971). "George Harrison All Things Must Pass > Album Review". Rolling Stone. No. 74. Archived from the original on 17 June 2008. Retrieved 9 November 2009. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  40. ^ The Editors of Rolling Stone, Harrison, Rolling Stone Press/Simon & Schuster (New York, NY, 2002), p. 40.
  41. ^ Unterberger, Richie. I'd Have You Anytime at AllMusic. Retrieved 14 April 2006.
  42. ^ Simon Leng, While My Guitar Gently Weeps: The Music of George Harrison, Hal Leonard (Milwaukee, WI, 2006), p. 83.
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