Sessions for the Beatles’ White Album, as has been well chronicled, were fraught with tension. No song better summarized this period than “Not Guilty,” George Harrison’s defense of his talents and spiritual beliefs.
The lyrics express frustration at his junior status in the Beatles, his songs not receiving the same attention as John Lennon or Paul McCartney’s. Despite recording over 100 takes of the song, the Beatles ultimately left “Not Guilty” off the album, with Harrison eventually resurrecting the song for his 1979 self-titled album. By then, however, the track’s tone had changed dramatically from the original.
Harrison wrote the lyrics, as he told Musician in 1987, to chronicle “me getting pissed off at Lennon and McCartney for the grief I was catching during the making of the White Album.” He not only felt anger concerning the others mocking his beliefs, but resented how his songs rarely received the same treatment as Lennon and McCartney’s. “I said I wasn’t guilty of getting in the way of their career. I said I wasn’t guilty of leading them astray in our going to Rishikesh to see the Maharishi. I was sticking up for myself,” he said.
Revisiting the song a decade after he wrote it forced Harrison to remember a difficult period, he said during a Rolling Stone interview in 1979. “The lyrics are a bit passé — all about upsetting “Apple carts” and stuff — but it’s a bit about what was happening at the time,” Harrison said. “’Not guilty for getting in your way / While you’re trying to steal the day’ — which was me trying to get a space. ‘Not guilty … For leading you astray / On the road to Mandalay’ — which is the Maharishi and going to the Himalayas and all that was said about that.” Interestingly, Harrison also viewed “Not Guilty” as jazz influenced: “I like the tune a lot; it would make a great tune for Peggy Lee or someone,” he explained.
The Beatles first recorded a demo during the May 1968 Esher sessions, when George Harrison described the song as a “jazz number” that would “make a good rocker.” When work began August 7, the Beatles surely did not anticipate the vast amount of time they would spend perfecting the sound. As pointed out in Rolling Stone’s guide to the White Album demos, “Not Guilty” is “loaded with idiosyncratic chord clusters, off-kilter time signatures, and syncopated stops and starts.”
The group struggled to master the song, with George Martin and Ken Scott spending four days recording take after take. (Geoff Emerick had quit just two weeks before.) During the first day, the Beatles attempted the rhythm track (guitar, bass, electric piano, and drums) 46 times, with only completed five takes. The next day they laid down takes 47-101 of the rhythm track, but the electric piano was now replaced by a harpsichord played by Lennon. Take 99 was deemed best.
August 9 proved another arduous day, as they recorded extra lead guitar, bass, and drum parts, with Harrison laying down his distinctive guitar riff in the studio control room, with the amps turned up high in the studio below. For the final session on August 12, Harrison opted to record his lead vocals in the same manner.
“George had this idea that he wanted to do it in the control room with the speakers blasting, so that he got more of an on-stage feel,” Scott explained to Mark Lewisohn in the Complete Beatles Recording Sessions. “So, we had to monitor through headphones, setting the monitor speakers at a level where he felt comfortable and it wouldn’t completely blast out his vocal.” A rough mono mix was completed, but “Not Guilty” was ultimately abandoned after the Beatles rejected the song for the final lineup.
The snarling guitar riff in the 1968 version, along with Harrison’s slightly warped vocals, emphasize his anger. “Not guilty / For getting in your way / While you’re trying to steal the day,” he sings, clearly referring his ongoing competition with Lennon and McCartney. “I am not trying to be smart / I only want what I can get.”
As he mentioned in the Rolling Stone interview, Harrison also addresses those who criticize his beliefs and so-called “hippie” lifestyle. “Not guilty / Of looking like a freak,” he cries, then clearly refers to the other Beatles’ disenchantment with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (“on the road to Mandalay”). These lyrics directly contradict Lennon’s savage takedown of the Maharishi, “Sexy Sadie.”
Further directing his venom at the other Beatles, Harrison sings “I won’t upset the apple cart.” Harrison’s voice sounds distant with the slightly distorted sound effect, alternating between a falsetto and his normal tenor vocal range. Toward the end, he scats, creating a high-hat effect to accompany the percussion.
In the early 1980s, Goeff Emerick made a stereo mix of “Not Guilty” for the planned compilation Sessions, but the project was inexplicably abandoned. This mix finally surfaced on the Anthology 3 collection. A longer version, take 102, was included on the 2018 White Album box set.
“Not Guilty” may have symbolized a particular era in Beatles history, but Harrison deemed it contemporary enough to rework it for 1979’s George Harrison. Interestingly, he chose a soft acoustic arrangement, the smoothness sharply contrasting with the biting lyrics. Friend Steve Winwood contributed the prominent Fender Rhodes electric piano for this version. Why Harrison reworked the song in such a manner remains a puzzle: Perhaps he wanted to emulate the popular soft-rock sound of the era, or he enjoyed laying the dark lyrics over a soothing beat.
Typical of George Harrison’s songwriting style, the lyrics are pointed yet darkly humorous: After stating that he’s not guilty of “looking like a freak,” he adds: “Making friends with every Sikh.” “Not Guilty” functions as a precursor to the sarcastic “This Song” from 1976’s Thirty Three & 1/3, as he pokes fun at himself while aiming barbs at his critics. It may not have appeared on the White Album, but “Not Guilty” serves as a preview of Harrison’s solo career, love of wordplay, and constantly evolving composition skills.
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