George Harrison’s widow Olivia shares “magical” backstory for The Beatles’ ‘Now and Then’ artwork
He was always the ‘mystic’ one.
George Harrison even wrote a song called ‘Mystical One’ later in his career, slightly riffing on his title within The Beatles because of his fascination and eventual conversion to Eastern beliefs.
Well, according to his widow Olivia Harrison, there may be some substantiation to his nickname where their recent single ‘Now and Then’ is concerned.
Posting a video on to George’s official Instagram profile, she revealed the “surprising magical” backstory about the artwork for the vinyl.
Olivia explained that the song’s title appeared on a ragged old clock George found in a shop some years back.
He was drawn to it, as there was a Scrabble letter stuck to the clock which said, “Now And Then”, which would turn out to be the title of The Beatles’ final ever song.
Strangely enough, Olivia dug out the clock and renovated it recently, before Paul McCartney got in touch to see how she felt about releasing the forgotten demo.
“We were in this store, George saw this clock made out of bits and pieces and it had some Scrabble letters and it just said ‘Now And Then’,” Olivia Harrison recalled about the first time they came across the clock.
“He was attracted to it for some reason, he just took it off the wall and bought it. [He] built this little Russian dacha in the garden and hung the clock on it and there it sat for 25 years.”
Last summer, Olivia cleaned up the clock and relocated it to her mantelpiece, where an eerie coincidence occurred.
“Phone rings. It’s Paul and he begins to explain, reminding me of this third song that was on the cassette tape with ‘Real Love’ and ‘Free As A Bird’,” she continues.
“I said, ‘I remember it, it’s called ‘Now and Then’. And I’m standing there looking at the clock.”
“We were so moved and happy that this thing that George had held in his hand somehow magically appeared. And I said, ‘I think this is Georgie saying it’s OK’. It felt like approval”.
