At a pop-up exhibition held in London over the weekend to promote the expanded edition of George Harrison's 1980 memoir I, Me, Mine, Olivia Harrison explained what she'd done with the lyrics to a lost song by George she'd recently discovered in a piano bench at their home in England.
"Hey Ringo" was written around 1970 as an imaginary conversation between George and Ringo Starr and inspired by the then-recent breakup of The Beatles. After she found them, Olivia Harrison added them to this updated edition of I, Me, Mine.
Although the song's existence and significance were reported when the book was released in February, this weekend Olivia told the British newspaper 'The i' that she gave the original sheet of lyrics to Ringo at a party in February on what would've been George's 74th birthday. She says Ringo was totally surprised by it and hadn't known anything about the song.
The i says it's hoped that Ringo might eventually add music to the lyrics, though it's unclear whether it's Olivia's hope or their writer's. Olivia does say that "there are a lot of unfinished songs" by George, but that "some of them are just not finished enough to release." She adds that there are "lots of little notes and thoughts, too.”
It certainly would be interesting to hear what Ringo would turn those lyrics into now.
Source: iNews photo credit - iHM archive