When We Was Fab

• 1. Introduction

  ›

  "When We Was Fab" opens with the unmistakable shimmer of a sitar, the low sweep of cellos, and audio running backwards through the tape. George Harrison released this song on Cloud Nine in 1987, and it posed a question that hung in the air: could a single track genuinely reconstruct the sound of an entire era? The song is a nostalgic look back at Beatlemania and the days when the group were first called "the Fab Four." It came paired with a music video filmed at Greenford Studios in London on the 18th of December 1987, one so layered with Beatles imagery that it spawned a mystery involving a walrus suit, a left-handed bassist, and a rumour that Paul McCartney was hiding in plain sight. What made Harrison reach back into those years? Who actually showed up for the filming? And how did an artist who had long insisted on his own identity apart from the Beatles choose to revisit that world on his own terms?

• 2. The Sound of 1967

  ›

  Jeff Lynne co-wrote the song with Harrison and co-produced it, and the production choices were precise and deliberate. A string quartet threads through the arrangement, and a sitar gives the track its unmistakably Eastern colouring. Backwards-relayed effects tumble across the mix. Cash Box wrote that Harrison and Lynne had created "a historical re-creation of the Beatles' career wrapped up in one song," describing it as sounding "like a Beatles song circa Magical Mystery Tour."

  The musical references are dense but specific. The track shares similarities with "I Am the Walrus" from 1967 and "The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill" from 1968. A nod to the melody of "Drive My Car" surfaces in the fadeout. The lyrics themselves mention "You Really Got a Hold On Me," "Within You Without You," and Bob Dylan's "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue." Cash Box singled out the George Martin-like editing as part of what gave the recording its period authenticity.

  Ringo Starr, Harrison's former Beatles bandmate, played drums and contributed backing vocals. Gary Wright played piano, and Bobby Kok played cello. The assembled personnel gave the recording a lived-in quality that no amount of studio technique alone could manufacture.

• 3. A Video Full of Ghosts

  ›

  Kevin Godley and Lol Creme, the directing partnership known as Godley and Creme, staged the video around a central image: Harrison with many arms, busking in front of a brick wall while crowds pass him by. The many arms were a reference to the many-armed gods of Hindu traditions, a faith Harrison had embraced deeply. Ringo Starr appeared first as Harrison's roadie and then settled behind a drum kit. Jeff Lynne was also on camera.

  Elton John appears briefly, dropping a coin into Harrison's cup. Percussionist Ray Cooper is present. Neil Aspinall, who had served as the Beatles' road manager and assistant and later became head of Apple Corps, can be seen holding a copy of John Lennon's 1971 album Imagine. A green apple appears as a reference to Apple Records, the Beatles' own label. Harrison wore the distinctive costume from the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band cover.

  Then there was the figure in the walrus suit, playing bass left-handed. Harrison told a television interviewer that it was indeed Paul McCartney, "but he was camera shy that day and he kept his walrus mask on." In a 1995 interview, McCartney offered a different account. He said Harrison had asked him to appear but he was unavailable, so he suggested that Harrison put someone else in the walrus costume and say it was him. In 2020, director Kevin Godley told the Nothing Is Real podcast he had no recollection of Paul Simon being involved, dismissing another long-running rumour about who might be pushing a cart in the background.

  The video earned six nominations at the 1988 MTV Video Music Awards, including a nomination for best art director for Sid Bartholomew.

• 4. The Klaus Voormann Connection

  ›

  The single cover drew on a piece of art that had its own significant history. Klaus Voormann had created a line drawing of Harrison in 1966, and that image was used in the artwork for the Beatles' album Revolver. For the "When We Was Fab" single, Voormann was brought back to create a companion piece.

  Voomann described the commission in Uncut in May 2020. Harrison told him he had a song about reminiscing on the old days and asked if Voormann could make a cover. Voormann took the original Harrison portrait from the Revolver artwork and placed a new, updated drawing of Harrison beneath it, the two images separated by twenty-two years. On the cover, the letters ER from the title are visible on the older drawing. The pairing of the 1966 image with the 1988 image gave the artwork a visual logic that mirrored the song's own gesture of holding two eras side by side.

• 5. Chart Life and Legacy

  ›

  "When We Was Fab" was released as the second single from Cloud Nine in January 1988. In the United Kingdom, it reached number 25 on the UK Singles Chart. In the United States, it peaked at number 23 on the Billboard Hot 100.

  That American chart placing turned out to be Harrison's last top-40 hit in the country. It also made the song one of only two Harrison singles in which the lyrics directly reflect on his years as a Beatle. The other was "All Those Years Ago," which reached the charts in 1981.

  In 2010, AOL radio listeners ranked the song at number 9 on their list of the 10 Best George Harrison Songs. The track has appeared on two Harrison compilations: Best of Dark Horse 1976-1989, released in 1989, and Let It Roll, released in 2009. On the original 12-inch and CD single release, the track listing also included a version labelled "When We Was Fab (reverse end)," running to five minutes and seventeen seconds, extending the backwards-tape effects that gave the recording so much of its period atmosphere.