Harrison Sister on Heist

Louise Harrison's car was broken into Sunday in Little Rock, Arkansas, but the sister of the late Beatles' guitarist George Harrison says that -- contrary to published reports -- the items stolen were of little consequence.

"There was nothing in there of any commercial value," Harrison tells Rolling Stone. "The way they put it out in the news it sounded like it was all kinds of fantastic memorabilia. It wasn't. There was a photograph of George and me taken in 1964. I'd had about 4,000 of them made to give to people."

Harrison, who first moved to Southern Illinois in 1963 (George visited her there before the Beatles' official "invasion"), had driven to Little Rock from her home to donate a copy of the Meet the Beatles album to the soon-to-be-opened Clinton Presidential Library. George had given her the album, signed by all four Beatles, when the band played The Ed Sullivan Show in 1964. "George signed it 'From Brother George' with exclamation marks," says Harrison. "I think it's the only album signed by the Beatles to a sibling of the Beatles. I thought, 'OK, I've got two grandsons and only one album.' I wanted to put it somewhere safe where everyone can enjoy it." According to Harrison, the album was "safely under lock and key" when the break-in occurred on Sunday.

Harrison picked Clinton's library in part because of the similarities she sees between the forty-second president and the Fab Four. "He's a brilliant, charismatic character as they were," she says. "He did a tremendously good job for this country while he was in the White House. And just like what happened to the Beatles and alpha males in every society, he got chased by the women. And when your hormones are working -- thank God mine have long since stopped -- you don't make decisions, you make mistakes."

Police have already recovered half of what was stolen, and Harrison is adamant that the thieves not be prosecuted. "I want to make sure there is no retribution to the person who did it, no charges filed," she says. "I'm not one of these people that believes when somebody does something wrong, that you should drop a bomb on them."

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Song Stories

“1999”

Prince | 1982

“I don’t consider myself a great poet,” Prince told Rolling Stone. “I just know I’m here to say what’s on my mind.” In the case of the apocalyptic party anthem “1999,” he was worried about then-president Ronald Reagan’s foreign policies. The song’s melody is based on a riff borrowed from the Mamas and Papas’ “Monday, Monday,” and Prince originally envisioned the first verse with three-part harmony but later split the vocals between himself and members of the Revolution. Because Warner Bros., with whom Prince was locked in a contractual battle, owned the original’s masters, Prince rerecorded the song and appropriately released that version in 1999.

More Song Stories entries »

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