Recently Uncovered George Harrison Letter For Sale For $20,000; Guitarist’s Letter Details Why The Beatles Didn’t Record At Stax Studios

A newly discovered letter by The Beatles' George Harrison reveals why the band cancelled a recording session at the famous Stax Studios.

The letter was written by George Harrison to Atlanta DJ Paul Drew in May 1966. Drew was an influential radio DJ and program director who traveled with the Beatles for their 1964 and 1965 world tour.

The correspondence is for sale for $20,000 by a Los Angeles-based rock collectibles dealer. Dealer Jeff Gold acquired the letter from Drew's widow in 2013.

"When I read the Stax part I was like, 'What the hell is this?' I spend an inordinate amount of time thinking about this stuff and I knew it was a major revelation," Gold told Rolling Stone.

According to reports, the letter says that the Beatles were thinking about recording at the famous Memphis studio with producer Jim Stewart. The sessions fell through because of money, not security issues, which had been thought to the reason the band backed out.

The Beatles only worked with the producer George Martin up to that point, so the possibility that the Beatles would have recorded with Stewart is a new revelation. The Beatles tapes for Let It Be were produced by famous Wall of Sound producer Phil Specter after Glyn Johns, the Beatles' engineer, took a whack at it.

"We would all like it a lot," Harrison wrote in the letter, "but too many people get insane with money ideas at the mention of the word 'Beatles,' and so it fell through."

The Beatles were recording their Revolver album at the time of the letter. It is postmarked May 7, 1966. The letter also reveals that the Beatles knew about the Yesterday and Today album, which culled songs from Rubber Soul and Revolver. It had been previously reported that The Beatles didn't know much about the American issue of the album.

"The album we are making now should be out around October," Harrison wrote. "But I hear Capitol will make an intermediate album with unused tracks from Rubber Soul, a few old singles and about two or three of the new tracks we have just cut...Well I am off to the studio any minute, as soon as John and Ringo arrive."

It didn't say anything about the Butcher Baby cover.

"The general assessment is that Capitol did pretty much whatever they wanted with Beatles records. To see that George had a very specific understanding of what Yesterday and Today was going to be before it came out was kind of a revelation too. It surprised me," Gold told Rolling Stone.

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The Beatles
george harrison
beatles butcher baby
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