In his book Revolution in the Head, the late Ian MacDonald characterised George Harrison’s songwriting style on the early Beatles albums as “gauche” and “anaemic”. Just as well MacDonald is not around to pass comment on this snippet, which Harrison gave away to his biographer simply as a sample of his handwriting.

While he was in the Beatles, Harrison’s efforts at songwriting were eclipsed by the brilliance of Lennon and McCartney. While their abilities were being constantly renewed and refined, Harrison’s talent was left to stew rather than develop at the same pace. His early lyrics, unconsciously no doubt, reflected this sense of frustration, and the introverted, slightly sour tone of songs such as Don’t Bother Me and If I Needed Someone tended to be at odds with the more buoyant, outgoing mood of most Lennon and McCartney songs.

Here, the references to “the pain that I bear”, and the jealousy that he apparently inspires in the person the verse is addressed to, sound as if they were written during a moment of post-adolescent self-pity that he evidently decided was best forgotten.

The verse scans nicely, and there is a touch of Scouse humour in the backhanded payoff line, where Harrison suddenly switches tack to give his subject the unexpected benefit of the doubt. But there is a lack of maturity in the emotional tenor of the verse as a whole that suggests it was not an idea that was earmarked for further development.

Harrison did, however, write songs later in his career that laid bare similar emotions, but usually in a more direct way. “You know I feel the pain, I’m tired of playing games with you,” he sang in Fish on the Sand, from his much applauded 1987 album Cloud Nine.

Any guesses as to who this long-lost verse might be about are fraught with doubt. Patti Boyd, whom he married in 1966, is an obvious possibility although the fact that the encounter takes place only in a dream suggests a more abstract target. Writing in his autobiography, I, Me, Mine, Harrison recalled the provenance of another of his earliest songs, Think for Yourself. “I don’t quite recall who inspired that tune,” he wrote. “Probably the Government.”

Maybe he was still thinking about Harold Wilson and his plans for a punitive tax regime when he wrote this one as well.

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