George Harrison’s love of Smokey Robinson was no secret. In 1976, the former Beatle took it upon himself to publicly share his declaration of love for the musician on ‘Pure Smokey’, commemorating his hero in true Harrison style.
Although the song was written with Smokey Robinson, in reality, it is also not about him at all. Instead, Harrison is using his idol to make a wider point about a failure within society. The former Beatle believed people often didn’t tell others how highly they appreciated the impact they’ve made upon their life, and ‘Pure Smokey’ was his way of breaking the cycle.
Robinson was only born three years before Harrison. Therefore, he wasn’t an artist the Liverpudlian had grown up listening to. However, his work with The Miracles and as a solo artist had soundtracked George’s adulthood, making him worthy of being honoured through song.
On the track, Harrison sings: “Throughout my lifetimes I’d hesitate, I’d feel some joy, but before I’ve shown my thanks, It became too late, And now all the way I want to find the time, To stop to say, I want to thank you Lord for giving us each new day.’”
Explaining why he picked Robinson to be the subject of one of his creations, Harrison said: “I’ve always liked Smokey Robinson and he’s probably one of the best songwriters around … I’m trying to make the point – if I like someone I want to say ‘I like you’. I don’t want [for them] to die and then to think ‘Oh, I forgot to tell them I liked them’… So this song turned into an all purpose thing of generally trying to show appreciation, and then to focus on my appreciation of Smokey.”
Beautifully, he also struck up a friendship with Robinson, who was blown over by ‘Pure Smokey’. The respect between the two gifted guitarists was certainly mutual, and Harrison’s tribute is a source of immense pride for Robinson.
Smokey once said in an interview with Hazy Rock: “That was a wonderful, flattering thing for him to feel like that, and to write about it, so that the world could know that he felt like that. It was wonderful to me, and I’m very flattered by that.”
In the same interview, Smokey also spoke beautifully about the friendship he forged with George and revealed he was the only Beatle he’s ever been close to. Robinson remarked: “The Beatles were a very unique group, as we all know. I had the pleasure of meeting the Beatles, you know. And George, I had the pleasure of spending more time with him than any of the other guys. I just met the other guys briefly. George, for a time, was living in Los Angeles, and I had the pleasure of being in his company a few times. We got to know each other kind of well.”
The lesson to be gleaned from ‘Pure Smokey’ is to tell somebody how you feel about them. Who knows, it could lead to something wholesome like it did between Harrison and Robinson.
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