Words by Riley Fitzgerald
Graphic by Press

The family of George Harrison has shared an unseen photo of the Beatles‘ final studio session.

Posted to mark the passing of Paul McCartney‘s 78th birth, the image depicts McCartney and Harrison at Abbey Road Studios.

Each is leaning over an acoustic guitar, likely working out the arrangement to their song.

Judging by Harrison’s appearance – namely the long hair and mustache similar to that which he sported on the cover of solo debut All Things Must Pass –  Beatles fans have placed the photo as taking place during the recording session for ‘I Me Mine‘.

With a rough version of the song appearing in 1970 Beatles documentary Let It Be, McCartney, Ringo Starr, and Harrison entered the studio and performed 16 takes of the song.

The session was the last time the Beatles would formally record prior to the band’s official breakup on January 3, 1970.

John Lennon was notably absent.

On holidays in Denmark, Lennon had not worked with the Beatles since completing Abbey Road finale ‘The End’ the previous September.

“You all will have read that Dave Dee is no longer with us,” Harrison famously jokes in an alternate take of ‘I Me Mine’ included in the Beatles Anthology 3 compilation. “But Mickey and Tich and I would just like to carry on the good work that’s always gone down in [studio] number two.”

A Harrison composition,’I Me Mine’ deals with themes of ego and materialism.

“‘I Me Mine’ is the ego problem,” Harrison later wrote of the song. “There are two ‘I’s: the little ‘i’ when people say ‘I am this’ and the big ‘I’ – i.e. duality and ego. There is nothing that isn’t part of the complete whole. When the little ‘i’ merges into the big ‘I’ then you are really smiling!”

The image is likely part of a large collection of archival material set to be be released as part of the Beatles’ 50th-anniversary Let It Be Celebration.

Commemorating the breakup of the group, the celebration was initially scheduled for May this year and would have accompanied the release of Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson‘s Get Back Beatles documentary.

With the global outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, the event has now been delayed until  August 27, 2021.