1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die: 201. George Harrison – All Things Must Pass (1970)

 

Although this is Harrison’s third solo album, it’s his first post-Beatles, recorded at his house (mansion) in Henley-on-Thames with Eric Clapton and others who would become the band members of Derek and the Dominos – evidently this and Layla must have been produced in roughly the same time period.

While Paul McCartney could barely scrape together enough songs for an album, leaving many feeling unfinished, Harrison had enough material for a triple album, and some really solid songs at that, easily better than any of his contributions to the Beatles. We all know My Sweet Lord, featuring two defining elements of this album – Harrison’s slide guitar (which he uses deftly and sparingly so it is noticeable but never overdone), and the spiritual/religious overtones of the lyrics. It’s a simple hymn of praise at heart, with the backing vocals switching between the Biblical “hallelujah” and the Hare Krishna mantra.

Many other tracks explore some elements of spirituality – Beware Of Darkness for example, is about letting go of the bad feelings that weight you down, a glorious slow ballad that wanders about like Wild Is The Wind. The title track All Things Must Pass is also a philosophical musing on the transience of things, and these both must surely be a response to the break up the Beatles. Art Of Dying is a lush funky piece that lyrically is about escaping the cycle of rebirth, but sounds like the theme to a Sixties spy film (and The Art Of Dying sounds like the title to a Bond film) – one of my favourites from the album.

What else? Harrison covers a Dylan song, If Not For You, demonstrating once again that all cover versions of Dylan songs are superior to the original, and Dylan himself co-writes the laid-back opening track I’d Have You Any Time. Some early Travelling Wilburys rumblings there.

About three-quarters of the way through this album I was thinking that there was very little filler for a triple album. Maybe the lumpy Apple Scruffs, or the fact that there are two versions of Isn’t It A Pity (which for my money the second one is better, not having the Lennon-esque piano so prominent). But then the third disc turns out to be a collection of instrumental jams, mostly blues/rock and roll, with perhaps the best being the lengthy soul piece, Out Of The Blue, but at the end of the day the whole disc feels like it’s just some mucking around in the studio. A bunch of very talented musicians mucking around, to be sure, but still just mucking around.

The album is co-produced by Phil Spector, and some tracks, particularly Wah-Wah, have the characteristic wall-of-noise, it’s not as ever-present as on his Sixties albums, allowing much more space for the individual instruments to breathe. I discovered that fans have done a “naked” version of this album with the Spector additions removed if you want to listen to it without a domestic abuser and murderer taking part; I held my nose and got on with it.

Some solid stuff from my erstwhile neighbour.