George Harrison

I always had to wait through ten of theirs before they'd even listen to one of mine. That's the reason "All Things Must Pass" had so many tracks, because it was like I was constipated

(George Harrison)

It's only natural to start from the Beatles when talking about the solo debut of one of its members, the first record of proper songs released by a Beatle, alongside John Lennon's “Plastic Ono Band” and Paul's “McCartney”, both from the same year (Harrison was also the first to release a record under his own name, but with the largely instrumental music of “Wonderwall Music”, a film soundtrack).

“All Things Must Pass” wouldn't be the same if it didn't also speak of the inner and outer liberation of a misunderstood artist, overshadowed by his more "exuberant" bandmates. One can't help wondering what John and Paul thought of him before the album came out. George Harrison? A shy lad, quick with a sudden smile and a witty remark, but too much of a dreamer, off wandering the world doing who knows what, searching for the meaning of life – there's no room for that sort of thing in the Beatles... Perhaps it was already during the recording of “Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band”, when George recorded “Within You Without You” alone, with his Indian musician friends (“those Indian-type tunes”, as McCartney called them), that the inevitable outcome became clear – though three more years and at least as many masterpieces would pass first – the end of a forced cohabitation between brotherly friends and musical talents perhaps unmatched in the history of music.

“You had to listen to at least 59 of Paul's songs before he'd hear one of yours”, says George, who had piled up hundreds of songs during his years with the Beatles (“literally”, Phil Spector recalls). But in his solo debut, which nonetheless tells the story of the end of the greatest band in history (“Wah Wah” was written when George temporarily left the band during the “Let It Be” sessions in 1969: “You've given me a wah-wah/ And I'm thinking of you/ All the things that we used to do”), Harrison expresses his personality in full, finding a correspondence between his spiritual explorations and that “material world” that nonetheless plays the leading role in his reflections, as it should. And no aspect of his being, nor of that biochemical blend of emotions stirred by things – always and inevitably fleeting – escapes the reach of his songs.

So too the melancholy of “Isn't It A Pity”:

finds its counterpart on the album cover, with Harrison sitting in a park alongside four garden gnomes (a small dig that certainly wouldn't go unnoticed by Lennon). But "All Things Must Pass" is the message George wants to leave the Beatles with, and so his solo debut is a rock work in which spirituality is no longer an empty word, but a genuine way of understanding life, first and foremost the loss of three brotherly friends.

This is how the tone of the album becomes purely celebratory, an irresistible surge of the spirit, in which the Hindu philosophy Harrison had by then absorbed merges with his new immersion in gospel (he produced Delaney & Bonnie's latest album) and Black music in general (there are several nods to the Motown sound scattered throughout the record).

But before listing the multitude of collaborators that would make "All Things Must Pass" one of the most memorable collective works in pop-rock history, credit must go to the figure who shaped the record's expressive direction: Phil Spector. Harrison's debut is today regarded as Spector's last great wall of sound production (and even here Harrison had to finish the sessions himself towards the end, due to Spector's drinking problems): the tracks often feature two percussionists, two drum kits, four or five guitars, two basses, two pianos, plus various orchestral arrangements and choirs. What's more, the tracks were often played live in full, all instruments together, over and over, to increase their resonance. The eight weeks originally planned for recording the album ended up stretching to five months - partly due to the death of Harrison's mother. The production notes are well worth reading, to get a sense of the work Harrison and Spector did together.

Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr, Phil Collins, Billy Preston, Gary Brooker (Procol Harum) and Alan White (later the drummer for Yes) are the most recognizable names on a list of musicians that reads like a reunion of old friends (even Hamburg-era pal Klaus Voormann shows up) and a compendium of the rock world straddling the late Sixties and early Seventies. The sessions also featured all the musicians touring with Delaney & Bonnie at the time, and a significant contribution (drums, tambourine, rhythm guitars) came from a band signed to Apple, the Beatles' own label: Badfinger.

But there's another essential ingredient behind the blossoming of Harrison the solo artist: his time in Woodstock in November '69 (meaning the actual town, not the festival that would take place the following spring). It was there that George Harrison fell under the spell of the Band (the source of the most traditionally American moments on "All Things Must Pass", such as "Behind That Locked Door", still rumored to have been performed by the Band themselves, and the title track), and, most importantly, began a relationship - not merely artistic - with Bob Dylan:

I was telling him: "You write incredible lyrics", and he'd say "How do you write those tunes?". So I started showing him chords like there was no tomorrow. Chords, because he tended to play a lot of basic chords and just move the capo up and down. And I said to him: "Come on, write me some verses", and he started jotting down a few words. And I was floored, after he'd written all those stunning, socially conscious lyrics... He wrote: "All I have is yours/ All you see is mine/ And I'm glad to hold you in my arms/ I'd have you anytime." The idea of Dylan writing something like that, I mean, so simple!

George Harrison

"Behind That Locked Door" itself was written in August 1969 as a message of encouragement to Dylan, who was preparing to return to the stage with the Band at the Isle of Wight, having skipped that year's Woodstock festival. And despite the sheer amount of material Harrison had assembled, there was still room on "All Things Must Pass" for a near-contemporary cover of "If Not For You", in a barely recognizable yet wonderfully successful acoustic version, one that arguably made it more popular than the original. During these years George also honed his command of the slide guitar, a defining element of the album.

But it's the choice of first single that sets the tone for the debut: not the vented frustration against his former band in "Wah Wah", not the tender, heartfelt "I'd Have You Anytime", written by Bob Dylan, not the buoyant, sugar-sweet "What Is Life?" (so many hits owe it a debt!). The first single from "All Things Must Pass" is "My Sweet Lord", a gospel tune clearly inspired by "Oh Happy Day", with the choir's "Halleluja!" morphing into "Hare Krishna" in a strange ecumenical mutation. It's understandable, really, that this was the way Harrison chose to introduce himself as a solo artist, despite his fears: "I thought a lot of people were going to start hating me, because people fear the unknown. I was putting my head on the chopping block."

Spiritual searching, inner dialogue, is the defining trait of Harrison's personality, and "My Sweet Lord", in the plain language of prayer, speaks of the search for God, not as an abstract concept, but as a concrete vision. And in the simplicity with which it employs gospel's core ingredients - repetitive melody, major-key refrain, also worth hearing in the closing "Awaiting On You All" - one can feel the entire sense of inner liberation running through every note of the record. A liberation that also comes through renouncing material temptations, as described in the intense "Beware Of Darkness", a beautiful ballad inspired by the teachings of the Radha Krishna Temple, in which Harrison warns against the various dark influences that can undermine spiritual searching, among them con artists ("soft shoe shufflers"), politicians ("greedy leaders") and fleeting pop idols ("falling swingers").

It's in this light that the sheer length of "All Things Must Pass" should be understood too - it was released as a triple album, the last disc titled "Apple Jam" and containing five instrumental jams, an explosive compendium free of the Beatles' obsessive perfectionism. Among the tracks is also a suddenly stripped-down, Dylan-esque "Apple Scruffs" (complete with harmonica), written in honor of the fans camped outside the recording studios.

A true imaginary world, as inward-looking as it is material, less provocative than the one described in "Imagine", but perhaps also deeper and more compassionate...

All things must pass

And face another day

Ride the wave of great music

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08/06/2014