All Things Must Pass

George Harrison

album cover

On the Devotional Path

The unspectacular squabbling end of the Beatles yielded three profoundly different attempts at crawling out from under the wreckage. John Lennon shared his experience with primal-scream therapy on the harrowingly raw Plastic Ono Band. Paul McCartney trended predictably gooey, with an inconsistent album (McCartney) that is redeemed by one of his forthright love songs, "Maybe I'm Amazed."

George Harrison confronted the breakup head-on, with the graceful, philosophical All Things Must Pass. A series of elegies, dream sequences, and thoughts on the limits of idealism, it is arguably the most fully realized solo statement from any of the Beatles.

Though Harrison began writing for this album while the Beatles were dissolving, several tunes—including the oft-covered "Isn't It a Pity"—were written earlier, and initially offered to the group. Harrison conceived All Things as a diverse amalgam: There are short études that resemble those on side two of Abbey Road (see p. 62); feisty impromptu jams (on the supplemental disc entitled "Apple Jam") that feature Eric Clapton, Jim Gordon, Billy Preston, and others; and yearning, high-spirited pop productions like the majestic first single "My Sweet Lord."

Just about every track offers a different type of ecstasy: The meditative "Beware of Darkness" follows a halting, patient path toward illumination, while "Apple Scruffs" zooms around unencumbered, an explosive peak-experience refrain that comes direct from heaven's songbook. On the upbeat single "What Is Life" and others, Harrison grabs what he needs from his old band—that insinuating hook sense—and uses it to frame an utterly comfortable metaphysical discourse. Later Harrison's music would turn inward, becoming preoccupied with the imponderable questions of spirituality. But here, in the company of "wall of sound" producer Phil Spector and a retinue of amazing musicians, Harrison attains (and sustains) a state of radiant grace.

Genre: Rock
Released: 1970, Apple/EMI
Key Tracks: "Beware of Darkness," "Isn't It a Pity," "If Not for You"
Catalog Choice: Brainwashed
Next Stop: John Lennon: Plastic Ono Band
After That: Paul McCartney and Wings: Venus and Mars
Book Pages: 345–346

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Comments:

#1 from Joe Hesson, Phila - 12/09/2008 11:03

Harrison had built up a backlog of songs that he couldn’t get on Beatle’s albums. They all came out in what in my opinion is not only the best album by a post-beatle but one of the best of all time.

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