All Things Must Pass
After the demise of the Beatles, all of them released albums in the course of 1970. Harrison’s All Things Must Pass was the fourth after McCartney and Ringo’s two releases. Macca’s was home recordings and Ringo’s were a set of sentimental songs for his mum and a country album; Harrison’s was based on the stockpile of songs he’d accumulated during his Fab years, the songs that didn’t make it onto Beatles releases.
It contains some absolute crackers of songs and performances. Harrison’s Here Comes the Sun on Abbey Road was written in anticipation of escaping from the Beatles, and this album is the sound of a man set free. Ironically, perhaps, you can also hear on this album what Harrison brought to the Beatles; Isn’t It A Pity, in particular, sounds very Beatles-ish, and not just the nod to Hey Jude at the end.
It has accumulated such status as a classic that it seems redundant to criticise it, though that hasn’t stopped me in the past. My biggest criticism is that it’s a triple album and I feel it would work better as two single albums, or, at most, a double. My other criticism, or perhaps observation, is that Phil Spector’s production, while having a unifying effect on the album, also homogenises the sound; sometimes, for example Awaiting On You All, it swamps the song.
Maybe these are quibbles. It must have been tough for Harrison, having all this inside of him, always being in the shadows while the spotlight fell on Lennon and McCartney. On the other hand, I’m not convinced that most of this material would have worked in the Beatles anyway; maybe it was better that it came out under George’s own name for him to get the proper credit.
I don’t actually own a copy of the album and listened on Spotify.
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