All Things Must Pass

"All Things Must Pass" is a song by George Harrison, released in 1970 as the title track to his triple album of the same name. It was originally released by Billy Preston, however, on his Apple album Encouraging Words, after The Beatles had rejected the song in 1969 for inclusion on what would become their Let It Be album. The song was influenced by the music of The Band, with whom Harrison had spent time in late 1968, following the completion of The Beatles' White Album.

Background and composition

Like his friend Eric Clapton, George Harrison had been greatly inspired by The Band’s Music from Big Pink, the seminal debut album from Bob Dylan’s erstwhile backing group, formerly known as The Hawks.^[1][2] Released in July 1968, Music from Big Pink was partly responsible for Harrison’s return to his first instrument, the guitar,^[3] after he'd spent two years attempting to master the infinitely more complex Indian sitar.^[4][5] Harrison duly passed the word on to the British music press, declaring Big Pink “the new sound to come from America”, thus helping to establish The Band internationally.^[6] In appreciation, their guitarist, Robbie Robertson, extended an invitation to him to stop by in Woodstock, New York, when the opportunity arose.^[7]

Late that same year, after producing sessions in Los Angeles for Apple signing Jackie Lomax’s forthcoming album,^[8] Harrison spent Thanksgiving and Christmas in upstate New York, where he renewed his friendship with a now semi-retired Dylan and took part in a series of informal jam sessions with The Band.^[9][10] Plans were made for a possible "fireside jam" album with Clapton, drummer Levon Helm remembers, and an Apple Films "rock western" called Zachariah, but neither project ever eventuated.^[6] One of the products of this fruitful period, though, was the Harrison−Dylan composition "I'd Have You Anytime"; another was “All Things Must Pass”, which Harrison later described as a "Robbie Robertson−Band type of tune".^[11]

Like a number of Dylan's songs, as well as Harrison’s own ("Here Comes the Sun", "So Sad" and "Blow Away" being others), the lyrical and emotional content of "All Things Must Pass" is based around metaphors involving the weather:^[12]

Sunrise doesn’t last all morning
A cloudburst doesn’t last all day
Seems my love is up and has left you with no warning
But it’s not always gonna be this grey.

Musically, the verses are set to a logical climb within the key of E major; the brief choruses form a departure from this, though, with their inclusion of a B minor chord rather than the more expected major voicing.

The original lyrics underwent a few small changes after the song was presented to the other members of The Beatles, then gathered at Twickenham Film Studios for the so-called Get Back sessions, in January 1969. The second-verse line "A mind can blow those clouds away" was originally written as the more literal "A wind can blow those clouds away", but bootlegs from the sessions reveal John Lennon suggesting the word "mind" to introduce a bit of what he called "psychedelia" into the song. Harrison later changed the perspective slightly of the verse-one line "It's not always been this grey" to "But it's not always gonna be this grey" for his 1970 recording.^[13]

Pre-All Things Must Pass recording history

The Beatles’ version

After being treated with respect as an “artist” in Los Angeles music circles and an equal among the likes of Bob Dylan and The Band, Harrison returned to the Beatles fold and found the same discordant atmosphere that had blighted the lengthy sessions for their 1968 double album.^[14][2][15] On 3 January, day two of the Twickenham film shoot, Harrison introduced “All Things Must Pass”, after which the band worked on the song intermittently for two days.^[16] As the sessions progressed, "All Things Must Pass" was pushed to one side, just as other Harrison compositions such as “Old Brown Shoe”, “Isn't It a Pity”, “Let It Down” and “I Me Mine” received a similar, lukewarm reception, particularly from Lennon.^{[17][10][18][19]}

The song was never formally recorded by The Beatles by the time of their break-up, although at least one rehearsal take featuring the full group exists.^[20] A snippet of the band indulging in some Band-like chorusing on “All Things Must Pass” was subsequently included on the Fly on the Wall bonus disc accompanying the McCartney-instigated Let It Be... Naked album in 2003.

Harrison's solo demo

A month after the ill-fated Get Back sessions, on 25 February (his twenty-sixth birthday), Harrison entered Abbey Road Studios alone and recorded a demo of the song, along with other recent compositions "Old Brown Shoe" and "Something".^[21] He recorded two takes of "All Things Must Pass", adding extra electric guitar onto the second.^[22] This version was eventually released in 1996 on the Beatles collection Anthology 3.

Billy Preston’s version

With the song seemingly unworthy for inclusion on a Beatles release, Harrison offered “All Things Must Pass” to Billy Preston for the latter’s 1970 album Encouraging Words.^[23] Through Harrison’s invitation, Preston had guested on keyboards for The Beatles once the Get Back/Let It Be sessions were relocated to their own Apple Studio, in central London, where the 22-year-old Texan had impressed all the participants with his superior musicianship and convivial presence.^[24] Preston was immediately offered a recording deal with Apple Records, Encouraging Words being the second album under the contract. Co-produced by Harrison, Preston's reading of "All Things Must Pass" betrays an obvious debt to his former mentor Ray Charles, and it has been considered superior even to Harrison's definitive version of the song, released a few months later.^[25]

George Harrison’s version

Despite having given "All Things Must Pass" to Billy Preston for his forthcoming album (released in September 1970), Harrison chose to record the song himself for what would turn out to be the title track of his post-Beatle magnum opus, All Things Must Pass. It was recorded during the first half of June, judging by the appearance of Pete Drake on the session.^[26] This version features a genre-blending mix of Nashville steel guitar, soul horns, and elegant, autumnal string orchestration; Clapton together with Harrison's fellow ex-Beatle Ringo Starr also contribute, while the prominent piano part was supplied by Bobby Whitlock.^[12] Compared to the earlier readings, Harrison's "All Things Must Pass" has a weighty significance about it − "a stateliness that avoids lugubriousness", in the words of Allmusic's Richie Unterberger.^[27] True to its Catskill roots, the song evokes The Band and their classic "The Weight", as well as their eponymous second album,^[28] the tracks on which were inspired, like "All Things Must Pass", by "the beauty of that autumn in Woodstock".^[29]

Co-producer Phil Spector's attendance during the album sessions was said to be erratic at best, leaving Harrison to handle most of the project alone.^[30][31][32] After receiving a tape of early mixes of many of the songs, however, Spector did provide him with written feedback and guidance.^[12] Regarding "All Things Must Pass" − and in stark contrast to the views of Lennon and McCartney the previous year − he told Harrison: "This particular song is so good that any honest performance by you is acceptable as far as I'm concerned ..."^[12]

Release and reception

Close to two years after he'd originally written the song, Harrison's "All Things Must Pass" was released on its parent album and received with almost universal acclaim. As Beatles Forever author Nicholas Schaffner wrote in 1977, with reference to the number of quality Harrison compositions that had been passed over by his former bandmates: "The very fact that the Bealtes had kept George's flowering talents so under wraps proved to be his secret weapon."^[33] The title was invariably seen as Harrison's statement on the demise of the band.^[34]

On release, Ben Gerson of Rolling Stone described the song as "eloquently hopeful and resigned";^[35] while, writing for the same publication thirty years later, Anthony DeCurtis praised the song for its musical demonstration of “the sweet satisfactions of faith”.^[36] Harrison's musical biographer, Simon Leng, views the track as "a classic of Harrison's lyrical ambiguity, in essence a hopeful song, without sounding so. It's one of George's most moving compositions, and one of his lyrics that approaches Bob Dylan standard."^[12] On a triple album where "nearly every song is excellent", Allmusic picks "All Things Must Pass" as one of five standout tracks (or AMG Track Picks).^[37]

In his acclaimed book Revolution in the Head, Ian MacDonald calls "All Things Must Pass" "the wisest song never recorded by the Beatles".^[10]

Performances and later releases

When Harrison appeared on VH1 with Ravi Shankar in 1997, "All Things Must Pass" was one of three songs he performed on acoustic guitar (the others being the Traveling Wilburys tune "If You Belonged to Me" and an early version of "Any Road"). A few years later, Harrison sang the song while sitting on Friar Park's main lawn, a performance that was included in the 2001 All Things Must Pass remaster press kit.

The song was included on Harrison's 2009 career-spanning best-of compilation Let It Roll: Songs by George Harrison.

In Martin Scorsese's 2011 documentary George Harrison: Living in the Material World, "All Things Must Pass" is the first song featured in the movie, played over footage of German air raids over Britain during World War II. In November that year, a demo of the song was released on the deluxe edition CD accompanying the British DVD release of the film. (This version is included on Early Takes: Volume 1.)

Personnel

The musicians who performed on Harrison's All Things Must Pass version of the song are believed to be as follows:^[38][12]

• George Harrison – lead and backing vocals, acoustic guitar
• Eric Clapton – acoustic guitar, backing vocal
• Pete Drake – pedal steel
• Bobby Whitlock – piano, backing vocal
• Klaus Voormann – bass
• Ringo Starr – drums, tambourine
• Jim Gordon – drums
• Bobby Keys – saxophone
• Jim Price – trumpet
• John Barham – string arrangement

Cover versions

Paul McCartney sang "All Things Must Pass" at the Concert for George memorial for Harrison, at London's Royal Albert Hall on 29 November 2002. Also performing on the track were Billy Preston, Eric Clapton, Klaus Voormann and Ringo Starr.

Jim James covered "All Things Must Pass" on his Tribute To album in 2009.

That same year, the song appeared on Klaus Voormann's solo album A Sideman's Journey, with Yusuf Islam guesting on vocals.

References