196. George Harrison - All Things Must Pass (1970)




















Track Listing

1. I'd Have You Anytime
2. My Sweet Lord
3. Wah-Wah
4. Isn't It A Pity
5. What Is Life
6. If Not for You
7. Behind That Locked Door
8. Let It Down
9. Run Of The Mill
10. Beware of Darkness
11. Apple Scruffs
12. Ballad Of Sir Frankie Crisp (Let It Roll)
13. Awaiting On You All
14. All Things Must Pass
15. I Dig Love
16. Art Of Dying
17. Isn't It A Pity (Version Two)
18. Hear Me Lord
19. It's Johnny's Birthday
20. Plug Me In
21. I Remember Jeep
22. Thanks For The Pepperoni
23. Out Of The Blue

Review

Ok, this is a big album, and when I say big I mean over two hours long album. And it is pretty astonishing simply in the amount of quality that Geoge gives us here. Ther is not a bad track in these 23 tracks.

Of course the last 5 tracks are dispensable seeing as they are just jams, but they are quite competent jams, even if not amazing. The previous 18 tracks of pure pop are truly fantastic, with an impressive production by Phil "The Ladykiller" Spector where they use the wall of sound technique to its full effect.

It's not hard to imagine George keeping all these tracks that the Beatles never let him record and just suddenly coming out with all of them when he was free of the group and good thing he did too. My main gripe with the album is also it's main quality, the size of it is just too unweildy, it's so sprawling that the songs get lost in the whole and it becomes hard to pick out favourites or even remember them. I must have played this album about 6 or 7 times in the last 3 days and I am only just starting to be acquainted with it.

It is all good stuff but Harrison should really have made 3 or 4 albums out of this, he would surely have had a much more remarkable solo carrer, instead of just dropping this bomb. Get it at Amazon UK or US.

Track Highlights

1. Apple Scruffs
2. Hear Me Lord
3. Beware Of Darkness
4. My Sweet Lord

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The outpouring of such consistently great material on All Things Must Pass took many critics by surprise, with Harrison having long been overshadowed by the talents of John Lennon and Paul McCartney, despite the fact that some of his later period Beatles inclusions ("While My Guitar Gently Weeps," "Something," and "Here Comes the Sun") were hailed as highlights of their respective albums. Consequently, as Harrison had only placed just a few songs on any given Beatles album, he had amassed many compositions by their break-up, enabling him to offload many of them in one go on All Things Must Pass.

Recorded from May to August 1970 at Abbey Road Studios, and then further recording and mixing at Trident Studios from August to September 1970, Harrison enlisted the aid of Phil Spector to co-produce the album, giving All Things Must Pass a heavy and reverb-oriented sound, typical for a 1960s/1970s Spector production — but a sound Harrison would subsequently regret with the passage of time. The album features the talents of Ringo Starr, Peter Frampton, members of Badfinger, Eric Clapton , Billy Preston, and a young Phil Collins who was about to join Genesis. Bob Dylan, a close friend of Harrison's, composed "I'd Have You Anytime" with him, while Harrison covered Dylan's "If Not For You", which had been recently released on Dylan's New Morning album. Alan White, later of Yes, stated that John Lennon played on "If Not For You".


Beware of Darkness (for those who haven't taken Jackie Hirst's course on Indian Philosophy on your third year of University, Maya is illusion, as in what is in the world around you stopping you from seeing the true form of the universe):