"Wah-Wah" is a song by English rock musician George Harrison from his 1970 triple album All Things Must Pass. Harrison wrote the song following his temporary departure from the Beatles in January 1969, during the troubled Get Back sessions that resulted in their Let It Be album and film. The lyrics reflect his frustration with the atmosphere in the group at that time – namely, Paul McCartney's over-assertiveness and criticism of his guitar playing, John Lennon's lack of engagement with the project and dismissal of Harrison as a songwriter, and Yoko Ono's constant involvement in the band's activities. Music critics and biographers recognise the song as Harrison's statement of personal and artistic freedom from the Beatles. Its creation contrasted sharply with his rewarding collaborations outside the group in the months before the Get Back project, particularly with Bob Dylan and the Band in upstate New York.
Recorded shortly after the Beatles' break-up in 1970, "Wah-Wah" was the first track taped for All Things Must Pass. The recording features a dense production treatment from Phil Spector and backing from a large cast of musicians including Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr, Billy Preston, Bobby Keys and the band Badfinger. On release, Rolling Stone magazine described it as "a grand cacophony of sound in which horns sound like guitars and vice versa". While several reviewers find the heavy production appropriate for the song, Harrison considered the recording overproduced and the sound too cluttered.
"Wah-Wah" was the first song Harrison played live as a solo artist when he performed it as his opener for the Western-music portion of the Concert for Bangladesh, in August 1971. Viewed by some commentators as superior to the studio recording, this version re-created Spector's Wall of Sound treatment in a live setting, using many of the participants from the 1970 album sessions. At the Concert for George in November 2002, a year after Harrison's death, "Wah-Wah" was performed by an all-star band that included Clapton, Jeff Lynne, Starr and McCartney. Ocean Colour Scene, Buffalo Tom, Beck and the Tedeschi Trucks Band are among the other artists who have covered the song.
Background October–December 1968 US visit When discussing the song "Wah-Wah" and George Harrison's temporary departure from the Beatles in January 1969, several commentators note the importance of his recent two-month visit to America, which followed the completion of the band's 1968 double album The Beatles, commonly known as the White Album.Leng, pp. 39–40, 55.Clayson, pp. 259–60. In Los Angeles, where he was producing a Jackie Lomax solo album for the Beatles' Apple record label, Harrison directed top session players such as Hal Blaine and Larry Knechtel,Miles, p. 313. and met two American musicians with whom he would soon collaborate in London, Delaney Bramlett and Leon Russell.Leng, pp. 62–63. Later in the US trip, Harrison stayed in upstate New York, where he established a musical bond with Bob Dylan and thrived among what author Simon Leng calls the "group ethic and camaraderie" of the Band.Leng, pp. 51–53. Throughout this period, Harrison continued to bloom as a songwriter, having contributed four songs to The Beatles that, in the words of author Nicholas Schaffner, "firmly established him as a contender" beside bandmates John Lennon and Paul McCartney.Schaffner, p. 115. In addition, he had recently co-written Cream's single "Badge" with Eric Clapton,The Editors of Rolling Stone, p. 176. as well as collaborating with Dylan in Bearsville.Leng, pp. 37–39, 51–54.
January 1969 at Twickenham Film Studios
Harrison later recalled his two months in the United States as having been "such a good time", yet "the moment I got back with the Beatles [for their Get Back film project], it was just too difficult".Mitchell Glazer, "Interview with George Harrison", Crawdaddy, February 1977, p. 37.Huntley, p. 18. These difficulties included having to endure McCartney's habit of dictating how the others should play their instrumentsMacDonald, pp. 288–89.Clayson, p. 261. and Lennon's increasing withdrawal from the band and emotional dependence on his ever-present partner, Yoko Ono.MacDonald, p. 301.Hertsgaard, pp. 250–51, 267.Martin O'Gorman, "Film on Four", in Mojo Special Limited Edition: 1000 Days of Revolution, p. 70. The couple had recently descended into heroin addiction,MacDonald, p. 246.Sulpy & Schweighardt, pp. 1–2.Hertsgaard, pp. 251, 257. leaving Lennon, in author Peter Doggett's words, "emotionally removed and artistically bankrupt".Peter Doggett, "Fight to the Finish", in Mojo Special Limited Edition: 1000 Days of Revolution, p. 138. In their study of the Get Back project, Doug Sulpy and Ray Schweighardt write that, as another frustration for Harrison, Lennon and McCartney regularly overlooked his compositions, even when they were "far better than their own".Sulpy & Schweighardt, p. 1.
On 6 January 1969, the band's third day at Twickenham Film Studios, in south-west London,Miles, pp. 327–28. an argument was captured on film where McCartney criticised Harrison's guitar playing on the song "Two of Us".Sulpy & Schweighardt, p. 51. A resigned Harrison told him: "I'll play... whatever you want me to play, or I won't play at all if you don't want me to play. Whatever it is that will please you, I'll do it."Miles, p. 328.Hertsgaard, p. 267. With the sessions being recorded by film director Michael Lindsay-Hogg,Martin O'Gorman, "Film on Four", in Mojo Special Limited Edition: 1000 Days of Revolution, pp. 70–71. tapes reveal Beatles associates Neil Aspinall and George Martin sympathising with Harrison's position,Huntley, p. 22. recognising that McCartney and Lennon "don't offer him enough freedom within their compositions".Sulpy & Schweighardt, p. 173. Ringo Starr, who had quit the band briefly during the White Album sessions, partly as a result of McCartney's hectoring of his drumming,Hertsgaard, pp. 250–51. recalled of Harrison's refusal to be "dominated" by McCartney any longer: "Paul [typically] wanted to point out the solo to George, who would say, 'Look, I'm a guitarist. I'll play the solo.' And he always did, he always played fine solos."Ringo Starr, in The Beatles, p. 316.
Over the first three days at Twickenham, Harrison had presented new compositions such as "All Things Must Pass", "Let It Down" and "Hear Me Lord" for consideration;Spizer, pp. 212, 220, 223. these and other "numerous beautiful songs", music journalist Martin O'Gorman writes, "received derision and disinterest from Lennon or heavy-handed interference from McCartney".Martin O'Gorman, "Film on Four", in Mojo Special Limited Edition: 1000 Days of Revolution, p. 73. On 8 January, Harrison debuted "I Me Mine", a song inspired by the bickering and negativity within the band.Greene, p. 115. It was met with ridicule by LennonHuntley, p. 21. and an argument ensued between the two musicians, during which Lennon dismissed Harrison's abilities as a songwriter. According to Sulpy and Schweighardt, Lennon's resentment was most likely a reaction to Harrison's productivity throughout the sessions, since he himself was "unable to write a decent new song".Sulpy & Schweighardt, p. 170. In addition, Harrison had been alone in voicing his objections to Ono's presence,Huntley, p. 24. telling the couple how, in Lennon's later recollection, "Dylan and a few people said she's got a lousy name in New York".Jackson, p. 34.Martin O'Gorman, "Film on Four", in Mojo Special Limited Edition: 1000 Days of Revolution, p. 72.
Over lunch on Friday, 10 January,Winn, p. 246. a more severe argument took place in which Harrison berated Lennon for contributing nothing positive to the rehearsals. Harrison walked out of the Beatles, saying that the others should advertise in the NME for his replacement.Sulpy & Schweighardt, pp. 167, 169–70. He then drove to his home, Kinfauns, in Surrey, and wrote "Wah-Wah" that same afternoon.George Harrison, p. 194.Clayson, p. 262. Despite the animosity between himself and Lennon on the day he quit the group,Sulpy & Schweighardt, pp. 169–70.Huntley, p. 25. Harrison later confirmed a suggestion made by music journalist Timothy White that, just like Lennon's "How Do You Sleep?" and "Crippled Inside", the song was a "swipe" at McCartney.
Harrison's return to the Beatles
Harrison's diary records that Lennon and Ono "diverted" him at home over breakfast the following morning,Dhani Harrison, in George Harrison: Living in the Material World, Disc 2; event occurs between 2:52 and 2:58.Olivia Harrison, pp. 192–93. but even after a subsequent band meeting at Starr's house, author Barry Miles writes, their "feud" remained "intractable".Miles, p. 329. At the meeting, much to Harrison's annoyance, Lennon once more chose to have Ono speak on his behalf.Jim Irvin, "Close to the Edge", Mojo, December 2003, p. 82. Harrison then went to his parents' home in Warrington for a few days before imposing terms for his return to the bandRodriguez, p. 381. – namely, that McCartney's plans for a live concert be abandoned and the project be relocated to the Beatles' own Apple Studio, at London's Savile Row.Miles, pp. 330, 331. Commentators have remarked on a change in Harrison's standing within the band as a result of his walkout,Clayson, pp. 254, 262.Greene, pp. 116–17. and later in 1969, Lennon and McCartney would be speaking admiringly of Harrison's growth as a songwriter.Mark Lewisohn, "Something Else", in Mojo Special Limited Edition: 1000 Days of Revolution, p. 118.Fawcett, p. 96. In an article for Mojo magazine's July 2001 "Solo Beatles Special", John Harris wrote that although Harrison "nominally" remained a Beatle, he was "serving out his notice" after 10 January 1969.Harris, p. 68.
Composition In his autobiography, I, Me, Mine, Harrison explains that the song title was a reference to "a 'headache' as well as a footpedal", the wah-wah pedal being a guitar effect that he favoured for much of the early Get Back sessions.Sulpy & Schweighardt, pp. 63–64, 77.Winn, p. 250. The message of the song, according to Harrison, was: "you're giving me a bloody headache."Huntley, p. 55. Leng identifies "Wah-Wah" as being directed at the "artifice" and "pretense" surrounding the Beatles.Leng, p. 86.
The song is based around an electric guitar riff that Leng describes as "snarling". Written in the key of E, the tune incorporates chord changes that musicologist Wilfrid Mellers once admired as "audacious";Mellers, p. 147. musically, Harrison biographer Elliot Huntley suggests, the composition mirrors the "intense atmosphere" at Twickenham in January 1969.Huntley, p. 54. Referring to the released recording, author Ian Inglis views "Wah-Wah" as a hard rock song where the "forceful rhythm" conveys "the momentum of [Harrison's] anger".
Like "Run of the Mill", which Harrison also wrote in early 1969, the lyrics touch on the failure of friendships within the band,Doggett, p. 141. which in the case of Harrison, McCartney and Lennon dated back to school years.Leng, p. 94. Harrison later spoke of their familiarity with one another resulting in McCartney, especially, failing to recognise his artistic growth;Doggett, p. 134. in I, Me, Mine, he refers to "Wah-Wah" as reflecting "that concept of how everybody sees and treats everybody else, allowing no consideration for the fact that we are changing all the time".
The second verse reflects Harrison's frustration at being viewed by Lennon and McCartney as subservient to their ambitions, just as his 1968 composition "Not Guilty" had found Harrison defending himself for supposedly leading his fellow Beatles "astray" to the Maharishi's meditation retreat in India.Huntley, p. 165.Leng, pp. 33, 38. In "Wah-Wah", he states sarcastically:
Over the song's two middle eights, Harrison laments that his bandmates never take the time to notice his sorrow or "hear me sighing".Inglis, p. 25.