"All Things Must Pass" is a song written by English rock musician George Harrison. Harrison wrote the song in 1968 and introduced it to the Beatles during the "Get Back" sessions in January 1969. After not being included on Let It Be (1970), Billy Preston recorded and released the song as "All Things (Must) Pass" – on his Apple Records album Encouraging Words (1970). Harrison then recorded a version for his debut solo album All Things Must Pass, released in November 1970. The composition of Harrison's version reflects the influence of the Band's sound and communal music-making on Harrison, after he had spent time with the group in Woodstock, New York, in late 1968. In his lyrics, Harrison drew inspiration from Timothy Leary's poem "All Things Pass", a psychedelic adaptation of the Tao Te Ching.
The subject matter deals with the transient nature of human existence, and in Harrison's All Things Must Pass reading, words and music combine to reflect impressions of optimism against fatalism. On release, together with Barry Feinstein's album cover image, commentators viewed the song as a statement on the Beatles' break-up. Widely regarded as one of Harrison's finest compositions, its passing on by his former band has provoked comment from biographers and reviewers. Music critic Ian MacDonald described "All Things Must Pass" as "the wisest song never recorded by the Beatles", while author Simon Leng considers it "perhaps the greatest solo Beatle composition". The recording was co-produced by Phil Spector in London; it features an orchestral arrangement by John Barham and contributions from musicians such as Ringo Starr, Pete Drake, Bobby Whitlock, Eric Clapton and Klaus Voormann.
Although the Beatles did not formally record the song, a 1969 solo demo by Harrison appears on their compilation Anthology 3 (1996) and the Beatles as a band undertook over 70 takes of the track. An early version from the All Things Must Pass sessions was released on Harrison's posthumous compilation Early Takes: Volume 1 in 2012. Paul McCartney performed "All Things Must Pass" at the Concert for George tribute in November 2002, a year after Harrison's death. Jim James, the Waterboys, Klaus Voormann and Yusuf Islam, and Sloan Wainwright are among the other artists who have covered the song.
Background
Like his friend Eric Clapton, George Harrison was inspired by Music from Big Pink, the seminal debut albumHarris, p. 66. from the Band, the former backing group for Bob Dylan.Clayson, p. 258.Leng, pp. 51–53. Released in July 1968, Music from Big Pink was partly responsible for Harrison's return to the guitar, his first instrument,Leng, p. 317. after he had spent two years attempting to master the more complex Indian sitar.Olivia Harrison, p. 194.George Harrison, pp. 57–58. Harrison duly shared his enthusiasm with the British music press, declaring Big Pink "the new sound to come from America", drummer Levon Helm later recalled, thus helping to establish the Band internationally.Helm, pp. 177–78. In appreciation, Robbie Robertson, the Band's guitarist, extended an invitation to Harrison to stop by in Woodstock, New York, when the opportunity arose.Clayson, p. 242.
Late in 1968, after producing sessions in Los Angeles for a solo album by Apple Records signing Jackie Lomax,Miles, p. 313. Harrison spent Thanksgiving and much of December in upstate New York,Huntley, p. 18. where he renewed his friendship with a now semi-retired Dylan and took part in informal jam sessions with the Band.MacDonald, p. 302.George Harrison, p. 164. According to Helm, they discussed making a possible "fireside jam" album with Clapton and an Apple Films "rock western" called Zachariah, but neither project progressed beyond the planning stage. The bucolic surroundings proved fruitful for Harrison as a songwriter, producing his first collaboration with Dylan, "I'd Have You Anytime",Leng, pp. 39, 52. and leading him to write "All Things Must Pass".Lavezzoli, p. 186. He later described the latter song as a "Robbie Robertson–Band type of tune",George Harrison, p. 184. and said that he always imagined it being sung by Helm.Timothy White, "George Harrison: 'All Things' in Good Time", billboard.com, 8 January 2001 (retrieved 3 June 2014).
Composition While discussing "All Things Must Pass" with music journalist Timothy White in 1987, Harrison recalled that his "starting point" for the composition was Robertson's "The Weight" – a song that had "a religious and a country feeling to it".Timothy White, "George Harrison – Reconsidered", Musician, November 1987, p. 62. Musically, the verses of "All Things Must Pass" are set to a logical climb within the key of E;MacDonald, p. 448. the brief choruses form a departure from this, with their inclusion of a B minor chord rather than the more expected major voicing. Author Ian Inglis notes that the composition incorporates the same "modes, cadences and suspensions" found in Band songs such as "The Weight" and "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down".Inglis, p. 30.
For his lyrics, Harrison drew inspiration from "All Things Pass", a poem published in Timothy Leary's 1966 book Psychedelic Prayers after the Tao Te Ching.Greene, p. 140.Allison, p. 135. In his 1980 autobiography, I Me Mine, Harrison refers to the idea for the song originating from "all kinds of mystics and ex-mystics", including Leary. Like later Harrison compositions such as "Here Comes the Sun", "So Sad" and "Blow Away", the lyrical and emotional content is based around metaphors involving the weather and the cycle of nature.Leng, pp. 42, 96–97, 152, 205. Harrison states in the opening lines of verse one: "Sunrise doesn't last all morning / A cloudburst doesn't last all day".George Harrison, p. 186.
According to Harrison biographer Simon Leng, the lyrics reflect "life's ephemeral character" and the "transitory" nature of love.Leng, p. 96. Inglis suggests that the song is "[o]stensibly" about "the end of a love affair". He and theologian Dale Allison note the optimism offered in Harrison's words,Allison, pp. 37–38. since, as Leng puts it, "a new day always dawns." Although "All Things Must Pass" avoids religiosity, Allison writes that its statement on the "all-inclusive" transience of things in the material world explains why so much of its 1970 parent album, All Things Must Pass, "finds hope and meaning only in God, who does not pass away".Allison, pp. 62, 135. The song's main message is offered in its middle eight:Leng, pp. 96–97.Allison, p. 62.
Ultimately, the cycle of nature offers "consolation", Leng writes, as further evidenced in the verse-three lines "Now the darkness only stays at night time" and "Daylight is good at arriving at the right time".
The lyrics underwent minor changes after Harrison presented the song to the Beatles in January 1969, when they began working at London's Twickenham Film Studios for the so-called Get Back project (released as the Let It Be album and film). He had initially written the second line of verse two as "A wind can blow those clouds away",George Harrison, p. 185. but John Lennon suggested the word "mind" to introduce a bit of "psychedelia" into the song,Sulpy & Schweighardt, p. 49. after a misinterpretation of Mal Evans' handwriting. Similarly, the repeated line "It's not always gonna be this grey" was originally "It's not always been this grey" in verses one and two.George Harrison, pp. 185–86.
Pre-All Things Must Pass recording history
The Beatles' Get Back rehearsals In contrast with the creative equality he enjoyed with Dylan and the Band in Woodstock,Harris, p. 68.Doggett, p. 57. Harrison returned to the Beatles to find the same discordant atmosphere that had blighted the White Album sessions in 1968.Huntley, pp. 20–22. Early on during the Get Back rehearsals – and tellingly, music journalist John Harris comments, before the arrival that day of Lennon and his partner Yoko Ono – Harrison enthused to Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney about the Band's camaraderie and group ethos, saying: "They're just living, and they happen to be a band as well."John Harris, "Into the Woods", Mojo, December 2003, p. 92.
On 2 January, day one of the Twickenham film shoot,Doggett, p. 58. Harrison introduced "All Things Must Pass", and the band worked on the song intermittently over the next four days of filming.Miles, p. 327.Sulpy & Schweighardt, pp. 5, 319. In the search for a suitable musical arrangement, Harrison stressed his preference for a "feel" akin to the Band, a suggestion that resulted in Lennon switching from guitar to Lowrey organ, a keyboard favoured by the Band's Garth Hudson.Sulpy & Schweighardt, pp. 42, 44–45. During the Twickenham rehearsals, the Beatles also discussed the idea of Harrison performing "All Things Must Pass" solo for inclusion in the proposed film.Sulpy & Schweighardt, pp. 120–21.
They returned to the song briefly towards the end of January, by which time the project had moved location to their own Apple Studio, in central London – one of Harrison's conditions for rejoining the Beatles after his temporary walkout on 10 January.Miles, pp. 330, 331. Although the band gave a fair amount of time to "All Things Must Pass", it was ultimately put aside,Sulpy & Schweighardt, pp. 6, 295. just as other Harrison compositions including "Old Brown Shoe", "Isn't It a Pity", "Let It Down" and "I Me Mine" received a lukewarm reception,Leng, p. 39.The Editors of Rolling Stone, pp. 38, 187. particularly from Lennon.Huntley, pp. 18–19, 21.Miles, p. 328. David Fricke of Rolling Stone has referred to this period as a "struggle" for Harrison "against the patronizing restrictions of writing within and for the Beatles".The Editors of Rolling Stone, p. 180. Doug Sulpy and Ray Schweighardt, authors of Get Back: The Unauthorized Chronicle of The Beatles' Let It Be Disaster, observe that Lennon and McCartney routinely rejected Harrison's songs, "even though some were far better than their own".Sulpy & Schweighardt, p. 1.
The Beatles never formally recorded "All Things Must Pass", and only rehearsal takes circulate on bootleg compilations from the sessions.Sulpy & Schweighardt, p. 6. The Fly on the Wall bonus disc accompanying the McCartney-instigated Let It Be... Naked album (2003) includes a snippet of the Beatles indulging in some Band-like chorusing on the song.Huntley, p. 21.
Harrison's solo demo
During the Beatles' Apple Studio session on 28 January,Sulpy & Schweighardt, pp. 292–93. Harrison talked with Lennon and Ono about possibly doing a solo album of his unused songs, in order to "preserve this, the Beatle bit, more".Hertsgaard, p. 283. Lennon offered his support for the idea. While author Bruce Spizer has suggested that Lennon was keen to "spare" the band from having to work on Harrison's songs,Spizer, p. 220. Sulpy and Schweighardt consider that Lennon's enthusiasm was because such a solo project would allow him and Ono to continue their own recording activities "without causing friction within The Beatles".
On 25 February 1969, his 26th birthday, Harrison entered Abbey Road Studios alone and recorded a demo of the song, along with other recent compositions "Old Brown Shoe" and "Something".Miles, p. 335.Leng, p. 41. With Ken Scott serving as engineer, he recorded two takes of "All Things Must Pass", adding extra electric guitar onto the second.Mark Lewisohn, liner notes in booklet accompanying the Beatles' Anthology 3 CD (Apple Records, 1996; produced by George Martin), p. 33. This version was eventually released in 1996 on the Beatles' outtake collection Anthology 3.Spizer, p. 225.
Billy Preston's version