Album of the Day: George Harrison, “All Things Must Pass”

George Harrison, “All Things Must Pass” (2 CDs EMI 724353047429)

Given that in the last period of the Beatles’ activity the other members of the group had not paid much attention to his proposals, George Harrison found himself after the dissolution of the band making his first solo album of songs (the two previous albums were composed of instrumental pieces) being able to count on an enormous quantity of pieces at his disposal, and decided to record them all by releasing a triple album, which was viewed with perplexity at the time.

In fact, this might have seemed excessive if the quality of the songs accumulated over time by Harrison had been of little value, but this was not the case and “All Things Must Pass” remains one of the best albums in the history of rock precisely by virtue of the strength of Harrison’s compositions, which after many years manage to survive even the excessive production of Phil Spector and his Wall of Sound (certainly the only truly dated thing on the album), who often magnify the songs in an elephantine manner with dozens of instruments and choirs not always necessary.

Fortunately the album also contains pages immune to this treatment, such as the beautiful opening “I’d Have You Anytime”, written together with Bob Dylan for whom George also made a magnificent version of “If Not for You.

“The artistic quality of the album is very high, and apart from a few weaker songs such as “I Dig Love” and “Art of Dying” the songs contained are all memorable starting from the famous “My Sweet Lord”, which despite the various sentences was not plagiarized from nothing and remains a classic of its kind (the judges who condemned Harrison did not consider it necessary to apply the same severity, who knows why, to a song like “Start!” by the Jam, entirely copied from his “Taxman”) but they are gorgeous too “Isn’t It A Pity”, “What Is Life”, “Let It Down” and “Run of the Mill” which remain among his best songs, while the title track is moving and only two total egomaniacs like Lennon and McCartney were able to discard it without taking it into consideration. Much has been made of the entirely instrumental final “Apple Jam”, but compared to the squalid products of today’s rock-marketing, listen to Harrison, Eric Clapton, Billy Preston and Ginger. Baker going at it improvising and having fun like crazy in time to boogie really warms the heart.

Carlo Boccadoro, composer and conductor, was born in Macerata in 1963. He lives and works in Milan. He collaborates with soloists and orchestras in different parts of the world. He is the author of numerous books on musical topics.

This text is taken from “Lunario della musica: A record for every day of the year” published by Einaudi, courtesy of the author and the publisher.