A dissenting view on George Harrison's ALL THINGS MUST PASS

[Buried Alien]

Anyone who has been a member of this particular music forum for a substantial amount of time knows what a big Beatles fan I am, so I don't really need to explain that what follows isn't a slam/bash thread. George Harrison is one of my all time favorite musicians, both as a member of the Beatles and as an independent musician. I liked most of Harrison's Beatles work and some of his solo records as well.

That said, I think his most celebrated solo album, ALL THINGS MUST PASS, is somewhat overrated.

From the acclaim that I've read about this album receiving over the years, I had very high expectations for this record. It's been described glowingly by multiple reviewers as the best solo album by an ex-Beatle ever, a landmark album in rock history, and the best work of George Harrison's career.

But having listened to it, there were only three songs from the album I liked: "My Sweet Lord" (the hit single for which Harrison was sued for plagiarism), the titular "All Things Must Pass" (which Harrison had originally planned to record with the Beatles), and "I'd Have You Anytime" (which was a Bob Dylan cover).

I didn't care for the rest of the album at all. "Wah Wah" was just loud (Phil Spector really overdid it with the Wall of Sound on that track, more than he did with anything on LET IT BE). "What Is Life" was also a big hit single, but I can't see how or why: it doesn't have a memorable melody like "My Sweet Lord" or even earlier, Beatles-era Harrison works such as "I Need You" or "If I Needed Someone," let alone classics such as "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," "Here Comes the Sun," or "Something." Most of the songs are fairly forgettable. In addition to the three songs I mentioned earlier, the only other song from the album that sticks out in my mind is "Art of Dying," and more so for some good (but still not prime) guitar work and an interesting lyric.

ALL THINGS MUST PASS isn't the most terrible record I've heard, but I can't quite see how it deserves the great acclaim it gets. I like only three songs off of it, which isn't good on a triple album that's so widely celebrated.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[SUPERECWFAN1]

A lot of the album as you said was filler. I think George was just someone so happy to be away from the machine known as the Beatles. So he over did it on a solo album. Or a triple album.

[rick]

Got ot agree with you there Buried.

I do like the album actually, I really do.

But it is by far my least favorite of George's albums.

Now I do like What is Life, in fact its one of my favorite of Georges songs. It's just simple and pretty and for me anyway has a decent sound.

Honestly I have to agree with SUPERECWFAN1 that George just sort of overdid it with this one mostly becasue he was so happy to be on his own.

[howyadoin]

How'd you manage to avoid hearing it for all these years?

[Buried Alien]

How'd you manage to avoid hearing it for all these years?

It was too time-consuming. A triple album is *alot* to take in, especially when one doesn't particularly like most of the songs.


Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[redlantern2051]

Buried Alien, mate I have to have the opposite opinion! :-) Have you got the remastered version? Its a much cleaner sound. Really nice. The only bit I can do without is the "jam sessions" that took up the third album. I don't include them on my IPOD. My fave George song is "My Sweet Lord", and my fave solo album is "Cloud Nine", but I do love "All Things..." But as they say, to each their own! :-) Have you heard "Brainwashed"? That's pretty good, too.

[Buried Alien]

Have you got the remastered version? Its a
much cleaner sound. Really nice.

Yes, but that doesn't help to offset the overbearing Wall of Sound production. I like Phil Spector's work with other artists that he recorded during the 1960s, particularly the Ronettes and the Righteous Brothers. His production for Beatles-related projects, however, was very hit and miss.

Have you heard "Brainwashed"? That's pretty good, too.

I listened to that, and this is going to sound crazy, but I didn't like one for the some of the same and some totally opposite reasons that I didn't completely like ALL THINGS MUST PASS. First, like on ALL THINGS MUST PASS, Harrison didn't have a uniformly strong batch of songs for BRAINWASHED...at least none in the rock idiom. Second, and this is where it gets funny, BRAINWASHED is underproduced in the way that ALL THINGS MUST PASS was overproduced. BRAINWASHED sounded like an informal jam that Harrison recorded by himself, which is a kind of recording that I normally do like very much, but again, he didn't have a strong batch of memorable songs to support it.

I think George Harrison was a great songwriter and musician who is overall vastly underrated, but there's no denying that he wasn't the most consistent songwriter: for every "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," "Here Comes The Sun," "Something," or "My Sweet Lord," there were a dozen nondescript songs. To be fair, John Lennon and Paul McCartney each started having this problem as well after the Beatles broke up.


Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[elheffe]

"What Is Life" was also a big hit single, but I can't see how or why: it doesn't have a memorable melody like "My Sweet Lord" or even earlier, Beatles-era Harrison works such as "I Need You" or "If I Needed Someone," let alone classics such as "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," "Here Comes the Sun," or "Something."

I haven't heard all of All Things Must Pass but I have heard "What Is Life" more than a few times and I couldn't disagree with you more. I think that song fits side by side with the rest of Harrison's classics.