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[\/et_pb_code][et_pb_text module_class=”article-title” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_font=”||||||||” header_text_align=”center” header_text_color=”#111111″ header_font_size=”68px” custom_margin=”40px||||false|false” locked=”off” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”intro-text” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_orientation=”center” custom_padding=”||0px|||” locked=”off” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n
More tape, more musicians, more reverb: George Harrison<\/strong>‘s All Things Must Pass eschewed the simplicities of Krishna Consciousness to become the biggest, possibly best, Beatle solo album of all. Fifty years on, ‘Beatle Jeff”s collaborators remember the whole magical mess, Phil Spector’s shooter and all. “When you’re in the presence of a Beatle,” they tell Tom Doyle<\/strong>, “you never get over it.”<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/12\/GettyImages-2170253308-02-scaled.jpg” alt=”George Harrison” title_text=”GettyImages-2170253308 02″ _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text module_class=”image-gallery-caption” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”|300|||||||” text_font_size=”16px” text_line_height=”1.2em” custom_margin=”-10px||||false|false” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n All Things Moustache: Harrison with members of Radha Krishna Temple on the roof of the Apple building, Savile Row, London, 1970.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”text-with-dropcap” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n \u201cAre you ready? Phil?\u201d May 27, 1970, Abbey Road Studios. George Harrison stood alone, facing a microphone, and songs began to pour out of him. On the other side of the glass sat Phil Spector, \u2018fresh\u2019 from the controversial overdub and remix salvage sessions for Let It Be, released 19 days earlier. Accompanying himself on either acoustic or electric guitar, Harrison performed 15 sparse demos of only a portion of the songs he\u2019d been stockpiling over the past months and years.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n \u201cPhil, this is the one [called] Window Window, and it\u2019s a bit silly,\u201d he announced to the producer, before strumming through a lightly surreal, Dylanesque folk song related to his recent withdrawal from the public eye: \u201cI go for a walk in the shed\/And check out the paint and the lead.\u201d<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Sounding a touch smoker-croaky, sometimes coughing or offering the odd burp, The Quiet One ran through the compositions he was considering for inclusion on his first solo record. Many \u2013 including the gently rousing Mother Divine and the swinging, Revolution-ish Cosmic Empire \u2013 wouldn\u2019t make the final cut.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Nearly 25 years later, in 1994, these tapes were bootlegged as Beware Of ABKCO!, its title lifted from a subsequently scored-out line on the original lyric sheet of Beware Of Darkness, a brooding song warning of malign influences and intrusive, negative thoughts. Notably, it took a pop at the company name of Allen Klein. It had been just over a year since three of The Beatles \u2013 famously not Paul \u2013 had signed to ABKCO. Clearly, Harrison was already having his doubts about the squat, stogie-sucking American.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Some of Harrison\u2019s other unreleased declarations offered insights into his state of mind as he began recording what would become a triple album: All Things Must Pass. In Nowhere To Go, casually coauthored with Bob Dylan two years earlier, Harrison gently railed against police harassment of rock star potheads, confessed to feelings of general rootlessness and admitted his disenchantment with Fabdom.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n \u201cI get tired of being Beatle Jeff,\u201d he sang in a weary croon, \u201ctalking to the deaf.\u201d In truth, George wasn\u2019t entirely sure if he was still a Beatle or not.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”pull-quote” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_text_color=”#111111″ header_2_font_size=”46px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”pullquote-name” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_font_size=”46px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” header_3_text_align=”center” header_3_text_color=”#111111″ header_3_font_size=”38px” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”text-with-dropcap” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n SIX WEEKS EARLIER, ON APRIL 10, 1970, the day that the front page of the Daily Mirror blared the dramatic headline \u201cPaul Quits The Beatles\u201d, Harrison had characteristically closed himself off from the brouhaha. Inside the walls of Apple at 3 Savile Row, he watched an early rough cut of The Long And Winding Road, the Beatles documentar y that, decades later, was to provide the blueprint for the Anthology series. Responding to the breaking news, an unnamed friend told a reporter, \u201cGeorge doesn\u2019t want to think about it.\u201d<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n May 1 found Harrison in New York, talking to Howard Smith, a DJ for the city\u2019s WABCFM. In the interview, he openly tried to offer a compromise to his bandmates that might point to a future for the group. \u201cThe least we could do is sacrifice three months of the year\u2026 just to do an album or two,\u201d he reasoned. \u201cI think it\u2019s very selfish if The Beatles don\u2019t record together.\u201d<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n At the same time, he talked up the imminent recording of his solo album, clearly viewing it as an extracurricular activity rather than the beginning of a new era. \u201cI\u2019m sure that after we\u2019ve all completed an album,\u201d he said, \u201cor even two albums each, then that novelty will have worn off.\u201d Already he was envisaging All Things Must Pass as a grand design, filled with \u201ctrumpets\u201d and \u201corchestras\u201d. \u201cIt\u2019ll be a production album,\u201d he asserted.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n It was a time of reflection, uncertainty and creative liberation for Harrison. In December \u201969 he had spontaneously joined forces with raucous country\/blues\/ R&B troupe Delaney & Bonnie And Friends, playing guitar on their short UK tour alongside Eric Clapton. For Harrison, it had been a joyful six days back on the road, even if he\u2019d tended to keep his head down on a shadowy part of the stage.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Then, there was his blossoming friendship and songwriting dalliances with Bob Dylan. In New York in late April \u201970, the two had home-recorded a scrappy version of their fresh co-write, the soon-to-be floaty and spectral I\u2019d Have You Anytime. On the same day as the WABC-FM interview in May, Harrison had contributed slide guitar to Dylan\u2019s If Not For You during the sessions for New Morning (a version that ship went unreleased until 1991 and The Bootleg Series Volumes 1-3).<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Klaus Voormann, bassist, Revolver cover artist and friend of Harrison\u2019s since The Beatles\u2019 Hamburg days, remembers that Quiet George was at the time in fact the most sociable Beatle. \u201cDylan and George were really close friends,\u201d he tells MOJO today. \u201cGeorge was very much in contact with him. Paul wouldn\u2019t do that and John was sticking to his and Yoko\u2019s side. But George was the guy who was always communicating with people.\u201d<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Voormann was a key bass-playing contributor to another important part of the realisation of All Things Must Pass \u2013 the January 1970 recording of Lennon\u2019s Instant Karma! single with the Plastic Ono Band and Phil Spector. It was when Harrison arrived to add guitar and piano to the thumping, anthemic single, that Spector first suggested he start to consider his own solo record.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Not that the strange figure in the control room was recognisable to everyone present. \u201cI didn\u2019t know who this little man was with the high voice,\u201d laughs Voormann now. \u201cHe gave little messages out in the studio: \u2018Can you take the cymbals off?\u2019 I was like, \u2018Who is that guy?\u2019 Then he came in the studio and I saw he had \u2018P.S.\u2019 in red on his cufflinks.\u201d<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Any confusion as to the producer\u2019s identity was blown away the moment the first mix of Instant Karma! was played back.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n \u201cWe all went in the control room,\u201d recalls Voormann. \u201cThe whole place was filled up with tape machines that he used for his tape echoes. And he turned the knob full up, full volume. He played the song and it just hit us. It was just so amazing. It was such a crisp, fantastic sound. It was very, very impressive. And then I thought, Well, that must be Phil Spector.\u201d<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/12\/GettyImages-80800890-scaled.jpg” alt=”George Harrison of The Beatles poses for a portrait in 1970 in London, England.” title_text=”George Harrison Publicity Photo” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text module_class=”text-with-dropcap” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n THOSE WHO JOINED THE SUBSEQUENT SESSIONS for All Things Must Pass remember Phil Spector showing reverential respect for Harrison. Future record producer John Leckie (XTC, The Stone Roses, Radiohead) was at the time a 20-year-old tape operator only three months into the job at Abbey Road. \u201cSpector was in awe of The Beatles,\u201d he says, \u201cand, of course, they were in awe of him. So, it was strange.\u201d<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Peter Frampton, brought in as a session guitarist, agrees. \u201cGeorge was a very confident person,\u201d he says. \u201cVery low-key but very confident. He knew what he wanted. I believe that Phil Spector was not the Phil Spector that he was on the Ronettes sessions as he was looking through the glass at George Harrison. It doesn\u2019t matter how famous or successful you are, when you\u2019re in the presence of a Beatle, especially if you\u2019ve grown up in that era, you never get over it.\u201d<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n On day one of the sessions, Spector started small, laying the foundations to his Wall of Sound using a band comprising Harrison on guitar and vocals, Voormann on bass and Ringo Starr on drums. Rough tracks cut that day included My Sweet Lord, with a faster, shuffling groove than the version eventually released, and a barebones, electric rocking version of the gospelly Awaiting On You All.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Day two, May 28, was where the fun and games began, as a long procession of musicians entered Abbey Road Studio Three at the invitation of Harrison: Eric Clapton, various members of Delaney & Bonnie And Friends, Billy Preston, Gary Brooker of Procol Harum, drummer Alan White, and more, and yet more\u2026<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n \u201cMost of the time we were running around looking for headphones,\u201d laughs John Leckie. \u201cThere were 12, 15 musicians all playing at once and there were never enough pairs of headphones working. Badfinger [Pete Ham, Tom Evans, Joey Molland] just sat with acoustic guitars around one microphone. Jim Price [trumpet] and Bobby Keys [sax] came in and said, \u2018Where should we stand? Where can we fit in?\u2019 And it was like, Oh no, more people.\u201d<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n The first track laid down was My Sweet Lord, transformed from the previous day\u2019s scratch version into a heavenly mass-strummed mantra. Again, Spector worked his magic in the control room. \u201cIt was nothing like what we\u2019d just played out in the studio,\u201d remembers Gary Brooker. \u201cBecause suddenly Phil Spector had swamped it [in reverb]. The Wall of Sound.\u201d Given the mass of players and loose, revolving door approach to who might be involved on any one take, it later became difficult for anyone to accurately remember who\u2019d played what. The credits record that Ringo and Delaney & Bonnie\u2019s Jim Gordon both played drums on My Sweet Lord. Alan White swears it was him alone.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n \u201cGeorge said to me, \u2018I want you to play the drums,\u2019\u201d White remembers, \u201cand I said, \u2018Well Ringo\u2019s here.\u2019 He said, \u2018No, I want you to play the drums and Ringo can play tambourine.\u2019 It didn\u2019t make me feel comfortable at first.\u201d<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n \u201cWe probably finished My Sweet Lord at about two o\u2019clock in the morning,\u201d Leckie recalls, \u201cand they went straight in and did Wah-Wah, which is pretty live.\u201d<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n In terms of studio atmosphere, Spector had certain requirements: low lighting everywhere; the speakers in the control room set to maximum volume; the air con blasting out in the live room. \u201cOh yeah, it was freezing in there,\u201d White confirms. \u201cHe thought people played better when it was cold.\u201d<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n John Leckie remembers Phil Spector being a very active conductor of the musical proceedings: \u201cHe\u2019d go, \u2018Stop stop stop. Eric, what\u2019s that G chord you\u2019re playing? I told you to play an F.\u2019 He was very much into musical direction.\u201d<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n As the sessions continued into June, Clapton\u2019s role in the tracks grew, his fluid and soulful lead guitar contributions to opener I\u2019d Have You Anytime only the most striking. Voormann recalls that Harrison and Clapton\u2019s creative relationship was one of mutual appreciation. \u201cGeorge could never play a free solo,\u201d he says. \u201cIt was very, very difficult because his guitar playing was very limited, and he knew that. He always said, \u2018I wish I could play like Eric.\u2019 In comparison to that, Eric was saying, \u2018I can\u2019t play like George. George creates these great rhythms and melodies and I play differently.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n The recordings flowed, but one track was problematic. Dating back to 1966 (some say it was in the running for Revolver; others Sgt. Pepper\u2026), Isn\u2019t It A Pity was a lament for destructive human relationships, all the more poignant amid The Beatles\u2019 disintegration. A slow-build seven-minute version was recorded on June 2. The next day, 20 takes of a sparser, more downtempo rendering were committed to tape. Ultimately, Harrison chose to include both on All Things Must Pass.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n As the band grew in size on certain tracks \u2013 the enormous, propulsive What Is Life, the now-densely energised spiritual anthem Awaiting On You All \u2013 sporadic moves next door to Studio Two were required, with the musicians positioned in rows like an orchestra. \u201cSometimes the guitarists were sitting opposite each other with no baffles,\u201d says Voormann. \u201cAcoustic guitars in the same room playing when we were doing drums and electric guitars.\u201d<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Not that Spector\u2019s only talent was for towering layers of sonics. Voormann says the producer could work more subtly, as on Behind That Locked Door, Harrison\u2019s song of gentle encouragement to his reclusive friend Dylan. \u201cIf it was a song that was more country-like, not this Wall of Sound thing,\u201d says the bassist, \u201cSpector was very delicate. Whatever was needed for the song he would do. Everybody thinks, Oh he was a bully and he was forcing certain stuff on [the musicians]. He never did that. He was listening very closely to the songs.\u201d<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”pull-quote” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_text_color=”#111111″ header_2_font_size=”46px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”pullquote-name” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_font_size=”46px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” header_3_text_align=”center” header_3_text_color=”#111111″ header_3_font_size=”38px” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”text-with-dropcap” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n HAVING RENOUNCED DRUGS IN FAVOUR OF spirituality since 1968, George Harrison remained clean during the recording of All Things Must Pass. \u201cGeorge would often sit at the back of the control room during the playback,\u201d John Leckie recalls. \u201cYou could hear him whispering in the corner, \u2018Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna.\u2019 He had a little beanbag round his neck where he\u2019d count his mala beads.\u201d<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n In sharp contrast, most of the other musicians indulged in alcohol and weed (and furtive harder drug-taking). \u201cEveryone else, of course, was completely out of it,\u201d Leckie laughs. \u201cAt the end of the sessions, we used to go round the ashtrays and nick all the spliffs, because a lot of them weren\u2019t smoked. They\u2019d roll a joint, have one puff and put it in the ashtray. So, the ashtrays were full of unsmoked straight grass American joints. Also, I had a bottle of Eric Clapton\u2019s tequila which I took home and put on the mantlepiece. My mates would come round and say, \u2018Oh, shall we have some of Eric Clapton\u2019s tequila?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n The freestyle recordings that were to make up the third, Apple Jam disc on All Things Must Pass were typically recorded in-between official takes, when the musicians slipped into extended noodling. For John Leckie and engineer Phil McDonald, this usually prompted an hour-long escape to the Heroes Of Alma pub around the back of Abbey Road.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d put a tape on the stereo machine, put it on 71\/2 IPS, which meant it went on for an hour and four minutes,\u201d says Leckie. \u201cMe and Phil McDonald could run round to the pub, have a pint of Guinness and a sandwich and get back before the tape ran out. You\u2019d come back and it would just be spooling off and the band would still be playing.\u201d<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Phil Spector\u2019s alcohol consumption was more of an issue, as he began to drink heavily in the studio (\u201cHe used to have 18 cherry brandies before he could get himself down to the studio,\u201d Harrison later recalled) and grew dangerously erratic. \u201cOne day I went back into the control room and I noticed there was a gun on the console,\u201d Alan White recalls. \u201cYou never saw that in England. Phil was a guy who was pretty paranoid. I think he believed somebody was gonna kill him at any time.\u201d<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n According to Klaus Voormann, the root of the problem was friction between Spector\u2019s high-octane, fast-moving studio methods and Harrison\u2019s slow-burning perfectionism, particularly after the full band recording was done and George moved into overdubbing.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n \u201cWhen George was doing all those overdubs, Phil would\u2019ve been bored to death,\u201d Voormann stresses. \u201cHis way of recording was so different. George was very slow and trying it again another time and putting another guitar on it. So, Phil got bored and drank another one (laughs). He was getting outrageous. When George was mixing, Phil was already half-drunk.\u201d<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n One day, a lathered Spector fell off his studio chair and injured his arm. Not long after, he returned to America. \u201cThat was difficult for George,\u201d says Voormann. \u201cBecause in a way he wanted Phil to stick with him for the mixing and the finishing of the record. But it sort of dissolved.\u201d<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Come August, the project moved from Abbey Road to the state-of-the-art Trident Studios in Soho, where the 8-track tapes were transferred to 16-track to allow for extra layering. The absent Phil Spector sent Harrison a five-page letter from the States detailing his thoughts on the rough mixes, which were mostly concerned with Harrison\u2019s vocals and revealed that, even if in awe of The Beatle, he wasn\u2019t afraid to push him.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Of the title track, Spector wrote, \u201cI\u2019m not sure if the performance is good or not. Even the first mix you did, which had the \u2018original\u2019 voice, I\u2019m sure is not the best you can do.\u201d Of Behind That Locked Door, he reckoned, \u201cThe voice seems a little down. I think you could spend whatever time you are going to on performances so that they are the best you can do. I really feel that your voice has got to be heard throughout the album so that the greatness of the songs can really come through.\u201d<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n \u201cSometimes we\u2019d listen to them, sometimes we\u2019d ignore them,\u201d says producer Ken Scott (David Bowie, Devo), then an engineer at Trident, of Spector\u2019s notes. \u201cGeorge\u2019s big thing was backing vocals. On My Sweet Lord, all of the backing vocals were him. There are some, the really high ones, where we slowed the tape down so he could do it, then came back to normal speed. You hear them on their own and it\u2019s hysterical. It\u2019s Mickey Mouse. He was confident, but we still did take after take.\u201d<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/12\/GettyImages-515572144-scaled.jpg” alt=”George Harrison, sporting below-the-shoulder-length hair, listens to master tape of his first solo album in recording studio here Cot 30 with Pete Bennett {l} of Apple Records and producer Phil Spector.” title_text=”Mastering of George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text module_class=”image-gallery-caption” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”|300|||||||” text_font_size=”16px” text_line_height=”1.2em” custom_margin=”-10px||||false|false” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n Phil yer boots: Pete Bennett, Phil Spector and George Harrison listen to the masters of ATMP.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”pull-quote” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_text_color=”#111111″ header_2_font_size=”46px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”pullquote-name” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_font_size=”46px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” header_3_text_align=”center” header_3_text_color=”#111111″ header_3_font_size=”38px” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”text-with-dropcap” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n ODDLY, THE FIRST TIME THE RECORD-BUYING public heard any of the new George Harrison material was with the September 1970 release of Billy Preston\u2019s second Apple album, Encouraging Words, which featured a version of My Sweet Lord ramping up its gospel aspects and another of All Things Must Pass revealing the soul song partially hidden within.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n The triple-vinyl All Things Must Pass was issued in November, housed in the type of hinged box previously used for classical or opera records. Its heft and higher retail price didn\u2019t stop the album becoming a transatlantic Number 1, buoyed by wall-to-wall airplay for My Sweet Lord. Klaus Voormann remembers first seeing the finished product stacked up in Tower Records in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n \u201cGeorge\u2019s heap of records was going up to the ceiling,\u201d he laughs. Critical response was similarly vertiginous. Ben Gerson in Rolling Stone described the album as an \u201cextravaganza of piety and sacrifice and joy, whose sheer magnitude and ambition may dub it the War And Peace of rock\u2019n\u2019roll\u201d. But Harrison\u2019s fellow ex-Beatles (represented on his album cover \u2013 as its photographer, Barry Feinstein, would later contend \u2013 by four garden gnomes) were less free with their praise. McCartney kept his counsel. Lennon, interviewed by Jann Wenner in December 1970, said, \u201cI think it\u2019s better than Paul\u2019s\u201d \u2013 faint praise, since he\u2019d described McCartney as \u201crubbish\u201d. Ten years later, he had softened a little, telling Playboy that All Things Must Pass was \u201call right\u201d before judging that Harrison had \u201cwalked right into\u201d the then-notorious, long-running plagiarism case against My Sweet Lord. By then, Harrison had already paid out over $1.5m to the owners of The Chiffons\u2019 1963 hit He\u2019s So Fine, and would not be fully rid of the action \u2013 taken up by his old bugbear, Allen Klein, who\u2019d purchased He\u2019s So Fine\u2019s publisher, Bright Tunes \u2013 until March 1998.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Over time, another aspect of All Things Must Pass would trouble Harrison: namely, Spector\u2019s production. Revisiting the tapes in 2000 (for the anniversary edition actually released in 2001), he and Ken Scott sat side-by-side in front of the mixing desk at his home studio in Friar Park, Henley-on-Thames, and pressed \u2018play\u2019. \u201cAt one point, we just looked at each other and burst out laughing,\u201d Scott remembers. \u201cIt was twofold. One, here we were 30 years on, sitting there listening to exactly the same tapes in exactly the same positions. And then the other thing was all of the reverb. We\u2019d both sort of moved away from wanting to hear it. So, we were both laughing at that. We would both have loved to have gone in and just \u2018de-Spectorised\u2019 it all.\u201d<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n It was to prove impossible, however; many of the Spector effects had been imprinted onto the tapes, mixed in with the parts. In the linernotes for the 2001 reissue, Harrison admitted, \u201cIt was difficult to resist remixing every track. All these years later I would like to liberate some of the songs from the big production that seemed appropriate at the time, but now seem a bit over the top\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n For their 2000 remix of My Sweet Lord, Harrison and Scott ended up ditching many of the original performances, adding a new lead vocal, backing vocals by Sam Brown (daughter of Harrison\u2019s pal Joe) and acoustic guitar played by George\u2019s son Dhani Harrison. \u201cI think it was just a question of\u2026 if we were going to go for it, we had to go for it all the way,\u201d says Scott.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Half a century on, despite its creators\u2019 reservations, All Things Must Pass is what it always was: a masterpiece \u2013 for many, the greatest Beatle solo album. None the worse for its length or the extent of its cast list, it\u2019s a deluge of songwriting creativity transfigured by a squadron of musicians whose excitement is palpable in every groove.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n For Klaus Voormann, playing it now prompts a rush of welcome memories. \u201cWhen I listen to it today, it\u2019s such a good feeling,\u201d he says. \u201cYou see, I stayed for a long time in the studio, even when the recording was finished and I had played my part. I was sitting there on the sofa through the whole session \u2019til the last minute. I loved being around the songs and the music that was happening.\u201d<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n These days, Ken Scott often gives talks for audiences on his production career, isolating key elements from multi-tracks to that people are still listening to All Things Must Pass 50 years on mind-boggling, but reveals that Harrison\u2019s vocal track on What Is Life, freed from its instrumental baggage, sends shivers through every group of listeners he plays it to. And so, in the end, this most maximalist of rock albums is pared back to its roots, to its soul.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n \u201cListening to George\u2019s vocal on its own,\u201d Scott concludes, \u201cyou hear just how good he was.\u201d<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_divider color=”#111111″ module_class=”custom-divider” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” custom_padding=”||0px||false|false” locked=”off” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_divider][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ locked=”off” global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n This article first appeared in issue 319 of MOJO.<\/em><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”credit-names” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font_size=”14px” text_orientation=”center” locked=”off” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Images: Getty<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" More tape, more musicians, more reverb: George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass eschewed the simplicities of Krishna Consciousness to become the biggest, possibly best, Beatle solo album of all. Fifty years on, ‘Beatle Jeff”s collaborators remember the whole magical mess, Phil Spector’s shooter and all. “When you’re in the presence of a Beatle,” they tell Tom Doyle, “you never get over it.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":3582,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"modified_by":"akindell","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3575"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3575\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3608,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3575\/revisions\/3608"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}“Most of the time we were running around looking for headphones. It was like, ‘Oh no, more people.”<\/h2>\n
John Leckie<\/h3>\n
“Eric was saying, ‘I can\u2019t play like George. George creates these great rhythms & melodies.\u2019”<\/h2>\n
Klaus Voormann<\/h3>\n
“There was a gun on the console. I think Phil believed somebody was gonna kill him.”<\/h2>\n
Alan White<\/h3>\n