The four Beatles dealt with the break-up in very different ways. Paul McCartney later admitted that he took to the bottle and stayed in bed virtually all day. He had no idea what to do with his life. John Lennon underwent 'primal scream therapy' with Dr Arthur Janov in Los Angeles. The therapy made John relive all his painful moments in his life. Ringo Starr carried on with his acting career and made the nostalgic album 'Sentimental Journey'.
Of the four Beatles it could be argued that George Harrison was the happiest about the break-up. He even admitted in the official biography by Hunter Davies that he didn't really like being a Beatle. One great source of frustration for George is that by the last few years of The Beatles he was writing as many songs as John and Paul but only getting around two songs on each Beatles album. As George said, "The problem was that John and Paul had written songs for so long it was difficult-- First of all because they had such a lot of tunes and they automatically thought that theirs should be priority. So for me, I'd always have to wait through ten of their songs before they'd even listen to one of mine."
George elaborated on this point in an interview on American radio in April 1970. "It's always... it was whoever would be the heaviest would get the most songs done. So consequently, I couldn't be bothered pushing, like, that much. You know, even on 'Abbey Road' for instance, we'd record about eight tracks before I got 'round to doing one of mine. Because uhh, you know, you say 'Well, I've got a song,' and then with Paul-- 'Well I've got a song as well and mine goes like this-- diddle-diddle-diddle-duh,' and away you go! You know, it was just difficult to get in there, and I wasn't gonna push and shout. Even when they did get around to George's songs they were often treated with indifference, for instance John often couldn't even be bothered to play on George's songs.
Things for George came to a head in The Beatles around the time of the "Get Back" sessions, that of course produced the film and album 'Let it Be'. The Beatles had finished recording the marathon 'White Album' a few months earlier and afterwards George collaborated with many friends. As he told Crawdaddy magazine in 1977, "We finally got through the [White] album and everybody was pleased because the tracks were good. Then I worked on an album with Jackie Lomax on an Apple record and I spent a long time in the States, and I had such a good time working with all these different musicians and different people. Then I hung out at Woodstock for Thanksgiving and, you know, I felt really good at that time. I got back to England for Christmas and then on January 1st we were to start on the thing which turned into 'Let It Be.' And straight away, again, it was just weird vibes. You know, I found I was starting to be able to enjoy being a musician, but the moment I got back with the Beatles it was just too difficult. There were just too many limitations based upon our being together for so long. Everybody was sort of pigeon-holed. It was frustrating." So frustrating that during the sessions for "Get Back" at Twickenham Film Studios George walked out on The Beatles and only came back at few days later.
Therefore by the time the end of The Beatles came, George had stockpiled enough songs for about four albums.
Sessions began for 'All Things Must Pass' at Abbey Road on May 26th 1970 - just six days after the premiere of Let it Be. The producer of the sessions was Phil Spector, who had produced the 'Let It Be' album and also some singles for John Lennon.
Many of the musicians on the album were remnants of the Delaney and Bonnie Band. Both George and Eric Clapton had toured as part of the band in 1969. A few months after the tour ended many of the band came to England to hang out with Eric, just as George was going into the recording studio. Therefore Eric and the others played on many tracks on 'All Things Must Pass'. Eric told a funny story in a recent interview what when they were recording 'My Sweet Lord' a Hare Krishna devotee appeared from nowhere and started jumping and dancing around. Eric was rather freaked by this but George didn't bat an eyelid as he was used to the Krishnas.
Also on the album were Ringo, who played on about half the tracks, and Klaus Voormann, The Beatles long term friend from their Hamburg days. Klaus had, of course, designed the cover for Revolver. He was also an accomplished bass guitar and had been playing with Manfred Mann and with John Lennon and the Plastic Ono Band at the Toronto rock n roll revival show. In fact around the time that Paul announced he was quitting the group there was speculation in the press of Klaus replacing Paul McCartney in The Beatles.
Even though he didn't actually play on the album Bob Dylan was an important influence on the album. George wrote 'Ill Have You Anytime' with Bob Dylan in Woodstock in the US. It was around Thanksgiving 1968 and George had been invited over by The Band. George and Bob started jamming and came up with the song - Bob wrote the lyrics and George the music. George told 'Crawdaddy' magazine how that song came about.
"I was with Bob and he'd gone through his broken neck period and was being very quiet, and he didn't have much confidence anyhow-- that's the feeling I got with him in Woodstock. He hardly said a word for a couple of days. Anyway, we finally got the guitars out and it loosened things up a bit. It was really a nice time with all his kids around, and we were just playing. It was near Thanksgiving. He sang me that song and he was, like, very nervous and shy and he said, 'What do you think about this song?' And I'd felt very strongly about Bob when I'd been in India years before-- the only record I took with me along with all my Indian records was 'Blonde On Blonde.' I felt somehow very close to him or something, you know, because he was so great, so heavy and so observant about everything. And yet, to find him later very nervous and with no confidence. But the thing that he said on 'Blonde On Blonde' about what price you have to pay to get out of going through all these things twice-- 'Oh mama, can this really be the end.' So I was thinking, 'There is a way out of it all, really, in the end.'
"He sang for me, 'Love is all you need/ Makes the world go 'round/ Love and only love can't be denied/ No matter what you think about it/ You're not going to be able to live without it/ Take a tip from one who's tried.' And I thought, Isn't it great, because I know people are going to think, 'Shit, what's Dylan doing?' But as far as I was concerned, it was great for him to realise his own peace, and it meant something. You know, he'd always been so hard.. and I thought, 'A lot of people are not going to like this,' but I think it's fantastic because Bob has obviously had the experience. I was saying to him, You write incredible lyrics,' and he was saying, 'How do you write those tunes?' So I was just showing him chords like crazy. Chords, because he tended just to play a lot of basic chords and move a capo up and down. And I was saying, 'Come on, write me some words,' and he was scribbling words down. And it just killed me because he'd been doing all these sensational lyrics. And he wrote, 'All I have is yours/ All you see is mine/ And I'm glad to hold you in my arms/ I'd have you anytime.' The idea of Dylan writing something, like, so very simple."
'Behind That Locked Door' was written for Bob by George around the time Bob played at the Isle of Wight Festival.
Bob's musical style was certainly a major influence for the song 'Apple Scruffs', however lyrically the influence was very different. The Apple Scruffs were a group of die-hard Beatles fans who virtually lived on the steps of 3 Savile Row - The Beatles 'Apple' headquarters. The became known as the scruffs due to their scruffy appearance - well, if you going to camp out on steps you are hardly going to dress up for the occasion! Whenever George would be in the studio the Scruffs would be there, either at 3 Savile Row, or the other studios George used, like Abbey Road and Trident. Often many casual fans and tourists would be around too - but the scruff were ALWAYS there. Two of them even became employees of Apple and Abbey Road Studios.
Then, very late one night, George came out of the studio and invited the scruffs in. He then played them 'Apple Scruffs' - of course they were very moved by it.
When the album was finished George wrote this note to the three most loyal scruffs:
Dear Carol, Cathy and Lucy.
Now it's finished - and off to the factory. I thought I'd tell you that I haven't a clue whether it's good or bad as I've heard it too much now!
During the making of this epic album (the most expensive album EMI ever had to pay for) I have felt positive and negative - please and displeased, and all the other opposites expected to be found in this material world. However, the one thing that didn't waver, seems to me, to be 'you three' and Mal., always there as my sole supporters, and even during my worst moments I always felt the encouragement from you was sufficient to make me finish the thing. Thanks a lot, I am really overwhelmed by your apparent undying love, and I don't understand it at all!
Love from George
(P.S. Don't hold this evidence against me.)
P.P.S. Phil Spector loves you too!
However the biggest influence on 'All Things Must Pass' as God. George at the time was very influenced by the Hari Krishna movement and even had many of the devotees living in his house.
Of course the most religious song on the album was 'My Sweet Lord'. George said in his autobiography, 'I Me Mine', that he was inspired to write the song by the Edwin Hawkins Singers version of 'Oh Happy Day'. However he thought twice about writing it because he felt he was sticking his neck out and would have to live up to something.
He later told the Hare Krishna movement in their book, Hare Krishna Mantra--There's Nothing Higher:
"I wanted to show that Hallelujah and Hare Krishna are quite the same thing. I did the voices singing 'Hallelujah' and then the change to 'Hare Krishna' so that people would be chanting the maha-mantra-before they knew what was going on! I had been chanting Hare Krishna for a long time, and this song was a simple idea of how to do a Western pop equivalent of a mantra which repeats over and over again the holy names. I don't feel guilty or bad about it; in fact it saved many a heroin addict's life."
"Hallelujah" is a joyous expression the Christians have, but "Hare Krishna" has a mystical side to it. It's more than just glorifying God; it's asking to become His servant. And because of the way the mantra is put together, with the mystic spiritual energy contained in those syllables, it's much closer to God than the way Christianity currently seems to be representing Him. Although Christ in my mind is an absolute yogi, I think many Christian teachers today are misrepresenting Christ. They're supposed to be representing Jesus, but they're not doing it very well. They're letting him down very badly, and that's a big turn off.
My idea in "My Sweet Lord," because it sounded like a "pop song," was to sneak up on them a bit. The point was to have the people not offended by "Hallelujah," and by the time it gets to "Hare Krishna," they're already hooked, and their foot's tapping, and they're already singing along "Hallelujah," to kind of lull them into a sense of false security. And then suddenly it turns into "Hare Krishna," and they will all be singing that before they know what's happened, and they will think, "Hey, I thought I wasn't supposed to like Hare Krishna!"
Not everyone shared George's enthusiasm for God, at the same time George was mixing 'All Things Must Pass' at Abbey Road Studios in October 1970 John Lennon was in the same building recording the 'Plastic Ono Band' album and singing 'God is a concept by which we measure our pain.' Also on John's album were Klaus Voorman and Ringo and it was produced by Phil Spector - I wonder how they felt about these two contrasting albums!
All Things Must Pass remains a very inspirational album. This was especially shown during George's appearance on the US radio show 'Rockline' in 1988. A caller came on saying that the album was a blessing to her as the first time she heard it saved her from committing suicide, got her into a clinic and off drugs. Obviously George was very touched by this.
All Things Must Pass is not an album without its flaws - even George himself acknowledges this in his sleeve-notes for the reissue. However it was undoubtedly the most important album George ever made and one of the top five solo Beatles records of all time.
Richard Porter