83: Why there is more to George Harrison's solo career than All Things must pass'

OK before I go any further I want to say I absolutely love ‘All Things Must Pass’. I am not saying it is not rightfully regarded as a masterpiece (in the truest sense of what ‘Masterpiece’ means). But as a fan of George as a solo artist I go get frustrated that ‘All Things Must Pass’ is the only solo album by George that gets any kind of critical respect and that the rest of George’s solo output rarely if ever gets any attention. It is also frustrating that it is usually only songs from ‘All Things Must Pass’ that get radio play or that get covered (even the recent ‘Georgefest’ and Conan O Brien’s ‘George week’ concentrated on George’s Beatles songs and ‘All Things Must Pass’). I also get really annoyed that in the music press it is assumed that George did not produce anything as good after ‘All Things Must Pass’.

George made an additional nine studio albums as a solo artist and continued to record as a solo artist for 30 after ‘All Things Must Pass’ was released. Simon Leng did an excellent job in ‘While my guitar gently weeps: the music of George Harrison’ of examining all of Georges solo output, arguing the case for albums such as ‘Living in the material world’, ’33 1/3’ , ‘George Harrison’ and ‘Brainwashed’. I can thoroughly recommend Lengs’ book to any George fan who have not read it. In my opinion it is the best book written about George as it is meticulously well researched (he interviewed several individuals who worked with George such as Klaus Voorman, John Barham, Doris Troy, Joey Mullholland of Badfinger and Bob Purvis of Splinter amongst others) accurate, sympathetic but not blindly so and concentrates on that small thing that often gets overlooked with George- his music! Leng is also comprehensive in covering all of George’s collaborations with other artists and his performances on other artists’ recordings.

Leng shows the wide variety of musical influences on George’s solo albums such as soul, jazz, classical Indian music and folk and that George’s song writing and musicianship (particularly his guitar playing) continued to develop after he recorded ‘All Things Must Pass’ right up to ‘Brainwashed’

Personally my favourite two albums by George are ‘Living in the Material World’ and ‘Brainwashed’. I find both more intimate, personal and warm than ‘All Things Must Pass. Interesting there was an article published on George’s birthday this year which agrees with me! George

http://thecelebritycafe.com/feature/2015/02/happy-birthday-george-harrison-ranking-his-solo-albums

I have written about ‘Living in the Material World’ so I will write a few words about some of my other favourite George albums (I want to come back to Brainwashed separately at some point)

‘33 1/3 contains some very fine groves thanks to the crack team of musicians George played with on the album, including Billy Preston and Willy Weeks. Leng shows how George was influenced by funk and 70’s soul on this album. It has great songs such as ‘This song’ and ‘Learning how to love you’. George sounds revitalised and enthused after the traumas of 1974 and 1975.

‘George Harrison’ which has some of George’s most affecting songs (Blow Away, Dark Sweet Lady) and finest musicianship. George sounds genuinely happy and relaxed, and it is his most joyous album. You can’t help but love the album for that reason. Leng notes that on this album George was recording music for no other reason than it was pleasing to him and did not feel the need to conform to industry demands to be commercial or provide obvious hits. That makes George an artist of considerable integrity.

The original version of ‘Somewhere in England’ also ‘could have been a contender’ – ironically the four dropped songs (‘Sat Singing’, ‘Flying Hour’, ‘Tears of the World’ and ‘Lay his head’) are amongst George’s best. I know a lot of George fans love these songs. It is gratifying that George has been proved right about them

Certainly ‘Cloud Nine’ is an excellent album. George sounds very energised after recharging his musical batteries and rocks out on tracks such as ‘Fish on the sand’, ‘Devil’s Radio’ and ‘Wreck of the Hesperus’. But George also offers such considered songs as ‘Just for Today’ and ‘That’s what it takes’

George always remained true to his lyrical concerns throughout his career. George says as much about where he was in his life and about what mattered to him on an album such as ‘Cloud Nine’ as he did on ‘All Things Must Pass’ (for example ‘Just for today and ‘Fish on the Sand’ are straight out spiritual songs addressed to God). Each album George made contains at least a couple of wonderful tracks and tells you about where George was in his life when recording it.

Certainly George himself was proud of ‘All Things Must Pass’ as shown by the care and love he gave to the 2001 re-issue of the album. However even in his notes on the re-issue he expresses some (gently put) misgivings about Phil Spector’s production.

Part of why Olivia and Dhani have re-issued George’s solo output is to allow it to be reassessed and get the appreciation it deserves. There was certainly a lot of positive comments about George’s later solo Apple Records last year when ‘The Apple Years’ Box set was released.

Personally, I am at a point where I am as much of a fan of George as a solo artist as I am of the Beatles. If George had not produced great albums after ‘All Things Must Pass’ this would not be the case. One of the positive things about tumblr and youtube is the ability to see that there are many other fans of George and see their appreciative comments about his music

Having written all of this I am still absolutely delighted that ‘All Things Must Pass’ is considered the greatest album by an ex-Beatle and that George got to see how well regarded and loved the album is when it was reissued in 2001.