Pal Pal Dil Ke Paas Title Track

[Rolando Kumar]

Thesubject matter deals with the transient nature of human existence, and in Harrison's All Things Must Pass reading, words and music combine to reflect impressions of optimism against fatalism. On release, together with Barry Feinstein's album cover image, commentators viewed the song as a statement on the Beatles' break-up. Widely regarded as one of Harrison's finest compositions, its passing on by his former band has provoked comment from biographers and reviewers. Music critic Ian MacDonald described "All Things Must Pass" as "the wisest song never recorded by The Beatles",[1] while author Simon Leng considers it "perhaps the greatest solo Beatle composition".[2] The recording was co-produced by Phil Spector in London; it features an orchestral arrangement by John Barham and contributions from musicians such as Ringo Starr, Pete Drake, Bobby Whitlock, Eric Clapton and Klaus Voormann.

Although the Beatles did not formally record the song, a 1969 solo demo by Harrison appears on their compilation Anthology 3 (1996) and as a band undertook over 70 takes of the track. An early version from the All Things Must Pass sessions was released on Harrison's posthumous compilation Early Takes: Volume 1 in 2012. Paul McCartney performed "All Things Must Pass" at the Concert for George tribute in November 2002, a year after Harrison's death. Jim James, the Waterboys, Klaus Voormann and Yusuf Islam, and Sloan Wainwright are among the other artists who have covered the song.

Like his friend Eric Clapton, George Harrison was inspired by Music from Big Pink, the seminal debut album[3] from the Band, the former backing group for Bob Dylan.[4][5] Released in July 1968, Music from Big Pink was partly responsible for Harrison's return to the guitar, his first instrument,[6] after he had spent two years attempting to master the more complex Indian sitar.[7][8] Harrison duly shared his enthusiasm with the British music press, declaring Big Pink "the new sound to come from America", drummer Levon Helm later recalled, thus helping to establish the Band internationally.[9] In appreciation, Robbie Robertson, the Band's guitarist, extended an invitation to Harrison to stop by in Woodstock, New York, when the opportunity arose.[10]

I respected the Band enormously. All the different guys in the group sang, and Robbie Robertson used to say he was lucky, because he could write songs for a voice like Levon [Helm]'s. What a wise and generous attitude.[11]

For his lyrics, Harrison drew inspiration from "All Things Pass", a poem published in Timothy Leary's 1966 book Psychedelic Prayers after the Tao Te Ching.[16][22][nb 1] In his 1980 autobiography, I Me Mine, Harrison refers to the idea for the song originating from "all kinds of mystics and ex-mystics", including Leary.[18] Like later Harrison compositions such as "Here Comes the Sun", "So Sad" and "Blow Away", the lyrical and emotional content is based around metaphors involving the weather and the cycle of nature.[25] Harrison states in the opening lines of verse one: "Sunrise doesn't last all morning / A cloudburst doesn't last all day".[26]

According to Harrison biographer Simon Leng, the lyrics reflect "life's ephemeral character" and the "transitory" nature of love.[27] Inglis suggests that the song is "[o]stensibly" about "the end of a love affair".[21] He and theologian Dale Allison note the optimism offered in Harrison's words,[21][28] since, as Leng puts it, "a new day always dawns."[27] Although "All Things Must Pass" avoids religiosity, Allison writes that its statement on the "all-inclusive" transience of things in the material world explains why so much of its 1970 parent album, All Things Must Pass, "finds hope and meaning only in God, who does not pass away".[29] The song's main message is offered in its middle eight:[30][31]

Ultimately, the cycle of nature offers "consolation", Leng writes,[30] as further evidenced in the verse-three lines "Now the darkness only stays at night time" and "Daylight is good at arriving at the right time".[21]

The lyrics underwent minor changes after Harrison presented the song to the Beatles in January 1969, when they began working at London's Twickenham Film Studios for the so-called Get Back project (released as the Let It Be album and film).[32] He had initially written the second line of verse two as "A wind can blow those clouds away",[33] but John Lennon suggested the word "mind" to introduce a bit of "psychedelia" into the song.[34] Similarly, the repeated line "It's not always gonna be this grey" was originally "It's not always been this grey" in verses one and two.[35]

I got back to England for Christmas and then ... 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.[13]

On 2 January, day one of the Twickenham film shoot,[40] Harrison introduced "All Things Must Pass", and the band worked on the song intermittently over the next four days of filming.[41][42] In the search for a suitable musical arrangement, Harrison stressed his preference for a "feel" akin to the Band, a suggestion that resulted in Lennon switching from guitar to Lowrey organ, a keyboard favoured by the Band's Garth Hudson.[43] During the Twickenham rehearsals, the Beatles also discussed the idea of Harrison performing "All Things Must Pass" solo for inclusion in the proposed film.[44]

The Beatles never formally recorded "All Things Must Pass",[32] and only rehearsal takes circulate on bootleg compilations from the sessions.[53] The Fly on the Wall bonus disc accompanying the McCartney-instigated Let It Be... Naked album (2003) includes a snippet of the Beatles indulging in some Band-like chorusing on the song.[54]

During the Beatles' Apple Studio session on 28 January,[55] Harrison talked with Lennon and Ono about possibly doing a solo album of his unused songs, in order to "preserve this, the Beatle bit, more".[56] Lennon offered his support for the idea.[56] While author Bruce Spizer has suggested that Lennon was keen to "spare" the band from having to work on Harrison's songs,[57] Sulpy and Schweighardt consider that Lennon's enthusiasm was because such a solo project would allow him and Ono to continue their own recording activities "without causing friction within The Beatles".[55][nb 2]

On 25 February 1969, his 26th birthday, Harrison entered Abbey Road Studios alone and recorded a demo of the song, along with other recent compositions "Old Brown Shoe" and "Something".[59][60] With Ken Scott serving as engineer,[1] he recorded two takes of "All Things Must Pass", adding extra electric guitar onto the second.[32][61] This version was eventually released in 1996 on the Beatles' outtake collection Anthology 3.[32]

Soon after Harrison had begun talking publicly about making a solo album, during the final months of 1969,[62][63] he offered "All Things Must Pass", along with the more recent "My Sweet Lord", to Billy Preston for the latter's album Encouraging Words.[64][65] Through Harrison's invitation,[66] Preston had played keyboards for the Beatles once the Get Back/Let It Be sessions resumed at Apple Studio,[32][67] where the 22-year-old Texan had impressed with his superior musicianship and convivial presence.[68][69] Preston was soon offered a recording deal with Apple Records,[70] Encouraging Words being the second album under the contract.[71][72]

Co-produced by Harrison, Preston's reading of "All Things Must Pass" betrays an obvious debt to his former mentor, Ray Charles.[73] While Harrison's later recording is generally viewed as the definitive version,[74] Bruce Eder of AllMusic considers this treatment of the song the superior of the two.[75] Preston's version appeared in September 1970,[76] five months after the Beatles' break-up.[77]

While completing his production on Preston's release,[78] Harrison chose to record the song himself for what became the title track of his post-Beatles solo debut, the triple album All Things Must Pass.[79] In describing "All Things Must Pass" as a "haunting hymn about the mortality of everything", author Elliot Huntley notes the added poignance in Harrison's version, due to the death of his mother in July 1970 after a long period of illness.[80]

With Phil Spector as his co-producer, Harrison taped the basic track at Abbey Road Studios between 26 May and early in June.[81] Other participants included Clapton, German bassist Klaus Voormann and Starr, the latter another avowed Band fan.[82] Leng credits the song's piano part to Bobby Whitlock, who also sang backing vocals with Clapton,[27] his future bandmate in Derek and the Dominos.[83] In his 2010 autobiography, Whitlock states that it was Preston who played the piano on "All Things Must Pass", while his own contribution was pump organ, or harmonium.[84][nb 3] Although Leng lists both Harrison and Clapton as having played acoustic guitar and Starr and Jim Gordon on drums,[27] according to the personnel that Whitlock offers, neither Clapton nor Gordon played on the song.[87] Among the overdubs on the track, Nashville session musician Pete Drake recorded a pedal-steel guitar part during a brief visit to London,[88] to participate in sessions for Harrison songs such as "Behind That Locked Door" and "I Live for You".[89][nb 4]

Spector's erratic behaviour[92] during the All Things Must Pass sessions left Harrison to handle most of the project alone,[93][94] but in August 1970, after receiving a tape of Harrison's early mixes of the songs, Spector provided him with written feedback and guidance.[27] Spector wrote of "All Things Must Pass", "This particular song is so good that any honest [vocal] performance by you is acceptable as far as I'm concerned",[27] but he expressed his disapproval of the horns at the start of the track.[74] In the words of authors Chip Madinger and Mark Easter, "clearer heads prevailed" and Jim Price and Bobby Keys' horn parts were retained.[74]

3a8082e126