Wah-Wah (George Harrison Song) - Recording

Recording

McCartney's objection to having the release of his eponymous first solo album delayed until after Let It Be led to him announcing his departure from the band on 9 April 1970, and to Harrison finally deciding to make an album of his many unused songs from the Beatles' later years. He subsequently described the process of recording his songs with outside musicians as "a breath of fresh air". Shortly before starting work on the album, Harrison gave a radio interview to Village Voice reporter Howard Smith, and explained that, although he had some ideological differences with Lennon, his objection to any possible Beatles reunion was based solely on his musical differences with McCartney.

In the same 1970 radio interview, Harrison announced that he would be co-producing the album with Phil Spector, whose work on the Let It Be album had recently enraged McCartney. "Wah-Wah" was the first song taped for All Things Must Pass, recording for which began at Abbey Road Studios in late May that year. True to Spector's signature production style, a large group of musicians took part in the session, including Harrison and Eric Clapton on electric guitars, three members of Badfinger on acoustic rhythm guitars, Billy Preston and Gary Wright on keyboards, a horn section comprising Jim Price and Bobby Keys, and Ringo Starr on drums. Speaking in 2000 about this first session, Harrison recalled that the music sounded "great" in the room, "with all the acoustic guitars and the piano", but he was shocked during the playback when he heard how the track had been recorded by Spector – the latter having, in Leng's words, " his full armory of reverb-flooded production values". Harrison dismissed the result as "horrible", and recalled that when Clapton said he liked the way it sounded, he replied, "Well, you have it, then." Although Harrison "came to like it", he soon reverted to his original opinion that the song, like much of the album, was overproduced.

The recording begins with Harrison's circular guitar riff, described variously as "snarling", "bluesy" and "menacing", soon joined by Clapton's guitar, played through a wah-wah pedal. Leng suggests that the riff and the overall musical arrangement were influenced by the Delaney & Bonnie song "Comin' Home", following Clapton and Harrison's guest roles on the band's brief European tour in December 1969. "Wah-Wah" also features prominent percussion, including uncredited maracas and congas, and a "rollicking horn chart" from Price (another former Delaney & Bonnie sideman), particularly over the two "You don't see me crying / You don't hear me sighing" middle eights. Adding to the musical tension, Bill Janovitz of Allmusic notes, Harrison sings high in his range throughout, "almost drowned out" by Spector's Wall of Sound, which sees keyboards, horns and the many guitar parts "all fighting for attention" in the mix. At the three-minute mark, an instrumental break features soloing from Harrison's slide guitar and Keys' tenor sax – both parts, like the "George O'Hara-Smith" backing vocals, most likely overdubbed at Trident Studios in August or September 1970. The song ends on the single-chord main riff, following the release provided by the final "I don't need no wah-wah" lyric – thus " a virtual musical orgasm", as Huntley puts it – and fades out with the repeated "Wah-wah" falsetto refrain, along with low, tumbling notes from Gary Wright's piano, flourishes of slide guitar, and the sound of an engine changing gear.