All Things Must Pass Recording
Despite having given "All Things Must Pass" to Billy Preston for his forthcoming album (released in September 1970), Harrison chose to record it himself for what would turn out to be the title song of his post-Beatle "masterpiece", All Things Must Pass. The basic track was taped early in June, judging by the appearance of Pete Drake on the session; other participants included Clapton and Starr, the latter another avowed Band fan. Harrison biographer Elliot Huntley describes "All Things Must Pass" as a "haunting hymn about the mortality of everything" and notes the added poignance in Harrison's version, due to the death of his mother in July 1970 after a long period of illness.
The recording opens with Bobby Whitlock's "unvaryingly steady" piano chords and "sensitive" string orchestration from John Barham, soon joined by Jim Price-arranged horns and Drake's country pedal steel guitar. This combination has received praise for providing the song with its rising and falling musical moods, implying variously light and darkness, mirroring the "competing impressions" of hope and melancholy found in Harrison's lyrics. Compared to the earlier readings, this version of "All Things Must Pass" has "a stateliness that avoids lugubriousness", in the words of Allmusic's Richie Unterberger. True to its Catskill roots, the song evokes The Band and their classic "The Weight", as well as their eponymous second album, the tracks on which were inspired, like "All Things Must Pass", by "the beauty of that autumn in Woodstock". Leng finds the strongest similarities between Harrison's songs from this period and Robbie Robertson's in the latter's "The Unfaithful Servant", the "sweet-and-sour" horn arrangement from which Harrison "recycled" on "All Things Must Pass".
Co-producer Phil Spector's erratic behaviour during the All Things Must Pass sessions left Harrison to handle most of the project alone, but after receiving a tape of early mixes of many of the songs, Spector provided him with written feedback and guidance. In contrast to the views of Lennon and McCartney the previous year, Spector wrote of "All Things Must Pass": "This particular song is so good that any honest performance by you is acceptable as far as I'm concerned ..." Spector expressed his disapproval of the horns at the start of the track, but, as authors Chip Madinger and Mark Easter have noted, "clearer heads prevailed" and Price and Bobby Keys' contributions were retained.
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