All Things Must Pass (song) - Release and Reception

Release and Reception

Almost two years after Harrison originally wrote the song, "All Things Must Pass" was released in November 1970, closing side three of the triple album in its original LP format. Acknowledging the extended recording history of the song and its critical acclaim on release, Madinger and Easter write that " wait was well worth it" for this "fine" composition. Beatles Forever author Nicholas Schaffner noted in 1977, with reference to Harrison's commercial and critical dominance over his former bandmates following the break-up: "The very fact that the Beatles had kept George's flowering talents so under wraps proved to be his secret weapon." Schaffner named "All Things Must Pass" and "Beware of Darkness" as the two most "eloquent" songs on the album, "musically as well as lyrically", with "mysterious, seductive melodies, over which faded strings and horns hover like Blue Jay Way fog". The song's title was invariably seen as Harrison's statement on the demise of the band.

On release, Ben Gerson of Rolling Stone described "All Things Must Pass" as "eloquently hopeful and resigned" while labelling the album "the music of mountain tops and vast horizons". Writing for the same publication thirty years later, Anthony DeCurtis praised the song for its musical demonstration of “the sweet satisfactions of faith”. In his book on Harrison, subtitled A Spiritual Biography, Gary Tillery refers to the song as "magisterial" and a "majestic title track" that "leaves even the shallowest listener contemplative". To Simon Leng, "All Things Must Pass" is "a classic of Harrison's lyrical ambiguity, in essence a hopeful song, without sounding so", with a lyric that "approaches Bob Dylan standard". Ian Inglis also praises the lyrics, writing: "The song contains some of Harrison's most insightful and pensive words. 'Daylight is good at arriving at the right time' is a fine example of his ... ability to position the profound within the commonplace."

Elliot Huntley rates "All Things Must Pass" as one of Harrison's "most beautiful" songs, "if not the very best", and the "centrepiece" of its parent album. Huntley questions why it wasn't sequenced as the closing track to All Things Must Pass and adds: "In its sentiments, the song would actually have been an equally fitting conclusion to Abbey Road."

On a triple album where "nearly every song is excellent", Allmusic picks "All Things Must Pass" as one of five standout tracks (or AMG Track Picks). Bruce Spizer rates the song as a "highlight" of Harrison's career, while Leng goes further by declaring it "perhaps the greatest solo Beatle composition" of all.

In his acclaimed book Revolution in the Head, Ian MacDonald describes "All Things Must Pass" as "the wisest song never recorded by The Beatles".