Studio Three, EMI Studios, Abbey Road
Producers: George Harrison, Phil Spector
Engineers: Phil McDonald, John Leckie
Friday 29 May 1970 was the fourth recording session for George Harrison’s third solo album All Things Must Pass.
Three songs were worked on during this session, although none of the day’s attempts appeared on the album.
Harrison had recorded six takes of album opener ‘I’d Have You Anytime’ the previous day. He began this session by recording just one more, take 7, which became the album version.
Next up was ‘Art Of Dying’. Prior to take 1 Harrison asked Ringo Starr for a snare drum hit before the song began. He also called out some chord changes while playing, and in the third verse sang “desire to be a perfect cup of tea” instead of “desire to be a perfect entity”.
Nine takes were recorded, the last of which was temporarily chosen as the best, but ‘Art Of Dying’ was re-recorded in June and July 1970.
Harrison then recorded two solo takes of ‘Run Of The Mill’, featuring guitar and vocals. Take two was temporarily marked ‘best’, but again the song was later recorded afresh.
The final song of the day was ‘Isn’t It A Pity’. Just one take was recorded, with a full band. It had Klaus Voormann’s bass guitar on track one and Starr’s drums on two. Tracks three and four contained various guitars, and two pianos were on track five. Six had a Moog synthesizer, seven contained electric harpsichord and percussion, and Harrison’s vocals were on track eight.
We only had eight tracks so you couldn’t go mad. You were just restricted. You had to get the sound and mix it and make sure it was a good sound.