Although best known as the title track of his 1970 solo triple album, George Harrison taped a solo demo of ‘All Things Must Pass’ in early 1969.
The recording took place on 25 February 1969, Harrison’s 26th birthday. During the session he also taped demos of ‘Old Brown Shoe’ and ‘Something’. All three demos were released on Anthology 3 in 1996.
Harrison wanted all three to become Beatles songs, although ‘Old Brown Shoe’ and ‘Something’ went on to be recorded by the group. ‘All Things Must Pass’ had also previously been put forward frequently during the Get Back/Let It Be sessions in January 1969; that it wasn’t recorded properly by The Beatles suggests that either the other members didn’t like the song, or that Harrison decided that they didn’t deserve it.
‘All Things Must Pass’ was the simplest of the 25 February demo recordings. Harrison recorded two takes, then added extra guitar onto the second.
The lyrics were based on a translation of part of chapter 23 of the Tao Te Ching. A translation was included in Timothy Leary’s 1966 book Psychedelic Prayers After The Tao Te Ching, under the heading “All Things Pass”:
All things pass
A sunrise does not last all morning
All things pass
A cloudburst does not last all day
Another Harrison song, ‘Isn’t It A Pity’, was demoed by Harrison on 26 January 1969 with the working title ‘George’s Demo’. The Beatles never recorded the song – it also emerged as a highlight on the All Things Must Pass album – although Ian MacDonald and Mark Lewisohn have suggested that Harrison also put forward the song during the Revolver sessions. This, however, does not tally with Harrison’s own recollections, in which he said the song was written after 1968.
I think I got [the title] from Richard Alpert/Baba Ram Dass, but I’m not sure. When you read of philosophy or spiritual things, it’s a pretty widely used phrase. I wrote it after [the Band’s 1968] Music From Big Pink album; when I heard that song in my head I always heard Levon Helm singing it!
Billboard
What a shame this song didn’t make a Beatles album. The same could be said for George’s Not Guilty as well.
Joseph I could not agree more . I didn’t even hear “Not Guilty” until the Anthology 3 was released and I could not BELIEVE that great song didn’t make any Beatles album !
I also regret that All Things Must Pass wasn´t recorded properly through the Get Back-sessions – but listening to some of the session recordings and the discussions my feeling is that George himself didn´t exactly know how he wanted the song to sound – he experimented with Lesley E-Guitar, mentioned that it might be better to play it on an acoustic guitar – and seemed to be quite undecided. John seemed to be completely uninterested in the song, but Paul was quite supportive, played a proper bass line and tried to add some accompanying vocals that certainly weren´t perfectly worked out – but at least he tried seriously.
I also do not understand why The Beatles didn´t pull out Not Guilty again … for Get Back (later Let It Be) or Abbey Road – they had invested a good 100 takes in the song – and the result was not bad at all.
It would have been a great addition to the Let It Be album (which only runs app. 35 minutes) – and Don´t Let Me Down was also left out incomprehensibly.
Agree – George played ATMP several times during the Get Back sessions (using a Wah-Wah), and although Paul tried to get used to it and made attemps to a 2nd voice it didn´t lead to anything usable … and I think George himself wasn´t sure how it should sound eventually … I remember a suggestion about using acoustic guitar (by George) … (John obviously wasn´t very much interested in Georges songs at all … dancing waltz with Yoko during I Me Mine …)
I think “Not Guilty” could also have been a great addition to the Let It Be-album … just as Across The Universe has been visited again during the sessions … they eventually took the 1968 recording of it.
They could have done the same with Not Guilty. I only heard this song first on the Sessions-bootleg in about 1986.
This is one of the songs, that i wished that we’re either recorded and put on Get Back or Abbey Road.
But, it came in a solo album.
Damn it, why The Beatles never recorded it.
Only that somebody want do a version trying to imitate the vocals of John, Paul and drumming or backing vocal of Ringo too.
But that’s just a dream.
It further vindicated GEORGE as a viable player in the songwriting duties of the group, and strengthened is need to get out, grow, flourish!
I’m glad the Beatles rejected it, or George didn’t let them have it!! What would his monumental solo album have become?!!!
All Things MUST Pass, Away!!!!
The Beatles did record this, but it was during the early rehearsals for GET BACK — i.e., the Twickenham sessions, after which they relocated to Apple to lay down a proper album. So the tapes I’ve heard are of mediocre fidelity, and the band’s haphazard attempts to conjure George’s paean to eternal cycles is marred by fumbling attempts to develop coherent parts on organ and bass by John & Paul, respectively, who fall flat as they repeatedly botch the anticipatory timing on the chorus and miss the bridge altogether — no offense to any of them; they were going through a tough time, as was much of the world that winter.
A version of this song exists with George, Paul & John’s chorus vocals and Ringo’s explosive drum fills artificially grafted onto George’s signature solo version, creating an “Imagine”d version that features an augmented Beatles ensemble.
The bit about the Leary prayer book is news to me, and I find it of particular interest given that George had previously harvested a kernel of inspiration for his song “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” from reading the I Ching, and that a couple years earlier John had derived “Tomorrow Never Knows” from the introduction to Leary’s interpretation of the Tibetan Book of the Dead called “The Psychedelic Experience”.
The Inner Light is also based on the I Ching.
“Only that somebody want do a version trying to imitate the vocals of John, Paul and drumming or backing vocal of Ringo too.”
The 2002 version at the Concert for George had Paul on lead vocals and acoustic guitar and Ringo on drums. That’s the closest we’re going to get.
Both ATMP and “Pity” were Harrison songs that stood up to anything Paul or John offered the Beatles in the later years. It is almost shameful that these songs were not judged on their merits (which would have justified their proper recording/release by the group) and instead were basically discarded due to internal conflicts, space limitations and because George wrote them. Neither John or Paul would concede songs to accomodate George’s growing number of superb songs. Abbey Road should have included Something, Here Comes the Sun, All Things Must Pass and possibly Isn’t It A Pity. It was a pity that the Beatles showed such disrespect to such fine songs. Thankfully, George got them released on his fantastic solo debut release.
That’s not very nice to say about John and Paul, because it’s not true, and why would they arbitrarily reject songs just because George wrote them? The writing credits and facts don’t add up.
Here are some hard facts: a) John and Paul never made any effort to routinely leave George’s songs off their albums or be the only writers for the group, b) George always got the songwriting credit on his songs, c) John called “Within You Without You” a great Indian one, d) Paul spoke highly of “The Inner Light” as early as 1968, e) John shared George’s dislike of The Hollies’ version of “If I Needed Someone” and f) George never tried to jeopardize John and Paul’s writing partnership, AFAIK, none of which matches the description of “unsupportive” bandmates.
Journalists and biographers can write what they like, but they can’t have their own facts, and I don’t believe that John and Paul had a problem with George writing songs per se – they just had to be suitable for inclusion on the records – so for all this nonsense about them being unsupportive of George’s songwriting, they never publicly maligned it in the press back in the day.
John himself stated that he encouraged George like mad and both he and Paul liked “Something”.
Most of what you wrote above is true – however if you take Georges many later comments about often feeling neglected by John and Paul (e.g. in the Anthology series, but also in other interviews) it shows that he was missing support for his songs and songwriting.
There´s a quote from George (from memory): “John and Paul were too busy being John and Paul …) – something like that.
I wonder if George had left the Get Back sessions at all … if they had seriously and properly rehearsed/recorded ATMP in Jan. 1969?
The only song by George they actually recorded was For You Blue … even I ME Mine was only seriuosly recorded a year later without John.
George himself was often very unsure about his songs, ATMP is a good example – he had the melody, the words and the chords … but needed support by his friends to work out a proper arrangement …
they failed and/or didn´t try hard enough.
Also a year later at the sessions for the tripple-LP ATMP he needed the input of his musicians (e.g. Eric Clapton) and producer Phil Spector to work out the great version we all know … and the remix of 2020 is even better (without spectors Wall of Sound).
What would you take off of Abbey Road for All Things Must Pass and Isn’t It A Pity.
I would substitute ATMP for Maxwell’s Silver Hammer, and Isn’t It A Pity for I Want You (She’s So Heavy).
that’s madness! I Want You is the best song on abby road!
Some one’s mad Ian, the Madness comes from you if you actually believe “I Want You” is the best song on Abby Road. Something easily is the best song.
I’m with you, Ian. I’d get rid of Octopus’s Garden.
The 2nd best imho – after Something …
If the LP’s time-limitations required cutting songs to accomodate Isn’t It A Pity and All Things Must Pass, then I would nominate Maxwell’s Silver Hammer and Sun King. There is nothing wrong with either song (though Sun King is far better), but IMO, the 2 Harrisongs I mentioned are better. It was clear that George wanted both songs – particularly ATMP – to be Beatles’ songs. Any song recorded by the group was money in the bank. Had those songs been properly recorded by the full band, they could have been placed on LPs or on singles and, like the rest of their output, would likely have been well-received and profitable. I guess it’s all a matter of personal preference, and who am I to second-guess the Beatles or George Martin. But we all have opinions – and these are mine.
Well, if you get rid of those songs and assume that neither Harrisong would have been on the B-side, unless you’d put one of the two in between You Never Give…and the medley, that would mean there would be 3 or 4 Harrisongs on the A side, 2 Lennons, 1 McCartney and 1 of Ringo’s. You just have to be realistic here, Paul would have the same number of songs on the A side as Ringo, I mean come on. The album worked out fine and the ATMP album was a better one with the inclusion of those two songs.
“Because” would have been a great song to exclude.
Maxwell’s Silver Hammer for one. Then if I were the producer I’d just add the above mentioned songs.
Why take anything off Abbey Road? add it to Let It Be.
Cheating. But I’d swap Maxwell for ATMP. And put Isn’t it a Pity on Get Back, or what later became Let it Be
Why do we have to take any of the songs off?
I would remove Maxwell’s Silver Hammer in a heartbeat. Perhaps Octupus’s Garden as a bonus!
Octopus’s Garden? That is one of the best songs on the album. Harrison’s guitar shines here!~ Plus it’s the only song Ringo wrote and sang on. He actually Co. wrote it with Harrison….
I’ve seen some who say “All things must pass” was from the Bible, but that doesnt’ really make sense. In Matthew, Jesus says,”…these things must COME to pass” which is a different meaning. All things must pass is talking not of things coming but of things going away.
You would REPLACE the epic, heavy, doom-laden masterpiece that is I Want You(she’s so heavy) w Isn’t It A Pity? That truly would be a pity. I think a strong argument could be made that “I Want You” represented John’s last great attempt at a “symphony to god” to paraphrase Brian Wilson. Never again in his life did he write and record a song with this kind of grandeur and ambition, where he was really aiming at creating something of grand, timeless art. You could say ‘Because’ but that’s same album so hard to say. Isn’t It A Pity isn’t even as good as “I Need You”, which I actually quite like. Def not worthy next to the stuff John and Paul were putting out at the time(although I’ll give you Maxwell and ick, Octopus’ Garden). Frankly I’m surprised Old Brown Shoe made the cut.
Hey Larry Yates…
Don’t know if it’s from the bible or not but the line (without the word `must’) is in this prayer from St. Theresa of Avila:
“Let nothing disturb you;
Let nothing frighten you,
All things pass away. God never changes.
Patience obtains all things.
He who has God,finds he lacks nothing.
God alone suffices.” Buy the way, I love the snippet of this on LIB Naked. The Beatles would have done a beautiful version.
God, I love this song. Although the Beatles didn’t put it on an album, I still love the version he released on his album. Love you, George!
I love this album. Love it! And I am so glad the Beatles didn’t release any of these tunes – they are perfect George.
If you don’t have the Album – get it. If you have listen to it again.
The opening of “Art of Dying” has anyone done anything close since?
(I know this is about the song, not the album – sorry Joe)
All Things should have a single disc. It is loaded with filler. George’s song writing was hit and miss. When he hit it was great, but he mostly missed.
I fully agree. George could some write wonderful songs, but he wasn’t as proficient or prolific at it as John and Paul were. Perhaps should have found a writing partner (?).
Seems like I read somewhere that George Harrison gave up on attempting to get the other Beatles to take this song seriously after John returned from the using the toilet facilities at the recording studio. John apparently stating, “All things must pass” upon his return…..which pissed off George and he never pushed the song again.
If you watch the new “Get Back” documentary, the four of them are rehearsing “All Things Must Pass” at Twickenham and John is playing the Lowrey organ.
This song should have been in “Let it Be”, not “Abbey Road”, I think. Changing ATMP for “Dig it” would be a great choice. This song is too good to be on the medley. Probably this song is better than most song of the A side, but I prefer any Abbey Road song (even Maxwell, which in fact I love) instead of Dig It.
ATMP should have opened Ab Rd as a mission statement with The End to say farewell. Something could then be moved to open George’s first album – this is clearly a George rather than a Beatles song
It’s ironic that they claimed to have a process of ruling out a song not all 4 of them liked.. and yet they all hated Paul’s granny songs, and John hated a lot of his own songs..
True but Paul’s granny songs sold records and made money, and John hated everything so how could one take his comments seriously?
So derogatory in calling them granny songs just because John Lennon said it. Talk about monkey see, monkey do, Beatles fans. Ironic that one of the few Beatles songs that real flesh and blood grannies in the sixties actually liked was In My Life. Perhaps Paul hated John’s message songs, which he dare not mention for fear of being crucified.
I believe that John mostly hated his own songs in retrospect. After 1970, he was most happy with his “message” songs and therefore disliked anything that “didn’t go anywhere.”
“The lyrics were based on a translation of part of chapter 23 of the Tao Te Ching.”
This is the English translation of chapter 23 Timothy Learys words could only be said to have been a reflection of that idea and not a translation.
*23. Words
Nature says only a few words:
High wind does not last long,
Nor does heavy rain.
If nature’s words do not last
Why should those of man?
Who accepts harmony, becomes harmonious.
Who accepts loss, becomes lost.
For who accepts harmony, the Way harmonizes with him,
And who accepts loss, the Way cannot find.*
The question ‘ why were ATMP and IIAP’ not on Abbey Road should be replaced by why were ATMP and IIAP not on Let it Be more like.
This is a powerful George Harrison composition. “All Things Must Pass”, “Isn’t It A Pity” etc would have made The Beatles last couple of albums stronger. I agree with what others are saying, but the plus side is that the”All Things Must Pass” album became the masterpiece that it is because of these and other great songs inclusions.It was turned to George’s advantage as he was up against it with the power structure the way it was in the band. As someone else said, “Not Guilty” another great track not included.This was not released until 1979’s “George Harrison” album. “All Things Must Pass” and “Beware of Darkness” are two of my favorite George Harrison songs.
I think it’s rather fortunate that the Beatles turned it down, even though I can’t fathom why. This way, we get a great Harrisong (and a nice title for a great album) instead of some odd B-side or something that no one hears. They might have come to their senses and made it a single, but then again, they might not. And considering their past propensity for not really bothering with George’s songs, it’s possible that they wouldn’t really have bothered with ATMP. Which is why I’d rather have a wonderful solo ATMP than a poorly recorded Beatles ATMP.
I think it’s pointless discussing which songs should have been left off any Beatles album, they are as they were meant to be and all 3 Beatles solo efforts benefited from the Beatles not using their songs, especially George. As much as i love George’s songs the reality is the band was built primary around Lennon / McCartney songs with George not significantly contributing until their 5th and 6th albums, by which time the Beatles had made it and were still on the way up, therefore it became habbit mixed with ego that kept George to around 2 songs per album, and as good as George became, he really only got there after Lennon / McCartney paved the way, by the time George was blossoming Lennon was damaged goods, and like McCartney and his ego or not, he more or less dragged them into the studio, had his finger on London’s pulse, and wrote the vast majority of the big A side singles which helped the Beatles stay on top of the world so to speak…i can’t imagine Abbey Road without I Want You, I have converted many people to the the Beatles with this song…Maxwell…i loved it as a young teenager, now at 45 I’m not add into it but admire it for its sound and example of how diverse the Beatles were & how the Beatles sounded different when Lennon didn’t contribute to recording sessions.
In pace and mood, and maybe even its chord structure, ‘All Things Must Pass’ sounds quite similar to ‘Let It Be’. The actual tunes and sentiments are quite different of course. I really enjoy both songs.
Great song and a great album by George. Probably a perfect insight into George’s handling of his own eventual death. Supposedly Ringo or Paul came to visit George expressing their sympathy and George told his former bandmate that it was okay, it’s (his body) only a shell. Hope I can be half as brave before I leave this existence.
Disagree that GH’s album “All Things Must Pass” is filled with filler. I think it’s the best solo album that any Beatle ever released, and a lot of Beatles fans feel the same. I would’ve placed this song and Pity on Let It Be. I actually think both tracks are better than I Me Mine and For You Blue. Same thing with Old Brown Shoe, which for me is the most underrated Beatles track ever.
I would put All Things Must Pass in place of The Long And Winding Road. Paul could then put a beautiful stripped down version on the McCartney album.
Thank you for mentioning George’s age here. When I think of how young they still were (especially George) when they broke up, I am am even more amazed at the immense volume of wonderful music they made together in a relatively short time.
While it might have been for the Beatles to have included more of George’s songs, the upside was that he had a stockpile of great songs when it came time to start his solo career. Also, I can’t really see the Beatles topping the majestic version of this song that appears on the ATMP album.
Might have been better for the Beatles, I mean
Agreed, it worked out brilliantly for George’s solo career as he had all these great songs ready to go in 1970, whereas Paul had little left in the locker.
I fully agree. George could write some wonderful songs, but he wasn’t as proficient or prolific at it as John and Paul were. Perhaps should have found a writing partner (?).
Why is this song even mentioned on this site since it wasn’t a Beatles song?
Because it’s on a Beatles album (Anthology 3), recorded while Harrison was in the Beatles. There’s also an All Things Must Pass page about Harrison’s solo, post-Beatles, recording.
To be honest — and I know it’s in the face of prevailing opinion here — I always found “All Things Must Pass” rather dull and ponderous. Perhaps a faster tempo and edgier sound might have brought it around?
Now, “Beware of Darkness,” “What Is Life?,” “Blow Away” — what epic Beatle songs those would have been!
Like George, I would have loved to have heard Levon Helm’s take on this. That guy could sing the phone book and make it sound real.
What I hear about ATMP is that the only reason it never made it to the rooftop performance was the fact George was concerned that his acoustic guitar would not be heard amongst all the other instruments and noise. This song was rehearsed like the other rooftop songs but was dropped at the last moment by George himself.
As far as I’m concerned, if any of Paul or John’s songs on the albums were supposedly disliked then they should have been replaced by Paul and John’s songs, if at all. Not George’s. It’s easy to look back in retrospect, but too many of George’s songs on the albums would have significantly altered the idiosyncratic appeal of the Beatles at that time. And for many people it still would. Let’s have some balance here. George had plenty of ego, make no mistake about that, and Paul’s ego is too easily mistaken for a strong work ethic.