HI FI Times 1.6

HI FI Times 1.6

ALBUM REVIEW: George Harrison | All Things Must Pass

All Things Must Pass is comprised of two LP’s and a bonus disk aptly named “Apple Jam” that completes a box set. So, you say, THREE LP’s? Most of us would scoff at a two LP set and say that the band just couldn’t make the tough decisions that make for good editing. In many cases this might be true, brutally true. However in this case, I wish it were a 30 disc set, as the music here can never be equaled or duplicated. It was a magic time and he is the only one that could have captured the moment with this kind of vibrant immediacy. As music lovers, we are so glad he did it, and in retrospect, wonder how he did it. A band comprised of the likes of Dylan, Clapton, Dave Mason, Gary Wright, Billy Preston, and Phil Collins, the list goes on, but you get the idea. This is a time capsule, send it into space for the aliens to hear material.

Yup the hidden, silent, but really good looking Beatle gives it a push. The result is "All Things Must Pass" and my childhood, my half a grade and my full grade made sure that this played in the living room of a very clean place. It played loud and clear on the Sylvania stereo that matched the furniture.

Nothing in my teen age rip and pull could bring this emotion. "All Things Must Pass" was something more, something that existed outside of what was real, but so close to my heart that I knew it would never leave. My buddies were still tripping on Foreigner andStyx…

But I had moved on…There were other things that seemed more important but Harrison kept me close, so close that you would never know that you didn’t grow up with him in the other room next to you. People talk about where they were when they heard the news of the death of Lennon, and I still remember that fateful Monday night as I lay on the couch wondering if what I had just heard Howard say was true, but that is another story for another time. I will always remember when I heard the news of Harrison passing away on the radio, on Bell Red Road and I drove straight to Silver Platters and found Harrison’s place empty but he was playing on the speakers. I went to the counter and asked if I could buy the copy they were playing and the manager, who happened to be working the counter, said, “You want to buy MY copy?”

And I said, “Yes.”

He shook his head, punched ‘eject’ and said, “Ok, go ahead, but he doesn’t get a discount because it’s open!” I just laughed. As I drove out of the parking lot and back on to Bell-Red Road I had tears running down my face as if I had just lost a grandparent. I kept that CD in the player for about a month, and still to this day, the LP never gets old. In my darkest hours, my most tearful moments, I can play this and it will put me back on track, reset my goal meter, bring me back from the edge…

The problem with writing a review of this epic gem is where to start. When you have “Art of Dying” followed by “I Dig Love” followed by “All Things Must Pass” and we haven’t even heard the hit single yet, you know something special is going on. Of course by the “hit single” we are talking about “My Sweet Lord” second only to “KumByYa” as the most oft covered song in the white bread religious campfire circuit. But we have only just begun and the beauty is only beginning to show as “Hear Me Lord,” “Behind That Locked Door” “Let It Down” all unwind and cast the magic further into your head.

All that being said, there is one track I believe to be the crowning achievement of this gargantuan peak of rock and roll perfection. It does much to advance the history of music and lyrics and its effect on me cannot be measured. If an artist ever spoke to me, just me and only me, this is when it happened. And that is, “Beware of Darkness.” Watch out now… Listen to this more than once and you will never be the same again.

Catch you on the flip boys and girls. -mke