‘All Things Must Pass’: The solo song that most deserved to be a Beatles track
The timing of The Beatles’ breakup couldn’t have been worse for their creative partnership together. They may have been pushed into different creative areas throughout the late 1960s, but looking at where they went on Abbey Road, they seemed to be reaching the kind of apex that no one could have imagined a standard rock and roll band could achieve, especially on the end of the record when they jumped into a medley of different tunes. But there are many moments in their solo careers that should have had the chance to be proper Fab tracks.
After all, none of them were going to simply shake off the remnants of their old band, but listening to their first solo ventures back to back, none wanted to repeat themselves. Ringo Starr’s Sentimental Journey was never going to be taken seriously by rock fans, but both Paul McCartney’s solo debut and John Lennon’s Plastic Ono Band showed them exploring their inner minds as they coped with everyone around them suddenly leaving.
Even though George Harrison was arguably the most successful Beatle out of the gate, his material seemed to be far too much at once. He was clearly a great artist on par with his bandmates, but hearing go from traditional rock and roll on ‘Wah-Wah’ to sweeping ballads like ‘Isn’t It A Pity’ to country tunes like ‘Behind That Locked Door’ could get downright disorienting for anyone listening to the album in full.
When combing through the material that all the members had to work with, there was bound to be some songs left over from the Beatle days. But while most of us would never get to hear what a fully reformed version of the Fab Four would have sounded like, some of those leftovers never deserved to be left on the cutting room floor.
So which Beatles solo songs were written before their breakup?
Like all great songwriters, none of their creative processes stopped, and listening to what they were doing in the background of the Get Back sessions, some of their greatest material was already rising to the surface. They had begun road testing songs like ‘Back Seat of My Car’, and the beginnings of tunes like ‘Jealous Guy’ off of Lennon’s Imagine could also be heard in the background.
In fact, if there’s one song that has a credit from nearly every Beatle, it’s ‘Gimme Some Truth’. Lennon had initially written the tune, but in the Get Back documentary, you can see Macca working with him to flesh out the song a bit more, and since Harrison played the guitar on the recorded version, all they needed was Starr’s drums for it to be considered a proper Beatles track.
But that was from the time when Lennon was getting into his politically minded material, which wouldn’t have fit towards the end of the band’s run. They needed something more heartfelt, and their final years could have made for the perfect opportunity to give Harrison some more time on the record with ‘All Things Must Pass’.
But why does ‘All Things Must Pass’ deserve to be a Beatles song?
Since the band had already rehearsed between the sessions for Get Back, they had a common idea of what the song was all about. It’s completely understandable why they eventually went with ‘Something’ and ‘Here Comes the Sun’ when making Abbey Road, but since Harrison was always the one who never got his fair share of credits, having him squeeze in one more song would be perfect with the rest of the band behind him.
There are even pieces from the rehearsals available to the public that sound like they would have been great. It’s clear that they were still feeling out the song to see what worked and what didn’t, but listening to McCartney start fleshing out the background vocals, it’s easy to see the kind of powerhouse that the song would become had they fine-tuned it a little bit more.
While the straightforward version that appears on Harrison’s debut does a great job at delivering the message, there would be a certain poetic justice in having it be one of Harrison’s final proper Beatles recordings. Let It Be would end up being the sad postscript for the band’s career once it was taken out of the vaults, but had this song been included, it would have served two purposes. It would remind fans of the genius that Harrison was turning into, and it would also deliver one final message that it was okay for them to move on with their lives outside of their old band’s shadow.
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