Why was Phil Collins cut from George Harrison’s debut album?
George Harrison was a fantastic guitarist and songwriter, not only as one of the contributing factors towards the Beatles but also in his own right. This was cemented following the release of his solo album All Things Must Pass.
The album wasn’t something he started working on when the band split up; rather, he had made small contributions throughout his time with the Beatles. Harrison was always writing, but many of the songs he came up with were dismissed by the band, whose sound was predominantly dominated by John Lennon and Paul McCartney’s compositions. He built a back catalogue of solo work, which meant getting the solo off the ground was pretty straightforward.
The album is filled with beautiful songs, one of which is ‘Art of Dying’. Harrison says the inspiration behind the song was his first experience with LSD, which he did with John Lennon. He once described this as a spiritual awakening and introduction to Hinduism. His embrace of Hinduism led to him embracing the idea of reincarnation, which spawned the song.
Harrison worked with several musicians when he was putting the album together. It was the first time he had total creative freedom on a project, so he was willing to use it. Open to collaboration, he called upon Genesis drummer Phil Collins and asked for help with ‘Art of Dying’.
A big fan and music fanatic, Collins was happy to help and so travelled down to Abbey Road studios to assist with the song. Harrison had him play the bongos on the song, an addition which never actually made it into the final cut. There was no specific reason Harrison cut Collins apart from the fact he just preferred the take they did without the bongos.
This was a blow to Collins as he had literally bled for the track. Producer Phil Spector had him repeat his take over and over again, to the point that he finished the session with blood blisters all over his hands. It also wasn’t the first time the Beatles had cut Collins as he had his scene removed from the Beatles movie A Hard Day’s Night when he was a kid.
A remastered version of the album was released in 2001, and Harrison credited Collins, but his take was still not on the album.
It’s hardly a surprise that Harrison made so many changes when recording his solo projects. He was a fantastic songwriter, responsible for ‘Let It Be’, ‘Twist and Shout’, and ‘Come Together’, but he was always in the shadow of Lennon and McCartney. As such, when he eventually had the reigns, he would always do what he wanted with them; it’s just a shame that it came at the expense of a Phil Collins bongo feature.
