The George Harrison solo hit that almost went to Billy Preston
Billy Preston and George Harrison had a strong bond throughout the early 1970s. Preston first befriended Harrison and his fellow Beatles in the early 1960s as they both gigged around Hamburg, Germany. Years later, Preston accompanied the band during their Get Back sessions, eventually contributing to albums like Let It Be and Abbey Road.
The collaboration wasn’t one way either. Harrison helped get Preston signed to Apple Records and produced his debut on the label, That’s the Way God Planned It. Harrison acted in the same capacity for Preston’s follow-up, Encouraging Words, and Preston was one of the many celebrity guests who helped Harrison complete his own debut solo album, All Things Must Pass.
One of the highlights of All Things Must Pass is ‘What Is Life’, the energetic rocker featuring some of Harrison’s most inspired guitar and lyric work. The song is a rare one on All Things Must Pass that doesn’t feature Preston, with organ work instead falling to future Derek and the Dominos keyboardist Bobby Whitlock. However, if Harrison had his way originally, ‘What Is Life’ would have fully belonged to Preston.
“‘What Is Life’ was written for Billy Preston in 1969,” Harrison explained. “I wrote it very quickly, fifteen minutes or half an hour maybe, on my way to Olympic Studios, London, when I was producing one of his albums. Because of the situation, at the session, it seemed too difficult to go in there and say, ‘Hey I wrote this catchy pop song’ while Billy was playing his funky stuff. I did it myself later on All Things Must Pass.”
Toward the end of his life, Harrison was preparing to release a reissue of All Things Must Pass when he discovered a rough mix of ‘What Is Life’. The version found included brass and horn arrangements that differed from the ones on the final mix, possibly showing what the song would have sounded like with Preston taking the lead.
“When we were going through all the tapes, I just found this version that was like a rough mix on which I tried having this piccolo trumpet player like the guy who played on ‘Penny Lane’,” Harrison told Billboard. “It wasn’t actually the same bloke, but I wanted that sound. So I had an oboe and a piccolo trumpet, and I had this part for them all written out, but they couldn’t play it the same; they couldn’t do this this kind of ‘hush’ phrase, and they played it very staccato like a classical player. So I must have just recorded them on it, then rough mixed it, and then ditched that.”
“And as I was saying earlier, most of it was live,” Harrison added. “I hadn’t done the vocal overdub because I’m playing the fuzz guitar part that goes all through the song. So all I could do on the take was to give the band the cue line – the first line of each verse – and then go back to playing that riff. So that rough mix without the vocal – I’d forgot all about it – was a novelty I found.”
Check out ‘What Is Life’ down below.
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