George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass 50th Anniversary Edition Due on August 6th Via Capitol/Ume

By Harvey Kubernik Copyright 2021 

Recorded and released in the wake of The Beatles’ April 1970 dissolution, George Harrison’s landmark solo album, All Things Must Pass, is a fully realized statement by a bold and audacious artist. Produced by Harrison and Phil Spector, the 23-track All Things Must Pass stands tall a half century later as an epic, ambitious expression of Harrison’s remarkable gift for sheer songcraft, powerful spirituality and a celebration of both his inimitable individuality and unique camaraderie with his fellow musicians.

All Things Must Pass was an overdue artistic release for George as a songwriter and musician. The first-ever triple studio album, All Things Must Pass overflows with a voluminous range of ideas, musical styles and influences, spanning rock ‘n’ roll, country, gospel, blues, pop, folk, R&B, Indian classical music, and devotional songs. Despite the album being wildly successful and Harrison’s affection for it, he would write in the liner notes for the 30th anniversary remaster, released in 2001, “I still like the songs on the album and believe they can continue to outlive the style in which they were recorded,” adding however, “it was difficult to resist re-mixing every track. All these years later I would like to liberate some of the songs from the big production that seemed appropriate at the time”.

Decades in the making and lovingly crafted by the Harrison family, All Things Must Pass has now been completely remixed from the original tapes for a stunning suite of 50th anniversary releases that fulfills Harrison’s longtime desire. Executive produced by Dhani Harrison, product produced by David Zonshine and mixed by triple GRAMMY® Award-winning engineer Paul Hicks (The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, John Lennon), the new mix transforms the album by sonically upgrading it - making it sound brighter, fuller and better than ever before.

Releasing August 6 via Capitol/UMe, All Things Must Pass 50th Anniversary Edition will be available in a variety of formats:

Exclusive to GeorgeHarrison.com, uDiscover, and Sound of Vinyl, All Things Must Pass 50th Anniversary Edition will be available as a very limited Uber Deluxe Edition box set, which includes the album on 8LP (180g) and 5CD + 1 Blu-ray audio disc housed in an artisan designed wooden crate (approx. 12.4” X 12.4” X 17.5”). The collection explores the 1970 album sessions through 47 (42 previously unreleased) demos and outtakes, offering an inside look into the creative process. The Blu-ray allows fans to experience the main album in high-res stereo, enveloping 5.1 surround sound and Dolby Atmos mixes.

The crate contains two books, an elaborate and expanded 96-page scrapbook curated by Olivia Harrison, with unseen imagery and memorabilia from the era, handwritten lyrics, diary entries, studio notes, tape box images, a comprehensive track-by-track and more; while a second 44-page book chronicling the making of All Things Must Pass through extensive archival interviews with notes is also contained herein. The elegantly designed book pays homage to Harrison’s love of gardening and nature. The book also contains a wooden bookmark made from a felled Oak tree (Quercus Robur) in George’s Friar Park. This truly unique box will also contain 1/6 scale replica figurines of Harrison and the gnomes featured on the iconic album cover, a limited edition illustration by musician and artist Klaus Voormann, as well as a copy of Paramahansa Yogananda’s “Light from the Great Ones” and Rudraksha beads, contained in individual custom-made boxes. 

 The Super Deluxe Edition box set, presented on 8LP (180g) or 5CD + 1 Blu-ray audio disc, explores the 1970 album sessions through 47 (42 previously unreleased) demos and outtakes. The Blu-ray allows fans to experience the main album in high-res stereo, enveloping 5.1 surround sound and Dolby Atmos mixes. The collection contains a beautiful 60-page scrapbook curated by Olivia Harrison, with unseen imagery and memorabilia from the era, handwritten lyrics, diary entries, studio notes, tape box images, a comprehensive track-by-track and more. It also includes a replica of the original album poster. 

All Things Must Pass will be released in multiple physical and digital configurations, including as a 5LP or 3CD Deluxe Edition that pairs the main album with the sessions outtakes and jams. The main album will be available on its own as 2CD, 3LP or limited edition 3LP color vinyl. All versions are available for pre-order now.

"Since the 50th anniversary stereo mix release of the title track to my father’s legendary All Things Must Pass album in 2020, my dear pal Paul Hicks and I have continued to dig through mountains of tapes to restore and present the rest of this newly remixed and expanded edition of the album you now see and hear before you,” says Dhani Harrison.

“Bringing greater sonic clarity to this record was always one of my father’s wishes and it was something we were working on together right up until he passed in 2001. Now, 20 years later, with the help of new technology and the extensive work of Paul Hicks we have realized this wish and present to you this very special 50th Anniversary release of perhaps his greatest work of art. Every wish will be fulfilled."

The All Things Must Pass sessions began just six weeks after the April 1970 announcement of The Beatles’ break-up. Two days were spent recording thirty demos in Studio Three at EMI Studios, Abbey Road in St. John’s Wood, London. The first day, May 26, saw Harrison record fifteen songs backed by Ringo Starr and his longtime friend, bassist Klaus Voormann, beginning with “All Things Must Pass.” The next day, May 27, George played an additional fifteen songs for co-producer Phil Spector. The All Things Must Pass Uber and Super Deluxe Editions collects all 30 of these remarkable demo recordings, including 26 tracks never before officially released and several songs that didn’t make the album like “Cosmic Empire,” “Going Down To Golders Green,” “Dehra Dun,” “Sour Milk Sea,” and “Mother Divine.”

The scope of Harrison’s songwriting remains breathtaking – his deeply personal introspection and striking wit is matched by the album’s boldly extravagant production. With its densely orchestrated textures and eclectic embrace of myriad genres, Harrison and Phil Spector’s groundbreaking sonic approach set a grand blueprint for countless artists to follow.

 George had been stockpiling material for nearly half a decade, with a number of songs – including “Isn’t It A Pity” and the title track – rehearsed with, but not recorded by, The Beatles. Further songs evinced Harrison’s growing frustration over those preceding years, including “Wah-Wah,” the dramatic “Beware of Darkness,” and “Run Of The Mill,” the latter named by both George and Olivia Harrison as one of their all-time favorites.

Written by George while producing Billy Preston’s 1969 Apple Records solo debut but saved for his own album a year later, the glorious “What Is Life” highlights the artist at his most exultant. At the album’s heart were songs like “My Sweet Lord,” “Awaiting On You All” and the impassioned “Hear Me Lord,” each of which epitomized Harrison’s lifelong inner journey.

 An anthem weaving a chant of the Hare Krishna mantra and “hallelujah,” “My Sweet Lord” proved a worldwide smash upon its November 1970 single release, making history as the first solo single by a former Beatle to reach #1 in the UK or the US. Inducted into the GRAMMY® Hall of Fame in 2014, the indelible anthem of spiritual and religious unity has remained one of the world’s most beloved songs, named among the “Greatest Songs of All Time” by both Rolling Stone and NME. Last year saw a limited edition clear vinyl 7″ of “My Sweet Lord” released by the George Harrison Estate in partnership with Record Store Day‘s Black Friday event on November 27, 2020 – the official 50th anniversary of All Things Must Pass’ original release.

Harrison's close friendship with Bob Dylan begat two songs: the album-opening “I’d Have You Anytime” was co-written with Dylan, while the classic “If Not For You” was at the time an unreleased Dylan composition. The All Things Must Pass Super Deluxe Edition includes previously unreleased demo recordings of both songs as well as “Nowhere To Go” and “I Don’t Want To Do It,” another original Dylan song later recorded by George for a 1985 soundtrack but remains unrecorded by Dylan himself.

George brought together a stunning roster of friends and fellow musicians to record All Things Must Pass, including Ringo Starr, Klaus Voormann, and Billy Preston, along with Eric Clapton and his new American bandmates, Carl Radle, Bobby Whitlock, and Jim Gordon (soon to be known collectively as Derek and the Dominoes). Badfinger’s Pete Ham, Tom Evans, Joey Molland, and Mike Gibbons contributed additional acoustics and percussion. Phil Spector’s desire for multiple pianos, layers of acoustic guitars, and more drums saw the addition of Peter Frampton and Jerry Shirley from Humble Pie, Spooky Tooth’s Gary Wright, Plastic Ono Band veteran and future Yes drummer Alan White, Traffic’s Dave Mason, Procol Harum’s Gary Brooker, and the in-demand horn section of Bobby Keys and Jim Price. Pete Drake, legendary Nashville session musician provided pedal steel guitar on several tracks. Arrangements for strings and horns came from longtime collaborator John Barham.

The original release of All Things Must Pass collected 18 songs over two LPs alongside a third LP – dubbed “Apple Jam” – showcasing four improvised instrumentals including a pair recorded as part of Derek and the Dominoes’ first ever official recording session in June 1970. In addition, the “Apple Jam” disc includes “It’s Johnny’s Birthday,” sung to the tune of Cliff Richard’s 1968 hit “Congratulations” and recorded as a gift from Harrison to mark John Lennon’s 30th birthday.

The All Things Must Pass session tapes created in 1970 include over twenty-five hours of music on forty-nine 1” eight-track tapes, four 2” sixteen-track tapes, and forty-four ¼” stereo tapes. Richard Radford, Archivist for the George Harrison Estate oversaw the preservation of the tape collection, with the original analog multi-track and stereo tapes transferred to 192 KHz/24bit digital preservation copies.

Upon initial release on November 27, 1970, the triple-LP topped the sales charts around the world and George became the first Beatle to have a solo number one single in both UK and America with the album’s initial single, “My Sweet Lord.” Harrison penned the album’s opening track, “I’d Have You Anytime” with Bob Dylan, who also wrote another song on the album, “If Not For You.”

There are recurrent and still relevant lyrical themes on All Things Must Pass reflecting Harrison’s spiritual quest: “Isn’t It a Pity, “My Sweet Lord,” “What is Life,” “Hear Me Lord,” ‘Wah-Wah’ and “Beware of Darkness,” his ongoing devotion in Hindu religious mythology, the Hare Krishna movement, Indian classical music, and southern gospel, gleaned from George’s relationship with members of Delaney & Bonnie and Friends.

It was in January 1970 when Harrison extended an invitation to record producer/songwriter Phil Spector to participate in the recording of John Lennon’s Plastic Ono Band single “Instant Karma!”

This association subsequently led to Spector being asked to salvage the Beatles’ Get Back rehearsal tapings, eventually issued in 1970 as the Let It Be album, and then co-producing All Things Must Pass, after Phil heard Harrison’s demos at George’s Friar Park home.
The black and white album cover photograph was snapped on a lawn at Friar Park by Barry Feinstein.

All Things Must Pass was shipped to retail outlets the last week of November 1970.

Reviewer Richard Williams in Melody Maker enthusiastically touted the endeavor as “the rock equivalent of the shock felt by pre-war moviegoers when Garbo first opened her mouth in a talkie: Garbo talks!-Harrison is free.”

In addition, Williams wrote another review for The Times, suggesting that of all the Beatles’ solo releases available, Harrison’s album “makes far and away the best listening, perhaps because it is the one which most nearly continues the tradition they began eight years earlier.”

“When All Things Must Pass came out I sat down and listened to it for 3 days,” record producer/author/and deejay Andrew Loog Oldham told me in a November 2020 telephone call. “It was the first album that sounded like one single.”

“Spector’s Wall of Sound has always sounded to me like a gesture of optimism fitted to an optimistic time,” indicates poet/writer and deejay Dr. James Cushing.

“Spector's early hit records --Crystals, Ronettes, Darlene Love, the Xmas album -- all seem to want to evoke a response like this from the listener: Here we are, just kids living in a world made by and for adults, and to the adult world, our romantic feelings for each other are trivial, private, childish moods we'll outgrow. However, to us, these feelings are massive, mythic, life-sustaining moments of energy and grace, and Spector's 3-minute teen operas capture and magnify those moments in the public arena. ‘Da Doo Ron Ron’ confirms our emotional existence in an adult world that denies it.

“The public instantiation of private feeling. Hence the undercurrent of triumph in the songs, even ‘You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling’ by the Righteous Brothers (my personal all-time favorite Philles records thing). A private plea, a ‘moment of poignant longing,’ yes -- but made to sound as massive & monumental as it feels... and we get to join in the singing.”

 Ken Scott first started engineering for the Beatles in the middle of their Magical Mystery Tour album and behind the board on the mix for “I Am The Walrus.” He then EQ'ed the master mix tape of “Hey Jude” and subsequently engineered the Beatles’ White album.

“I know one of my own original things going into engineering is that I wanted to be a backroom boy,” Scott reminisced to me in a 2011 interview.

“I didn’t have the confidence or the desire to sort of be in the public eye or to be known or anything like that. I know it was a conscious effort on my part to do it that way. When I was at school working with the drama society I didn’t want to be on stage. I wanted to be in the back helping to move everything along.

“Yes there were some blowups on the Beatles’ White album but not as many as people believe. There really weren’t. But the majority of the time it was fine.

“On that album George Harrison was really coming into his own. During that period they were laying down the tracks and playing together, sorting out the arrangements together. It was all good. Obviously whoever wrote the song had more sort of sway over ideas than the others did. It was very much a group effort.

“Generally speaking the others would filter out whilst whoever’s song it was worked on the finished thing. And it was like that for all of them. You knew that it would go a lot quicker with John than it would with Paul or George. Vocals would take the longest with Ringo. (laughs). Especially ‘Good Night.’

“It was pretty much the same for all of them. I think very much the difference, writing wise, for George, was that he was on his own. Even during the White album there were times when Paul and John would interact on how a song should be. But George didn’t have any of that. It was all him. And he didn’t initially have the confidence in his songs. Even at the White album stage. Yes, he was coming up with incredible stuff. He didn’t know it yet. He was writing more for other people,” volunteered Scott.

“If you think about it, he gave ‘My Sweet Lord’ away to Billy Preston. There was something he wanted to give away to Jackie Lomax. He didn’t have the confidence within himself to do those songs. Like ‘Not Guilty,’ even then, we never completed it. We never really got it to the point where it was even sort of even considered going on the album.

“And the fact that Trident had 16- track. There was a technical side to it as well. ‘I don’t want to work at Abbey Road studios. ‘I want to work with Ken…’ It wasn’t quite like that. It worked out very well for both of us I think,” added Ken.

“Like Abbey Road, the control room at Trident was still above the studio where we were looking down. So it was very much like Abbey Road number 2 studio in design. They were both great studios. There was something for me about number 2, the history of it. The whole thing. No matter how many times I go there I would stand at the top of those stairs and the hairs on the back of my neck would stand up. For me personally it has such a feeling. It’s amazing.

“Comparing the two studios… Trident was much more laid back. It was young people. It wasn’t the old people who ran Abbey Road. For musicians, Trident was a place to hang out. Whereas Abbey Road you only went in there when you had to kind of thing. Technically you could actually look at it like tape machine manufacturers. You got Studer. Who wouldn’t put in a tape machine 100 per cent up to their standards. That was Abbey Road. They wouldn’t put in any new gear in until it was 100 per cent up to their standards. So they got behind the curve.

“Whereas as Trident was more like every other tape machine manufacturer. They’d rush it out as fast as possible and to hell with the consequences. ‘We’ll fix it later.’ They would get in the latest gear and if something went wrong with it then they’d figure it out as it went along kind of thing.

“What did happen as long as it was of the only 8-track studio in London one even noticed, it was only when there was a second studio with 8-track that some people couldn’t book time at Trident. ‘Someone else is in there and we’ll take our tapes and go to studio number two and mix it there.’ They’d get it there and suddenly find out that all of the voices were squeaky.”

There is one other sonic factor informing All Things Must Pass as well as the entire recorded catalog of the Beatles at Abbey Road that can be traced to an important piece of equipment on the premises.

Richard Bosworth is a Beatles scholar and veteran music producer/engineer. During 2020 Bosworth produced and engineered a new album by Johnny Rivers at Capitol Studios in Hollywood.

In 1991 Bosworth oversaw a Hollies recording session at Abbey Road Studio and illuminates one reason why recordings by the Beatles, particularly their vocals, sounded so otherworldly since 1963. Bosworth points to an item engineers utilized capturing their vocals and group harmonies.

“Abbey Road had a unique wind screener pop filter closer to the microphone where certain sounds would become very powerful and actually collapse the microphone capsule, an EMT 140 plate with tube electronics. You could get the vocalist closer to the microphone and a more in-your-face sound. They came up with a metal windscreen that had two different screens and two different meshes on them and different physical angles, where the one metal mesh was rounded and one was flat.

“The patterns of the mesh were diagonal to each other, bolted tight onto the microphone, made with custom metal for Abbey Road. People started noticing quickly that moisture would get on the microphone capsule and you’d have to replace the capsule. Any pop filter changes anything to a certain extent. Unlike screen pop filters made out of foam, these were made out of metal and certainly not dampening high end. Those are unique. Trident was built in 1968 and had them as well.”

 “Listening right now to All Things Must Pass, I pronounce myself impressed all over again,” declared Dr. James Cushing.

“The album’s blend of an epic Phil Spector orchestral sweep and the intimacy of Harrison’s voice is the key to the album’s paradox, and why the music holds up (mostly) after half a century, because it’s as big as the Beatles ever wanted to be, bigger than Shea Stadium, while it’s also George taking you aside and speaking to you privately about important matters. George turned 27 in February 1970, the year the album was recorded, and for a man that age to have put these forces together into one package and gotten it to the top of the charts is enough for undisputed Classic Rock Hall of Fame status.

“My only reservations involve 1) the influence of ‘Hey Jude’ on some of the tracks, whose endings just go on too long. ‘Isn’t It a Pity’ on vinyl side one is not the only example. Some editing / tightening of playing time would not have hurt anything.     

          2) The last two cuts on the vinyl Side Four, ‘Isn’t It a Pity — Version Two’ and ‘Hear Me Lord,’ have always sounded like filler to me, as though they had 70mins but needed 80. 3) Just as ‘A Day in the Life,’ ‘All You Need Is Love,’ ‘Goodnight,’ ‘The End,’ and ‘Get Back’ were all inevitably right last cuts on their respective Beatles albums, ‘All Things Must Pass’ ought to have been the last track on this! The whole album is leading up to it, and the songs that follow are overshadowed. This is especially true on the CD edition, where the sexy ‘I Dig Love’ comes jarringly right after ‘All Things Must Pass,” underlined Cushing.

“I also want to stand up for ‘Apple Jam,’ which I enjoyed enormously over Xmas 1970 and I’m enjoying almost as much right now.

“Three of the four long jams are built around the Delaney and the Dominos rhythm section of Jim Gordon, Carl Radle, and Bobby Whitlock, who keep the grooves going as well as they did for Derek. Dave Mason, EC, and GH are the guitarists on ‘Thanks for the Pepperoni’ and ‘Plug Me In’ (this jam lasting only 3:17). Two horns and a second keyboard are added to this lineup on “Out of the Blue,” which doesn’t quite earn its eleven minute playing time. The fourth jam, ‘I Remember Jeep,’ is just fine: Ginger Baker on drums, Klaus Voorman on bass, Billy Preston on piano, EC sounding especially inspired on guitar, and GH beeping and whooshing on his Moog.

“Its best moments of guitar/drum rub recall Cream. I say ‘almost’ because I hadn’t yet heard much electric jazz then — no Larry Coryell, no Tony Williams Lifetime, no Herbie Mann with Sonny Sharrock, no In a Silent Way or Bitches Brew — so I had nothing to compare it to.

“My estimation of this music changed radically after hearing the Mahavishnu Orchestra in early 1972. Nevertheless, I insist that the rock ’n’ roll dance beat of ‘Thanks for the Pepperoni’ is still a gas, and I’m glad they included it.”

“The very first thing I can recall about All Things Must Pass was it cost me (actually, truth be told, it cost my dear grandmother) a whopping $7.99 Canadian! ...and that was still after Sam the Record Man's gigantic in-store, pre-Xmas deep deep discount," recalls frugal-as-ever shopper Gary Pig Gold.

"And even though Capitol/Apple's enticing shrink wrap sticker boasted '3 LP's For The Price Of 2 Including Full Color Poster' – the 'free' LP being Side 5 and 6's Apple Jam ...and no, I doubt I played it more than once either – that big 23-by-35-inch image of George stayed stuck to the inside of my bedroom door clear through the arrival of the Imagine album's Tittenhurst piano-white poster, causing many over thirty in my household to repeatedly exclaim 'Oh my, who is that scary looking old man??'

"All domestic aesthetics aside, ATMP was in fact the first Box Set to proudly become part of my collection, and each Harrisong's pretty holier-than-me lyric reprinted upon its dust sleeves point quite directly towards the similarly boxed vinyl Jesus Christ Superstar due just a little later, if I may draw such a parallel. But when all was said and sung, strictly secularly speaking this great big George box remains every bit as weighty – literally, historically and socio-musically today as it did as 1970 became '71 ...while the man's fellow ex-Fabs were still busy crooning about getting on yer feet and entering the streets, taking a morning bath and wetting hair, and not shouting or leaping about may I remind everyone.

"The deceptively Quiet Beatle did indeed have a LOT boxed up to get off his chest and onto tape after at least a half-decade of being, as he most revealingly explained to Dick Cavett at the time, 'subtly sat upon' by Messrs. Lennon, McCartney and Martin.

“As a result the melodies were absolutely astounding, the chords beneath surprisingly serpentine, and as noted the lyrical sentiments were much more often than not perceptive, profound, and deeply penetrating to the extreme. All the better then to be sonically supported by Phil Spector's equally sweeping Wall of Sounds; wholly suitable productions which today remain even more unique and, yes, spectacular ...especially when A/B'd against those comparatively anemic mixes on the re-issued album's 30th anniversary bonus material.

“Thank God, or Whomsoever, George resisted, as I quote his 2001 threat of, 'remixing every track to liberate the songs from the big production that seemed appropriate at the time but now seems over the top.' Really, George? May I just say those gorgeous, big productions tower proudly over what could have been diluted via, for example, your pal Jeff Lynne ...perish the very thought.

"Now it could be argued by some, myself included, that George never again approached the pomp or majesty of All Things Must Pass (perhaps he shouldn't have used up all his best material on his first post-split release?) and along with – for entirely different rhymes and reasons of course – John Lennon's Plastic Ono Band it remains one of the special few long-players that can still stand loudly and proudly alongside... oh, say, Rubber Soul, Revolver, or even Beatles VI.

“Yes, it was in 1970 the sound and sentiment of a man, and musician, demonstrating among many other things just how sweet life can be by setting oneself free. And it all still sounds every single bit as lustrous and liberating – not to mention unquestionably box-worthy – as 2020 now becomes 2021. Let it continue to roll into the night."

 “I don’t think there has been a more influential Guitarist to me than George Harrison,” guitarist Steve Lukather of Toto emailed me in 2020. “HE was the on switch to my ears being glued to ' that sound.’ Plus he looked so cool like they all did.

“I was bitten by Beatles fever like everyone else my age, 63 now, and it never stopped. Had you told then told me I would have worked with 3 of them and That Ringo would be a close friend in life... I would have said ‘Yeah and the first man on Venus as well.’

“George's compositions always stood out as he had his own style. All The Beatles did, but All Things Must Pass was HIS record filled with songs he may have held back and or was not allowed to flush out. I don’t know I wasn't there. He told me many wonderful stories cause I KNOW which songs He played on and Paul and John and I have studied those records like the Holy Grail.

“A wonderful side bar is I was honored enough to meet him in 1992 and we had a great but short great friendship. He gave me a signed copy of Paramahansa Yoganadna’s Autobiography of a Yogi.

“I heard ' Free as a Bird' before it came out. He jammed with us at the Jeff Porcaro tribute in '92 and I never thought he would show up!  He did and he was so kind to me.. I could write so much more.... but there is a LOT of deep soul music in those grooves. ‘What is Life’ is a fave. SO many.

“The jam sides are fun too but Georges songs were way ahead of his time. Like he was... 

God Bless George and his family, also wonderful people.”

“In 2002, my two oldest and closest childhood friends both lost their dads,” lamented author Lonn M. Friend in a 2020 correspondence.

“We grew up together in the San Fernando Valley, discovered music via the Beatles in the 60s and came of age as our rock n’ roll imaginations flowered in the 70s. When I arrived for each of their pop’s funerals at the same local hillside mortuary, I had the same condolence gift in my hand. George Harrison All Things Must Pass Remastered. 2 CD box set US Capitol 2001. Made sense.

“We grieve best through the yarns of our youth. ‘Beware of Darkness,’ ‘My Sweet Lord,’ ‘Isn’t it a Pity?’ and the apocryphal title track fit the ceremony in message and mood.  Melodic psalms for the fond farewell; insight before the last flight; all things must pass, all things must pass away. Did the Rabbi really say it or was I projecting? Can’t argue with that spiritual logic.

“Beatle George the Taoist mystic, the six string seeker, found his ephemeral groove while the world was still healing from the death of the most fabulous foursome pop culture ever knew. Both elders left behind loving wives. ‘What is a life without your love?  Tell me who am I without you by my side?’  Handfuls of dirt cast atop lower caskets. Moment of prayer, moment of melody.

“My dad is 91, still playing piano, commands and recalls at an instant a most eclectic and venerable cache of classics from across the decades.  He plays ‘Something.’  George was in love - within and without - with everything.  Can I get a ‘Wah-Wah?’”

All Things Must Pass is a 2015 documentary film directed by Colin Hanks exploring the saga of Tower Records.

Established in 1960, Tower Records was once a retail powerhouse with two hundred stores, in thirty countries, on five continents. From humble beginnings in a small-town drugstore in Sacramento, California, Tower Records eventually became the heart and soul of the music world, and a powerful force in the music industry.

Hanks’ movie investigates this iconic company's explosive trajectory, tragic demise, and legacy forged by its rebellious Sacramento, California-born founder, Russ Solomon.

All Things Must Pass is essential viewing for anyone who ever found sound in a record store. It’s a cautionary celluloid tale from filmmaker Hanks.

In my 2020 book, Docs That Rock, Music That Matters, I interviewed Colin and asked about the source of his movie title, the George Harrison master recording that runs over the end screen credits, and his licensing request of that Harrison and Spector production.

“All Things Must Pass was not always the title of the film. At the very early stages and I was trying to make it, I obviously had an idea of what I wanted the story to be. I didn’t really know what the theme was. I was asked, ‘So what’s like the theme of the film?’ I still didn’t have an answer for that. I talked a little about this in the Kickstarter video. But I went up to Sacramento on a lark and decided to drive by the old Tower store which was still there and in tack. And that sign was still up. The All Things Must Pass Thanks Sacramento. And I just went, ‘Oh My Gosh! That’s the theme.’

“Even the best parties have to end. And all things must pass. So that was really, for lack of a better phrase, that was a pretty obvious sign of what this thing needed to be called. And obviously it made perfect sense thematically. I really liked the fact it was a store employee that put that sign up. I thought there was some poetry in that. And, obviously, I wanted to do everything I could to use the song. But I’m also cognizant of the fact very respectful of the fact that that song is personal to George. And has a very deep meaning. And, so I’m very fortunate that I’ve met Olivia on numerous occasions and that I met George once a long time ago. He was an incredibly kind man.

“I sent her the film and said, ‘I would really like to be able to call this movie All Things Must Pass. I’d really like to be able to use the song. But know you have final say on this and you can not hurt my feelings in anyway shape or form. We’d be really honored if you let us do this.’

“We sent her the film. She came back to me after a weekend. ‘I’ve watched it twice. I love it. I can’t believe this story. What an incredible story. Yes. Absolutely. Go right ahead.’”

Harvey Kubernik is the author of 20 books, including Canyon Of Dreams: The Magic And The Music Of Laurel Canyon and Turn Up The Radio! Rock, Pop and Roll In Los Angeles 1956-1972.

Sterling/Barnes and Noble in 2018 published Harvey and Kenneth Kubernik’s The Story Of The Band: From Big Pink To The Last Waltz. For October 2021 the duo has written a multi-narrative volume on Jimi Hendrix: Voodoo Child for the publisher.

Otherworld Cottage Industries in 2020 published Harvey’s book, Docs That Rock, Music That Matters, featuring interviews with D.A. Pennebaker, Chris Hegedus, Albert Maysles, Murray Lerner, Morgan Neville, Curtis Hanson, Michael Lindsay-Hogg, Andrew Loog Oldham, Eddie Kramer, Dick Clark, Ray Manzarek, John Densmore, Robby Krieger, Christopher M. Allport, Travis Pike, Allan Arkush, and David Leaf, among others.

Kubernik’s writings are in book anthologies, most notably The Rolling Stone Book Of The Beats and Drinking With Bukowski.

Harvey wrote the liner note booklets to the CD re-releases of Carole King’s Tapestry, Allen Ginsberg’s Kaddish, Elvis Presley The ’68 Comeback Special and the Ramones’ End of the Century. Kubernik penned the liner notes to the July 17, 2021 National Record Store Day Drops vinyl-only Lou Adler-produced release, A Combination of the Two, by Big Brother & the Holding Company featuring Janis Joplin and their complete two sets from the 1967 Monterey International Pop Festival.

During 2020 Harvey Kubernik served as a Consultant on the 2-part documentary television series Laurel Canyon: A Place in Time directed by Alison Ellwood that premiered on EPIX television channel in 2020.

Harvey is working on a documentary about Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member singer/songwriter Del Shannon. Kubernik was filmed for a documentary in production about Gold Star Recording Studio. Brian Wilson, Herb Alpert, Darlene Love, Mike Curb, Chris Montez, Bill Medley, Hal Blaine, Slim Jim Phantom, Shel Talmy, Don Peake, Johnny Echols, Gloria Jones, Carol Kaye, Marky Ramone, David Kessel and Steven Van Zandt have been lensed).