With songs like ‘Taxman’ and ‘Within You Without You’ Harrison had found his musical chops by the time Abbey Road and Let It Be were around the corner, and after a few successful moments on those projects, he was now keen to enact his songwriting skill on the Fab Four’s records more persistently.
On January 10th, 1969, George quit The Beatles in the middle of Twickenham’s Let It Be sessions. He did so unceremoniously and without much fuss externally. Though he left the studio in a rut, he wrote one of the best tracks in his extensive catalogue.
George Harrison had begun to work out his musical style by the turn of 1969. Having spent much of the latter part of the previous year with Bob Dylan and The Band, working on tracks like ‘I’d Have You Anytime’ and with his work on The Beatles so widely loved, Harrison had hope for the future of the Fab Four. The select few of his songs chosen to appear on the previous albums had been well received, and now he wanted more as part of a well-oiled machine.
Nevertheless, Harrison was hopeful: “I can remember feeling quite optimistic. I thought, ‘OK, it’s the New Year, and we have a new approach to recording.’”
That new approach was Get Back, a multimedia proposition that would record rehearsals for a live concert of new material, ready-made for a TV special. It would see the band return to basics and reconnect with their music in a rawer way. However, things didn’t go smoothly, and Macca quickly took on the conductor role: “At that point in time, Paul couldn’t see beyond himself,” Harrison told Guitar World in 2001. “He was on a roll, but … in his mind, everything that was going on around him was just there to accompany him. He wasn’t sensitive to stepping on other people’s egos or feelings.”
Harrison began to pitch new tracks such as ‘Let It Down’, ‘Isn’t It A Pity’, and even the iconic ‘Something’ — songs which would define either his or the band’s output at this time.
On January 8th, Harrison debuted another classic in ‘I, Me, Mine’.
One day George turned to his bandmates and suggested they advertise for his replacement and that he would “see you round the clubs”. Later, in 1987, George admitted: “I just got so fed up with the bad vibes,” he told Musician magazine. “I didn’t care if it was the Beatles, I was getting out,” he added.
That day, arriving at his Surrey home, George wrote one of his most treasured tracks, ‘Wah Wah’. Though it was named in part as a reference to the guitar effects pedal, later Harrison admitted in his biography that it was saying: “You’re giving me a bloody headache,” to his bandmates. This song was a classic.
George would eventually return to the session, but soon enough, the band were irreparable, and the Fab Four went their separate ways. George’s All Things Must Pass is widely regarded as the finest post-Beatles album and the first song he would set about recording for his new project? ‘Wah Wah’.
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