Hi, Francis. I saw your post in Trollheart’s journals summary thread about George and am delighted to see your posts here about All Things Must Pass. Even though, like you, I don’t like every single song on it, this album more than any other has meant so much to me personally. I am a very spiritual person and it was this record that led me to independent study of Hinduism/Vedanta in my early teens. To this day my shelves are filled with books on Indian philosophy and religion, including many translations of the Bhagavad Gita which I consider my spiritual source book. Even if one is not particularly spiritual, I believe ATMP has an impressionistic musical power that can move one’s heart to enlightenment, whatever one’s definition of enlightenment may be.
Besides, George’s slide guitar playing on this record is beautiful. George’s slide guitar is for me one of the most beautiful sounds in music, so lyrical and influenced by his sitar studies under Ravi Shankar.
My favorite songs in order of appearance are “I’d Have You Anytime”, “My Sweet Lord”, “Let It Down”, “Run of the Mill”, “Beware of Darkness”, “Ballad of Sir Frankie Crisp (Let It Roll)”, “Awaiting on You All”, and “Hear Me Lord”.
“Beware of Darkness” is probably my favorite of all – the lyrics that move me are, “It can hit you / It can hurt you / Make you sore, and what is more / That is not what you are here for.”
Rock Dream #1: Wish I could’ve been at this concert! The Concert for Bangla Desh was actually the first album I dropped needle-to-vinyl on by myself as a child, the sounds of the Indian musicians’ playing radiating from our family’s console stereo.
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