George Harrison says returning to The Beatles ‘was just too difficult’ after he made underrated album

While all four members of The Beatles would have successful solo careers, George Harrison was the first to make waves.

The so-called quiet one of the band would find himself topping the charts with his triple album, All Things Must Pass, at a time when John Lennon was deep in avant-garde, Paul McCartney was vilified by the press, and Ringo Starr was featuring in motion pictures. Harrison had the lion’s share of the critical praise after The Beatles broke up, but he had released solo albums and worked on other projects before then. One project he released while taking a break from the band made it difficult for him to return to the Fab Four, with Harrison citing the album as one of the reasons he felt uncomfortable remaining with the band.

Harrison would release All Things Must Pass on November 27, 1970, to rave reviews from the public and critics. But an album released before that, which would see him serve as producer to rock and soul legend Jackie Lomax, was cited by the Wah-Wah songwriter as the first time he had felt relaxed for some time when making music.

Is This What You Want? would feature contributions from Starr and McCartney too, but Harrison would serve as producer alongside Lomax and Mal Evans. Evans, who had worked with The Beatles in the past, featured on the March to April sessions though is credited on the album release for “sound effects”. Starr receives a drumming credit, while McCartney received the lions share of credits for his drumming, bass guitar, electric guitar, and backing vocals.

Also featured on the album are Eric Clapton on electric guitar, Klaus Voormann on bass guitar, and Billy Preston on organ and piano. The litany of rock and roll legends was pulled together after Lomax managed to convince Apple Records to release his album. Harrison would serve as producer and also played electric and acoustic guitar.

The experience, Harrison says, is one of the reasons that recording with The Beatles for Abbey Road and Let It Be was so difficult. He told Crawdaddy Magazine: “I found I was starting to be able to enjoy being a musician, but the moment I got back with the Beatles it was just too difficult. There were just too many limitations based upon our being together for so long. Everybody was sort of pigeon-holed. It was frustrating.

“The problem was that John and Paul had written songs for so long it was difficult. First of all, because they had such a lot of tunes and they automatically thought that theirs should be a priority. So for me, I’d always have to wait through ten of their songs before they’d even listen to one of mine. That was why All Things Must Pass had so many songs, because it was like I’d been constipated.

“I had a little encouragement from time to time, but it was very little. It was like they were doing me a favour. I didn’t have much confidence in writing songs because of that. Because they never said, ‘Yeah that’s a good song.’ When we got into things like While My Guitar Gently Weeps, we recorded it one night, and there was such a lack of enthusiasm. So I went home really disappointed because I knew the song was good.”