Paul McCartney’s cover version of a George Harrison song has been praised by fans who “love” his rendition.
While McCartney has featured songs written by his Beatles bandmate in live shows, Something in particular, this performance marks a rare moment where the Wings frontman tackled one of Harrison’s very best songs. The cover came to be during a tribute show to Harrison. The so-called Quiet One of The Beatles died in 2001, and a tribute show was put on at the Royal Albert Hall in 2003. Legendary musicians who had worked with Harrison in the past, including Eric Clapton, Jeff Lynne, and Ringo Starr, featured as part of the performance.
Each man covered a song by Harrison but it was left up to McCartney to tackle All Things Must Pass. Some fans were keen to point out that the Harrison classic was snubbed by McCartney and John Lennon during their time in The Beatles.
A fan took to the r/PaulMcCartney subreddit and wrote: “I love this version. Yeah, I know, it wasn’t good enough for the Beatles. I can’t imagine how this George composition was found lacking by John and Paul. But Paul knocks it out of the park here.” Others have since defended McCartney for his thoughts on All Things Must Pass, suggesting the Wings frontman did show some enthusiasm for it when Harrison presented it to the group.
A McCartney defender said: “If I remember, Paul does show some enthusiasm for it in Get Back. Seemed to like the song.” Another added: “The Beatles ran through it over 70 times. They all had enthusiasm for it. George was the one who pulled the plug.”
Others who viewed the clip of McCartney performing All Things Must Pass called on the veteran frontman to change up his setlist with different songs acting as tributes to Harrison and Lennon. A fan wrote: “I’d do anything for Paul to change up his John and George tributes.
He could cycle While My Guitar Gently Weeps, For You Blue, All Things Must Pass, Friends to Go, Early Days, Days We Left Behind for Something. And then Strawberry Fields Forever, Across the Universe, Call Me Back Again, Dear Friend, or Tug of War instead of Here Today.”
The original poster added: “There is a very long list of songs that I’d love to hear Paul sing live. Beatles, Wings/solo, and also John and George compositions. I think after the Concert for George, he did perform “All Things Must Pass” at some shows. He should have kept it in the playlist for the George tribute.”
Eric Clapton revealed that, at the time of the performance, McCartney did not actually know the lyrics to All Things Must Pass. He said at the time: “Paul had to admit that he didn’t know ‘All Things Must Pass,’ and that was an awful thing to confront. It was huge humble-pie stuff for Paul to be among these people who he may have thought had a better relationship with George than he did.”
You can watch McCartney’s performance of All Things Must Pass below.
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