All Things Must Pass (George Harrison, 1970)

1970 was a time of great transitions in Beatles history. Paul McCartney was laying low, John Lennon was having mommy issues, and Ringo Starr was feeling nostalgic. Meanwhile, George Harrison was making up for about ten years of lost time, recording the heavyweight triple album "All Things Must Pass" with about twenty of his closest friends.

I picked up this album when the deluxe edition was released in 2001, which is the entire original album (with slight track order adjustments) and a clutch of demos and the 2000 version of "My Sweet Lord". He also decided to colorize the front cover and "modernize" the look on the pages of the CD booklet (see below). Sometimes I let my guilty pleasures crowd out what I would say are the albums that are universally good, so it was nice to listen through this one and reaffirm that this is an absolutely essential album.

George Harrison's career would gradually sputter out as the 1970's and 1980's wore on, with a little post-"Anthology" bounce in the late 1990's. This is the only solo album of his I own, so I'm probably part of that problem. His time as the "bestselling Beatle" was very short, as Lennon and McCartney both found their footings as solo artists. Nevertheless, the money from his Beatle and early solo years would finance some of the finest British humor (Monty Python, Terry Gilliam and others benefited heartily from his generosity). Not bad for the "Quiet Beatle".