Awaiting on You All
Along with the single "My Sweet Lord", it is among the more overtly religious compositions on All Things Must Pass, and the recording typifies co-producer Phil Spector's influence on the album, due to his liberal use of reverberation and other Wall of Sound production techniques.
His song words explicitly criticise the Pope and the perceived materialism of the Catholic Church – a verse that EMI and Capitol Records continue to omit from the album's lyrics.
He also questions the validity of John Lennon and Yoko Ono's 1969 campaign for world peace, reflecting a divergence of philosophies between Harrison and his former bandmate after their shared interest in Hindu spirituality in 1967–68.
Several commentators have identified "Awaiting on You All" as one of the highlights of All Things Must Pass; author and critic Richard Williams likens it to the Spector-produced "River Deep – Mountain High", by Ike & Tina Turner.
A similarly well-regarded live version, with backing from a large band including Clapton, Ringo Starr, Preston and Jim Keltner, was released on the 1971 album The Concert for Bangladesh and appeared in the 1972 film of the same name.
In his book While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Simon Leng describes George Harrison's musical projects outside the Beatles during 1969–70 – such as producing American gospel and soul artists Billy Preston and Doris Troy, and touring with Delaney & Bonnie and Friends – as the completion of "a musical-philosophical circle", which resulted in his post-Beatles solo album All Things Must Pass (1970).
[5] An ISKCON devotee since 1970, author Joshua Greene writes of All Things Must Pass providing an "intimately detailed account of a spiritual journey", which had begun with Harrison's embracing of Hinduism while in India in September–October 1966.
[19][20][nb 1] While Lennon and his partner, Yoko Ono, undertook a highly publicised campaign for world peace during 1969,[24][25] Harrison believed that all human suffering could be averted if individuals focused on addressing their own imperfections rather than, as he put it, "trying to fix everybody else up like the Lone Ranger".
[28][39] While Inglis views these words as indicative of a possible rift in Harrison's relationship with Lennon,[39] Leng identifies the "tongue-lashing for John and Yoko" as the singer dismissing "all political-cum-intellectual musings".
[28][nb 2] Harrison then uses what New Testament scholar Dale Allison terms "the language of pollution" to describe the problems afflicting the world,[46] and offers a method by which to cleanse oneself spiritually.
[50] In the song's final verse,[51] Harrison states that churches, temples, religious texts and the rosary beads associated with Catholic worship are no substitute for a direct relationship with God.
[70][nb 5] It was only after Paul McCartney's departure from the Beatles, and the band's break-up,[72] that Harrison finally began sessions for his solo album – in late May 1970, at Abbey Road Studios in London.
[95] Apple Records released All Things Must Pass on 27 November 1970,[96] with "Awaiting on You All" sequenced as the penultimate track on side three, in the original LP format, preceding the album's title song.
[76] Issued during a period when rock music was increasingly reflecting spiritual themes,[100] All Things Must Pass was a major commercial success,[101][102] outselling releases that year by Harrison's former bandmates,[103][104] and topping albums charts throughout the world.
"[113] Mark Ribowsky, another Spector biographer, writes of the producer's contribution to this and other songs on All Things Must Pass: "Phil's rhythmically pounding basses and drum feels sutured George's sentimentality with cheerful energy and made Indian asceticism into dance music.
[115] Writing for NME Originals in 2005, Adrian Thrills named "Awaiting on You All" and "Wah-Wah" as examples of "a tendency to over-egg the mix" on the otherwise "magnificent" All Things Must Pass, adding: "it is hard to think of another big rock album on which the tambourine is shaken quite so relentlessly.
"[116] In his AllMusic article on the song, Lindsay Planer views it as "somewhat of a sacred rocker" with "ample lead guitar", and comments that Harrison's lyrics "cleverly [draw] upon an array of disparate imagery to convey a conversely simple spiritual revelation".
[126] Joshua Greene comments on there being a "logical chronology" to the first three songs in Harrison's setlist for this second show: "starting with 'Wah Wah,' which declared his independence from the Beatles; followed by 'My Sweet Lord,' which celebrated his internal discovery of God and spirit; and then 'Awaiting on You All'".
[29] Writing in Rolling Stone, Jon Landau compared the less-polished performance of "Awaiting on You All" with the studio version's "perfect production" and concluded: "it is exhilarating to hear his voice clearly singing the song for the first time, likewise the excellent guitar.
"[127] In his album review for Melody Maker, Williams wrote of Harrison's opening trio of songs: "Unbelievably, they're as good as the originals, and in some ways even better, because they combine the power of the arrangements for horns and rhythm with a sense of joy that comes only in live performance.
[134] Part of the 2001 playback scene was included in Martin Scorsese's documentary George Harrison: Living in the Material World,[135] and an early take from the 1970 sessions appeared on the bonus disc accompanying that film's DVD release in late 2011.
