Commentators interpret the lyrics as a rebuttal to several possible detractors: Harrison's first wife, Pattie Boyd; reviewers who criticised the spiritual content of his 1973 album Living in the Material World; and his former bandmates John Lennon and Paul McCartney.

The officially released version was recorded live on a sound stage in Los Angeles during rehearsals for his 1974 concerts, at a time when Harrison's exhaustion through overwork contributed to him contracting laryngitis and losing his voice.

His hoarse singing similarly marred the ensuing tour – the first in the US by a member of the Beatles since 1966 – leading to a critical backlash that was reflected in contemporaneous reviews of Dark Horse.

The recording features a musical arrangement incorporating aspects of folk and jazz, and includes contributions from musicians such as Tom Scott, Jim Horn, Billy Preston, Willie Weeks and Andy Newmark.

[9] In the same interview, he compared his personal life to the radio drama Mrs Dale's Diary but added that he did not need to read gossip published in magazines such as Rolling Stone and Woman's Own, written by people who "think they know something" about him, when he was fully aware of his transgressions.

[27] In musicologist Thomas MacFarlane's view, a forward motion results from the tension caused by the melody's use of these three key areas, a quality that he says masks the composition's essentially simple structure.

[27] According to MacFarlane, the composition is an example of Harrison fully embracing roots influences, while the musical arrangement on the released recording incorporates aspects of folk and jazz in a fusion similar to Joni Mitchell's work.

[37] While describing the lyrics as "smarmy, if not somewhat defensive", Planer identifies the song's opening verse as "seem[ing] to address the situation" between Harrison and Boyd, with lines such as "You thought that you knew where I was and when / Baby, looks like you've been fooling you again".

[39][40] The sessions that month, which included contributions from Ringo Starr, Jim Keltner, Klaus Voormann and Gary Wright,[41] marked the start of recording for his Dark Horse album.

[52] By October, when he arrived in Los Angeles to prepare for the tour, a combination of Harrison's business commitments, his dedication to projects by Shankar and Splinter, and a lifestyle that Leng terms "one drink too many, too frequently"[53] meant that production on Dark Horse was severely behind schedule.

[34][74] Harrison and his tour band – which included Tom Scott, Billy Preston, Willie Weeks and Andy Newmark[75] – recorded the track live on a sound stage at A&M in late October, a few days before the opening concert on 2 November.

[110] On release, Billboard magazine described "Dark Horse" as "a pleasing, acoustic flavored cut" with an "instantly catchy sound that should satisfy AM listeners and more 'critical' fans", adding that the use of flutes "spices [up]" the recording.

[111] The following month, the same magazine's album review referred to Harrison "riding high" with the title track and found "lots of FM potential" in the songs on Dark Horse.

[112] Cash Box said the song had "a strange lyric line that could be a metaphor for a lot of things even a record company" and commented on Harrison's "very melodic vocal and fine arrangement".

[117] Discussing this period of Harrison's career in an article for Mojo, in November 2014, Mat Snow writes that "George's '70s honeymoon with the public was over";[118] it also resulted in a critical backlash after his successes since 1970.

[119][120] In a highly unfavourable review of the album,[121] for Rolling Stone, Jim Miller quoted the chorus of the title track to illustrate his point that the singer's "quest for illumination populates his lyrics with sermons and awkward mea culpas".

Miller added that "thanks to Harrison's no-voice and stilted lyrics, ['Dark Horse'] quite fails to evoke the self-confident master of 'My Sweet Lord' or even 'Living in the Material World.

Gross wrote that "Dark Horse" "brings back memories of The White Album, as Chuck Findlay, Jim Horn and Scott dart through the intricate melody on flutes".

[83] In Melody Maker, Brian Harrigan found Harrison's gruff vocal a bonus, writing that he "coaxes a tremendous amount from his normally unimpressive voice" and sings "particularly well" on the title track.

[126] In their 1975 book The Beatles: An Illustrated Record, NME critics Roy Carr and Tony Tyler approved of Harrison's husky singing on "Dark Horse", saying it was "definitely a style to pursue".

[127] Nicholas Schaffner, writing in The Beatles Forever, opined that "Dark Horse" could have been one of Harrison's most successful singles had he "only waited to recoup his voice before committing it to tape".

[131] Writing for Rough Guides, Chris Ingham describes it as one of the album's three best tracks, saying that Harrison "gamely struggles with a shot-to-pieces throat to deliver a pleasingly gruff vocal".

[138] Nick Hasted of Uncut bemoans that the song's "growled vocal" "squanders its brisk, appealing tune", and he describes Harrison's persona as a "mean, Jumping Jack Flash-style alias" singing verses that "lash out at his ex".

He writes that "the huskiness of his voice threatens to distract", but "the strength of the composition, the uplifting chorus, the 'Stairway to Heaven'-esque flute by Tom Scott, and the subtly funk keys by Preston nudge it into Harrison's top tier, though just by a nose.

[146][nb 9] Brennan Carley of Spin writes of the "newly unearthed version" being "a bit twangier and more acoustic than Harrison's final product" and describes his singing as "clearer, less gruff, and more natural" than the 1974 release.

[147] While viewing "Dark Horse" as "a great personal theme song of sorts" for Harrison, Blogcritics' Chaz Lipp considers his lead vocal on this "excellent demo" to be an improvement.

[138] In October 1974, shortly before leaving for Los Angeles, Harrison performed "Dark Horse" on acoustic guitar during his interview with Alan Freeman for the Radio 1 show Rockspeak.

[151][nb 10] On 30 October,[9] days before the band left for the first show in Vancouver, Harrison and his musicians recorded an abridged live performance of the song for promotional purposes at the A&M sound stage where they were rehearsing.

[158] Although the song does not appear on lists of the tracks taped on 19 November at NBC,[159] Clayson writes of Harrison singing "Dark Horse", "hunched over a hollow-body Gretsch", in a blue-lit studio.

[158][nb 11] In what Leng terms a "safe" setlist for his 1991 Japanese tour with Clapton,[163] Harrison's inclusion of "Dark Horse" provided a rare example of a song from his post-All Things Must Pass work from the 1970s.