The recording was co-produced by Phil Spector and includes musical contributions from Eric Clapton, Gary Wright, Billy Preston, Bobby Whitlock and other musicians from Delaney & Bonnie's Friends band.
[3] For Harrison, it contrasted sharply with the two months he had spent in the United States at the end of 1968,[4] when he had enjoyed collaborating with musicians such as Jackie Lomax, members of the Los Angeles Wrecking Crew, Tiny Tim,[5] Bob Dylan and the Band.
[10] In their pleas for forgiveness, acknowledgement of weakness and promise of self-improvement, Harrison's words have been described by author Ian Inglis as offering a similar statement to the Christian Lord's Prayer.
[12] Religious academic Joshua Greene recognises the same couplet as an example of Harrison the "life-lover", prone to "sexual fantasies", and just one facet of its parent album's "intimately detailed account of a spiritual journey".
"[19][20] Even after the location had been moved to the Apple basement later that month and keyboard player Billy Preston brought in – two developments Harrison instigated in an attempt to improve the atmosphere[21][22] – he would not play the song again at any Beatles session.
[10] The musicians on the recording were all those with whom Harrison had briefly toured Europe in December 1969, as a member of Delaney & Bonnie's Friends band,[35][36] including Preston and Eric Clapton, supplemented by pianist Gary Wright, a mainstay of the extended sessions for All Things Must Pass.
[37] The track begins with Jim Gordon's heavily treated drums and features a "rolling" piano commentary from Wright and "sweet slide guitar licks" from Harrison, Leng writes.
[11] The guitar interplay between Harrison and Clapton, notably what Leng terms the track's "'Little Wing' riffs", would be reprised on "Back in My Life Again" and "A Day Without Jesus" for organ player Bobby Whitlock's eponymous solo album, which was recorded in January 1971.
[38] In their Solo Beatles Compendium, Chip Madinger and Mark Easter comment that the official take of "Hear Me Lord" ran considerably longer than the released 5:46 running time.
[45][46] Discussing the impact success of Harrison's triple album, author Nicholas Schaffner wrote in 1977: "George painted his masterpiece at a time when both he and his audience still believed music could change the world.
[1] "Here George stops preaching," Gerson continued, "and, speaking only to a God, delivers a simple, but majestic plea: 'Help me Lord please / To rise a little higher ...'"[1] Less impressed, Peter Reilly of Stereo Review wrote that, as with "Awaiting on You All", the song demonstrated a "fundamentalist religious strain" that, unlike in Jimmy Webb's work, was not entirely successful, although he deemed it "nonetheless effective".
[63] In his 2001 album review for The New York Times, Jody Rosen grouped "Hear Me Lord" with "Art of Dying" and "Wah-Wah" as examples of how Spector successfully transformed Harrison's compositions on an "operatic scale".
Rosen added: "The symphonic squall of these songs seems less about rock star hubris than Mr. Harrison's straining to express outsized emotions – sorrow, regret, longing, writ very large.
[68] In his review of Coming Up for Air, for Blogcritics, Josh Hathaway described the song as a "Harrison classic" and the album's "masterpiece", thanks to Frampton's lead guitar duel with Knowles and Benmont Tench's sympathetic organ playing.
[74] Following Harrison's death in November 2001, Chris Carter, an American DJ and a consultant to Capitol Records, spoke of including "Hear Me Lord" on a planned reissue of The Concert for Bangladesh,[75] which was scheduled for release during 2002.