The lyrics reflect his frustration with the atmosphere in the group at that time – namely, Paul McCartney's over-assertiveness and criticism of his guitar playing, John Lennon's lack of engagement with the project and dismissal of Harrison as a songwriter, and Yoko Ono's constant involvement in the band's activities.

The recording features a dense production treatment from Phil Spector and backing from a large cast of musicians including Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr, Billy Preston, Bobby Keys and the band Badfinger.

[2][3][4][5] In Los Angeles, where he was producing a Jackie Lomax solo album for the Beatles' Apple record label, Harrison directed top session players such as Hal Blaine and Larry Knechtel,[6] and met two American musicians with whom he would soon collaborate in London, Delaney Bramlett and Leon Russell.

[7] Later in the US trip, Harrison stayed in upstate New York, where he established a musical bond with Bob Dylan[2] and thrived among what author Simon Leng calls the "group ethic and camaraderie" of the Band.

[8] Throughout this period, Harrison continued to bloom as a songwriter,[9] having contributed four songs to The Beatles that, in the words of author Nicholas Schaffner, "firmly established him as a contender" beside bandmates John Lennon and Paul McCartney.

[13][14] These difficulties included having to endure McCartney's habit of dictating how the others should play their instruments[15][16] and Lennon's increasing withdrawal from the band and emotional dependence on his ever-present partner, Yoko Ono.

"[30][31] With the sessions being recorded by film director Michael Lindsay-Hogg,[32] tapes reveal Beatles associates Neil Aspinall and George Martin sympathising with Harrison's position,[33] recognising that McCartney and Lennon "don't offer him enough freedom within their compositions".

[37] Over the first three days at Twickenham, Harrison had presented new compositions such as "All Things Must Pass", "Let It Down" and "Hear Me Lord" for consideration;[38] these and other "numerous beautiful songs", music journalist Martin O'Gorman writes, "received derision and disinterest from Lennon or heavy-handed interference from McCartney".

[53] Harrison's diary records that Lennon and Ono "diverted" him at home over breakfast the following morning,[54][55] but even after a subsequent band meeting at Starr's house, author Barry Miles writes, their "feud" remained "intractable".

[57] Harrison then went to his parents' home in Warrington for a few days before imposing terms for his return to the band[4][58] – namely, that McCartney's plans for a live concert be abandoned and the project be relocated to the Beatles' own Apple Studio, at London's Savile Row.

[69] Written in the key of E, the tune incorporates chord changes that musicologist Wilfrid Mellers once admired as "audacious";[70] musically, Harrison biographer Elliot Huntley suggests, the composition mirrors the "intense atmosphere" at Twickenham in January 1969.

[71] Referring to the released recording, author Ian Inglis views "Wah-Wah" as a hard rock song where the "forceful rhythm" conveys "the momentum of [Harrison's] anger".

[74] Harrison later spoke of their familiarity with one another resulting in McCartney, especially, failing to recognise his artistic growth;[75] in I, Me, Mine, he refers to "Wah-Wah" as reflecting "that concept of how everybody sees and treats everybody else, allowing no consideration for the fact that we are changing all the time".

[72] Religious academic Joshua Greene has written of Harrison being "too sure of his life's higher purpose" by January 1969, through his dedication to Hindu spirituality, to continue devoting time to the group's "petty squabbles".

[82] The choice of Harrison songs that would end up on the Let It Be album in May 1970 – "I Me Mine" and "For You Blue" – has led some authors to speculate that he deliberately withdrew his higher-quality compositions rather than risk having them played without the attention they deserved.

[111] While Leng consulted Voormann, Badfinger's Joey Molland and orchestral arranger John Barham for his chapter discussing the recording of All Things Must Pass,[120] Bobby Whitlock, a former sideman with Delaney & Bonnie,[121] has stated that he played electric piano on "Wah-Wah".

[69] "Wah-Wah" also features prominent percussion, including uncredited maracas and congas,[72] and, in Leng's description, a "rollicking horn chart" from Price that helps define the middle-eight sections.

[69] Adding to the musical tension, Janovitz writes, Harrison sings high in his range throughout, "almost drowned out" by Spector's Wall of Sound,[79] which sees keyboards, horns and the many guitar parts competing for space in the mix.

[92] Despite its unusually high retail price, as one of rock music's first studio triple LP sets,[141][142] the album was a significant commercial success worldwide,[143][144] and comfortably outperformed Lennon and McCartney's respective solo releases over 1970–71.

[146][147] In February 1971, he, Lennon and Starr united in London's High Court of Justice to challenge McCartney's suit to dissolve the band's legal partnership;[148] all three submitted affidavits that mentioned their difficult experiences of working with him.

[4][52][57] In his book on the Beatles' first decade as solo artists, Robert Rodriguez includes "Wah-Wah" among the "essential components" of All Things Must Pass, and he recalls the "buzz" surrounding the release as having been "about a major talent unleashed, one who'd [previously] been hidden in plain sight" behind Lennon and McCartney.

He found "the spirit of the Beatles" present throughout the album, adding: "A piece like 'Wah‐Wah' calls up visions of the early days, when the quartet played live music, surrounded by enormous crowds of weeping and wailing teeny‐boppers.

[79] John Bergstrom of PopMatters says that the best moments on All Things Must Pass "involve Harrison addressing his former band"; of these, the "raucous, killer jam" of "Wah-Wah" dismisses the Beatles' strife-filled final years as "so much white noise".

[156] GQ's George Chesterton says the song "manages to be exciting and funny at the same time" and describes it as "a quasi-religious nursery rhyme about a guitar effects pedal and not being fully appreciated by Lennon and McCartney".

[157] In a 2001 review for the Chicago Tribune, Greg Kot said that following "My Sweet Lord"'s role as an entrance to Spector's "cathedral of sound", "['Wah-Wah'] reaches sonic overload; three tunes into the album, Harrison is already storming heaven's gate."

Kot added: "'Wah Wah' is the guitarist's version of heavy metal, a thunderous ascent that keeps adding instruments until it's almost impossible to imagine anyone even breathing in the saturated-till-bursting mix, a triumphant wail that collapses into the exhausted arms of 'Isn't It a Pity' ..."[158] Writing for Rough Guides, Chris Ingham considers that without Spector's Wall of Sound excesses, All Things Must Pass "wouldn't be the magnificently overblown item that it is", and he writes of "the sheer size of the sound … threatening to trample both song and singer" in the case of "the thunderous Wah-Wah".

[160] Former Mojo editor Paul Du Noyer describes the album as "Harrison's handful of earth upon the Beatle coffin", but, less impressed with the composition, he cites "Wah-Wah" as a rare example where "the material is probably too slight to carry the colossal weight of Spector's production".

[66] Still dissatisfied with Spector's "Cinemascope"-like production on "Wah-Wah",[128] when All Things Must Pass was reissued in January 2001, Harrison admitted that he had been tempted to remix many of the tracks rather than simply remaster the album's original mixes.

"[172] Since most listeners typically ignored Ravi Shankar's Indian classical set on side one of the triple LP, "Wah-Wah" effectively served as the album's opening track for rock fans.

[189] The band also featured Harrison's son Dhani and many other close musical friends – Starr, Voormann, Keltner, Horn, Brooker, Ray Cooper and Tom Petty among them – as well as Paul McCartney.