Wah-Wah (song)

"Wah-Wah" is a song by English rock musician George Harrison from his 1970 triple album ''All Things Must Pass''. Harrison wrote the song following his temporary departure from the Beatles in January 1969, during the troubled ''Get Back'' sessions that resulted in their '' Let It Be'' album and film. 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. Music critics and biographers recognise the song as Harrison's statement of personal and artistic freedom from the Beatles. Its creation contrasted sharply with his rewarding collaborations outside the group in the months before the ''Get Back'' project, particularly with Bob Dylan and the Band in upstate New York.

Recorded shortly after the Beatles' break-up in 1970, "Wah-Wah" was the first track taped for ''All Things Must Pass''. 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. On release, ''Rolling Stone'' magazine described it as "a grand cacophony of sound in which horns sound like guitars and vice versa". While several reviewers find the heavy production appropriate for the song, Harrison considered the recording overproduced and the sound too cluttered.

"Wah-Wah" was the first song Harrison played live as a solo artist when he performed it as his opener for the Western-music portion of the Concert for Bangladesh, in August 1971. Viewed by some commentators as superior to the studio recording, this version re-created Spector's Wall of Sound treatment in a live setting, using many of the participants from the 1970 album sessions. At the Concert for George in November 2002, a year after Harrison's death, "Wah-Wah" was performed by an all-star band that included Clapton, Jeff Lynne, Starr and McCartney. Ocean Colour Scene, Buffalo Tom, Beck and the Tedeschi Trucks Band are among the other artists who have covered the song.

Background

October–December 1968 US visit

When discussing the song "Wah-Wah" and George Harrison's temporary departure from the Beatles in January 1969, several commentators note the importance of his recent two-month visit to America, which followed the completion of the band's 1968 double album ''The Beatles'', commonly known as the White Album. 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, and met two American musicians with whom he would soon collaborate in London, Delaney Bramlett and Leon Russell. Later in the US trip, Harrison stayed in upstate New York, where he established a musical bond with Bob Dylan and thrived among what author Simon Leng calls the "group ethic and camaraderie" of the Band. Throughout this period, Harrison continued to bloom as a songwriter, 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. In addition, he had recently co-written Cream's single "Badge" with Eric Clapton, as well as collaborating with Dylan in Bearsville.

January 1969 at Twickenham Film Studios

Harrison later recalled his two months in the United States as having been "such a good time", yet "the moment I got back with the Beatles ''Get_Back''_film_project.html" ;"title="or their ''Get Back'' film project">or their ''Get Back'' film project it was just too difficult".Huntley, p. 18. These difficulties included having to endure McCartney's habit of dictating how the others should play their instruments and Lennon's increasing withdrawal from the band and emotional dependence on his ever-present partner, Yoko Ono. The couple had recently descended into heroin addiction, leaving Lennon, in author Peter Doggett's words, "emotionally removed and artistically bankrupt".Peter Doggett, "Fight to the Finish", in ''Mojo Special Limited Edition: 1000 Days of Revolution'', p. 138. In their study of the ''Get Back'' project, Doug Sulpy and Ray Schweighardt write that, as another frustration for Harrison, Lennon and McCartney regularly overlooked his compositions, even when they were "far better than their own".Sulpy & Schweighardt, p. 1.

On 6 January 1969, the band's third day at Twickenham Film Studios, in south-west London, an argument was captured on film where McCartney criticised Harrison's guitar playing on the song " Two of Us".Sulpy & Schweighardt, p. 51. A resigned Harrison told him: "I'll play... whatever you want me to play, or I won't play at all if you don't want me to play. Whatever it is that will please you, I'll do it."Miles, p. 328. With the sessions being recorded by film director Michael Lindsay-Hogg, tapes reveal Beatles associates Neil Aspinall and George Martin sympathising with Harrison's position,Huntley, p. 22. recognising that McCartney and Lennon "don't offer him enough freedom within their compositions".Sulpy & Schweighardt, p. 173. Ringo Starr, who had quit the band briefly during the White Album sessions, partly as a result of McCartney's hectoring of his drumming, recalled of Harrison's refusal to be "dominated" by McCartney any longer: "Paul ypicallywanted to point out the solo to George, who would say, 'Look, I'm a guitarist. I'll play the solo.' And he always did, he always played fine solos."

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; these and other "numerous beautiful songs", music journalist Martin O'Gorman writes, "received derision and disinterest from Lennon or heavy-handed interference from McCartney".Martin O'Gorman, "Film on Four", in ''Mojo Special Limited Edition: 1000 Days of Revolution'', p. 73. On 8 January, Harrison debuted "I Me Mine", a song inspired by the bickering and negativity within the band.Greene, p. 115. It was met with ridicule by LennonHuntley, p. 21. and an argument ensued between the two musicians, during which Lennon dismissed Harrison's abilities as a songwriter. According to Sulpy and Schweighardt, Lennon's resentment was most likely a reaction to Harrison's productivity throughout the sessions, since he himself was "unable to write a decent new song". In addition, Harrison had been alone in voicing his objections to Ono's presence, telling the couple how, in Lennon's later recollection, "Dylan and a few people said she's got a lousy name in New York".Jackson, p. 34.

Over lunch on Friday, 10 January, a more severe argument took place in which Harrison berated Lennon for contributing nothing positive to the rehearsals. Harrison walked out of the Beatles, saying that the others should advertise in the ''NME'' for his replacement. He then drove to his home, Kinfauns, in Surrey, and wrote "Wah-Wah" that same afternoon.George Harrison, p. 194. Despite the animosity between himself and Lennon on the day he quit the group,Huntley, p. 25. Harrison later confirmed a suggestion made by music journalist Timothy White that, just like Lennon's " How Do You Sleep?" and "Crippled Inside", the song was a "swipe" at McCartney.

Harrison's return to the Beatles

Harrison's diary records that Lennon and Ono "diverted" him at home over breakfast the following morning, but even after a subsequent band meeting at Starr's house, author Barry Miles writes, their "feud" remained "intractable".Miles, p. 329. At the meeting, much to Harrison's annoyance, Lennon once more chose to have Ono speak on his behalf.Jim Irvin, "Close to the Edge", ''Mojo'', December 2003, p. 82. Harrison then went to his parents' home in Warrington for a few days before imposing terms for his return to the bandRodriguez, p. 381. – 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. Commentators have remarked on a change in Harrison's standing within the band as a result of his walkout, and later in 1969, Lennon and McCartney would be speaking admiringly of Harrison's growth as a songwriter.Mark Lewisohn, "Something Else", in ''Mojo Special Limited Edition: 1000 Days of Revolution'', p. 118.Fawcett, p. 96. In an article for ''Mojo'' magazine's July 2001 "Solo Beatles Special", John Harris wrote that although Harrison "nominally" remained a Beatle, he was "serving out his notice" after 10 January 1969.Harris, p. 68.

Composition

In his autobiography, ''I, Me, Mine'', Harrison explains that the song title was a reference to "a 'headache' as well as a footpedal", the wah-wah pedal being a guitar effect that he favoured for much of the early ''Get Back'' sessions. The message of the song, according to Harrison, was: "you're giving me a bloody headache."Huntley, p. 55. Leng identifies "Wah-Wah" as being directed at the "artifice" and "pretense" surrounding the Beatles.Leng, p. 86.

The song is based around an electric guitar riff that Leng describes as "snarling". Written in the key of E, the tune incorporates chord changes that musicologist Wilfrid Mellers once admired as "audacious";Mellers, p. 147. musically, Harrison biographer Elliot Huntley suggests, the composition mirrors the "intense atmosphere" at Twickenham in January 1969.Huntley, p. 54. Referring to the released recording, author Ian Inglis views "Wah-Wah" as a hard rock song where the "forceful rhythm" conveys "the momentum of arrison'sanger".

Like " Run of the Mill", which Harrison also wrote in early 1969, the lyrics touch on the failure of friendships within the band, which in the case of Harrison, McCartney and Lennon dated back to school years. Harrison later spoke of their familiarity with one another resulting in McCartney, especially, failing to recognise his artistic growth; 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".

The second verse reflects Harrison's frustration at being viewed by Lennon and McCartney as subservient to their ambitions, just as his 1968 composition " Not Guilty" had found Harrison defending himself for supposedly leading his fellow Beatles "astray" to the Maharishi's meditation retreat in India. In "Wah-Wah", he states sarcastically:

Over the song's two middle eights, Harrison laments that his bandmates never take the time to notice his sorrow or "''hear me sighing''".Inglis, p. 25.

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".Greene, p. 116. In the song's final verse, Harrison provides what AllMusic critic Bill Janovitz terms a "simple, spiritual sentiment", which serves as a statement of his independence from the Beatles:Spizer, p. 222.

"Wah-Wah" was never offered to the Beatles once Harrison joined the proceedings at Apple Studio. 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. Leng lists "Wah-Wah" among a number of solo Beatles songs that are "self-referential" in their lyrical theme and serve as episodes in what he calls "the Beatles soap opera".Leng, p. 85. Harrison's bitterness at the restrictions imposed on him during the Beatles years resurfaced explicitly in " Who Can See It", a song written in 1972.

Recording

Demo

McCartney's refusal to have the release of his eponymous first solo album delayed until after ''Let It Be'' led to him announcing his departure from the band on 9 April 1970, and to Harrison finally deciding to make an album of his many unused songs from the Beatles' later years. He subsequently described the process of recording his songs with outside musicians as "a breath of fresh air".Spizer, p. 220. Shortly before starting work on the album, Harrison gave a radio interview to ''Village Voice'' reporter Howard Smith, and explained that, although he had some ideological differences with Lennon, his objection to any possible Beatles reunion was based solely on his musical differences with McCartney."It's Really a Pity"
Contra Band Music, 15 March 2012 (retrieved 4 October 2012).

In the same 1970 radio interview, Harrison announced that he would be co-producing the album with Phil Spector, whose work on the ''Let It Be'' album had recently enraged McCartney. On 27 May, having returned to London, Harrison recorded demos of songs intended for his solo album, ''All Things Must Pass'', partly for Spector's benefit. He performed "Wah-Wah" on electric guitar, accompanied by an unnamed bass guitarist. The recording subsequently became available on the '' Beware of ABKCO!'' bootleg album. It was formally released in 2021 on the Day 2 Demos disc included in some editions of the 50th anniversary reissue of ''All Things Must Pass''.Jason Friedman
"George Harrison's ''All Things Must Pass'' Getting 50th Anniversary Deluxe Reissue"
'' Paste'', 10 June 2021 (retrieved 3 April 2022).

Basic track

Principal recording for the album took place at EMI Studios (now Abbey Road Studios) in London.Badman, p. 10. "Wah-Wah" was the first song recorded for the album.Madinger & Easter, p. 428. Phil McDonald was the recording engineer for the basic track,MacFarlane, pp. 71–72. which was taped on 28 May, the first day of formal recording for ''All Things Must Pass''.Fleming & Radford, p. 18.

In keeping with Spector's signature production style, a large group of musicians took part in the sessions.Schaffner, p. 142.Harris, p. 72. The line-up has been hard to ascertain due to conflicting recollections and the informal approach of the project.MacFarlane, p. 73. According to Leng and author Bruce Spizer, the musicians on the track included Harrison and Eric Clapton on electric guitars, three members of Badfinger on acoustic rhythm guitars, Billy Preston and Gary Wright on keyboards, bassist Klaus Voormann, Starr on drums, and Badfinger's Mike Gibbins playing tambourine. Wright's first Harrison session was for "Isn't It a Pity", however, which took place on 2 June. Keyboardist Gary Brooker recalled playing on the song and on "My Sweet Lord",Olivia Harrison, ''Concert for George'', Genesis Publications (Guildford, UK, 2006; ); excerpted a
procolharum.com
(retrieved 20 March 2022). the basic track for which they taped later in the 28 May session. While Leng consulted Voormann, Badfinger's Joey Molland and orchestral arranger John Barham for his chapter discussing the recording of ''All Things Must Pass'', Bobby Whitlock, a former sideman with Delaney & Bonnie, has stated that he played electric piano on "Wah-Wah". Whitlock recalls that, having arrived at the session late due to traffic, and finding that the other musicians were all playing on the downbeat on the song, he was left to play alone in the obvious "open spot" – on the upbeat.Whitlock, p. 76. The former Delaney & Bonnie horn section of Jim Price and Bobby Keys also contributed to "Wah-Wah, although they were not present at the first session.

Speaking in 2000 about the session for "Wah-Wah",'' All Things Must Pass (30th Anniversary Edition)'' EPK, Gnome Records/EMI, 2001. Harrison said that the music sounded "really nice" in the room, "with all these nice acoustics and piano, and no echo on anything", but he was shocked during the playback when he heard the sound treatment Spector had given the track.George Harrison, in ''George Harrison: Living in the Material World'', Disc 2; event occurs between 23:53 and 24:25. In Leng's words, Spector " nleashedhis full armory of reverb-flooded production values" on the song. Harrison dismissed the result as "horrible", and recalled that when Clapton said he liked the way it sounded, he replied, "Well, you can have it on your album, then." Although Harrison said "I grew to like it", he subsequently reverted to his original opinion that the song, like much of ''All Things Must Pass'', was overproduced.The Editors of ''Rolling Stone'', p. 180.

Overdubbing

Take 3 of "Wah-Wah" was selected for overdubs. Overdubbing on many of the album's basic tracks was carried out at EMI and Trident Studios, often without Spector's assistance, from late July onwards. After receiving Harrison's initial mixes, in August, Spector wrote back with suggestions for each song; in the case of "Wah-Wah", these included the addition of a saxophone solo by Keys, and backing vocals. Harrison later recalled "Wah-Wah" as being one of the "big noise" tracks that benefited from Trident's 16-track equipment, which allowed for more overdubbing opportunities relative to EMI's 8-track facility. The song includes slide guitars, a technique that Harrison adopted for his solos after he had joined Clapton on Delaney & Bonnie's European tour in December 1969. He also sang all the vocal parts on the track,Whitlock, p. 79. for which he credited himself as "the George O'Hara-Smith Singers" on the album sleeve.

The completed recording begins with Harrison's guitar riff, which is then joined by Clapton's guitar, played through a wah-wah pedal. Leng suggests that the musical arrangement was influenced by the Delaney & Bonnie song "Comin' Home". "Wah-Wah" also features prominent percussion, including uncredited maracas and congas, and, in Leng's description, a "rollicking horn chart" from Price that helps define the middle-eight sections. Adding to the musical tension, Janovitz writes, Harrison sings high in his range throughout, "almost drowned out" by Spector's Wall of Sound, which sees keyboards, horns and the many guitar parts competing for space in the mix. The song fades out on the single-chord main riff, accompanied by the sound of a car engine changing gear.

Release

Apple Records issued ''All Things Must Pass'' on 27 November 1970 with "Wah-Wah" sequenced as the third track, between "My Sweet Lord" and "Isn't It a Pity". Despite its unusually high retail price, as one of rock music's first studio triple LP sets, the album was a significant commercial success worldwide,Madinger & Easter, p. 427. and comfortably outperformed Lennon and McCartney's respective solo releases over 1970–71.Peter Doggett, "George Harrison: The Apple Years", ''Record Collector'', April 2001, pp. 36–37. Music journalist Anthony DeCurtis later wrote of the album representing " hebracing air of creative liberation" for Harrison.

Like "Isn't It a Pity", the song "All Things Must Pass",Anthony DeCurtis, ''Rolling Stone'', 12 October 2000 (retrieved 4 October 2012). and Barry Feinstein's cover photo of Harrison surrounded by four comical-looking garden gnomes,Harris, p. 73. "Wah-Wah" served as a comment by Harrison on his Beatle past.The Editors of ''Rolling Stone'', p. 40. 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; all three submitted affidavits that mentioned their difficult experiences of working with him. In the context of this post- breakup unity, "Wah-Wah" was widely assumed to be directed at McCartney only,Neal Alpert
"George Harrison's Concert for Bangladesh"
Gadfly Online, December 2001 (retrieved 5 October 2012). just as Harrison's walkout two years before was thought to have been due solely to McCartney.

Critical reception and legacy

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 reviouslybeen hidden in plain sight" behind Lennon and McCartney. In a contemporary review for ''Rolling Stone'', Ben Gerson suggested that the album was the rock-music equivalent of Tolstoy's epic novel ''War and Peace'', while describing "Wah-Wah" as a "vintage Beatle song" and "a grand cacophony of sound in which horns sound like guitars and vice versa".Ben Gerson
"George Harrison ''All Things Must Pass''"
, ''Rolling Stone'', 21 January 1971, p. 46 (retrieved 4 February 2015). In ''The New York Times'', Don Heckman commented on the irony that it was Harrison "who, possibly because of his detachment from the Lennon–McCartney emotional axis, has maintained and even increased his creative momentum". 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." By contrast, Alan Smith of the ''NME'' found the dense sound oppressive and regarded the song as "inconsequential... one of the weaker tracks, although it's not short on dressing".Alan Smith, "George Harrison: ''All Things Must Pass'' (Apple)", ''NME'', 5 December 1970, p. 2; available a
Rock's Backpages
(subscription required).

AllMusic's Bill Janovitz sums up the track as "a glorious rocker ... hat'sas edgy as anything Harrison ever sang while in the Beatles, if not more so", and "a driving, majestic song on the edge of being out of control".Bill Janovitz
"George Harrison 'Wah-Wah'"
AllMusic (retrieved 25 September 2012). 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". While the song is "cutting", Bergstrom continues, "the sense of liberation is almost palpable."John Bergstrom
"George Harrison: All Things Must Pass"
''PopMatters'', 14 January 2011 (retrieved 4 February 2015). Jayson Greene of ''Pitchfork'' describes "Wah-Wah" as "layered with so many different guitar tracks it feels like three guitar rock songs fighting each other", and "possibly Harrison’s most pointed missive as a solo artist". Greene hears the message as "more bemused than pissed-off", citing the "swoop and dip" of the melody and a central riff that together convey "chuckling rather than shouting". '' 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".George Chesterton
"George Harrison's All Things Must Pass: 50 Years of Music in God's Name"
'' GQ'', 27 November 2020 (retrieved 3 April 2022).

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'..." 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". Writing for '' Q'' magazine in 2002, John Harris said that ''All Things Must Pass'' was "by some distance, the best Beatles solo album" and the "widescreen sound" used by Harrison and Spector on tracks such as "Wah-Wah" had since been "echoed in the work of such Beatles fans as ELO and Oasis". 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".

Among Harrison biographers, Simon Leng writes that the song "trashes the roseate memory of the Beatles". He concludes his discussion of this "unusually heavy chunk of rock" by saying: "It's a song of anger and alienation, redolent of betrayal and hostility. To that extent, it's a good-time number to rival Delaney & Bonnie, with a heart of pure stone."Leng, pp. 85–86. Commenting on the production's "layer upon layer of sonic bombast", Elliot Huntley states that "Spector fans must have been in seventh heaven" when they first heard "Wah-Wah". Huntley refers to it as "one of the outstanding tracks" of Harrison's career, and a welcome though rare "flat-out, kick-ass rocker" in the singer's canon.

Still dissatisfied with Spector's " Cinemascope"-like production on "Wah-Wah", 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. In an interview with '' Guitar World'' magazine to promote the reissue, he also revealed that McCartney had "long since" apologised for his behaviour towards him during the Beatles years.
In the 2000 book ''The Beatles Anthology'', Harrison comments: "It's important to state that a lot of water has gone under the bridge ... But talking about what was happening at that time ith McCartney, Lennon and Ono you can see it was strange."

Live version

On 1 August 1971, Harrison performed "Wah-Wah" as the opening song for the rock-music portion of the two Concert for Bangladesh shows,Madinger & Easter, pp. 436–37. held at Madison Square Garden in New York. It was therefore the first song he ever played live as a solo artist and, given the humanitarian cause behind the event, Alan Clayson writes, the New York audience "loved him ... before he'd even plucked a string". The running order of the ''Concert for Bangladesh'' live album follows the setlist for the second show that day, about which Joshua Greene remarks on the "logical chronology" in Harrison's three-song opening segment: "Wah-Wah" "declared his independence from the Beatles, followed by 'My Sweet Lord,' which declared his internal discovery of God and spirit, and then ' Awaiting on You All,' which projected his message to the world." 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. Re-creating the Wall of Sound from ''All Things Must Pass'',Schaffner, p. 147. Harrison was backed by a large band that again included Clapton, Starr, Preston, Voormann and Badfinger, together with musicians such as Leon Russell, saxophonist Jim Horn and drummer Jim Keltner, and a group of seven backing singers.

The recording of "Wah-Wah" that appears on the live album was a composite of the audio from both the afternoon and evening shows. It was therefore one of the few examples of studio manipulation on an otherwise faithful record of the concert. Due to technical problems with the film footage, the "Wah-Wah" segment in Saul Swimmer