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With Harrison building in confidence as a songwriter and lead singer, the stage was now set for the recording of his third, but first 'proper', solo album. Production started in May 1970, and the resultant album was released in November of that year.
But All Things Must Pass wasn't a single or even a double album. Rare for a solo artist, it was a triple album containing 23 original tracks, with three of them lasting longer than 7 minutes. Six of the songs on the album had been rejected for inclusion on either of their final two Beatles albums, Let It Be and Abbey Road.
Critically acclaimed on release, All Things Must Pass is ranked #79 on The Times' 100 Best Albums of All Time and#368 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. In 2014, the album was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
So, after feeling creatively constipated and now being free of any constraints that he felt as part of The Beatles, Harrison was able to let the creativity flow and produced his masterpiece as a result.
So, what can we learn from this?
Firstly, there's the saying that you are the sum of the five people you spend the most time with.
While Harrison was a talented guitarist when he joined The Beatles, his song writing skills were negligent at the time, and his first recorded song, Taxman, was released on their seventh studio album, Revolver.
Spending a vast amount of time from 1958 to 1970 with Lennon and McCartney, and in the late 60s with such luminaries as Bob Dylan and The Band, Harrison saw first-hand how they constructed their songs and developed them in the studio. This clearly helped his own song writing skills to mature rapidly to expert levels.
Secondly, we need to be aware of the impact that our environment and daily routines have on our productivity.
Harrison's role as a member of the biggest group in the world eventually became a double-edged sword in that it didn't allow him full creative expression. Bob Dylan said: "George got stuck with being the Beatle that had to fight to get songs on records because of Lennon and McCartney. Well, who wouldn't get stuck?"
He was in the right environment for creative consumption, but it ironically limited his freedom to be creative.
Do you have a yearning to do something different with your life, but you're not taking any steps towards that goal? Maybe you want to write a book or start a YouTube channel but spend your free time just consuming content rather than creating it.
At some point, we need to realise that we've learned enough through consumption. Only by creating can we maximise the learning journey and prevent what we've learned from stagnating within us. The best way to do that is to develop a habit of creative experimentation and expression by allocating daily time for our creative pursuits.
Lennon and McCartney had a habit of including only their own songs on their albums, and found that habit hard to break. Harrison had a habit of acquiescing to them until he became so frustrated that he temporarily left the group in 1969. This was one of the events that contributed to the band's eventual demise.
Similarly, what habits have you developed that actively distract you from being creative? Do you spend your time in environments that support your creativity or restrict it?
Do the limiting beliefs in your head act like Lennon and McCartney, stifling your confidence and preventing you from moving forward? It's tough to have friends or peers restricting your creativity, but it's tragic if you're doing it to yourself, your mind immediately rejecting great ideas without really knowing why (though that's another post for another day).
Are your closest contacts people who can help you move further towards your goals, or who act as barriers to them?
If The Beatles had stayed together, who's to say that Harrison would ever have realised his true creative potential? Sometimes you have to be proactive rather than waiting for things to fall into place.
I'll leave you with this thought - What is one thing you can do today to move you further along your creative journey? | 