Library of Inspiration: All Things Must Pass

Track Listing: Disc 1: 1. I’d Have You Anytime, 2. My Sweet Lord, 3. Wah-Wah, 4. Isn’t It a Pity [Version One], 5. What Is Life, 6. If Not for You, 7. Behind That Locked Door, 8. Let It Down, 9. Run of the Mill, 10. Beware of Darkness, 11. Apple Scruffs, 12. Ballad of Sir Frankie Crisp (Let It Roll), 13. Awaiting on You All, 14. All Things Must Pass, Disc 2: 1. I Dig Love, 2. Art of Dying, 3. Isn’t It a Pity [Version Two], 4. Hear Me Lord, 5. Out of the Blue, 6. It’s Johnny’s Birthday, 7. Plug Me In, 8. I Remember Jeep, 9. Thanks for the Pepperoni

Every year, fall: rusty, spent, weary, dead. Summer is snuffed out in an iridescent burst of wounded decay. Thoughts of July linger in the copper bed before oxidation decomposes the barbecue smiles, crowded paths, beach towels and bikinis, booze cruises, tee times, convertibles, rally caps, kayaks, street fests, shorts and T’s, skin, potato salad, fireworks—all, at last, a blister. Tattooed tan lines inked by the blazing sun now trace the fade. It is a losing game, trying to fit everything in during a summer season as short as winter is long. A blaze ignites, alive, out of control, and oddest of all, gone quick with a fizzle.

First flurries. Clean sheets. A white snow bed. Soldiers of memories line up, ready to fend off all comers in a last-ditch attempt to win the battle of closing hearts. As the fight rages on, the music of The Beatles—soundtrack to an awakening—accompanies a slide show: youth. Out on the front lines, solo years flash with the heavy artillery of Plastic Ono Band and Ram, and yet, out of the gate first is George, charging, paving the way for the new post-Beatles world order.

“All things must pass
All things must pass away
All things must pass
None of life’s strings can last
So, I must be on my way
And face another day”

-from the song “All Things Must Pass”

As the sweet and sour trajectory of all things passing plays on the minds of many, there are those who manage to exude peace and grace in spite of it all as if it were an easy state to achieve, as if it were nothing at all. And there are songs—rock and roll hymns, road maps to spirituality, hope and faith—that celebrate the movement of time, obeying the rules of the land, knowing that eternity belongs no more to the past and present than it does to the future. It is all. All things passing.

-G