"Sue Me, Sue You Blues"-George always seemed to set aside at least one track, sometimes more, comprised of cynicism and attacks which went against the grain of the overall message of the album. This track has some of George's best slide guitar work and is not surprisingly referencing the Beatles legal problems. George said of the track, "I wrote it during the big suing period and it's vaguely based on the Square Dance type of fiddle lyric: You serve and I'll serve you/Swing your partners all get screwed."
"The Light That Has Lighted The World"-Another beautiful ballad by George with some nice piano work by Nicky Hopkins. Returning again to the spiritual theme which is more predominant on this album than its predecessor, it is very moving and effective. George said, "The strange thing about change is that people are always saying 'oh he's changed' as if change is a sin, but the whole of life is a change: from the morning to the evening; from spring to winter-everything is a change-from birth to death; life is change. So it's funny how people won't accept change: preferring almost to rearrange nature itself. Would they rather everything were struck in one place forever?"
"Don't Let Me Wait Too Long"-This is my favorite track on the album. Very nice guitar work from George on both acoustic and electric. It could be a love song to Patti or to God. Curiously, this track is not included in George Harrison's book "I Me Mine." On a personal note, I thought it deserved merit for consideration as a single.
"Who Can See It"-A nice ballad sung in a higher key than George was accustomed to. It sounds like it could have been sung by Roy Orbison. Something which Harrison agreed: "'Who Can See It' is once again an open-tuning song and has all kinds of suspended chords I would not have found with regular tuning. It is a true story meaning-'Give us a break, squire' and reminds me of Roy Orbison for some reason. He could do this good."
"Living In The Material World"-The rocking title track which is a great band performance with Nicky Hopkins on the piano, Billy Preston on piano, Ringo on drums, Klaus Voorman on bass and George on guitar. George said about this track: "'Material World' is the influence of A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami and the realising 'we are not these bodies', we are 'in' these material bodies in the physical world. It does not mean 'material' purely in terms of money: the material world is everything which is gross, physical, or material as opposed to the subtle, astral or causal. It was written because it sounded good: MA-TE-RIAL WORLD-LI-VING IN THE MA-TE-RIAL WORLD. It's also a comedy song with a few jokes in case you didn't notice! 'Met them all here in the material world/John and Paul here in the material world/Though we started out quite poor/We got Ritchie on a tour also; Hope to get out of this place...By the Lord Sri Krishna's grace No matter how good you are you still need 'grace' to get out. You can be a yogi or a monk or a nun but without God's grace you still can't make it."
"The Lord Loves The One (That Loves The Lord)-A very catchy song with some nice slide guitar, electric piano and horns/saxophones. At some point George liked to use horn and sax players on his songs dating back to Beatle songs such as "Savoy Truffle." As for George, he said of this song: "Most of the world is folling about, especially the people who 'think' they control the world and the community. The presidents, the politicians, the military, etc., are all jerking about acting as if they are Lord over they own domains. That's basically Problem One on the planet. Everybody thinks mistakenly they are 'Lord' over their 'trip' and after imposing their will on others, fall into an unhappy state, because they are 'not' the Lord. The Lord doesn't manifest through ego. So many are thinking they own it or are in control of it. This is a big joke, and damaging. Some people have thought that in certain songs like this one, I was giving 'them' a telling-off or that I was implying that I was 'holier than thou.' I do not exclude myself and write a lot of things in order to make 'myself' remember."
"Be Here Now"-A very quiet but very beautiful song which I personally believe is a vague reference to the Beatles in terms of its reference to the past being what "was" and speaking of being here "now." George said of the track, "'Be Here Now' was written in Nichols Canyon, Los Angeles, a week after 'Miss O'Dell' (I moved from Malibu as it was too far to drive to the studio each day). I was almost falling asleep, I had the guitar in bed and the melody came fast. The lyric was inspired by the funny story called 'The Transformation of Richard Alpert into Baba Ram Das'." It has an Indian influence in the usage of drone (the song is entirely in the key of A).
"Try Some Buy Some"-The only Spector-produced song from the album, it dates back to 1971 as it was originally recorded for Ronnie Spector. The song was written on the organ by Harrison which he was not very familiar with having been a guitar player. He said of the track, "Even though the words are mundane if the attitude is directed back towards the source, then it becomes more spiritual for me and has more meaning, even though it can still be regarded as a simple tune." Personally, this is my least favorite track on the album. The song was recorded for Ronnie's high register and as a result, George has some trouble at times hitting the high notes.
"The Day The World Gets 'Round"-This is another one of my favorite tracks that reminds me of the "All Things Must Pass" sound. George said of the track, "I started to write 'The Day The World Gets 'Round' in New York the day after the Bangla Desh Concert. It was a very emotional period for me because a lot of good people had helped with its success, which made me very optimistic about certain things. At the same time I felt slightly enraged because, let's face it, the whole problem and how to solve it lies within the power of the governments and world leaders. They have resources, food, money and wealth enough for twice our world's population, yet they choose to squander it on weapons and other objects that destroy mankind. It seems to me to be a poor state of affairs when 'pop stars' are required to set an example in order to solve this type of problem. If everyone would wake-up and do even a little, there could be no misery in the world."
"That Is All"-Titled appropriately, this is the last song on the album. It sounds like a love song to Patti and like Patti, it is very beautiful. As for George, he didn't have much to say about the track. He said, "There is nothing particularly to say about 'That Is All.' The melody came to me and then I had to think of lyrics. That's all."
All in all, this album fared very well in lieu of the fact that it was the follow-up to the critically and commercially successful "All Things Must Pass." George succeeded in not making a clone of that album but instead constructed a new album which was original in its own right and perhaps was the most spiritual he ever recorded. A delight.
Source: "I Me Mine" @1980, 2002 by George Harrison
