Wah-Wah (song)

rdf:langString Wah-Wah (song)

rdf:langString Wah-Wah

rdf:langString Wah-Wah

rdf:langString left

rdf:langString right

rdf:langString Cover of the original Hansen Publishing sheet music for the song

rdf:langString George Harrison "Wah-Wah" sheet music.jpg

rdf:langString right

rdf:langString George Harrison, Phil Spector

rdf:langString I just got so fed up with the bad vibes – and that arguments with Paul were getting put in the film. I didn't care if it was the Beatles, I was getting out.

rdf:langString It's a festering wound … It's only this year that [George] has realised who he is. And all the fucking shit we've done to him.

rdf:langString There was too much restriction [in the Beatles]. It had to self-destruct … I could see a much better time ahead being by myself, away from the band … It was like a straitjacket.

rdf:langString When we recorded Wah-Wah, the sound in your headphones was reasonably dry, but in the control room to hear the playback, the sound was loud and incredible. I loved it but George didn't: "What are you doing to my song?"

rdf:langString – George Harrison, 2000

rdf:langString – George Harrison to Musician magazine, November 1987

rdf:langString – Lennon to McCartney, discussing Harrison's departure from the Beatles

rdf:langString – Klaus Voormann to Mojo magazine, November 2014

rdf:langString padding:8px;

rdf:langString Song

rdf:langString "Wah-Wah (Day 2 Demo/Take 1))"

rdf:langString "Wah-Wah (Session Outtakes and Jams/Take 1)"

rdf:langString "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.