What Is Life
"What Is Life" is a song by the English rock musician George Harrison from his 1970 triple album All Things Must Pass. In many countries, it was issued as the second single from the album, in February 1971, becoming a top-ten hit in the United States, Canada and elsewhere, and topping singles charts in Australia and Switzerland. In the United Kingdom, "What Is Life" appeared as the B-side to "My Sweet Lord", which was the best-selling single there of 1971. Harrison's backing musicians on the song include Eric Clapton and the entire Delaney & Bonnie and Friends band, with whom he had toured during the final months of the Beatles. Harrison co-produced the recording with Phil Spector, whose Wall of Sound production also employed a prominent string arrangement by John Barham and multiple acoustic rhythm guitars, played by Harrison's fellow Apple Records signings Badfinger.
An uptempo soul tune, "What Is Life" is one of several Harrison love songs that appear to be directed at both a woman and a deity. Harrison wrote the song in 1969 and originally intended it as a track for his friend and Apple protégé Billy Preston to record. Built around a descending guitar riff, it is one of Harrison's most popular compositions and was a regular inclusion in his live performances. Rolling Stone magazine has variously described it as a "classic" and an "exultant song of surrender".
"What Is Life" has appeared in the soundtrack for feature films such as Goodfellas, Patch Adams, Big Daddy, Away We Go, This Is 40 and Instant Family. Harrison's original recording was included on the compilations The Best of George Harrison and Let It Roll, and live versions appear on his album Live in Japan and in Martin Scorsese's 2011 documentary George Harrison: Living in the Material World. In 1972, Olivia Newton-John had a UK hit with her version of the song. Ronnie Aldrich, the Ventures and Shawn Mullins are among the other artists who have covered the track.
Background
Even before his temporary departure from the Beatles in January 1969, their Apple Records label was an "emancipating force" for Harrison from the creative restrictions imposed on him within the band, according to his musical biographer, Simon Leng. In his article on All Things Must Pass for Mojo magazine, John Harris has written of Harrison's journey as a solo artist beginning in November 1968 – when he spent time in Woodstock with Bob Dylan and the Band – and incorporating a series of other collaborations through the following eighteen months, including various Apple projects and a support role on Delaney & Bonnie and Friends' brief European tour. One of these projects, carried out intermittently from April to July 1969, was his production of That's the Way God Planned It, an album by Billy Preston, whom Harrison had met during the Beatles' Hamburg years and had recently been recruited to guest on the band's troubled Get Back sessions.Jim Irvin, "Close to the Edge", Mojo, December 2003, p. 82. It was while driving up to a Preston session in London from his home in Esher, Surrey, that Harrison came up with the song "What Is Life".In his autobiography, I, Me, Mine, Harrison describes it as having been written "very quickly" and recalls that he thought it would be a perfect, "catchy pop song" for Preston to record. He adds that he changed his mind once he arrived at Olympic Studios and found Preston working on more typical material – or "playing his funky stuff". Rather than attempt it with the Beatles during the band's concurrent Abbey Road sessions, Harrison stockpiled "What Is Life" with his many other unused songs from the period, including "All Things Must Pass", "Let It Down", "I'd Have You Anytime" and "Run of the Mill". He revisited it a year later, after completing work on Preston's second Apple album, Encouraging Words.
Composition
Harrison biographer Simon Leng describes "What Is Life" as "Motown-spiced" and a comparatively rare example of its composer's willingness to embrace the role of "entertainer" in his songwriting. The song is defined by Harrison's descending guitar riff, which also serves as the motif for the chorus.Richie Unterberger, , AllMusic. Author Alan Clayson describes "What Is Life" as a seemingly "lovey-dovey pop song" that "craftily renewed the simplistic tonic-to-dominant riff cliché".The lyrics have a universal quality, being both simple and uplifting. Their meaning has caused some debate among biographers and music critics, as to whether "What Is Life" should be viewed as a straightforward love song – perhaps a "lovingly crafted paean" to Harrison's wife Pattie Boyd, in Clayson's description – or a devotional song like many of Harrison's compositions. Ian Inglis writes that the song title suggests a "philosophical debate about the meaning of life", yet its rendering as "what is my life" in the choruses "reshapes completely".
Theologian Dale Allison finds no religious content in "What Is Life" but comments that the "failure of words to express feelings" implied in the opening line is a recurring theme in Harrison's spiritual songs. Joshua Greene, another religious academic, identifies the song as part of its parent album's "intimately detailed account of a spiritual journey": where "Awaiting on You All" shows Harrison "convinced of his union with God", "What Is Life" reveals him to be "uncertain that he deserved such divine favor". According to musicologist Thomas MacFarlane, the ambiguity in the lyrics suggests a connection between spiritual and physical love.
The second verse repeats what Inglis refers to as the "somewhat confusing promise" from Harrison should his love be "rejected":
Recording
By May 1970, having recently collaborated with "genuine R&B heavy-weights" such as Doris Troy and Preston, as well as participating in the "blue-eyed soul" Delaney & Bonnie European tour, along with Eric Clapton, the previous December, Harrison was well placed to record "What Is Life", Leng observes. With Phil Spector as co-producer and all the Friends team on hand, the song was among the first tracks taped for Harrison's debut post-Beatles solo album; recording took place at Abbey Road Studios in London, during late May or early June. The same core of musicians – Bobby Whitlock, Carl Radle, Jim Gordon, Bobby Keys and Jim Price – would similarly elevate other All Things Must Pass tracks such as "Awaiting on You All", "Art of Dying" and "Hear Me Lord". According to Keys, he and Price overdubbed their horns parts at a later session at Abbey Road.The track opens with Harrison playing the fuzztone guitar riff, which is then joined by Radle's bass and "churning" rhythm guitar from Clapton, before Gordon's drums bring the full band in. During the verses, Gordon moves to a square, Motown-style beat – or "rock-steady Northern soul backbeat" in Leng's words – before returning to the "galloping rhythm" of the more open, "knockout" choruses. The song is driven equally by Badfinger drummer Mike Gibbins' powerful tambourine work.
On "What Is Life", Spector provided what music critic David Fricke terms "echo-drenched theater", in the form of reverb-heavy brass, soaring strings and "a choir of multitracked Harrisons". Barham stayed at Harrison's new home, Friar Park in Henley-on-Thames, and created the scores for "What Is Life" and other songs from melodies that Harrison sang or played to him on piano or guitar. Barham says that, for inspiration, Harrison also played him Spector productions such as Checkmates, Ltd.'s "Proud Mary". In his autobiography, Every Night's a Saturday Night, Keys recalls that Harrison and Price worked out the horn arrangement together at the overdubbing session. In MacFarlane's description, the strings provide a complementary countermelody to the guitar riff, while the horns' combination of "uptown soul and mariachi" heightens and expands the track's musical colour.
After recording the album's backing tracks with Spector, Harrison carried out most of the overdubbing without him, working at Trident Studios with former Beatles engineer Ken Scott.Todd L. Burns, "Ken Scott: Red Bull Music Academy Lecture ", redbullmusicacademy.com, 2013. The song's vocals and strings, along with a brief slide-guitar commentary from Harrison over the final verse, were overdubbed at Trident. Dated 19 August, Spector's written comments on Harrison's early mix of the song had suggested a "proper background voice" was still needed. Harrison performed all the chorus vocals himself and credited them to "the George O'Hara-Smith Singers". Spector was impressed with Harrison's dedication in the studio, saying, "He was a great harmoniser ... he could do all the parts himself" and rating Harrison "one of the most commercial musicians and songwriters and quintessential players I've ever known in my entire career".
Release and reception
"What Is Life" was released in late November 1970 as the first track on side two of All Things Must Pass, in its original, triple LP format. Along with "My Sweet Lord" and "Isn't It a Pity", the song had already been identified as a potential hit single by Allan Steckler, manager of Apple's US operation. Backed by "Apple Scruffs", "What Is Life" was issued as a single in America on 15 February 1971, just as the "My Sweet Lord" / "Isn't It a Pity" double A-side was slipping out of the top ten. Billboard magazine's reviewer described "What Is Life" and "Apple Scruffs" as "intriguing rhythm follows-ups" to the first single, which were "sure to repeat that success" and "should prove big juke box items". Record World called it "perhaps the most commercial cut" from All Things Must Pass.While describing the initial impact of All Things Must Pass, author Robert Rodriguez includes the song as an illustration of how the depth of Harrison's talents had been "hidden in plain sight" behind John Lennon and Paul McCartney during the Beatles' career. The album introduced Harrison as an overtly spiritual songwriter who sought to connect with his audience on a "higher level" compared with the populist approach of McCartney or the confrontationalism adopted by Lennon. Rodriguez concludes: "That the Quiet Beatle was capable of such range – from the joyful 'What Is Life' to the meditative 'Isn't It a Pity' to the steamrolling 'Art of Dying' to the playful 'I Dig Love' – was truly revelatory."
The front of the single's US picture sleeve consisted of a photo of Harrison playing guitar inside the central tower of Friar Park. The tower's sole, octagonal-shaped room was an area that Harrison had adopted as his personal temple and meditation space. This picture was taken by photographer Barry Feinstein, whose Camouflage Productions partner, Tom Wilkes, originally used it as part of an elaborate poster intended as an insert in the album package. The poster featured a painting of the Hindu deity Krishna watching a group of naked maidens beside a bathing pond. Harrison apparently felt uncomfortable with the symbolism in Wilkes's design – the Friar Park tower image filled the top half of the poster, floating among clouds above the Krishna scene – so Wilkes abandoned the concept and instead used a darkened photo of Harrison inside the house as the album poster. In Denmark, the picture sleeve consisted of four shots of Harrison, again with guitar, taken on stage during the Delaney & Bonnie tour.
As with the parent album, the single was a commercial and critical success. "What Is Life" peaked at number 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 7 on Cash Boxs Top 100 chart, making Harrison the first ex-Beatle to have two top-ten hits in the United States.Jillian Mapes, , billboard.com, 29 November 2011. The single climbed to number 1 in Switzerland and on Australia's Go-Set National Top 60, and reached the top three elsewhere in Europe and in Canada., Tsort pages. In Britain, where Harrison had resisted issuing a single from All Things Must Pass until midway through January, "What Is Life" appeared as the B-side of "My Sweet Lord". The record became the top-selling single of 1971 in that country.