This is a key distinction: George is not necessarily preaching to the listener, but rather urging himself to stay on the spiritual path and encouraging those who seek that same path to do the same. It is evident, though, from listening to these sessions, that the making of this album was in no way akin to recording a series of dour ecclesiastical sermons. George had a small coterie of close friends around him for the recording of these personal, yet universal songs, and he sounds self-assured and happy in their company, the studio providing a place of creativity, familiarity, and sanctuary.

The level of Phil Spector’s involvement in the sessions has always been something of a mystery, with received wisdom (corroborated by the album credits) being that George had undertaken most of the production duties himself. Yet the session tapes reveal that Spector was indeed present for a lot of the tracking sessions, and he is often audible on the control room talkback microphone addressing George or the other musicians and directing proceedings alongside George. There are times, though, when George expresses frustration with Spector’s input, or lack of it, as well as his frequent interruptions during takes. Eventually, Spector would drop out due to, ‘personal problems and fatigue’, but there is evidence that even then he was keen to return to remix the album with George. However, his various issues – not least with British immigration – had clearly become too difficult and distracting for him, and too impactful on the progress of the record, so in the end George decided to complete the album himself.

All of this, though, was yet to become apparent as the musicians, engineers, and production team of Harrison and Spector convened at Apple Studios in Savile Row to record George’s eagerly awaited follow-up to the lauded All Things Must Pass.

The setup for ‘The Lord Loves the One (That Loves the Lord)’ has Klaus’s bass on track 1, Jim’s drums on tracks 2 and 3, George’s acoustic guitar on track 5. The electronic piano played by Gary starts out on track 6 but is quickly moved to tracks 7 and 8, and George’s vocal is on track 10.

They start off with a couple of good, rough takes which have a faster tempo than the final version, but there’s already a good feel to the performance and a rather lively mood compared to the final released version. There is some discussion about the arrangement, with George suggesting a few changes to the band which they rehearse before another faster performance, take 3. George discusses what to do for an ending and mentions that they should fade out over a chorus, perhaps with a solo, ‘a bass solo!’, he jokes with Klaus, ‘or a sax solo!’. In fact, he will eventually decide to add the slide guitar solo which we hear on the final version. Spector suggests not having a fade out at all to which George replies with mock incredulity, ‘What, and have a real ending? I think I’d rather have it going out still moving, so it just fades out, but we’ll use that one on the stage version, (laughs) remember that!’

This method of running through the songs and rehearsing them together in the studio just before recording is slightly unusual, as most musicians would be conscious of the expense of using their precious studio recording time to rehearse, and so would arrive fully practiced and with the arrangement of the song fairly locked down. However, in George’s case, as an ex-Beatle with the luxury of his own record label and studio (at Apple) at his disposal, it makes more sense. It’s also testament to the musicians’ abilities, as well as George’s recently honed skills in musical direction and production, that they could create, arrange, and record these songs so quickly. Throughout the two weeks of tracking sessions, this would be the pattern. None of the musicians would have heard the pieces until just before they recorded them, though Gary Wright recalled George demoing some songs to him personally while they were on holiday together in Portugal a few months prior.

George’s, by this time extensive, experience in the studio is evident in his forward-thinking, even at this early stage of recording, about the overdubs to be added at a later stage. Having learned from past experience, he wants to avoid making the process more difficult for himself. After take 4, he says to Phil McDonald, ‘Phillip, remember on my other album [All Things Must Pass] you never recorded the voice thinking, ‘Oh he can dub it on later’, and it was just murder dubbing it on, so try and get the voice as if it’s the real one.’

Takes 10 to 16 are all faster than the released version and are played energetically, though only a couple are actually complete. At take 20, the tempo is significantly slowed to a more similar speed to that of the released album version. Take 22 is a bit shaky, but take 23 is better and is marked as ‘Good/Best’ and cut out to the master reel.

Having the preferred take of ‘Sue You, Sue Me Blues’ in the can, the group embark upon a quick jam session with George leading them in an endearingly daft rendition of ‘Heartbreak Hotel’. This is followed by a fragment of ‘River Deep, Mountain High’ before George launches briefly into a jokey version of his own ‘The Light That Has Lighted the World’ followed by a bit of ‘Miss O’Dell’ in a ‘country-style’, listed as ‘Isabel’ on the tape box, with just tremolo electric guitar and a vocal.

The next song to be tracked is ‘The Light That Has Lighted the World’. The first take is in E, a lower key than the album version, which gives the song a markedly different feel. The arrangement has bass on track 1, drums on tracks 2 & 3, electric guitar on track 5 through a Leslie speaker, harmonium on track 6, piano on tracks 7 & 8, and George’s vocal on track 10. For the next take, however, they change key to G and the harmonium on track 6 is dropped, with Gary moving to an electric piano with added tape delay and echo on tracks 11 & 12. George also swaps his electric guitar for an acoustic on track 5, playing simple plucked arpeggios, however at the end of the take he says, ‘I’d prefer not to play at all Phil ‘cause I just can’t sort of think of singing and ding ding, ding ding [makes the sound of strumming the guitar]’, and in the subsequent takes George does indeed abandon the guitar completely to concentrate on his vocal.

The band continue to work on ‘The Light That Has Lighted the World’, with George tweaking the arrangement slightly as they go, though there are frequent breakdowns as the band forget the changes previously made. Takes 16 and 24 are complete, and 24 is even marked as ’Good’, although this was later scratched out. The next tape sees several partial takes which, although incomplete, are approaching the final arrangement of the song and George feels that, ‘All those beginning bits are good… I thought everybody up until where we keep breaking down, it seems perfect.’ The final takes 33 and 34 are both complete.