NOTE: This post became super long, so I decided to split it in two parts!
When I first got into The Beatles it was during the height of Indie. I remember more than any other song Long, Long, Long stuck out to me because it sounded incredibly modern and would've fit right in with the type of music which was popular in the late 00s-early 10s. What I didn't realise was there was in fact a reason Long, Long, Long sounded like these modern artists. lol
Years later I was looking for information on All Things Must Pass and came across this quote from music critic John Bergstrom:
It’s easy to overlook All Things Must Pass‘s musical influence, too. How many guitar-driven, echo-drenched bands have come around since, mixing powerful rave-ups with moody, reflective down-tempo numbers and a spiritual bent? Say what you want about ELO, but My Morning Jacket, Fleet Foxes, Grizzly Bear, and the rest more than make up for it. Furthermore, one listen to “Let It Down”, and you’ll understand a big part of how “Dream Pop” came to be.
You can read the whole article here. It was written in January 2011 and gives an interesting idea of how much the reputation of ATMP has grown since then. Going back to the above quote, I was quite struck by it. Somehow I had never really thought about the wider impact ATMP had. Critics and biographers would talk about what a wonderful album it was, but I never saw them make those connections. Nevertheless it made sense (aside from the ELO dig).
That being said, I wanted to find more evidence. Bergstrom doesn't elaborate further, so one could easily think this was merely another case of a critic giving a Beatle credit where it wasn't warranted. Any attempts to search for "George Harrison + Dream Pop" only came up with articles citing Bergstrom as the source of this claim.
So I decided to take a different approach and looked into individual artists, starting with those listed by Bergstrom.
Jim James of My Morning Jacket does in fact adore George and ATMP in particular. He speaks at length about his admiration here and here.
Harrison died in 2001, not long after James discovered All Things Must Pass, so for him “it took on this cosmic thing, this extra sadness, because I was just so in love with this music… It’s crazy because [the album] is so long, but the whole thing is just so deep and so wise, and there’s some of it that’s so silly and childlike. It’s really a bold, brave statement from somebody that was so successful. ”All Things Must Pass" was important enough in James’s musical evolution that in 2009, his first solo EP, Tribute to, consisted entirely of Harrison covers. “My Sweet Lord,” in particular, is in constant rotation. “The word ‘God’ or the word ‘Lord,’ to me, means a more universal consciousness. I believe we are all God and that God is love and God is everything.” he says. “With ‘My Sweet Lord,’ I just feel this universal wash of love. There’s a certain hypnosis; it’s almost like air to me. It sustains me and keeps me alive the way really no other song has, because it doesn’t project itself. Alice Coltrane’s music is similar to me, where there’s this beautiful expansion of consciousness and love and god and awareness—this deep ache of what we go through on Earth, trying to understand our role in the cosmic scheme of it all.”
With Fleet Foxes it was more tricky. The closest I came to direct evidence was this quote from guitarist Skyler Skjelset:
"When I was younger, I would go through phases of being obsessed with different guitar players. Some days it would be George Harrison, other times it would be Neil Young. I think the real catalyst for starting the band was that we simply enjoyed doing things together and playing the kind of music we liked was more fun than anything else could have been."
Furthermore, former member Father John Misty is a big Beatles fan and his solo album Mahashmashana is very much influenced by ATMP.
With Grizzly Bear I think Daniel Rossen's solo EP from 2012 speaks for itself:
Comparisons between Grizzly Bear and ATMP also came up in reviews. More crucially, both of these bands were majorly inspired by Elliott Smith -- a huge George fan.
"Elliott Smith just may prove up to the task. For everything it can mean this year, he is the songwriter to beat, a waltz-loving, George Harrison-quoting, profane craftsman" - SPIN's 1999 profile of Elliott Smith
"The singer-songwriter talks about his upcoming album Figure 8 and its being rockier than his previous work; his love for George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass; recording at London's legendary Abbey Road; peoples’ perceptions of his happiness or otherwise; moving from Portland to New York to Los Angeles; his previous album XO being more produced and slick... and his favourite Beatles songs." - Rock's Back Pages (16 December 1999)
Next I want to get into the "Dream Pop" claim. Now, there's a contentious debate regarding what Dream Pop is, where it came from, and who exactly fits into Dream Pop/Shoegaze/Indie. For the sake of keeping things simple I'm going to bundle them together.
I'll go further into Big Star's connection with George in a later post, but for now I want to mention the song Try Again (1972) which perfectly encapsulates his influence on them. Big Star are considered one of the precursors to the Dream Pop/Shoegaze/Indie sound.
Galaxie 500 were a late 80s-early 90s band again very formative.
Damon Krukowski: I guess by the time we got around to putting out Today, we thought we had stronger songs than ‘On The Floor’. I think it was maybe inspired by George Harrison; songs like ‘Alive Without Travelling’ (sic, The Inner Light), where it’s just this drone. I think I speak for all of us at the time that George was our favourite Beatle.
Naomi Yang: Yes! George is still my favourite Beatle!
DK: No objection here.
- TheQuietus (Oct. 2025)
A more recent example would be Beach House. They love George, and somewhere out there is an interview where they mention that although they primarily get compared to Cocteau Twins, ATMP was the vibe they were aiming for.
One of the ones we became infatuated with during the early days of our friendship was “All Things Must Pass” by George Harrison. I think it had commercial success at the time but it was never on the level of all the other Beatles’ success. And the whole record is one of those records that start to finish is completely incredible. There’s not a bad song anywhere. This is the title song, “All Things Must Pass.” - Beach House, WTMD 89.7
Another is Weyes Blood, especially her album Titanic Rising:
During the height of the pandemic Angel Olsen put out a cover of Beware of Darkness on Instagram. Later, she released the album Big Time, and while promoting it continuously brought up George as one of the people she listened to most for inspiration. She talks about her love for ATMP here.
All Things Must Pass is something I always listened to in the car, in the van, or in the bus or wherever I was. Just an incredible record. In different times of struggle or heartbreak in my life, I’ll always revisit it. It’s the perfect record for “You’re almost out! You’ve made it out of this thing.” A lot of the songs are about loving someone and falling in love too. But those feelings are really similar to me: the feeling of falling in love and that feeling of really finding your way through something. You kind of fall in love with yourself and life again, and you start to hear things that people are saying differently. You’re tapping into synchronicity, and you’re able to be open to hear people that normally you’d be too wrapped up to hear. That record is really perfect for that mood or that moment that really encapsulates that experience [...] [With All Things Must Pass], it’s never been, “Oh, the way it’s recorded at this studio — with this person and the energy they had and Eric Clapton coming in.” It’s never been about that stuff for me. These songs are really special and really pure — this person is really trying to find peace within themselves. Maybe the world has been dealing them one thing after another, and they have to continually try to find that peace, which we all have to do. I really relate to that. Also, it just sounds fucking good. It’s so good. [Laughs.]
Side Note: Big Time was produced by Jonathan Wilson who often works with Father John Misty. WIlson is a big George guy.
“I’d thought of [Forever Means] as a kind of nod to George Harrison, who I’d been getting back into during the pandemic as I was finally calming down and finding moments of peace with myself." - Angel Olsen
I want to be clear that I'm not trying say George should be credited with inventing these genres. I personally don't believe music works that way. More like -- I think George has always been able to capture a certain wistful melancholy feeling even way back with Don't Bother Me. As he got further into Indian music, diminished chords, and spirituality, that feeling was still present but with greater depth to it, and by All Things Must Pass there were also elements of Americana, Gospel, Folk, etc. Plus of course a bit of whimsy.
Everything that had influenced him up to that point came together in the most beautiful way, and it created a sound which was specific to him. I see these artists as people drawn to the feeling he captured -- embracing slowness, quiet, contemplation, and a fragility which is almost ghostly. At the same time full of emotion and tenderness.
There's a handful of other artists I wanted to mention. They'll be in Part Two!
