"Run of the Mill" is a song by English musician George Harrison, released on his 1970 triple album All Things Must Pass. Harrison wrote the song shortly after the Beatles' troubled Get Back sessions in early 1969, during a period when his growth as a songwriter had inadvertently contributed to the dysfunction within the Beatles' group dynamic. The lyrics reflect the toll that running their company Apple Corps had taken on relationships within the band, especially between Paul McCartney and the other three Beatles, as well as Harrison's dismay at John Lennon's emotional withdrawal from the band. Commentators recognise "Run of the Mill" as one of several Harrison compositions that provide an insight into events behind the Beatles' break-up, particularly the difficulties surrounding Apple.
The song's release coincided with a falling out between Harrison and McCartney, which contributed to the latter taking legal action to dissolve the Beatles partnership. The musical arrangement for "Run of the Mill" bears the influence of the Band, with whom Harrison had spent time in Woodstock before starting work on the Get Back project. Co-produced by Phil Spector, the recording features contributions from Gary Wright and former members of Delaney & Bonnie's Friends band, including Jim Gordon, Jim Price and Bobby Whitlock.
Biographers and reviewers have variously described "Run of the Mill" as an essay on karma, a tale of lost friendship, and a love song to the Beatles. Olivia Harrison has named it among her favourites of all her late husband's compositions. An alternative version of the song, performed solo by Harrison on acoustic guitar, appears on the 2012 compilation Early Takes: Volume 1.
Background
Author Simon Leng has written of George Harrison experiencing an "incredible phase of creativity" throughout 1969, following his time spent in Woodstock, New York with Bob Dylan and the Band in late 1968. Commentators note that Harrison's growth as a composer would have to happen almost in spite of the Beatles, given his customary junior status to bandmates John Lennon and Paul McCartney. The Beatles' Get Back sessions in January 1969 inspired the Harrison songs "I Me Mine" and "Wah-Wah", both of which reflected the fractious situation within the band, and his return to their fold after walking out of these filmed rehearsals allowed him to dictate terms for their immediate future. McCartney and Lennon now looked at Harrison "with new respect", author Alan Clayson suggests. Mersey Beat founding editor Bill Harry was another to notice a change in Harrison compared to earlier in the 1960s, writing: "He wasn't under the domination of the others. He wasn't a passenger any more." An additional factor in Harrison's assuredness was his introduction to the Hare Krishna movement, following a meeting with devotee Shyamasundar Das at Apple Corps headquarters in December 1968.
The financial problems within the Beatles' Apple business empire became another divisive issue at this time. From summer 1968 until the appointment of Allen Klein as business manager in March 1969, McCartney was a regular presence at Apple's central London headquarters, calling staff meetings and urging financial restraint. While noting that all the individual Beatles were demanding employers, Apple press officer Derek Taylor later described McCartney as "the bossiest of the bossy"; according to Tony Bramwell, Apple Records' head of promotions, Lennon and partner Yoko Ono inflicted "their own reign of terror". On 18 January, Disc magazine published what author Peter Doggett describes as "a heroin-fuelled monologue" by Lennon in which he said of Apple's finances: "If it carries on like this, all of us will be broke in the next few months." While McCartney sought to appoint his in-laws, New York lawyers Lee and John Eastman, as the band's business advisors, Lennon's outburst attracted the attention of the less conservative Klein. The latter effectively became the Beatles' manager when Harrison and Ringo Starr also chose to put their faith in his tough approach to business. Refusing to acknowledge Klein as his representative, McCartney later cited this division as the first "irreconcilable difference" among the four Beatles, leading to the band's break-up in April 1970.