The Beatles’ love affair with India
Ajoy Bose’s meticulously researched book on the Fab Four’s flirtation with India offers the best account of what went wrong, says Vir Sanghvi
One stray remark seems to me to sum up the romance between the West and Indian music/spirituality that began in the hippy-dippy sixties. In 1971, after the Pakistan army unleashed a reign of terror on the Bengalis of East Pakistan, Ravi Shankar went to see his friend George Harrison. He was horrified by the genocide, Shankar told Harrison. Could the rock world do something to help?
Harrison agreed at once, wrote “Bangladesh”, whose success in the charts helped raise public awareness about the massacres in East Pakistan.
More significantly, Harrison also agreed to organ is ea benefit concert, the proceeds of which would goto help the people of East Pakistan/ Bangladesh. The line-up included Eric Clapton, Leon Russell, Ringo Starr and an unbilled Bob Dylan, making his first live appearance in years.
Harrison asked Ravi S hank ar to open the show with a short set of Indian classicalmusic. Shankar agreed because he thought that his performance would keep the sub-continental focus alive and stop the gig from becoming just another rockconcert.
When S hank ar appeared on stage, he was greeted with rapturous applause and, after he tuned up, there was even more frenzied applause from the audience, which believed he had finished the first number of his set.
It was at that stage that S hank ar made there mark that sum med up the whole hi pp y-meets-sit ar equation .“If you have enjoyed the tuning-up so much ,” he told the crowd ,“I hope you will enjoy the performance even more .” Then, he began his actual set.
Many years later, I asked Ravi Shank ar about that remark. Was he just being literal? Or was there an edge to it? Was he being a little ironic about an American audience that could not tell the difference between tuning up and the actual recital?
There mark, heconceded, hadnot been a throw away line. He had begun to get a little tired of Westerners who thought Indian music was so cool but understood nothing about it.
S hank ar’ s weariness sums up the whole six ties love affair between the rock world and India. We forget now that there was a time when Ra vi S hank ar was the most famous Indian in America. The sit ar was so hip that George Harrison played it on “Norwegian Wood” and Brian Jones added a sit ar part to The Rolling Stone s’ s “Paint It Black ”. The symbol “Om” began to appear on tee-shirts, S hank ar played at Woodstock and the festival was opened by the now largely forgotten Swami Sat chi dan and a .(“America has become a whole,” he announced; or perhap she meant “hole”: Iwas never sure.) The creator soft his love affair between the rock world and India were, as A joy Bose points out in this fascinating and extensively researched book, the Beatles. George Harrison was the first Beat let of all in love with the subcontinent, seeking out Ravi S hank ar to learn to play the sit ar and falling under the spell of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.
But contrary to legend, George was not the only Beat le to be seduced by Hindu philosophy. John Lennon wrote “Across the Universe” with its chorus of “Jai Gurudev Om” in 1968 though The Beatles did not release their version till two years later. And when the group came to India to spend time with Maharishi Ma he sh Yogi( a period covered in great detail in this book ), John was just as much into the giggling swami as George .( Ringo left early because his stomach could not take the spicy food and Paul, till the end, believed only in Paul .)
There isn’ t that much Indian music on The Beatles’ albums except for George’ s contributions and even they have not stood the test of time. Sergeant Pepper was meant to be a concept album where one track flowed directly into the next but even so, it is odd that George’s dirge-like sitar-heavy “Within You Without You” is followed by the sound of the rest of the group laughing.
Of George’ s other Indian songs ,“Blue Jay Way” and “The Inner Light” are almost forgotten now and the one time I interviewed him (way back in 1976, not long after the band broke up) Harrison claimed that he had to fight to get Indian music into Beatles albums because Paul was bitterly opposed to it.
George got his revenge after the Beatles split when his solo hit “My Sweet Lord” with its “Hare Krishna” chorus topped the charts around the world. (The impact was diminished slightly when a US court ruled that George had plagiarised the Chiffons’ song “He’s So Fine” to write “My Sweet Lord”. It was the “Doo-lang-doo-lang” chorus of the original that was replaced by the “Hare Krishnas”.)
So was the Beatles’ flirtation with India just a phase? Iimagine it was. There was no long-term, meaningful engagement( except in the case of George) and, by the end, the Beatles were even denouncing the Maharishi whom they once admired so much.
What went wrong between the Beatles and the Maharishi? Bose offers the best account I have read, examining three theories. The first is the version John Lennon gave. In his telling, the Maharishi came onto the actress Mia Far row and turned out to bea charlatan, so the Beatles left. According to John, when they went to tell the Maharishi that they were leaving, he was start led and asked why. John replied( in some accounts )“Well, if you a res of *** ing cosmic, you should know.”
Bose is right to be scep tic aloft his version and suggests that Mia Far row’ s claims about being molested had been made much before and that Far row herself had stopped advancing them by the time the Beatles left. Bose inc lines to a second view: that John was manipulated by Magic Alex, a Beatles hanger on, who resented the influence the Maharishi had on the band.
And there is a third version. Deepak Chopra has claimed on several occasions( including in an interview to me) that many years later he took George to the Maharishi for a reconciliation. Apparently, George we pt and a po log is ed for the bad things that the Beatles had said about the Maharishi. In this version, the Maharishi had caught the Beatles smuggling drugs into the as hr amanda showdown ensued. That led to their angry exit.
Who knows what the truth is? But, if like me, you do care then you must read this book. It is a meticulously detailed account of a flirtation that went wrong.
And it reminds us that, contrary to the promise of eternal love held out by the hippie dream, in the end, as Paul sang, the love you take is only equal to the love you make.
THERE ISN’T THATMUCH INDIAN MUSIC ON THE BEATLES’ ALBUMS EXCEPT FOR GEORGE’S CONTRIBUTIONS