Monday, December 31, 2018

Here Comes the Sun: George Harrison was a yogi meditation musician revolutionary: Within You, Without You

 The Background Story of Within You, Without You - vid

 George Harrison talks on meditation - youtube

I saw the last part of Ron Howard's 2016 doc on the Beatles - only to discover it was George Harrison who famously announced he was ending the Beatles touring. That was 1966 and after that their musical focus was inward. George became a Hare Krishna honorary member and had this record produced of Hare Krishna chanting. Then for Sargent Peppers - it was George who got the Yogis on the album cover. This record was the FIRST music record I ever purchased (I had no idea it was considered the best rock album ever recorded) - George SANG this early John Lennon song - Do You Want to know a secret  George's take on the Beatles:

"When I was 17, I was playing in bars in Hamburg. By the time I was 25, we had recorded Sgt Pepper's. Every year in between was like aging 10 years." From 1995 Anthology, in the very last 2 minutes each Beatle gives their take on being with the Fab Four. "You gave us your screams and money. We gave you our nervous systems.... We tried to give some love and that's what it's really all about."

Wow!! I had no idea Optic Nerve was an original hippy psychedelic record store head shop!!

I bought it at the "Optic Nerve" in uptown minneapolis in the mid 80s. I listed to this record alone in my basement - over and over and over - starting at age 15 I suppose. But it was George Harrison's song "Within You, Without You" that intrigued me the most.

George took their India trip the most seriously - actually studying and learning sitar, from a great master.


Sri Yukteswar Giri / Sri Paramahansa Yogananda / Sri Mahavatar Babaji

Although the Beatles wouldn’t meet the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi until two months after Pepper’s release, Harrison was already showing an interest in meditation and other aspects of Indian philosophy. Yogananda, who helped bring these practices to the West through his Self-Realization Fellowship, was a disciple of both Giri and Babaji.
 Image result for Sri Yukteswar Giri / Sri Paramahansa Yogananda / Sri Mahavatar Babaji Although the Beatles wouldn’t meet the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi until two months after Pepper’s release, Harrison was already showing an interest in meditation and other aspects of Indian philosophy. Yogananda, who helped bring these practices to the West through his Self-Realization Fellowship, was a disciple of both Giri and Babaji. image
George says his "Within You, Without You" music was based on a raga recorded by Ravi on All-India Radio....

The concert will feature instruments, rare images and newly-produced first-hand accounts of George’s embrace of Indian music told by some of those he encountered in this transformative period of his life.
As part of the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the release of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, this unique performance will introduce you to those who took part in a story of the Beatles that has never fully been told.
More here Those musicians are the late Anna Joshi and Amrit Gajjar (dilruba); and Sikh temple musician Buddhadev Kansara (tamboura) and Natwar Soni (table). They performed on George Harrison's landmark composition 'Within You, Without You’ on the Sgt. Pepper's album. In this concert, the musicians were introduced to the audience for the first time. The film is composed of the highlight of the concert along with interviews with the musicians backstage, and the audience's responses and plays an important role of communicating this research to the general public.
 the film features Ravi Shankar. Shankar was an irreplaceable part of the Beatle's life -- as irreplaceable, I would argue, as Paul McCartney, John Lennon or Ringo Star. Shankar wasn't the fifth Beatle. He was Harrison's lifelong spiritual/musical influence, a paternalistic figure (he's now 91) who helped remind Harrison what was important in life and helped shape the songs that Harrison gave to the world.
 HBO's George Harrison: Living in the Material World, which was directed by Martin Scorcese, is the latest documentary to mention Shankar's musical influence.
.........................
 That was the problem in 1974, when I toured America. I’d done three albums before I went on the road, and I was still trying to finish my own album as we were rehearsing, and also we’d done this other tour in Europe with these classical Indian musicians.

In support of the charitable work of the David Lynch Foundation, Mr. Scorsese and Olivia Harrison (both TM practitioners) generously gave the foundation permission to host a special preview of this new documentary in Fairfield, Iowa.
OH I had no idea Scorsese practiced TM - no wonder my old film buddy who worked for Scorsese - when I mentioned TM - he kind of defended it. haha.


"I still practice TM," said George Harrison in his later years. "Maharishi only ever did good for us, and though I have not been with him physically, I never left him."  In 1992, Harrison organized and performed a benefit concert to support TM practice and other of Maharishi's "consciousness-based" programs in the United Kingdom. 

No comments:

Post a Comment