Today we would call it cultural appropriation, but the love between the Beatles and India was genuine. Sixties popular culture in the United Kingdom was fascinated by its largest colony; There was a thriving immigrant community and their music was played on some radio programs. It is also not surprising that Beatlemania arrived in India and covered almost the entire planet. In such a young country, many local bands set out to emulate the songs and aesthetic of the Liverpool phenomenon. This connection is told in the film “The Beatles and India”, a 2021 British production (on Movistar+), well documented and detailed. However, there is a handicap: the Fab Four's songs cannot be played, a question of rights, thank God we know them.
The film, directed by the Indian Ajoy Bose (author of the book on which it is based: Across the Universe) and the British Peter Compton, brings together many British and Indian voices about this idyll. It tells how The Beatles were passionately devoted to the music of the subcontinent before they first set foot in this country in 1966; Their trip to Rishikesh in 1968 to meditate with Guru Maharishi, who was leading an artists' expedition, was a bitter experience from which they returned changed. But not as expected.
The first interaction didn't keep us waiting long. In the film Help! from 1965, the villains were a group of Indians with all sorts of stereotypes. In one of his scenes, an Indian band casually appeared in a restaurant. George Harrison, always restless, was captivated by the sound of the sitar. One was wanted. He found a teacher: Ravi Shankar, a musician from Benares who was making a certain name for himself in Europe and who at the time couldn't imagine that he would one day play at the big rock festivals in Monterey and Woodstock. The sitar that Harrison dabbled with first appeared in Lennon's song “Norwegian Wood” in “Rubber Soul” (1965).
The Indian influence fit very well with the Beatles moment and the cultural context. These sounds fit into the spiritual search of the hippies and Harrison himself and into the psychedelic wave that was the fruit of experimentation with LSD. The Liverpudlians had given up touring to increase their ambition in the studio and were ready to challenge the stylistic corset. On the album Revolver (1966), which marked this turning point in the band, Love You To was played, with Harrison loosening up on sitar, and Lennon's hypnotic Tomorrow Never Knows was very prominent.
The Beatles stopped briefly in Delhi in July 1966 after recording Revolver and returning from a troubled stay in Manila (where they gave Imelda Marcos, the dictator's wife, an ugly look and had to leave quickly). It was clear it was coming: it wasn't long before Harrison returned to India in September. He planned to travel incognito, but his face was very familiar and he complained that he didn't want to be a Beatle while on vacation. In addition to taking a selfie at the Taj Mahal, he also worked with local musicians on his first solo project, the Wonderwall soundtrack. After returning from this trip, George signed a few more songs with the Beatles on sitar: Within You Without You (on Sgt. Pepper) and Inner Light, the B-side of a single. But he realized that he would never become a master of the instrument unless even his admired Ravi Shankar had fully learned it. He later sang another Indian-inspired song for the Magical Mistery Tour: Blue Jay Way, although without the sitar.
At the beginning of 1968, the Beatles were somewhat lost. The fiasco of the TV movie Magical Mystery Tour, released at Christmas to poor reviews, signaled the exhaustion of the psychedelic path. They were deeply affected by the death of their manager Brian Epstein, who had been the glue of the group. Deciding to stop and think, they decided to settle at the foot of the Himalayas to attend a meditation class led by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, a saint who became popular in what was then San Francisco and whom they (along with several) had already met of the Stones) in Wales. Other artists such as Donovan, Mia Farrow, Mike Love (of the Beach Boys) and the jazz musician Paul Horn as well as the photographer Paul Horn and the journalist Lewis Lapham came there with the Beatles and their partners.
I've already mentioned that the film is exhaustive: I don't know if it was necessary to listen to every single witness to this retreat. The truth is that such a spiritual excursion was ruined by very earthly things. Maharishi tried to exploit the popularity of his illustrious guests and even planned to make a documentary with them, but they refused. Worst of all, the guru made some sort of sexual advance toward Farrow, with whom he wanted to merge in a “cosmic embrace.” She packed her bags and the innocence of the experience was shattered. Of course, with all the free time they had between meditation and meditation, McCartney and Lennon returned with a bag of songs, about four dozen, which made up the so-called White Album, and some made it onto their next albums together or alone.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sa3948JzWCC
The film ends with the expedition's very delayed return to London. Ringo and his wife Maureen did not survive more than ten days; After three weeks Paul left. George and John, the most persistent, stayed with the Guru for a month and a half, and then the former stayed in India to visit Madras. Lennon left angry and feeling taken advantage of. He wrote the song Sexi Sadie, which was originally supposed to be called Maharishi. “What have you done? You made fun of us. “You broke the rules and showed it to everyone.”
The film stops here. It would have been interesting to analyze the traces of this music in the white album they made after their return. No sitar, no costumes, no psychedelic trips, more reserved sound effects, blank cover, no title. A collection of 30 songs with the basics: guitar, bass, drums and piano. The Indian influence is less obvious and goes more to Lennon, as in the single chord of Dear Prudence, dedicated to Mia Farrow's sister. Additionally, his most clearly Hindu-inspired composition, “Across the Universe,” was discarded for this album (and found again on “Let it Be”). Harrison already distinguished himself as a composer, but he put aside his Orientalisms, although he later returned to them and collaborated again with Ravi Shankar, with whom he would organize the memorable festival for the benefit of Bangladesh; He was always the most mystical of the four. On the white album you begin to suspect that each Beatle is taking a different direction, that he is composing the songs himself, but the cohesion broke down. The following year, in mid-1969, the band broke up.
Contact with the real India instead of the imaginary one gave his music a new twist, no longer in the direction of the exoticism that permeated his songs, but in the direction of simplicity. The Indian influence became more subtle. More real. If they traveled so far to find themselves, all four were alone.
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