The Beatles Song George Harrison Said Was Based on a ’30 or 40 Minutes’ Long Piece by Ravi Shankar
George Harrison’s contributions to The Beatles were limited to his guitar playing, but when he could shine, he created many of the band’s most unique sounds and experimental tracks. One of Harrison’s most famous Beatles songs was based on a “30 or 40 minutes” piece by Ravi Shankar and had to be condensed dramatically.
George Harrison discovered an interest in the sitar while filming ‘Help!’ with The Beatles
During the 1960s, Harrison developed a passion for Indian classical music. He learned how to play the sitar and first incorporated it in a Beatles song on “Norwegian Wood” from 1965’s Rubber Soul.
In a 1992 interview with Billboard, Harrison said he was first exposed to the sitar while filming a scene for the movie Help!. There were Indian musicians in the background of a scene, and the singer-songwriter was captivated by the sound. Later, he heard the name Ravi Shankar and wanted to learn more about the famous sitarist.
“I went and bought a Ravi record; I put it on and it hit a certain spot in me that I can’t explain, but it seemed very familiar to me,” Harrison explained. “The only way I could describe it was: my intellect didn’t know what was going on, and yet this other part of me identified with it. It just called on me.”
George Harrison said ‘Within You Without You’ was based on a lengthy piece by Ravi Shankar
George Harrison wrote “Within You Without You” for The Beatles’ 1967 album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. The song was influenced by Harrison’s trip to India in late 1966, where he learned more about Indian music and culture from Shankar. During his trip, he listened to a lengthy piece by Harrison that inspired “Within You Without You.” However, Harrison had to find a way to shrink it immensely.
“I’d also spent a lot of time with Ravi Shankar, trying to figure out how to sit and hold the sitar and how to play it,” Harrison recalled (shared via Yahoo!). “‘Within You Without You’ was a song that I wrote based upon a piece of music of Ravi’s that he’d recorded for All-India Radio. It was a very long piece – maybe 30 or 40 minutes – and was written in different parts, with a progression in each. I wrote a mini version of it, using sounds similar to those I’d discovered in his piece. I recorded in three segments and spliced them together later.”
‘Within You Without You’ is a perfect blend of Indian music and psychedelia
Sgt. Pepper’s is an album filled with psychedelic music and imagery, and “Within You Without You” fits perfectly within the tracklist. The lyrics are existential and surreal, while the sitar adds a sublime element that makes listeners feel like they’re floating off to another dimension. Meanwhile, the backing strings boost the production and give it a sound that appeals to a broader audience.
It’s a distinct Beatles song that only George Harrison could have composed. Harrison only incorporated the sitar on a few Beatles tracks, but he was able to infuse his musical influences more frequently in his solo career.
