George Harrison's Indian Songs for the Beatles

giving all Harrison's Indian stuff a close listening lately. It's interesting how different all these three are from each other, in terms of structure and instrumentation. Also interesting that he pretty much never went in this direction on his solo albums and instead kept his subsequent stuff with Shankar separate. There's no tabla or tambura or sitar anywhere on All Things Must Pass, for ex.

My affection keeps switching.

have you heard Wonderwall? its a solo album and full of great Indian stuff. there's an incredible album by the London Radha Krishna society that released the Krishna mantra as a single and it's great.

from my understanding he was writing/supervising the material while Indian instrumentalists were actually playing it. makes sense he wouldn't want his solo career (the sparse thing that it is) to just be him doing that over and over.

like maybe he felt he was wading into in on a genre that was way deeper and required full-time dedication, the type of which he didn't even want to apply to his own rock career (thus the diversions, funding Monty Python films, etc.)

I have heard Wonderwall but it's been years, I should check that out again

was trying to think of other raga/indian-incorporating western pop - Kinks "See My Friends" and "Fancy", several Donovan songs (Three Kingfishers, Fat Angel, Peregrine), Stooges "We Will Fall", The Cure "If Only Tonight We Could Sleep", some Beck stuff, a couple Black Angels songs... I'm sure there's more I'm forgetting at the moment. Zep has some stuff that's obviously *influenced* by Indian musicians but I don't think they ever actually ended up using any on "Kashmir" or "Friends" (yes I have heard that session outtake of Page and the Indian orchestra)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Radha_Krsna_Temple_(album)

^this is what i mention above. it's really great stuff. George produced this and they released in '71.

feel like maybe he realized he was better as a promoter/facilitator

thanks I'll check that out! sure I've seen it mentioned but never listened to it

huh "Red Lady Too" off of Wonderwall sounds like it's the same chord progression as "In the First Place"

To be honest, I like all of these songs!

feel like maybe he realized he was better as a promoter/facilitator

iirc, he said that he gave up trying to play sitar once he realized how intense a lifetime study it was, and that he couldn't hope to attain a fraction of Shankar's mastery.

anybody heard this "shankar family & friends" album? produced by george.

https://www.discogs.com/Shankar-Family-Friends-Shankar-Family-Friends/release/1784383

The only problem I have with this stuff is that it led to bands later grafting tablas and sitars onto their songs in a very lazy way thinking "indian classical music = psychedelic" ...

was trying to think of other raga/indian-incorporating western pop - Kinks "See My Friends" and "Fancy", several Donovan songs (Three Kingfishers, Fat Angel, Peregrine), Stooges "We Will Fall", The Cure "If Only Tonight We Could Sleep", some Beck stuff, a couple Black Angels songs... I'm sure there's more I'm forgetting at the moment. Zep has some stuff that's obviously *influenced* by Indian musicians but I don't think they ever actually ended up using any on "Kashmir" or "Friends" (yes I have heard that session outtake of Page and the Indian orchestra)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cE3C1bX-6yk

I have that Shankar Family n Friends album, its p interesting. Contains maybe george's last attempt at an indian pop song

Xp

I always had 'Blue Jay Way' down as being a bit of an Indian-influenced composition in the sense that it's pretty much a drone, but I suppose it couldn't be included in this poll because it doesn't have sitars or a tabla on it. I like 'Blue Jay Way' a lot, by the way, it's "bad trip" music.

― Dog Man Star took a suck on a pill... (Turrican) Right on. Also I must admit how much better I like WYWY on the remastered Pepper's---mainly instrumentally, though admit the punchline, "Life goes on within you and without you", suits and indeed sums the album perfectly, or pretty well. Still get tired of the naggy vocal and most of the words.

George was a solid producer -- of the four members he could've had a profitable sideline doing it.

That's true, the random stuff he produced for others generally sounds v good

What random stuff should I check? Of course he co-wrote "If Not For You" with Dylan---big hit for Olivia Newton-John! Maybe teamed up for writing and/or producing some Wilburys tracks? Don't think I've ever heard a whole GH album, though liked some of the solo singles. Also wondering about Electronic Sound and the Bombay sessions, source of "The Inner Light"and much more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wonderwall_Music

Yeah, I agree about Harrison being a solid producer - the stuff he did for Badfinger in particular springs to mind. It's tempting to imagine an alternate timeline in which Harrison jacks in his solo career after All Things Must Pass and becomes a full-time producer. It would have spared us all a lot of lousy records, and I reckon Harrison would have only got better as a producer the more he did it.

otm. He was the only Beatle interested in it, and he had the chops and studio knowledge.

Here, dow! I tried to show range.

Of course he co-wrote "If Not For You" with Dylan---

Actually, he didn't -- you're thinking of "I'd Have You Anytime."

Underrated GH co-production
https://youtu.be/LjhRmOnoFBo

It's worth noting too that for about three years George was the best-selling solo Beatle -- and did it again in the late eighties. I wonder how Paul felt about it.

He has a production credit on some of the wilbury stuff too.

This aint bad
https://youtu.be/xqXIeYTiJic

xpost:

He was probably surprised at Harrison's early solo success (as all the Beatles were) but by Cloud Nine I doubt he gave much of a shit - he'd already chalked up numerous hit singles and albums without The Beatles by that point, 'Mull of Kintyre' even being a UK million-seller.

I couldn't imagine McCartney as a producer - he's suitable as a producer or co-producer for his own records, and that's it. If he tried to produce anyone else, he'd just try and turn it into a McCartney record.

That's what happened with "Come And Get It." Badfinger would say, "Can we try it this way?" and Paul would be all, "No, because if we do it my way, it'll be a hit. Also, I'm Paul McCartney."

John otoh at least did a good job on Pussycats, but I think thats it for him...?

xpost:

Yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking of when trying to picture McCartney as a producer... McCartney had Badfinger copy his demo note-for-note, whereas Harrison allowed them to be themselves and just tried to get the tracks sounding as strong as possible.

xpost:

He was probably surprised at Harrison's early solo success (as all the Beatles were) but by /Cloud Nine/ I doubt he gave much of a shit - he'd already chalked up numerous hit singles and albums without The Beatles by that point, 'Mull of Kintyre' even being a UK million-seller.

If I'm not mistaken, it was around this time that Paul asked George about trying to write together. George basically told him to fuck off.

If I was George I would have said the same thing, tbh. By that point, Paul had a zillion co-writes with Linda (although I suspect this was a business move) and none with Harrison.

It was during the Cloud Nine/Wilbury era when Paul started making noises about wanting to write with George.

oh woops -- missed Tarfumes' post. Sorry!

this is great:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCTYXXg9ZZI

Ha, that's great.

Supposedly, Ringo (who was in the movie) refused to play on the Beatles re-recordings for Broad Street. He said to Paul, "Nope, I think we got it right the first time around."

someone explain the title of 'love you to' to me. he signs "i'll make love to you" and 'love you to' doesn't make any grammatical sense. was it a typo?

"Supposedly, Ringo (who was in the movie) refused to play on the Beatles re-recordings for Broad Street. He said to Paul, "Nope, I think we got it right the first time around.""

he played on them

he signs "i'll make love to you" and 'love you to' doesn't make any grammatical sense. was it a typo?

I'd love you to find an answer for that question.

McCartney produced Bonzo Dog Band, Ringo, and Mary Hopkin.

Mary hopkin is the worst

Also - the Fourmost, Peggy Lee, Mike McGear/Scaffold, Linda McCartney, Denny Laine, and a late '80s comeback record by the Crickets.

it's just the one Bonzos song, no?

I think so - "I'm the Urban Spaceman" under a pseudonym. It was a single for them.

A 1987 version of the Rockestra Theme by Duane Eddy.

Some serious manspreading going on in that George Harrison interview.

he played on them

― akm, Saturday, June 24, 2017 1:33 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Really? Hm. I know he played on other tracks on the soundtrack, but I think it's Peter Doggett's book that says he wouldn't play on the Beatles songs.

It was only because he couldn't find the brushes in time.

oh you're right. ha, I always thought he did play on those but I just saw a mccartney quote stating he didn't, because he didn't want to compare his original performances to the new ones

Those re-recordings are so fucking unnecessary.

Sure, but at least they got Paul to use "McCartney-Lennon" as the songwriting credits for the first time.