George Harrison, Ravi Shankar, Sitar Lesson and Within You Without You

Posted in George Harrison, Ravi Shankar, The Beatles, Youtube Favs on December 12th, 2012 by Willie

EDIT: Ravi Shankar died yesterday, Tuesday, December 12, 2012, at the age of 92 in Southern California. RIP you beautiful man; legend of music, Beatle guru, sitar master.

Orignally Published May 5, 2011- Part 56 is a double dose adventure of Indian/English fun.  First we have an awesome rare clip of George Harrison in India taking a sitar lesson with legendary sitar master Ravi Shankar in 1966.  After the Beatles quit touring the mad, mad, world in early 1966, they all took long vacations.  George decided to take his wife, Patti Boyd, to India, where he met Ravi, and insisted on becoming his apprentice.  The first video shows Ravi instructing George on some scales near a beautiful lake and mountain, while Ravi narrates the experience, expressing total shock and bewilderment at why a pop musician of George’s stature would be interested in classical Indian music.  Of course, George’s interest in sitar music caused an international explosion in the instrument and genre, and made Ravi Shankar an international star.  Video two shows the results of all of these efforts, “Within You Without You,” the second best song off Sgt. Pepper, (“A Day in the Life” being the best.)  This song is so incredible.  It’s a total masterpiece of artistic expression.  John Lennon said it best about the song, saying that George was “so clear” on this track, and that it was one of his favorite songs.  The lyrics are some of the most brilliant in the entire Beatles catalog, and sonically, its just perfect, a psychedelic joyride through George’s Indian soaked mind.  I also think its a stunningly original song coming from a man who adopted gurus to learn from his whole life, (Perkins, Lennon, McCartney, Dylan.)  This song has nothing to do with any of those guys, its just pure George, and its brave of him to stick his head out, in the Beatles of all groups, with a song like this.  And its undeniably fantastic!

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The Rolling Stones, Paint it, Black

Posted in The Rolling Stones, Youtube Favs on June 19th, 2011 by Willie

For part 94 of my fast concluding countdown, I have the Rolling Stones, “Paint it, Black,” from their 1966 LP Aftermath. First things first, the odd placement of the comma in the song’s title was added by the Rolling Stones record label Decca.  Why?  I have no idea.  Second, although Richards and Jagger wrote the tune, Brian Jones, having just returned from George Harrison’s house for an impromptu sitar lesson, added the eastern vibe with his own sitar work which you can clearly see in this video.  Speaking of the video, its pretty goofy with Brian vamping it up for the camera cross legged in full white jumpsuit.  The rest of the boys look positively mod and hipster chic which I don’t think is the Stones best look.  Whatever, I’ll leave the fashion criticism out of it, its just classic rock and roll, so enjoy this priceless document.

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