Beatles Countdown #95 – The Inner Light
Mar 01
1960s george harrison, the beatles No Comments
On to number 95 on the list which is another Indian piece by George Harrison: “The Inner Light!”
Though it was released as a Beatles song & was the first George Harrison composition to be placed on a single (the B-Side of “Lady Madonna”), the genesis of the song actually puts it outside The Beatles’ realm. The music itself was recorded in January 1968 as part of the recording session for George Harrison’s first album, the soundtrack to the movie Wonderwall. That album is notable for actually being the first solo album for a Beatle, pre-dating the breakup albums by a little over two years. Now, it was all instrumental save a few tracks and poorly recieved, but nonetheless, it was the first. After Harrison had laid down the tracks for the album, he recorded extra bits & pieces for later use, one of which became “The Inner Light.” When it was recorded, however, George Harrison was actually not playing on the track. It’s not known who exactly it would have been, but it’s surmised that his usual repitore of Indian muscians was used (such as on Wonderwall Music). Harrison added his vocal part a month later to the mix with John & Paul adding a very small amount of harmony to it shortly after that. So the song that wasn’t recorded with The Beatles or by The Beatles or even composed in a Beatle-setting was then thrown on as the B-Side to “Lady Madonna.” Cool!
Now as for what the song is about; well, that’s an interesting story as well! In September 1967, George & John were on the Frost Programme to discuss transcendental meditation. One of the other guests of the show happened to be Juan Mascaro, an expert on Sanskrit from Cambridge. He would later send George a copy of the Taosit bible Tao Te Ching with passages in Chapter 47 specifically highlithed with the thought to put them to music. George’s translation wasn’t perfect, but Mascaro’s wish came true with this song. The song itself would end up being George Harrison’s last Indian-inspired song he did with The Beatles and was also heavily admired by the other three members of the band. Paul himself went so far as to say it had a “beautiful melody” partly because of unusual melodic devices that made it stand out in comparision with other songs at that point in time. All in all, an extra bonus from a non-Beatle recording came to be a well-known song for Harrison and ends up on our list at 95. Enjoy!
Song: The Inner Light
Album: “Lady Madonna” Single
Year: 1968
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