Graham Reid | | 1 min read
On paper this double CD by Indian artists, among them Anoushka Shankar and Karsh Kale, makes sense because when the Beatles were at the Maharishi Mahesh Yoga's ashram at Rishikesh in early '68 they wrote a swag of songs, many appearing on The Beatles (aka The White Album).
The excellent 2020 film put the story into the context of the time and influence of Indian music and Eastern philosophies on the Beatles, but also how the Beatles influenced Indian musicians as they were coming out of their post-colonial world into a more self-assertive and affirmative definition of themselves.
However as to the album, few would really need Lennon's Gimme Some Truth with jaw harp and tabla by blues-rockers Soulmate or Bungalow Bill by Raaga Trippin, Beatle classics with flavouring from distinctively microtonal vocals, tamboura, sitar and shenai (Back in the USSR, Across the Universe, Mother Nature's Son, an expansive psyched-out Everybody's Got Something to Hide, I'm So Tired, Norwegian Wood etc) . . .
Or pointlessly faithful, lesser interpretations of singular songs (Sexy Sadie, Revolution, Julia) etc.
Some good tracks of course: the increasingly trippy Tomorrow Never Knows by Kiss Nuka; a pastoral and folksy I Will located somewhere north of Delhi with flute; The Inner Light by Anoushka Shankar/Kale; the obvious Love You To by Harrison which was the first Beatles' song which owed nothing to their Western background . . .
The film didn't include any Beatles' songs or these so the second disc – available separately on Spotify – is of the original score by Benji Merrison. It's actually very transporting.
Interesting, but one more for Beatle obsessives than Indian music or soundtrack aficionados.
.
You can hear this album on Spotify here and the soundtrack second disc here
post a comment