Tuesday06 Feb 07:27 AM
The Beatles In India (at YouTube) | A Souljerky Brief Guide |
Of course the fabulous photography book has been out for a while now. But recently a Souljerky pal hipped us to the goldmine of footage at YouTube surrounding the Beatles' legendary sojourn to India in 1968. (thanks, Anthony!) The machinations of mass media followed the troupe and turned an entire generation's mystic imagination towards India.
It's also curious to note that while relations with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi soured, the group experienced an immense flush of creativity from the experience, inspiring scads of amazing songs and spawning the creation of Apple records.
Here's a brief guide to what you can find—
A 1968 Italian news segment covering the Beatles in Rishikesh featuring amazing on-location footage. An English translation of the Italian voice-over is available below, courtesy of digital farmer Roberto Maiocchi (Thank you!)
The second half of this segment features less Italian voice over and more gorgeous, hilarious footage. An English translation is available below.
A segment from a recent documentary about the Beatles gags us deeply with high-profile talking heads including Sting, Bono, Keith Richards, Salman Rushdie, & Christy Turlington. It's Keith Richards however, who drops the best wordsound, "I draw the line at swamis."
Classic India-era Beatles. Features the Sanskrit mantra "Jai Guru Deva Om" and perhaps my favorite Beatles chant ever, "Nothing's gonna change my world."
The fab four ride an elephant in India and Ringo is having none of it. They decide that Ringo should at least feign happiness, so they pay a silly visit to an Indian Charm school.
Donovan discusses the 60's and folk music then gets into John Lennon. He discusses the trip to India, where Donovan teaches John how to fingerpick blues patterns on the banks of the Ganges.
Off the plane from India, the Beatles start Apple Corps: "We want to set up a system whereby people who want to make a film about anything, they don't have to get on their knees..." On the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, they confess: "We made a mistake... We thought there was more to him than there was, but he's human. And for a while we thought he wasn't."
Outtakes and ideas from the cutting room floor of the White Album, featuring a folksy, unreleased ditty called "India". Great music, miserable photo-collage.
Perhaps this is a tangent. But brilliant nonetheless.
ITALIAN NEWSREEL TRANSLATION
(It's not really all that interesting, but for the record...)
PART I | 00:18 | In mid February all four of the Beatles —with their wives and girlfriends, Mia Farrow (wife of Frank Sinatra), Donovan, an idle of British teenagers, and the famous Californian band The Beach Boys— went to India to meditate with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.
PART I | 00:49 | Ringo and Mia Farrow left early but the others are still in the Himalayas... We went to visit them when they were all still there and we will tell you the story... It's a story with open questions and little doubts on the Beatles' new world.. but that contains two new songs.
PART I | 01:15 | There are no tigers in the movie but at nighttime you can hear their roars coming from the forest, unless this was another good idea from the flawless organization.
PART I | 02:15 | The trip starts in the outskirts of Bombay, India's entry gate.
PART I | 02:50 | And here come the Beatles, with their guitars and wives. They surround their teacher and decide how to spend the afternoon.
PART I | 03:13 | Singing by the river Ganges is a great way to meditate, suggests Maharishi. So we all go towards the sacred river. The ceremony consists of offering of old and new songs (two of the new songs were written right here, albeit without arrangements) and bathing in the purifying waters of the sacred river.
PART II | 03:45 | Here come together the Beatles and the Ganges. One of the great places in India's history and a few songs. The result is a nice vacation rather than a meditation. But the Beatles are smart, and once rested and with a fresh mind, they will sure find other opportunities.
Remarks
1 total remarks for this post. Add your own remarks below.
Mon 19 Feb 2007 at 10:00AM
Hey Spiros
Thanks for the shout.
Anthony
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Please be nice.
