Beatles Disappear on New Delhi Streets (1966)

 

Photo taken by Ringo Starr

Beatles Disappear on New Delhi Street

Associated Press

July 7, 1966

    The Beatles fit cozily in this land, where yogis try to walk on water, Astrologers control the lives of important officials, and where unusual attire is the usual. The usual Beatles' pandemonium was at the airport when they arrived, but this barely scratched the surface in India's sea of humanity. 

    The Beatles found during their two-day stay that once they eluded their relatively small band of fans, they could stroll about the capital's downtown streets with hardly a turned head. The Beatles slept until noon today and breakfasted in their hotel suite. A young Indian girl, Chitra Ramaswamy, who knew a hotel security officer, reached the Beatles' door and said later she was invited in while the foursome ate breakfast and shaved. 

    "Ringo had porridge, but said it was stone cold," The excited girl proclaimed to an envious crowd in the lobby. "Two of them were shaving, but I got all four autographs," she sighed as she held up a pad with the signatures. 

    The Beatles' stay in India seemed to make up for the rough time they had earlier this week in Manila, which apparently resulted from a misunderstanding of a performance for Imelda Marcos, wife of the Philippine president. 

    The Beatles' manager said today he and the mop-headed musicians were treated like animals in Manila's airport earlier this week. A statement issued by Brian Epstein, now in New Delhi, through the Beatles' London office said, "Some of the reports from Manila are utterly incorrect and false. The truth is, the Beatles, our road manager, and myself were treated like animals, kicked, punched, shoved, and humiliated by strong-armed men who were there specifically for our departure.

     "No invitation was received from the President's wife. The whole trouble was started by the promoters, and I shall consult my lawyer when I return to London."

George Harrison Talks about the Indian Sound (1966)

 

George Harrison Talks about the Indian Sound (1966)

By Sean O'Mahony

Beat Instrumental

March 1966

    Just before George Harrison took off for Barbados with Pattie for their delayed honeymoon, he talked to me about the Beatles. Thinking of future trends in the pop music sphere, his use of a sitar on the backing track of "Norwegian Wood" and his newfound interest in Indian music have received a lot of comment recently.

     The Beatles, of course, are not the only ones to mention the music of the subcontinent in pop terms; many devotees like Decca's Tony Hall and Donovan are reputedly knocked out by the playing of gentlemen like Ravi Shankar. 

    When I talked to George, he was sitting on the wooden block floor of his music room in his home in Esher, nursing his sitar. All the room contains is a wall hung with guitars and a small jukebox. There aren't many Beatles titles on the list of records either. As George explained, he had to sit cross-legged on the floor because it was impossible to play the sitar any other way. Its long neck and heavy bowl make it almost impossible to play standing up, unless you rest the bowl on a table or something to support it. The equivalent of frets on this instrument are brass ring-like pieces which are fixed onto the neck, but compared with an ordinary guitar as we know it, they seem to be much scarcer, with the result that you have to play the instrument rather like a cross between a violin and a guitar to find the intermediate notes between the frets. 

    I couldn't resist asking George whether he thought this type of music would catch on. "I wouldn't be at all surprised if one day, when we are a lot older, our kids walk into the room and put some records on, which will be based on this type of music," he replied. "Maybe we will turn around and say, 'What the hell is that noise?'"

     "Isn't the Indian music scale different from ours? "I asked him. "Yes, it is different," George agreed. "In actual fact, it is far more complicated than the one we use. We think that Indian music has a lot of weird sounds in it. It doesn't sound right to our ears because we aren't used to it. In fact, to my mind, it's much more advanced than our scale. 

    "It does sound a bit distorted, but you have got to remember that a lot of the most interesting noises on top discs today are based on distortion. Jeff Beck, for example, gets some fabulous sounds by moving his guitar in front of his amp to create feedback." George returned to his sitar, but somehow I don't think we will see the Beatles sitting cross-legged on stage playing Indian instruments. 

Paul plays the sitar

 April 9, 1965 

Ex-Beatles was Surprised that I Treated Him like an Ordinary Bloke

 

The Day I Met George Harrison

Written by Christian Duffin

Harrow Observer (London, England)

December 30, 1998

    In 1974 George Harrison was having a few problems. His guitar may have been gently weeping, but his sitar was screaming for mercy. Its rich tone had disappeared, and Harrison needed someone to pull a few strings

. Sitar repairer Shambu Gupta was the man.  "I charged him £20," recalls Shambu, 56, at his home in Kingsfield Avenue North Harrow. "He said anyone else would have charged him £400. He was so surprised. He gave me a tour of his studios. He was pleased I treated him as a person and not as a Beatle."

     Shambu was impressed by Harrison's recording studio. "There were about 48 tracks. It was mesmerizing with all the lights flashing. It was very posh."

     The pair had met for the first time a few days earlier, a mutual friend and Sultan of the twang, Ravi Shankar held a private concert in his home to mark the birth of his grandson. 

    "We chatted about George's sitar," recalls Shambu. "He told me it needed fixing. So I said, 'Just bring it over'. George is a fine musician, but you have to use a sitar in a different way. Basically, he's a guitarist. I think his main contribution to the sitar is that he made it popular."

     Harrison was pleased with the results when Shambu returned the sitar after a "jawari," a resurfacing of the main bridge, and a restringing. "He said I'd done a good job. The strings had lost their resonance.  His sitar needed a complete service."

 Shambu wasn't at all inhibited by the fact that the instrument belonged to one of the world's best-known pop stars. "His sitar wasn't anything special. I was much more nervous, preparing Ravi Shankar's. That was far more valuable; it was worth £100,000." Now, that sounds like an instrument worth weeping over.

Harrison and Friends

 

September 29, 1989

The Inner Light in India

 

January 13-14, 1968 - Bombay, India

Sitar Man

August 3, 1967 - Los Angeles, California 
 

The Dark Horse find his Inner Light

 

Sitar in India

 

Ravi and Friends

 

Talking to George

 

Paul -- the first Beatle to play the sitar

Taken April 5 or 6, 1965

The sitar boogie

Sitar man

India 1966

Wonderwall in memory of Peter Tork

I have never made it a secret that I have always disliked the Monkees.   Sure, I think some of their songs are good, but overall, I just don't care for the Monkees.   In the days when I was very immature, I used to call Monkee Peter -- Peter Dork. 


In spite of my feelings towards the Monkees,  I am so sorry to hear of the death of Peter Tork today.   As I am dealing with my own grief right now, I am overwhelmed hearing of someone else's' death and my heart aches for Peter's family, friends, and fans because I know exactly how they are feeling right now. 

In hearing of Peter's death, I am reminded that Peter played on the Wonderwall album with George in the autumn of 1967.    Here is what Peter had to say about that meeting with the "quiet" Beatle

I’d met George when he was visiting Cass Elliot in Los Angeles, and I was dating Cass’s sister, Leah,” Peter Tork says. “Later, the Monkees met the Beatles in England, and he invited me to his house. He played the sitar and said: ‘I’m working on a soundtrack album, I’d love to have you play a little banjo.’” Tork had travelled without his instrument, so Harrison borrowed McCartney’s five-string banjo for the session – “which Paul couldn’t play – at least conventionally, because the folk five-string banjo can’t be restrung in reverse order for left-handers, it must be custom made. I played for 45 minutes, George said, ‘Thanks very much,’ and we went our separate ways.”

Tork’s breezy contribution didn’t make the record, but it can be heard 15 minutes into the film, after Collins is chided by his mother for spying through the wall. “And I did not get paid,” he laughs. “George said: ‘We’ll figure that out later.’ He knew that the honour itself was payment enough!”

Sitarman

Paul learns sitar

Sitar playing

Sitar demonstration