Dear Prudence is a track from the White Album, written by John Lennon during the Beatles stay in Rishikesh, India where they were learning mediation at the ashram of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.
The Beatles BibleWritten by John Lennon in India, ‘Dear Prudence’ was about Mia Farrow’s younger sister, who refused to leave her chalet at the meditation retreat in Rishikesh, and had to be coaxed out by Lennon and George Harrison.
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WikipediaThe song is famously about Prudence Farrow (later known by her married name Bruns), the sister of movie star and celebrity Mia Farrow who was one of the party of Westerners and celebrities who received their training at the same time as the Beatles. Prudence was drawn to meditation after experiencing a harrowing LSD trip in which she had felt “as if my body was gone and I was left in hell for all eternity”. Meditation had provided her with a new perspective:
“Time took on new meaning, suddenly becoming far more precious to me—I couldn’t waste it anymore. I felt compelled to use it much more wisely.”
“Being on that course was more important to me than anything in the world. I was very focused on getting in as much meditation as possible, so that I could gain enough experience to teach it myself.”
Accordingly she took the Rishikesh course very seriously, but against advice she had become overly absorbed in the experience, spending days isolated inside her hut. Lennon and George Harrison – who she felt were kindred spirits – had been assigned by the Maharishi to act as her “buddies” so it fell to them to coax her out of seclusion when the group became worried about her. The unusual situation inspired Lennon to a unique song combining warm and gently encouraging lyrics with spacious, sunny music which has an aethereal or hypnotic quality.
The guitar part uses a picking style that Lennon had been taught by Donovan who was another member of the group attending the course. Lennon combines this folky style with descending chord sequence over a static repeated note – D – a “pedal tone” which gives it that slightly exotic airy, quality. Harrison’s well-judged lead guitar adds just a hint of psychedelic rock. The overall combination is refreshing.
Unusually, Dear Prudence was recorded without Ringo Starr – he was absent from the White Album sessions at the time, having temporarily left the band on 22nd August 1968, over the constant arguments and brewing tension.
I think they were all feeling a little paranoid. When you have a rift between people – if you go to a party and the husband and wife have been having a row – there’s a tension, an atmosphere. And you wonder whether you are making things worse by being there. I think that was the kind of situation we found with Ringo. He was probably feeling a little bit odd because of the mental strangeness with John and Yoko and Paul, and none of them having quite the buddiness they used to have. He might have said to himself, ‘Am I the cause?’ (George Martin, Anthology)
Despite Ringo’s absence the arrangement has a bit more unity than some of the other tracks on the album, building subtly but satisfyingly as it goes along.
Miscellaneous Connections
There is probably an interesting trivia question to write about the a spate of “named women” songs that began to crop up in the Beatles output. There are actually quite a few – you could include Michelle, Eleanor Rigby, Lovely Rita, Polythene Pam and so on, of course. It’s intriguing, though, that two songs on the White Album combine a name with Dear (Dear Prudence, Martha My Dear), and it makes me wonder whether one title helped inspire the other.
It seems to me that there’s also a link between Dear Prudence and Julia (another Lennon song, this one written about his mother); beyond the superficial similarity of the fingerpicking style, they seem to come from a similar wistful mental location, perhaps a place that he was able to find while in India. In both songs Lennon is trying to reach someone who has become inaccessible, trying to conjure some kind of connection.
The other interesting comparison (in this case I am pretty sure any relationship is coincidental) is with Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds. Both are Lennon songs that use a descending bassline over a pedal note, and both have an otherworldly quality, but Lucy is produced in the ornate, vivid, acid-driven Pepper style, while Prudence is achieves the meditation-fuelled, clean, simple style that the Beatles were probably aiming at when they began the White Album project.