{"id":171,"date":"2025-01-04T15:47:25","date_gmt":"2025-01-04T15:47:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tomhartley.me.uk\/beatles\/?p=171"},"modified":"2025-07-14T12:18:39","modified_gmt":"2025-07-14T12:18:39","slug":"167-the-inner-light","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tomhartley.me.uk\/beatles\/167-the-inner-light\/","title":{"rendered":"167: The Inner Light"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"BeatlesThe Beatles Bible<\/span><\/div>

With lyrics based on the Taoist guide to living Tao Te Ching, \u2018The Inner Light\u2019 was written by George Harrison and first released as the b-side of \u2018Lady Madonna\u2019.<\/p>\"LadyContinue reading on Beatles Bible \u2192<\/a><\/div><\/div>

\"Wikipedia\"Wikipedia<\/span><\/div>
"The Inner Light" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles, written by George Harrison. It was released on a non-album single in March 1968, as the B-side to "Lady Madonna". The song was the first Harrison composition to be issued on a Beatles …<\/div>Continue reading on Wikipedia \u2192<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n

The Inner Light was a George Harrison song which was the B-side of Lady Madonna. The single was recorded in early February 1968 just prior to the Beatles’ meditation retreat in Rishikesh India, so that it could be released while they were away from mid-February to (as it turned out) mid-April.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The song illustrates both the growing influence of Indian music on Harrison, and growing seriousness with which George and the other Beatles were taking meditation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this point the Beatles, especially George and John were very committed to meditation, even proselytising. It was a fascinating time in Britain where they had gone from being considered ephemeral pop-stars to being taken very seriously by a new young media establishment from their own generation.
This can be seen in two consecutive<\/a> interviews<\/a> with Harrison and Lennon by David Frost. Frost was just a few years older than the Beatles having been born in 1939 (compared with Lennon 1940, Harrison 1943).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I suspect that their parents’ generation were bemused, confused, amused by the Beatles shift from cheeky entertainers at the Royal Variety Performance to talking earnestly about meditation, religion, philosophy and the meaning of life. But that generation were no longer completely in charge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Beatles were rich and famous but found themselves unfulfilled. As George put it: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“By having money we found that money wasn’t the answer because we had lots of material things that people spend their whole life to try and get. We managed to get them at quite an early age\u2026”<\/p>\n\n\n\n


“\u2026 And it was good really because we learned that wasn’t it. We still lacked something, and that something is the thing that religion is trying to give to people.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

You can imagine this was quite a jarring message for older people, and indeed the programme later goes on to have “serious minded” older people (including barrister and author John Mortimer, born 1923) debate whether it’s all really a lot of self-involved nonsense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Frost shows give a real window into the generational politics and attitudes of the time and the importance of the Beatles in British culture – it was very definitely not just about pop music any more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After these shows (according to the beatlesbible.com article) George had been sent a book by fellow guest Juan Mascar\u00f3, in which he had highlighted a passage from the Tao Te Ching which it was suggested he could set to music – this was later adapted to form the lyrics of The Inner Light.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meditation<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The Beatles studied a form of meditation, Transcendental Meditation, developed by a Hindu teacher but sometimes presented as a non-religious practice. Although the lyrics of The Inner Light emerge from a Taoist text, Harrison did not see a contradiction. At this time Harrison seemed to regard the practice of meditation as they key thing. For example in the Frost Programme he says:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“They’re all a branch of the same thing\u2026 I mean I’m a Quaker, I’m a Christian, I’m a Buddhist and I’m a Hindu and it’s all the same.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

After their retreat Lennon became disenchanted with the Maharishi, and I don’t think he was enthusiastic about promoting meditation from that point onward, but of course he could be quite preachy about other things – that genie would not go back in the bottle. Harrison on the other hand remained enthusiastic and became a lifelong devotee of the Hare Krishna movement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I can see why the Beatles were enthusiastic about meditation. I learned to do it myself a few years ago, and I wish I’d known about it when I was younger – it certainly helps with the old peace of mind! Nowadays “mindfulness” (a collection of meditation techniques re-“discovered” and repackaged for (secular) “Western” consumption) is recommended by the NHS<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indian Music<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

It is interesting to see how the Indian influence on George’s music had evolved. He first used a sitar on Norwegian Wood, a Lennon song where it provided an exotic texture in an otherwise Western folky arrangement. In his own compositions he was moving gradually toward more authentic Indian sounds. He had begun to learn sitar and about the structure and form of Indian music from Ravi Shankar in September 1966 and from that time onward. The Inner Light was the last “Indian” piece recorded by the Beatles, and the backing track was recorded in India by Indian musicians. In that sense it may be the most authentic of these tracks, but it is hard for a non-expert to tell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story of Harrison’s life-changing attraction to Indian music and culture is hard to pin down precisely, but a meeting with David Crosby at a famous 1965 party played an important role in connecting him with Shankar. I am lucky that by coincidence as I was writing this entry I happened to be listening to Andrew Hickey’s History of Rock Music in 500 Songs podcast, episode 139 this morning. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Episode 139: “Eight Miles High” by the Byrds<\/a><\/blockquote>