It seemed fitting that, on this day, I post a blog entry to honor the late great Ravi Shankar.
Music fans, and particularly Beatles fans such as myself, will remember that he had a profound influence on that group, particularly George Harrison.
It was through Shankar that the Beatles began to experiment with Eastern influences, particularly Indian influences, in their music. This was something that was new at the time for Western audiences, and accompanied and complimented the increasing influence of Eastern philosophy and religions to the West in general. Harrison's first experiment with the sitar came in "Norwegian Wood", but a clearer, more heavy influence from India (and Shankar) can be heard in "Within You, Without You".
Shankar was an accomplished musician in his own right already by the time that he met the Beatles. His Hindustani classical music stylings
Yet, the Beatles were not the first Western band to hear Shankar's music. That honor goes to The Byrds, who told Harrison about it. Not too much later, the Beatles would go on their famous trip to India, which would profoundly shape not only the more experimental musical direction that the band would take in the future, but would also greatly influence Harrison musically, spiritually, and intellectually.
Shankar was an accomplished musician in his own right, of course, but his work with the Beatles gained him an international audience. He became famous through the Beatles, and later performed at Woodstock. Many years later, he would win an award and receive strong recognition for the music that he produced for the wonderful film, Gandhi.
Yet for many people, he remained best known for his influence on the Beatles, and particularly Harrison. Harrison recalled how impressed he was by Shankar almost right away:
“The first person who ever impressed me in my life was Ravi Shankar, and he was the only person who didn’t try to impress me.”
Harrison also spoke of Shankar's musical influence over him:
“If you’re trying to find something, to find the source of that is very difficult,” Harrison said, later quoted in his wife Olivia’s book ‘Living In The Material World.’ “But my blessing was to be able to have Ravi as my patch cord, and he could plug me into the real thing. So my experience of it was always the best quality.”
Shankar also proved influential to many other musicians.
So, here is a blog entry honoring Ravi Shankar, who would have been 95 today.
Here is the link to the article that I got the avove quotes from, as well as one honoring Shankar on this, his birthday:
REMEMBERING THE GREAT RAVI SHANKAR
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