The Inner Light

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The Inner Light
The Beatles
publication March 15, 1968

B-side of Lady Madonna

length 2 min 35 s
Genre (s) Indian music , pop
Author (s) George Harrison
Producer (s) George Harrison,
George Martin
Label Odeon (D),
Parlophone (UK)
album Rarities ,
Past Masters • Volume Two

The Inner Light ( english The Inner Light ) is a song by British band The Beatles from 1968. It appeared as a B-side of the single Lady Madonna . The song was written by George Harrison .

background

Joan Mascaró i Fornés , a Spanish Sanskrit professor at Cambridge University , told George Harrison in a letter dated November 16, 1967 that he appreciated the song Within You Without You : “[…] it is a moving song and may it move the souls of millions ”('It is a moving song and may it move the souls of millions'). With this letter he enclosed a book that he had edited and recommended Harrison to set some words from the Tao Te Ching to music. So the words “Without going out of my door I can know all things on earth. Without looking out of my window I can know the ways of heaven. The farther one travels the less one knows. " ('Without stepping out of my door, I can know all things on earth. Without looking out of my window, I can know the ways of heaven. The further you travel, the less you know.') To the lyrics of a pop song. George Harrison had already expressed a similar thought in It's All Too Much in 1967 : "The more I learn the less I know." ('The more I learn, the less I know.')

composition

The in 4 / 4 - stroke penned song in F major listed and lasts 2:35 minutes. The melody was called Mixolydian . Paul McCartney liked the melody: “Listen to the melody. Don't you think it's a beautiful melody? It's really lovely. " ('Listen to the melody. Don't you think it's a beautiful melody? It's really wonderful.')

occupation

Cast list:

admission

The first recording took place on Friday, January 12, 1968 in the EMI studios in Bombay ; The producer was George Harrison. Further recordings were made on February 6th and 8th, 1968, at Abbey Road Studios  1 and 2 in London ; The producer was George Martin .

publication

The Inner Light was released as the B-side of Lady Madonna on March 15, 1968, in the United States on March 18, 1968; thus for the first time a Harrison composition was published on a Beatles single. The piece appeared on the album Rarities in September 1978, on the album Past Masters • Volume Two in March 1988.

Chart placements

With Lady Madonna as the A-side, The Inner Light reached 2nd place in Germany, 1st in Austria, 1st in Switzerland, 1st in Great Britain and 4th in the USA .

Reviews

The song received consistently positive reviews:

The Inner Light proved to be the best - and last - of George's attempts to incorporate Indian music into the context of the Beatles

" The Inner Light turned out to be the best - and last - of George's attempts to integrate Indian music into the context of the Beatles."

- Nicholas Schaffner: The Beatles Forever , p. 95

"The rehearsed naivety and the exotic freshness [...] give 'The Inner Light' both spirit and charm - and thus make it one of Harrison's most attractive pieces."

- Ian MacDonald: The Beatles - Das Song-Lexikon , p. 291

"... it is the extraordinary synthesis of separate musical and lyrical traditions (in this case, Indian instrumentation, Chinese philosophy, and Western popular music) that distinguishes the song."

"It is the extraordinary synthesis of different musical and lyrical traditions (in this case Indian instrumentation, Chinese philosophy and Western pop music) that make the song stand out."

- Ian Inglis: The Words and Music of George Harrison , p. 11

Cover versions

During Concert for George was The Inner Light by Jeff Lynne and Anoushka Shankar listed.

literature

  • Andy Babiuk: The Beatles Sound . Presse Project Verlag, (Bergkirchen) 2002, ISBN 3-932275-36-5 .
  • Walter Everett: The Beatles as Musicians. Revolver through the Anthology . Oxford University Press, New York 1999, ISBN 978-0-19-512941-0 .
  • Jean-Michel Guesdon, Philippe Margotin: Total Beatles. The stories behind the songs . Delius, Klasing & Co. Bielefeld 2013, ISBN 978-3-7688-3881-8 .
  • George Harrison: I Me Mine . Genesis, Guildford 2017, ISBN 978-1-905662-40-1 .
  • Bill Harry: The George Harrison Encyclopedia . Virgin, London 2003, ISBN 0-7535-0822-2 .
  • Ian Inglis: The Words and Music of George Harrison. Praeger, Santa Barbara 2010, ISBN 978-0-313-37532-3 .
  • Mark Lewisohn : The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions. The Official Story of the Abbey Road Years. Hamlyn, London 1988, ISBN 0-600-55798-7 .
  • Ian MacDonald: The Beatles. The song lexicon. Bärenreiter, Kassel 2000, ISBN 3-7618-1426-7 .
  • NN : The Beatles Complete. Piano Vocal / Easy Organ. Music Sales, London undated
  • Nicholas Schaffner: The Beatles Forever . McGraw-Hill, New York 1978, ISBN 0-07-055087-5 .
  • Steve Turner: A Hard Day's Write. The story behind every Beatles song . Heel, Königswinter 1996, ISBN 3-89365-500-X .
  • Uwe Watzek, Uwe Heft: The Beatles made in Germany. Discography of the Beatles records from Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Digital printing service, Halle (Saale) 2002.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ George Harrison: I Me Mine , p. 116
  2. ^ The Beatles Complete. Piano Vocal / Easy Organ , p. 125
  3. ^ Jean-Michel Guesdon, Philippe Margotin: Beatles total. The stories behind the songs , p. 446
  4. ^ "Mixolydian tune", Walter Everett: The Beatles as Musicians. Revolver through the Anthology , p. 153
  5. ^ Nicholas Schaffner: The Beatles Forever , p. 95
  6. ^ Ian MacDonald: The Beatles. The Song Lexicon , p. 291
  7. ^ Additionally Dholak and Tabla-Tarang : Mark Lewisohn: The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions. The Official Story of the Abbey Road Years , p. 132; Jean-Michel Guesdon, Philippe Margotin: Total Beatles. The stories behind the songs , p. 446.
  8. ↑ Andy Babiuk: The Beatles sound . 2002, p. 213: " The Inner Light was the last time Indian instruments were played on a Beatles record."
  9. ^ Mark Lewisohn: The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions. The Official Story of the Abbey Road Years , p. 132
  10. ^ Mark Lewisohn: The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions. The Official Story of the Abbey Road Years , pp. 133-134
  11. ^ Ian MacDonald: The Beatles. The Song Lexicon , p. 291
  12. ^ Bill Harry: The George Harrison Encyclopedia , p. 237
  13. ^ Ian Inglis: The Words and Music of George Harrison , p. 11
  14. ↑ Uwe Watzek, Uwe Heft: The Beatles made in Germany. Discography of the Beatles records from Germany, Austria and Switzerland, p. 98
  15. ↑ Uwe Watzek, Uwe Heft: The Beatles made in Germany. Discography of the Beatles records from Germany, Austria and Switzerland, p. 109
  16. ↑ Chart surfer. Retrieved January 6, 2018 .
  17. ↑ Austriancharts. Retrieved January 6, 2018 .
  18. ↑ Hitparade.ch. Retrieved January 6, 2018 .
  19. ↑ Official charts. Retrieved January 6, 2018 .
  20. ↑ Chart surfer. Retrieved January 6, 2018 .
  21. ↑ Ian Inglis: The Words and Music of George Harrison, pp. 124-125