The Beatles Boxed Set (48 page)

The Beatles smoked, drank, and used drugs
such as marijuana and LSD

            Astrid
Kirchherr also supplied the boys with Preludin, and they would wash it down
with beer, making them feel euphoric. George recalled their Hamburg days, when
they would be “frothing at the mouth” and would sometimes be awake for days.
Ringo also said that they had plenty of Dexedrine in Hamburg, which produced
increased wakefulness and focus, but also led to increased fatigue and
decreased appetite.

            In
the spring of 1965, the group was introduced to LSD in an unlikely
circumstance. The Beatles and their partners were invited to a dinner party by
George’s dentist, who, without their knowledge, spiked their coffee with the
drug. They thought that the dentist was hoping to involve them in an orgy, so
they left and instead went to Ad Lib Club. Having taken LSD was nothing serious
for them as by this time, they were taking marijuana for breakfast.

            When
they arrived at the club, the drug took effect, which was very disconcerting
for them. John said, “It was terrifying, but it was fantastic,” and that experience
with LSD led to other experiments.

It
was during the filming of the movie
Help!
that George Harrison’s
interest in Indian music began as the movie’s soundtrack included some of it. He
came across a sitar and was so intrigued by the unusual shape and number of
strings. He tried it with a few strums and was taken by the unusual sound his
strumming elicited.

            When
he was in London, George bought an inexpensive model in an import shop and took
it with him to Abbey Road Studios. During that time, the boys were looking for
something to enhance the song
Norwegian Wood
for their
Rubber Soul
album. And when George tried the sitar, the sound was just perfect. His sitar
playing on the track
Love You To
from the
Revolver
album
displayed an “astonishing improvement” over
Norwegian Wood
and was
called “the most accomplished performance on sitar by any rock musician.”

            His
interest in Indian music intensified after David Crosby of the Byrds introduced
George to the work of sitar master Ravi Shankar in 1965. They met in June 1965.
George quickly told the sitar master how much he appreciated his recordings and
admitted ignorance of how to play the instrument properly. Shankar offered to
give him lessons at George’s home in Esher.

George first met sitar master Ravi
Shankar in 1965

            At
their first lesson, Shankar taught George the basics, and that lesson led to
many others.

            Meanwhile,
the Beatles’ next album,
Revolver
, was released in August 1966 and
became a number one on charts in the UK and in the US. On this album, three of
George’s songs were incorporated, including
Taxman, I Want to Tell You,
and
Love You To
.

            Later
that month, the Beatles gave their last live concert in San Francisco,
California. On board their plane, George told his band mates, “Well, that’s it.
I’m finished. I’m not a Beatle anymore.”

            The
Beatles never again played together in concert.

            Now
that they were freed from the constraints of touring, the boys were able to concentrate
on an experimental approach as they recorded their
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely
Hearts Club Band
album in November 1966. Engineer Geoff Emerick claimed
that the recording took over seven hundred hours and that the band insisted
“that everything on
Sgt. Pepper
had to be different. We had microphones
right down in the bells of brass instruments and headphones turned into
microphones attached to violins. We used giant primitive oscillators to vary
the speed of instruments and vocals and we had tapes chopped to pieces and
stuck together upside down and the wrong way around.”

The Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
album was a success

            The
album was released in the UK in June 1967 and was an enormous success after it
topped the charts all over the world. In Britain, it held the top spot for 27
weeks and 15 weeks on the US
Billboard
200. It was critically acclaimed
and won the group four Grammy Awards in 1968. The album continued to dominate
the charts and received accolades. In 1994, it was number one in the book
All
Time Top 1000 Albums
. In 2003 and in 2012, it was number one on
Rolling
Stone
magazine’s list of “The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
Sgt.
Pepper
, as of now, is among the world’s best-selling albums.

            The
Beatles performed their upcoming single,
All You Need is Love
to about
350 million viewers on
Our World
, a two-hour satellite TV program
transmitted live by satellite to five continents and 24 countries.

            Two
weeks after their last live performance, George and his wife Pattie were on
their way to India, seeking something more than what fame brought him. He and
sitar master resumed his sitar lessons. Assuming that no one recognized him,
George went to the lobby of the hotel where he and his wife were staying,
intending to do some shopping. The next day, Indian Beatles fans camped outside
the hotel shouting, “We want George!”

            Word
of his whereabouts quickly spread, and the press chased him down to India.
George agreed to an interview with BBC, where he said, “I believe much more in
the religions of India than in anything I ever learned from Christianity. The
difference over here is that their religion is every second and every minute of
their lives – and it is them, how they act, how they conduct themselves, and
how they think.”

            The
Harrisons, Shankar and his partner relocated to the province of Kashmir, an
idyllic retreat of royalty at the foot of the Himalayan mountains.

            This
was here that George found peace and freedom from life as a Beatle. Shankar had
introduced him to the teachings of Swami Vivekananda, whose book,
Raja-Yoga
,
presents a unifying message that all people possess innate and eternal
perfection. George’s attention was drawn to a particular passage that read:

            “What
right has a man to say that he has a soul if he does not feel it, or that there
is a God if he does not see Him? If there is a God we must see Him … otherwise
it is better not to believe.” The author also advised that it was better to an
atheist than a hypocrite. What George found in India lent more meaning and
significance to his life.

            When
he and Pattie returned in London six weeks later, he was a changed man.

            Back
in London, George was still a member of the Beatles. He contributed one song to
the
Sgt. Pepper
album,
Within You Without You
, on which no other
Beatle played.

            George’s
fascination with the Indian religion continued. He and his friends went to
North Wales for a ten-day course to learn Transcendental Meditation. On the
first day of the retreat, the phone rang and Paul answered it. As he listened,
he moaned, “Oh, no. Oh, God, no.”

            Someone
from Brian Epstein’s office reported that Epstein had been found dead in his
home. No one had any idea what really happened or why Epstein died. It was only
later that they learned Epstein died from an accidental overdose of sleeping
pills. The Beatles did not attend their manager’s funeral to keep media
coverage to a minimum.

            Brian
Epstein’s death shook the Beatles’ foundation and they became fearful about
their future. But now that their manager was dead, Paul assumed the position as
a temporary “manager”, trying to keep the band together.

            The
Beatles released their album,
Magical Mystery Tour
, in November 1967,
the soundtrack to an upcoming Beatles TV film. While the film flopped, the
album set a record for the highest initial sales of any Capitol LP. It became a
number one album in the US and was nominated for a Grammy Award for best album
in 1968.

            The
Beatles, along with their wives, girlfriends, assistants and numerous others
packed their bags and flew to India to learn more about Transcendental
Meditation. Many considered their time in Rishikesh one of their most
productive periods. George, Paul and John wrote many songs while there, 18 of
which became included in their
The Beatles
album and 2 in
Abbey Road.

            The
Beatles were able to relax in Rishikesh, primarily because the Maharishi
provided an environment with meditation, relaxation, and away from the media
attention.

The Beatles in Rishikesh, India

            The
Magical Mystery Tour
album was followed by another after almost a year.
The
Beatles
, a double LP more commonly known as the
White Album
for its
featureless cover, contained songs that Paul and John had written when the group
was in Rishikesh, India. While recording, tensions were present in the band
that EMI engineer Geoff Emerick quit after he was no longer able to tolerate
the bickering between the Beatles.

For the album, George recorded
Not Guilty
. He
explained, “Even though the song was about me getting pissed off with Lennon
and McCartney for the grief I was catching, it said I wasn’t guilty of getting
in the way of their careers or of leading them astray in our all going to
Rishikesh to see the Maharishi. I was sticking up for myself.”