Within You Without You
June 1, 1967
Within You Without You is a song by The Beatles, which was released in 1967 as the eighth track on the LP Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. It is the first piece on the second side of the record. Was composed of the title of George Harrison. It was after Love You To ( 1966), the second Harrison composition that was influenced by Indian classical music.
Recordings
The recordings took place at Abbey Road Studios on 15 and 22 March and 4 April 1967. Harrison was the only Beatle who was involved in the recording of this piece. The Indian Sitar, Dilruba, Svarmandal, tabla and tanpura were played by musicians of the London " Asian Music Centre". In the final shots April 4, 1967 there was another string ensemble consisting of eight violins and three cellos, added. The package came from George Martin. Harrison feared that the song could be considered too seriously. In order to relax the atmosphere, he added, a roar of laughter at the end.
Harrison had contributed to this phase of the Sgt Pepper project the composition Only a Northern Song, which was recorded on 13 and 14 February 1967. The title was universally rejected and appeared only in 1969, in a revised version on the LP Yellow Submarine. Inspired by a long conversation about the meaning of life with his friend Klaus Voormann and by his interest in Indian philosophy, he put his focus in the design of a meditative litany, with an unusual sound.
Harrison recalled in his autobiography, " I, Me, Mine" at the origin of the song:
"The song written at what Klaus Voormann 's house in Hampstead, London, one night after dinner. I was playing a pedal harmonium in the house When the song came to me. The tune came first, then the first sentence ... we were talking ... I finished the words later. This was falling on the Sgt Pepper period, and after I had been taking sitar lessons with Ravi Shankar for some time, so I was getting a bit better on the instrument. I was Continually playing Indian music lessons the melodies are called nominal real Sargamsm, Which are the bases of the different ragas. That's why this time around I could not help writing tunes like this Which were based upon unusual scales. "