RAVI SHANKAR
Also from Wikipedia: “[George] Harrison became a vegetarian in the late 1960s, and a devotee of the Indian mystic Paramahansa Yogananda, a guru who proselytised Kriya yoga, after he was given Yogananda’s Autobiography of a Yogi by Ravi Shankar. (Yogananda and three other major figures from Kriya yoga, Sri Mahavatar Babaji, Sri Yukteswar Giri, and Sri Lahiri Mahasaya appear on the cover of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.)”
Ravi Shankar is the Indian musician best known to American audiences; this master of the sitar performed often at rock festivals like Monterey Pop and Woodstock. Following Woodstock though, he distanced himself from the hippie subculture, as Wikipedia put it (what I heard was that, basically, he thought everyone was too stoned to truly appreciate his music). Shankar has a musician daughter, Norah Jones. (September 2014)
* * *
Another important influence is the sitar music of Ravi Shankar, “particularly in the droning quality of the song’s vocal melody and in [Jim] McGuinn’s guitar playing” (as noted in Wikipedia). The Byrds even brought a sitar with them to a press conference that was used to promote “Eight Miles High”, even though a sitar was not used in the recording.
Ravi Shankar is an acknowledged master of the sitar and began promoting Indian classical music in 1956, including appearances at major music gatherings like the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival (Shankar’s first performance at a rock event) and the original Woodstock in 1969.
(July 2015)
|