Recording studio: EMI Recording Studio, Bombay, India
Session Jan 10, 1968 • Recording "Lullaby"
Article Jan 12, 1968 • Legal Beatles structures changed their names to Apple
Session Jan 12, 1968 • Recording "The Inner Light"
Article Jan 17, 1968 • The Beatles attend Grapefruit press launch
Article First half of 1968 • Rumors about a third Beatles film
Next session January 20 or 26, 1968 ? • Recording session with Roger McGough & Mike McGear
Some of the songs worked on during this session were first released on the "Lady Madonna / The Inner Light (UK - 1968)" 7" Single.
This was not the usual Beatles session, as only George Harrison attended, and the EMI studio used on this day was located in Bombay, India.
George was in India, to record the soundtrack for the film “Wonderwall“. During those sessions, he took time to record some extra stuff, included a track that would become a Beatles song and be named “The Inner Light“.
According to Mark Lewisohn, the precise credits for Indian players are not known, but it would have been a selection of the following musicians who played on the “Wonderwall” soundtrack:
According to Peter Lavezzoli (author of “The Dawn of Indian Music in the West“, 2006) and Kenneth Womack (in “The Beatles Encyclopedia: Everything Fab Four“, 2014), the line-up was:
From Wikipedia:
Having used London-based Indian musicians from the Asian Music Circle on “Love You To” and “Within You Without You”, Harrison recorded “The Inner Light” in India with some of the country’s foremost contemporary classical players. In early January 1968, he travelled to HMV Studios in Bombay to record part of the score for Wonderwall, much of which would appear on his debut solo album, Wonderwall Music. The day after completing the soundtrack recordings, on 13 January, Harrison taped additional pieces for possible later use, one of which was the instrumental track for “The Inner Light”. Five takes of the song were recorded on a two-track recorder.
The musicians at the sessions were recruited by Shambhu Das, who had assisted in Harrison’s sitar tuition on his previous visit to Bombay, in 1966, and Vijay Dubey, the head of A&R for HMV Records in India. According to Lavezzoli and Beatles biographer Kenneth Womack, the line-up on the track was Aashish Khan (sarod), Mahapurush Misra (pakhavaj), Hanuman Jadev (shehnai), Hariprasad Chaurasia (bansuri) and Rijram Desad (harmonium). In Lavezzoli’s view, although these instruments are more commonly associated with the Hindustani discipline, the performers play them in a South Indian style, which adds to the Carnatic identity of the song. He highlights the manner in which the sarod, traditionally a lead instrument in North India, is played by Khan: staccato-style in the upper register, creating a sound more typical of acoustic guitar. Similarly, the pakhavaj is performed in the style of a South Indian tavil barrel drum, and the sound of the double-reed shehnai is closer to that of its Southern equivalent, the nagaswaram. The recording includes tabla tarang over the quiet, vocal interludes.
Author Simon Leng refutes the presence of the oboe-like shehnai, however, saying that this part was played on an esraj, a bow-played string instrument. Citing Khan’s recollection that he only worked with Harrison in London, Leng also says that the sarod was added to the track later. Rather than esraj, which Leng gives for “The Inner Light” and for Wonderwall tracks such as “Crying”, Harrison used the bow-played tar shehnai during the Bombay sessions, played by Vinayak Vora. As with the Wonderwall selections recorded at HMV, Harrison directed the musicians but did not perform on the instrumental track.
Work on “The Inner Light” would continue in London on February 6, 1968.
Written by George Harrison
Recording • Take 1
Written by George Harrison
Recording • Take 2
Written by George Harrison
Recording • Take 3
Written by George Harrison
Recording • Take 4
Written by George Harrison
Recording • Take 5
The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions • Mark Lewisohn
The definitive guide for every Beatles recording sessions from 1962 to 1970.
We owe a lot to Mark Lewisohn for the creation of those session pages, but you really have to buy this book to get all the details - the number of takes for each song, who contributed what, a description of the context and how each session went, various photographies... And an introductory interview with Paul McCartney!
The Beatles Recording Reference Manual: Volume 4: The Beatles through Yellow Submarine (1968 - early 1969)
The fourth book of this critically acclaimed series, "The Beatles Recording Reference Manual: Volume 4: The Beatles through Yellow Submarine (1968 - early 1969)" captures The Beatles as they take the lessons of Sgt. Pepper forward with an ambitious double-album that is equally innovative and progressive. From the first take to the final remix, discover the making of the greatest recordings of all time. Through extensive, fully-documented research, these books fill an important gap left by all other Beatles books published to date and provide a unique view into the recordings of the world's most successful pop music act.
If we modestly consider the Paul McCartney Project to be the premier online resource for all things Paul McCartney, it is undeniable that The Beatles Bible stands as the definitive online site dedicated to the Beatles. While there is some overlap in content between the two sites, they differ significantly in their approach.
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