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The Beatles · S9 E1
Rishikesh
The Maharishi's ashram in India. Transcendental Meditation, acoustic guitars by the Ganges, and the most productive songwriting retreat in music history
February 1968. John and George arrive first, Paul and Ringo follow days later, and one by one the Beatles walk into the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's ashram on a cliff above the Ganges. They will leave with enough songs to fill a double album.
"Revolution" (The Beatles, 1968). John Lennon wrote this in the Maharishi's ashram while student protests erupted across Paris, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, and the Vietnam War raged on television. Sitting cross-legged in a meditation camp above the Ganges, he picked up an acoustic guitar and wrote the Beatles' most explicitly political song. This promotional film shows the raw, distorted single version that shocked fans who expected peace and love.
Revolution, The Beatles (1968)
Two versions exist. The single version (heard in the promotional film) is fast, loud, and distorted, with John's guitar fed through the mixing desk until it howled. The White Album version, "Revolution 1," is slower, jazzier, and ends with John singing "count me out... in," deliberately leaving his position ambiguous. Listen for how the single version's fuzz guitar was created: Lennon and Harrison plugged directly into the console at a volume that overloaded the circuits, and the engineers, horrified, tried to stop them.
Sources
Lewisohn, Mark. "The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions." Hamlyn, 1988.
Emerick, Geoff. "Here, There and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of the Beatles." Gotham Books, 2006.
The Ashram
The Maharishi's compound sits on a cliff overlooking the Ganges, surrounded by forest and accessible only by a narrow road. Each Beatle gets a stone bungalow with a bedroom, bathroom, and a flat roof for meditating at sunrise. The daily routine is simple: meditate, eat vegetarian food, attend the Maharishi's lectures, and write songs. There are no telephones, no televisions, and no managers telling them what to do.
Sources
The Beatles. "The Beatles Anthology." Chronicle Books, 2000.
Goldberg, Philip. "American Veda." Harmony Books, 2010.
“Songwriting is the key to everything, you know. We were really just sitting in India, just filling up like batteries. The songs kept pouring out. We must have written thirty, forty songs there.”
— Paul McCartney
TAP TO REVEAL: How many songs did the Beatles actually write in Rishikesh?
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's Ashram, Rishikesh, India
The Beatles' meditation retreat on a cliff above the Ganges, now an abandoned ruin inside Rajaji Tiger Reserve that visitors can explore. The crumbling stone bungalows and domed meditation halls are covered in graffiti and forest growth.
Rishikesh
Dear Prudence, The Beatles (1968)
Prudence Farrow, Mia's younger sister, meditated so intensely at the ashram that she refused to come out of her bungalow for days. John, George, and others gathered outside her door and sang this song to coax her into the sunlight. The fingerpicking guitar pattern was taught to Lennon by Donovan during the trip. Paul played bass and drums on the recording because Ringo had temporarily quit the band.
Dear Prudence, The Beatles (1968)
"Dear Prudence, won't you come out to play?" The lyric is so gentle it sounds like a lullaby, but there's real concern underneath it. Prudence Farrow was meditating for hours without stopping, and the Maharishi himself asked the other students to help bring her back. The descending guitar line that runs through the entire song mimics the act of slowly, carefully drawing someone out of themselves.
Which fellow musician helped Paul McCartney write 'Back in the U.S.S.R.' at the ashram?
The Beatles return from India with a suitcase full of demos and a head full of utopian ideas. They launch Apple Corps: a record label, a clothing boutique, and a film company designed to give artists total freedom. It will be the most expensive idealism in music history.
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