{"id":8348,"date":"2017-02-04T00:17:55","date_gmt":"2017-02-04T00:17:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hippy.com\/hip\/?p=8348"},"modified":"2017-02-04T00:17:55","modified_gmt":"2017-02-04T00:17:55","slug":"sitar-to-psychedelia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hipplanet.com\/hip\/reviews\/sitar-to-psychedelia\/","title":{"rendered":"Sitar to Psychedelia"},"content":{"rendered":"
Paisley Pop was immortalised by the words \u2018Bamboo Butterflies twice their normal size, flying around in my mind\u2019. (\u201cPurple Shades\u201d by Trogg Reg Presley<\/strong>) England would leave the Mersey beat and embrace the unknown zones of creativity thanks to Ravi Shankar\u2019s<\/strong> introduction of Indian sitar into the western world of sub-culture. Most notably George Harrison<\/strong> of the Beatles<\/strong> with his regular excursions into India brought forth Rubber Soul\u2019s<\/em> exotic \u201cNorwegian wood\u201d that popularised the sitar to greater appreciation. Strangely it was not Ravi that introduced George to the wonderment of sitar, but Byrd <\/strong>traveler David Crosby<\/strong> shortly after Shawn Phillips<\/strong> had shown him the basic steps.This obscure fact stemmed in 1965 when the Beatles <\/strong>toured the US and visited Ravi at \u2018World Pacific Studios\u2019 where the Byrds<\/strong> had permanent residency. It was also here that McGuinn\u2019<\/strong>s Rickenbacker jingle jangle influenced Harrison<\/strong>\u2019s \u201cIf I Needed Someone\u201d.<\/div>\n
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The roots of Sitar blended into rock started Nov 1964, when Brian Auger<\/strong> engineered the first recording of \u201cHeart full of Soul\u201d by the Yardbirds<\/strong>. An authentic Indian sitar player was brought into the studio, including a tabla player could not get the 4\/4 time signatures right. Due to the fact that the Yardbirds<\/strong> were a road group and the original could not be played to live audience, Jeff Beck<\/strong> stood in and used his fuzz machine with a tone blender that created a similar and extremely effective sound. The discerning difference between sitar and some of the more elaborate Framus offbeat tuning was sometimes difficult to discern, namely Kinks Ray Davies\u2019<\/strong> 1965 single (#10) \u201cSee My Friends\u201d,\u00a0 which made use of a droned cheap acoustic Framus guitar. Joe South<\/strong> used sitar on his hippie theme \u201cGames People Play\u201d while Big Jim Sullivan<\/strong>, guitarist for the Wildcats <\/strong>studied Indian music under Ustad Vilayat Khan.<\/strong> The folk segment of the UK ,John Renbourn<\/strong> and Davey Graham<\/strong> were both capable sitar players. Renbourn\u2019s<\/strong> sitar features prominently with Pentangle\u2019<\/strong>s Basket of Light<\/em> on \u201cHouse Carpenter\u201d, \u201cOnce I Had a Sweetheart\u201d and Woody Guthrie\u2019s<\/strong> rural \u201cBuffalo Skinners\u201d. Then there was Magna Carta\u2019s<\/strong> Davey Johnstone<\/strong> who added it to \u201cThe Bridge at Knaresborough Town\u201d while The Strawbs\u2019<\/strong> \u201cFrom The Witchwood\u201d had everybody fooled with it\u2019s Eastern pluck, deviously played by Dave Cousins<\/strong> on a dulcimer and enhanced by picking banjo. The Byrds<\/strong> utilised sitar on their trippy Eight Miles High while Richie Havens<\/strong> applied this cumbersome instrument to the twang of Joan Baez\u2019<\/strong> Dylan<\/strong> repertoire \u201cLove Minus Zero\u201d \/ \u201cNorth Country Blues\u201d and \u201cLove is Just a Four Letter Word\u201d.<\/div>\n
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Beach Boy Brian Wilson<\/strong> strongly influenced by Spector\u2019<\/strong>s \u2018Wall of Sound\u2019 introduced sitar into his conceptual Pet Sounds.<\/em> The Rascals<\/strong> entered flowerpower with full saffron and bead adornment tainting their underrated See <\/em>album with spotted tablas and sitar on \u201cStop And Think\u201d. Even the conservatives played the incense game, namely B.J. Thomas on Mark James\u2019 \u201cHooked on a Feeling\u201d\u00a0 and Donovan with Shaun Phillips on sitar (full version of \u201cSunshine Superman\u201d) The Grassroots<\/strong> now separated from the talents of Sloan & Barri<\/strong> pounded into the charts with the evangelical \u201cGlory Bound\u201d (Price \/ Walsh<\/strong>), a windswept anthem swaddled in sitar. Even Lee Dorsey<\/strong> joined the intrigue while the Boxtops<\/strong> added it to \u201cCry Like A Baby\u201d. The Move<\/strong> silted the awesome \u201cLightning Never Strikes Twice\u201d with Sitar that blasted from the B- side of the bass pumping \u201cBrontosaurus\u201d. The Doors<\/strong> also created a haunting sitar atmosphere with \u201cThe End\u201d soaked in the Nam forests of Apocalypse Now<\/em>. Many of us will not forget Canned Heat\u2019s<\/strong> sitar intro \u201cOn The Road Again\u201d. His majesty, Prince Jones<\/strong>, gave the Stones<\/strong> powerful inroads into the hippie culture with \u201cPaint it Black\u201d and \u201cMother\u2019s Little Helper\u201d, while Traffic sitar obsessive Dave Mason<\/strong> gave the band it\u2019s first two singles, \u201cPaper Sun\u201d and \u201cHole in my Shoe\u201d. Indian sitar could be sourced in Kaleidoscope <\/strong>and Chris Farlowe\u2019s<\/strong> rendition of Jon Hendricks\u2019<\/strong> jazz standard \u201cMoanin\u201d and \u201cWhat Have I Been Doing?\u201d (1967).<\/div>\n

Added:<\/b> August 31st 2008
\nReviewer:<\/b> shiloh noone<\/a> | See all reviews<\/a> by shiloh noone
\nCategory:<\/b> Music<\/a>
\nLocation:<\/b> South Africa<\/a>
\nScore:<\/b> \"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"
\nRelated Link:<\/b> Seekers Guide To The Rhythm Of Yesteryear<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Paisley Pop was immortalised by the words \u2018Bamboo Butterflies twice their normal size, flying around in my mind\u2019. (\u201cPurple Shades\u201d by Trogg Reg Presley) England would leave the Mersey beat and embrace the unknown zones of creativity thanks to Ravi Shankar\u2019s introduction of Indian sitar into the western world of sub-culture. Most notably George Harrison […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hipplanet.com\/hip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hipplanet.com\/hip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hipplanet.com\/hip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hipplanet.com\/hip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hipplanet.com\/hip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8348"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.hipplanet.com\/hip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8348\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hipplanet.com\/hip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hipplanet.com\/hip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hipplanet.com\/hip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}