|
|
|
 |
|
|
WD_453/ 2008
(  Satoshi Kinoshita )
| Series: | Works on paper: Drawings 5 | | Medium: | oilstick on paper | | Size (inches): | 40.2 x 25.2 | | Size (mm): | 1020 x 640 | | Catalog #: | WD_0453 | | Description: | Signed, date and copyright in pencil on the reverse.
"And the time will come when you see we're all one, and life flows on within you and without you." - George Harrison, 1967.
-en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Within_You_Without_You
Within You Without You -
"Within You Without You" is a song written by George Harrison and released on The Beatles' 1967 album, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. The last song recorded for the album, it features a group of Indian musicians, and no Beatles besides Harrison performed on the track. It is the second of Harrison's songs to be explicitly influenced by Indian classical music, after "Love You To", and Harrison's only composition on Sgt. Pepper.
Harrison wrote this as a 30-minute piece. He trimmed it down into a mini-version for the album. The laughter at the end was Harrison's idea to lighten the mood and follow the theme of the album. Sped up to C#, an instrumental version at the original speed and key appears on the Anthology 2 album.
"Within You Without You" was written on a harmonium at the house of long-time Beatles friend, Klaus Voormann, while "there were lots of joints being smoked". Harrison sought out Indian musicians to aid him in the track's recording, although all of them went uncredited. Of those who were credited, producer George Martin arranged the string section, and Harrison and assistant Neil Aspinall played the tambura.
The song was also included on the 2006 remix album Love. For this album, George Harrison's lyrics and melody were mixed over the rhythm of Tomorrow Never Knows. The blending of these two similar songs is considered the most effective form of mashup on the album[citation needed]. All of the music for Love was remixed and remastered by the Beatles producer Sir George Martin and his son Giles.
Lyrical interpretation:
Many of the song's lyrics make references to Hindu ideas. One example of this is in the first verse:
"We were talking - about the space between us all
And the people - who hide themselves behind a wall of illusion
Never glimpse the truth - then it's far too late - when they pass away."
The Hindu idea of Maya, which is the idea that all mortal people live in a false reality, and what people perceive as reality is actually an illusion.[1] Thus, this quote refers to humanity and its belief in the false reality. Then, in the next line, Harrison references the idea that if a person doesn't realise the concept of Maya, it is too late for them, in this life. However, Hinduism teaches reincarnation and therefore that person will eventually realise that it's all within and without him.[1]
In addition to the reference to Maya in the first verse of the song, the song is littered with references to Hinduism and Indian culture. The second verse:
"We were talking - about the love we all could share - when we find it
To try our best to hold it there - with our love.
With our love - We could save the world - if they only knew...
Try to realise it's all within yourself, no one else can make you change."
The love that could save the world is an obvious reference to the Hindu doctrine of Dharma. Dharma is the ethical code of Hinduism.[1] George Harrison was trying to reference the idea that people could keep the world from being destroyed (due to its cyclical nature) by following Dharma. A great cycle of the universe is called a Maha Yuga. At the end of the Maha Yuga, the concept of Dharma is no longer followed and therefore the world must be destroyed. However, the universe is cyclical and like a phoenix, the earth rises again.[1] So, George was trying to say that if we were to follow Dharma and love one another, we could hold the world from the destruction. In addition, the last line of the verse says that "no one else can make you change" this being a reference to the eastern concept of looking within oneself as opposed to the western ideas of looking to a savior, prophet, or God.
In the third verse we have references to the vastness of the universe and another reference to reincarnation.
"And to see you're really only very small
and life flows on within you and without you."
Seeing that we are very small shows the vastness of the universe because it enforces the idea that we are not significant, most of our lives do not change the world. This also leads us to the idea that life will go on without us because we will come back via reincarnation.[1] This idea of life going on can be found in a number of Beatles songs, including "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" from the White Album.
"We were talking - about the love that's gone so cold and the people,
Who gain the world and lose their soul.
They don't know. They can't see. Are you one of them?
When you see beyond yourself then you may find,
peace of mind, is waiting there."
The fourth verse, touches again on the eventual destruction of the universe by the Hindu god, Shiva. This destruction would occur in the fourth age of the Maha Yuga, the Kali Yuga. Concepts of this final age are a battered world where the love (Dharma) has "gone so cold". People believe in capitalism losing their soul to gain the world.[1] They don't know of the concept of Dharma, but if they did, peace of mind would be waiting there to greet them.
In the final verse:
"And the time will come when you see we're all one,
and life flows on within you and without you."
Harrison touches on the Hindu concept on monism, the idea that ultimately all things are one. This doctrine stems from observations of water. Water, whether it is in the form of a river, a lake, rain, ice, or a stream, all water will end up in the ocean.[1] The ocean being one continuous body of water shows that everything, like water is all connected and is ultimately all one thing. Life, just like the waters of the ocean flows on within and without you.
Notes:
1. ^ World Religions, Second Edition, St. Mary's Press, 2003.
References:
* Beatles-Discography.com Beatles Songs - W, retrieved Jan. 31, 2005
-en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Within_You_Without_You
Notes on "Within You Without You"
Notes on ... Series #113 (WYWY) by Alan W. Pollack
Key: C# (modal)
Meter: 4/4 et al
Form: Intro | Verse | Verse (extended) | Refrain |
| 2-times Verse (extended) (instrumental)|
| Intro | Verse (extended) | Refrain (fade-out)
CD: "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band",
Track 8 (Parlophone CDP7 46442-2)
Recorded: 15th, 22nd March 1967, Abbey Road 2;
3rd April 1967, Abbey Road 1; 4th April 1967, Abbey Road 2
UK-release: 1st June 1967 (LP "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band")
US-release: 2nd June 1967 (LP "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band")
1
General Points of Interest
Style and Form
This intense and musically complex synthesis of Beatles' pop, summer-of-'67-sensibility, and classical Indian music is not to be taken lightly, and certainly not with ease. Along with "Love You To" and "The Inner Light", it represents George's most unabashed, full-blown, and unadulterated embrace of the Indian musical style.
The song appears to remain strangely fated, for many, to fall between two stools. Granted, it has a sinuous/sensuous and sweeping tune, and the fusion of styles is technically elegant and clever. By the same token, I'm sure that for those already initiated to the intricacies of Indian music, this piece must seem a bit "kosher style" rather than "Kosher"; an attempt to popularize which, no matter how unquestionably sincere and well intentioned, is willing to settle for sentimental over simplification at the risk of misunderstanding and at the expense of accuracy. And then there's the folks who thought they bought a rock album and simply find this track to be an irritating, impatience-inducing interruption of the dynaflow.
Lewisohn speaks of how the song was conceived in three large sections from the start, and indeed, this conception survives clearly in the finished product; a sprawling ABA structure, with two vocal sections that surround a central instrumental break.
One thing I'll say is that this song displays a tremendous melodic gift; with many long arch-like phrases as well as a sensitivity to the need for carefully paced passionate peaks; all of which is brought off with almost textbook-like proficiency but never a hint of the pedantic.
Melody and Harmony
Our Western concept of differing "modes" yields an almost one-to-one mapping between scale patterns and "mode" names. In contrast, the Indian melodic system of "ragas" goes beyond this and involves a one-to-many mapping between scales and "ragas"; in which case, each of the latter is to be identified by its unique points of melodic emphasis and characterizing riffs.
In our current song we find that the predominant "scale" is very much like the Western "Mixolydian mode"; i.e. the scale with a Major third at the bottom and a flat seventh at the top. But it goes deeper than that.
The verses have their melodic floor on the third degree (3) of the scale and present the so-called first degree only in its incarnation at the octave above (8). Furthermore, the refrains feature a conspicuous emphasis on the second (2), fourth (4), and sixth (6) degrees, and, best of all [!], the extended verses feature a break with the scale pattern by featuring the flat melodic third (flat-3); the latter, motivated by imitating a motif heard in the regular verse (5 -» flat-7 -» 8; i.e. a minor third followed by a whole step) but transposing it to start on the first scale degree (i.e. 5 -» flat-7 -» 8 transforms into 1 -» flat-3 -» 4). And I adjure you to stretch your mind to understand what I'm describing, even if you never took a music theory course. It's not that difficult; I promise, trust me :-)
On the harmonic side, of course, we have a very traditional Indian drone; in Western terms, the "I chord" sustained throughout; the philosophical ramifications of which are as profound as they are obvious.
Arrangement
The somewhat floating rhythmic/metric feeling one associates with traditional Indian music is conjured here by non-traditional means. Indian music uses a fixed rhythmic pattern, called a "tala", which may contain an uneven number of measures, not all of which are in the same meter, but as a rule, the pattern itself is repeated over and over. The soloists create the floating feeling by the extent to which they, jazz-like, bounce off or fight against the underlying pattern. In this song, the meter simply seems to be quite unpredictably changeable, especially so in the instrumental section.
The instrumental forces are primarily Indian: tamboura drone (recorded close up to accentuate its gritty, grinding metallic texture), tabla drums, dilruba (a bowed string instrument), and sitar, coupled with a fussy arrangement for Western bowed (and plucked) strings.
The Indian instruments are used primarily in their traditional roles of ornamentally doubling the lead vocal and more freely improvising on the melodic material when given the chance to fly solo. The Western strings, by contrast, are deployed in their own indigenous manners of antiphony and canonic imitation.
2
Section-by-Section Walkthrough
Intro
The track opens with a slow fade-in on the drone followed by a leisurely exposition by the dilruba of one of the main arch-shaped melodic riffs of the song:
3 - 4 - 5 - flat-7 - 8 - flat-7 - 5 4 1
Melodic points of emphasis are the floor on 3, the flat-7 -» 8 -» flat-7 wavering at the top, the avoidance of 6, and the prominence given to 4 on the way down.
The end of this section feature an atmosphere-setting glissando on the swordmandel (remember "Strawberry Fields Forever"?), and a couple pickup measures worth of action on the tabla.
Regular Verse
The opening verse is cast in an AAB pattern where the first two parallel phrases are each six measures long, followed by a third phrase whose rhythm is more freely irregular.
In contrast to the intro, the first part of the tune in this section retains the emphasis on 3 and flat-7 but delays reaching to the octave into late in the final phrase. Again, 6 and 4 are given emphasis.
The tabla provides a continuous accompaniment, the dilruba doubles the lead vocal while making small subtle variations on it, and the Western strings enter at the very end in preparation for the next section.
Extended Verse
The second verse starts off very similarly to the first one, but its third phrase is extended in a way that leads naturally to the refrain section. Interestingly, this formal trick is something we've seen in other more traditionally pop songs of the Beatles.
The B-phrase here stretches all the way up to a full eleven notes above the melodic root with a last-minute modification of the scale; as we mentioned, the topper-most lick here includes flat-3 for the first time.
The instrumentation of this section is similar to that of the first with the addition of bowed Western strings in counterpoint to the lead vocal, and in some small cases, doubling it.
Refrain
The refrain is in an even freer meter than the last phrase of the verse; indeed, the number of beats in a measure seems to change as frequently as you'd encounter them to in a piece by Stravinsky or Bartók!
This section appears to be built out of two iterations of a single phrase, but closer inspection shows the two phrases are not quite identical; think of those "Twins" of Diane Arbus :-) I'd spell this point out in painstaking detail but you'd get bored, and besides, I'd prefer to get this song done with and move on to the rest of this album. If you ask me for collateral, I've got the gory details penciled out literally on the back of an envelope which I'll show you if you drop over some time.
The melody here places continued emphasis on 6 and 4 which are allowed to resolve to 5 and 3 respectively. At the end, though, the tune leaves off with a fleeting hold on 2 which it leaves to the dilbruba to resolve with its backward-resonating reference to the "8 -» flat-7 -» slow-slide-to-8" riff.
The higher Western strings provide antiphony in this section, while the lower pitched of them sound like they reinforce the drone.
Instrumental
Freedom of meter reaches its extreme in the instrumental middle section. I have listened to this section with my feet tapping like a metronome and fail to discern any kind of tala-like fixed high-level pattern. I'll grant this may be my weak failure, but somehow, I kind of doubt it :-)
The instrumental features two free variations on the complete extended verse section. In the first, the dilruba leads with antiphonal interjections from a sitar, while Western strings provide a percussive pizzicato accompaniment. In the second, the strings take over the prerogative of the dilruba while the sitar's role remains antiphonal, yet assumes a pizzicato-like percussiveness of its own.
The section ends with a reiteration of sorts of the intro which nicely sets up the final section of the extended verse and refrain.
Final Verse and Refrain
Formalistically, this last section consists of a repeat of the extended verse and the refrain, but the arrangement is changed around this time in a number of respects, the most significant of which is that the dramatic sweep up to high 4 (F#) is given to the bowed Western strings minus the lead vocal; none of this "if they only knew"-unbearable-tension this last time around. Yet another still more novel demonstration of avoiding foolish compositional consistency.
3
Some Final Thoughts
So what about the laughing at the end? I'm aware of at least two schools of thought on the matter:
* The xenophobic audience (remember there's an underlying element in the "Sgt. Pepper Concept" that at least indirectly connotes a Victorian/Edwardian-era outlook of supercilious Imperialism) is letting off a little tension of this perceived confrontation with pagan elements.
* The bedazzled composer, in an endearingly sincere nanosecond of acknowledgment of the apparent existential absurdity of the son-of-a-Liverpudlian bus driver espousing such other-wordly beliefs and sentiments, is letting off a bit of his own self-deprecating steam in reaction to the level of true courage expended by him in order to come out of the uneasily-anti-materialistic closet.
But, don't you think it's a combination of the two?
Regards,
Alan (031096#113)
Copyright © 1996 by Alan W. Pollack. All Rights Reserved. This article may be reproduced, retransmitted, redistributed and otherwise propagated at will, provided that this notice remains intact and in place.
-www.icce.rug.nl/~soundscapes/DATABASES/AWP/wywy.shtml
| | | send price request |
|
|
|
|
|
Gallery opening
500 Fifth Avenue, Suite 1820 (Between 42nd and 43rd)
...
|
|
more
|
|
