Did The Beatles Pioneer The Use of Indian Sounds on Pop Records?

The Beatles were at the forefront of many things in the 1960’s. There are many people who claim that the Beatles were the first to pioneer the use of Indian sounds on pop records, a style that was oft imitated afterwards. The truth was, although the Beatles helped popularise it they were not the first to incorporate it.

Almost a year before George Harrison had began taking sitar lessons with Ravi Shankar there were two massive songs in the charts that had something of the Indian about them. The first was ‘Heart Full Of Soul’ by the Yardbirds, the second was ‘See My Friend’ by the Kinks. Although a sitarist and tabla-player had been present at the Yardbirds session, neither were used; the band much preferred the sound of Jeff Beck’s guitar playing. Beck was renowned for his Eastern-sounding leitmotifs; not just in the Yardbirds but in his earlier band The Tridents also. Perhaps the Yardbirds song was a ‘cheap’ imitation, the Kinks song was more like the real thing. The song was written by Ray Davies. It is alleged that when the Beatles first heard the song, one of them said that the guitar sounds like a sitar and that they would need to get one of them.

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The plot thickens at this point. There are also stories that Jimmy Page was at the Yardbirds recording session and on seeing and hearing the sitar player he just had to have it. After some negotiation it was purchased for a pricely sum of £25. Page showed it to session guitarist Jim Sullivan, who subsequently told George Harrison about it.

Whichever of these two stories is the most correct there is one that can be discounted immediately. Philip Norman (Beatles biographer) claimed that Harrison first came across the sitar while the Beatles were filming Help!. The problem with that story is the fact that, although he may have come across the guitar, Harrison didn’t play the sitar until the song ‘Norwegian Wood’ the following year. It wasn’t long after that, that other bands started getting in on the act. The Rolling Stones used the sitar on both ‘Mother’s Little Helper’ and ‘Paint It Black’ in 1966, Chris Farlowe even swapped the saxophone for a sitar on one of his songs.