Did Ravi Shankar like The Beatles’ music?

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Thu 30 January 2025 19:30, UK

World music is now an outdated term. Why should Korean folk be clubbed in with West African griot music when all they share in common is a sense of the exotic to a Western ear? But when George Harrison called Ravi Shankar “the godfather of world music”, it carried a little more veracity. It was Shankar’s subsequent influence that led us to a point where we could recognise that the moniker the Beatles gave him was a misnomer.

After the Fab Four heard the sounds of Indian sitarist, music really did become a globalised art. “George Harrison, on his own, opened up India to England,” XTC guitarist Andy Partridge explains. “The man brings back a sitar and flirts with sitar lessons, and all of a sudden, India means things to people […] Single-handily, George Harrison brought India to English consciousness. In a non-colonial and non-judgemental kind of way.”

Cultures from around the world were suddenly appreciated and appraised on a global scale and woven into the counterculture of the day. From the sitar of India to the siku of Peru, suddenly, everyone from The Byrds, The Bee Gees and The Zombies were making musical stews infused with a planetary pantry. And at the start of that advancement was Shankar and the way he transformed The Beatles’ sound.

“The first person who ever impressed me in my life was Ravi Shankar, and he was the only person who didn’t try to impress me,” Harrison expressed. He went on to explain that he was the person who influenced his life the most. John, Paul and Ringo got on board with the band, expanding their sound into a wailing revolution of awakening.

So, what did Ravi Shankar think of The Beatles’ music?

However, Shankar wasn’t entirely sold on the group he went on to transform. The wise sage hadn’t been exposed to much rock ‘n’ roll at all before he ffirdt encountered the gang, and he recalled, “My neices and nephews made me hear ‘Norwegian Wood‘. after I had met George. Before this, I had not heard anything [by The Beatles] and I was not much impressed by it.” In fact, he was fairly unmoved by their whole oeuvre, according to Off the Record.

However, he was open-minded and well aware that, having been born in 1920, he perhaps wasn’t the target audience. So, he began to pay closer attention. Things began to change. “I saw the effect on the young people. I couldn’t believe it. It seems that they were lapping it up. They loved it so much.” So, while clinging to a note of incredulity, he at least reconciled what they meant to so many people.

In fact, he began to see his own musical outlook reflected in their footloose and ever-changing sound. “The beauty of our music is the ability to improvise endlessly,” he once told Robin Denselow, “and that is my forte – I never know what I am going to do in the next two seconds, and that is still a great thrill.” While they might not have approached music in such a jazzy manner, in a roundabout way, the seasonal switches in their discography certainly reflect a desire to follow whims.

So, while he might not have ever reached a point where he was enamoured with their work, he saw enough kinship and meaningful creativity to offer his support and guidance. In the end, that’s what Harrison was looking for just as much as he was seeking out fresh sounds.

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