Within You Without You

Infobox Song
Name = Within You Without You
Artist = The Beatles
Album = Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Released = 1 June 1967
track_no = 8
Recorded = Abbey Road Studios
22 March 1967
Genre = Indian music, raga rock
Length = 5:05
Writer = George Harrison
Label = Parlophone
Producer = George Martin
Misc = Extra tracklisting
Album = Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Type = studio
Tracks = Side one
# "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band"
# "With a Little Help from My Friends"
# "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds"
# "Getting Better"
# "Fixing a Hole"
# "She's Leaving Home"
# "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!"Side two
# "Within You Without You"
# "When I'm Sixty-Four"
# "Lovely Rita"
# "Good Morning Good Morning"
# "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)"
# "A Day in the Life"

"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". It features only Harrison and a group of uncredited Indian musicians, although producer George Martin arranged the string section, and Harrison and assistant Neil Aspinall played the tambura. 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". "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".Fact|date=July 2008

The song, originally written as a 30-minute piece and trimmed down into a mini-version for the album, is in Mixolydian mode. [cite news | work = The Times | date = May 29 1967 | author = William Mann | url = http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/article1830434.ece | title = The Beatles revive hopes of progress in pop music | accessdate = 2008-07-14] 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.

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, and elements of the percussion were placed alongside Love You To in Here Comes the Sun. The blending of these two similar songs is considered the most effective form of mashup on the albumFact|date=September 2007. 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.World Religions, Second Edition, St. Mary's Press, 2003.] 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.

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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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.

Stephen Stills was so impressed by the lyrics that he had them carved on a stone monument in his yard. [cite book | last = Dowlding | first = William J. | title = Beatlesongs | year = 1989 | publisher = Simon and Schuster, Inc. |location = New York | isbn = 0-671-68229-6 | pages = 175]

Cover versions

*"Peter Knight and his Orchestra" released an orchestral version as a single in 1967
*Angels of Venice recorded an instrumental version for their 1999 album "Angels of Venice."
*Oasis recorded a version of the song for a 2007 Sgt. Pepper's tribute album.
*Patti Smith recorded the song for her April 2007 cover album "Twelve".
*Sonic Youth recorded the song for the tribute album "Sgt. Pepper Knew My Father". This version appears on the deluxe edition of the album "Daydream Nation".
*Les Fradkin has an surf instrumental version on his 2007 release- "Guitar Revolution".
*Glenn Mercer on the album "Wheels in Motion"
*Dead Can Dance composed a "Indus" featured on their last album, Spiritchaser, which is very similar to the melody of Within You Without You. They obtained Harrison's permission to use it and gave him partial songwriting credit after pressure from the record company.

Notes

References

*Beatles-Discography.com [http://www.beatles-discography.com/w.html Beatles Songs - W] , retrieved Jan. 31, 2005

External links

* [http://www.stevesbeatles.com/songs/within_you_without_you.asp Song lyrics]
* [http://www.icce.rug.nl/~soundscapes/DATABASES/AWP/wywy.html Alan W. Pollack's Notes on "Within You Without You"]