SAN FRANCICO-Rock, Philosophy & Occultism (English Version Reviews)

In 1965, at the height of the Beatles’ fame, Master Swami Prabhupada arrived in San Francisco (U.S.A.). A few months later, Harrison discovered the Swami and began his interest in Eastern philosophy, India, and Egypt. He went to the Master’s feet, received initiation into Bhakti Yoga, and traveled to India with Lennon. There are many photos from this period, including Harrison covered with more than a thousand needles with a shaved head, or wearing the long monastic robes of India. With the colorful spirit of the time, long hair, rock beginning to flirt with the sitar and mantras, the whole scene began to pay even more attention to the Beatles. Harrison met Ravi Shankar and became his disciple in the art of Indian music. On the records Rubber Soul and Revolver, Harrison’s spiritual influence in the quartet’s music begins to emerge for the first time. But everything escalates quickly. In Los Angeles, California, things are heated. LSD, the new Indian philosophy, colors, and experimental flights give life to four major groups that would greatly change the rock scene: Grateful Dead, Grand Funk Railroad, Creedence, and Jefferson Airplane.

The Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane staged several shows where, astonishingly, drugs were forbidden, and in their place, Swami Prabhupada with his hand bells and disciples mixed their long mantras with the psychedelic rock of the bands, playing through the night without stopping. Lennon hosted the Swami at his farm, in a place called “The Temple,” where he had long conversations with the Master, together with Harrison & Yoko. In 1967, there was already the Monterey Festival project, one of the largest in the world. McCartney, until then distant from the developments of his two companions due to the band’s final dissolution, traveled in a private jet of Frank Sinatra and was received as a consultant for the great festival. Another grand event,

Woodstock, with 540,000 people and no record of violence, marked the greatest hippie festival in rock history, in the revolutionary counterculture of war without weapons. It is the Peace & Love of Gandhi, with his principle of Ahimsa (non-violence). Harrison led the counterculture by presenting Ravi Shankar for the first time to a large audience, with Hindu music and a resounding solo of sitars and tablas, which marked Woodstock as a great spiritual pacifist movement of rock. Meanwhile, Pink Floyd entered to record their first album. The Abbey Road studios were granted to them, under the supervision of Alan Parsons, Lennon, and McCartney. With everything effervescing, including the Vietnam War, Lennon met in 1969 with Prabhupada’s disciples and released the anthem Give Peace a Chance. Below is an excerpt from the lyrics: “John & Yoko, Timothy Leary, Rosemary, Tommy Smothers, Bob Dylan, Allen Ginsberg,

Norman Mailer, hare krsna. All we are saying is give peace a chance”. All based on Prabhupada’s book released in 1966 in pamphlet form, called “The Formula of Peace” (by the way, essential, very high level). The Hare Krishna mantra is then recorded by Harrison and begins to be performed with a choir in the musical Hair. Harrison also produces, in 1970, My Sweet Lord, which tops the charts worldwide. He also meets the Hindu masters Maharishi and Osho, who greatly contribute to later movements in rock philosophy and metaphysics throughout Europe (especially psychedelic, progressive, and German krautrock), bands such as Tangerine Dream, Yes, Pink Floyd, Popol Vuh, Guru Guru, Can, Amon Düül II, Ash Ra Tempel, Cornucópia, Embryo, Gong, Soft Machine, among others, already stand out with a new direction for music and rock in general. From the initial three chords, only memories remain now! Allen Ginsberg and William Burroughs also reinforce the scene with the strong Beatnik movement, where Syd Barrett’s Pink Floyd is the central musical soul. Burroughs, watching a Led Zeppelin show,

coined the name “heavy metal,” which would become a common term for bands like Black Sabbath and Steppenwolf. The psychedelic Power Flower is definitively established in Europe and the USA. Experimental groups are already at the top, progressive and German krautrock as well, everything explodes in the greatest period in the recent history of 20th-century music, namely rock. With the Beatles gone, a long wait for their return passed through the 1970s, without it ever happening, unfortunately to the despair of thousands of rock fans around the planet. Harrison went on to a beautiful and prolific solo career, starting with two experimental albums (Wonderwall… entirely based on Hindu music) and Electronic Sounds (musique concrète). He also helped release Ravi Shankar’s wonderful album (Shankar and His Family Friends) with the beautiful track I Missing You, which became a hit at the time. Later he released the monumental triple album All Things Must Pass (with the participation of Phil Collins among other great rock names), the double Concert for Bangladesh, and founded the Dark Horse label with its Indian “logo” of Krishna’s horse. Lennon went into activism, joined the anarchism of the Mothers of Invention, and produced countless masterpieces for rock. At his farm, he created a space where he hosted Swami Prabhupada, called “The Temple,” where, with Yoko, he revered and studied with the old monk. McCartney founded Wings and produced an extensive solo career. Ringo, more discreet, released his albums and some very good hits, assisted by Harrison. From 1970 until Lennon’s death ten years later, rock would reach its peak, with unparalleled works in both quantity and quality. A mass of memories, symbols, and revolutions that would once and for all change the face of the entire planet.