George Harrison’s five most spiritual songs
The story of The Beatles as individuals is fascinating. On the one hand, you can view their fame as justified and see them as musicians who climbed to the top because of their talent and commitment to their craft. On the other hand, you can view them as a bunch of 20-year-olds who wrote some good songs and, in return, were given the entire world with no clue what to do with it.
Everything that each member could ever ask for was suddenly available. You want to travel where? OK, take this private jet. You want to buy what? Well, you can afford it. You want to experiment with what? Go for it; I know a guy. This led to members of the band spiralling, substances being abused, and fallouts occurring. These talented musicians found themselves with such easy access to everything that it became difficult to know what actually appealed to them.
With adjustment, each member was able to ground themselves in some way. For George Harrison, this meant wholeheartedly embracing his spirituality. When he travelled to India, he learnt how to play the sitar from Pandit Ravi Shankar. In search of some kind of liberation, he ended up speaking to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who convinced him to stop taking drugs and instead start doing meditation.
He found faith in Hinduism and devoted much of his life to it. This resonated not only in how he lived day to day but also in the music that he made throughout his career. While many of George Harrison’s songs elude to his spiritual nature, these are five of his best.
George Harrisons most spiritual songs
‘Within You, Without You’
Though he embraced his spirituality more after leaving the Beatles, his willingness to accept a higher power was apparent in earlier years. For instance, on the Sgt Pepper’s track ‘Within You, Without You’, he quotes Jesus Christ. Though he would eventually embrace Hinduism over Christianity, his ode to a potential God on this track shows that he had a spiritual side he wanted to embrace.
The line in particular is, “We were talking about the love that’s gone so cold and the people who gain the world and lose their soul.” This is the same message Jesus gave his disciples when he asked them how much a man would profit if he gained the world but lost his soul in the process.
‘Life Itself’
While ‘Life Itself’ might not be one of Harrison’s most well-known tracks, it was a song that saw him explore the different possibilities surrounding a higher power. In the song, he spoke about different religions and the fact that while everyone has a different view towards God, there is a universal acceptance that we are the product of design.
In the song, he sings, “You stand alone and speak the truth. You are the breath of life itself; you are the one.” He also ponders the different names for a higher power, as he says, “They call you Christ, Vishnu, Buddha, Jehovah, our Lord. You are Govindam, Bismillah, Creator of all.”
‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’
Though his spiritual beliefs are much more prominent in his solo work, there are tracks with The Beatles where you can hear him begin to accept the idea of a higher power. One of the songs where this can be subtly inferred is on the track ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’. Around this time, Harrison will have started to look at the bigger picture and, in turn, realised The Beatles wouldn’t last forever.
Harrison was a team player, and despite having his creativity pushed back in The Beatles, he didn’t hold any ill will towards his fellow bandmates, so this realisation was tough for him to take. ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’ acknowledges the frustration and overwhelming feelings that come with that realisation, as he worries about big factors such as the world turning and small factors like a dirty floor. The song is also about Harrison finding comfort in every past mistake being an opportunity to learn.
‘The Light That Has Lighted the World’
The sentiment from above continues on the song ‘The Light That Has Lighted the World’. On the surface, this track is more of a jab at some of his former Beatles, as John Lennon and Paul McCartney addressed one another bitterly in songs. George Harrison was the first member to move on from the band and wholeheartedly embraced a solo career, taking from the lessons he learned with ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’.
On a deeper level, however, ‘The Light That Has Lighted the World’ is a take on attachment and resentment, two things Harrison managed to dispel himself from through meditation. He criticises people’s inability to move on, which will have been a lesson he picked up throughout his spiritual teachings.
‘Rising Sun’
When Harrison thought he was going to die, despite being a spiritual man, he was also plagued with the curse of being human, which meant regardless of his opinion on the afterlife, he was still scared. He took comfort from the children of his favourite guitarist, Carl Perkins. He had been to Perkins’ funeral a few months prior and met up with his kids the next time they were in the same city.
“He felt like he was sicker than he was being told he was,” recalls Stan Perkins, “He said they had found a spot on his left lung, and they said there was nothing to it. But he wasn’t too sure.” They spoke about Carl Perkins, death and his attitude towards it, which likely comforted Harrison.
Harrison also found comfort in music. This can be heard in the song ‘Rising Sun’, which was released after he died. The song sounds like Harrison making peace with the idea of dying and accepting the fact that his life was always a part of God’s plan. He says, “But in the rising sun, you can feel your life begin. Universe at play inside your DNA, and you’re a billion years old today.”
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