# "Raga Rock"



## Guest (Aug 3, 2018)

Raga rock is rock or pop music with a heavy Indian influence, either in its construction, its timbre, or its use of Indian musical instruments, such as the sitar and tabla. More recently, scholars have included British rock music from the 1960s and 1970s that utilizes South Asian musical materials, along with instruments and Western ideas of South Asia.

Raga rock is not normally considered a specific genre of music but rather a general aspect of any rock significantly influenced by Indian classical music. Since Indian influences are primarily limited to 1960s rock, most raga rock is limited to that decade, although heavily Indian-derived sounds are found in some post-1960s popular music.

Ragas are specific melodic modes used in the classical music of South Asia. Thus, any rock song with obvious Indian influences may be deemed "raga rock" although the term is frequently used to refer to much more explicitly Indian musical outings. A major influence on raga rock was the Indian classical raga music of Bengali sitarist Ravi Shankar, who himself had become a pop music icon by 1966, following the rise of the raga rock trend.

Music researcher William Echard notes that "Heart Full of Soul" by the Yardbirds, which was released in June 1965, "is frequently cited as a key text in starting the trend" towards incorporating Indian-inspired elements in rock music.
An Indian sitarist and a tabla player accompanied the Yardbirds on a demo recording of the song, but only the tabla part was deemed usable. Instead, Jeff Beck emulated the sitar figure, tone, and accompanying drone on the electric guitar for the master recording. The song reached number 2 on the UK chart.






Author Andy Miller says that the subgenre's widespread popularity was preceded by the July 1965 release of "See My Friends", a top-ten single in the UK for the Kinks. Written by Ray Davies and inspired by a visit to India, the song used guitar to imitate the drone produced by an Indian tambura. Music writer Andrew Grant Jackson adds, "Ray's vocal whine and drone lend his voice an Indian quality".






Writing in 1997, musicologist Jonathan Bellman wrote that these two recordings were often overlooked in discussions of raga rock's origins, as history instead highlighted the Beatles' "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)". Issued in December 1965 on the band's Rubber Soul album, "Norwegian Wood" was the first Western pop song to incorporate the sitar, which was played by lead guitarist George Harrison. The song's popularity inspired a wave of interest in the sitar and Indian sounds; according to author Nicholas Schaffner, raga rock was "launched" by the release of "Norwegian Wood".






The Byrds' March 1966 single "Eight Miles High" and its B-side, "Why", were also influential in originating the subgenre. The term "raga rock" was itself coined by the Byrds' publicist in press releases for the single and was first used in print by journalist Sally Kempton in her review of "Eight Miles High" for The Village Voice. Whereas earlier recordings by the Kinks, the Yardbirds and the Beatles had used Indian sounds to complement standard song forms, the Byrds incorporated the improvisational technique typical of Shankar's work and of John Coltrane's jazz interpretations of ragas. In his 1968 Pop Chronicles interview, however, Byrds member Roger McGuinn denied that "Eight Miles High" was raga rock. Co-writer David Crosby also dismissed the term. Although many listeners assumed that the lead instrument on these and other songs on the Byrds' Fifth Dimension album was a sitar, McGuinn played a Rickenbacker 12-string electric guitar throughout, and had customised his guitar amplifier to achieve the sitar-like sound.

The Byrds - Eight Miles Highe -






Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raga_rock


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## Guest (Aug 3, 2018)

In May 1966, the Rolling Stones issued the raga rock single "Paint It Black", which featured a sitar part played by guitarist Brian Jones and became an international number 1 hit.






The Beatles' forays in the subgenre continued with "Love You To", which Harrison wrote especially for sitar and tabla interplay, and "Tomorrow Never Knows"; both songs featured a heavy tambura drone and were released on the album Revolver in August 1966.

The Beatles - "Love You To" -






The Beatles - "Tomorrow Never Knows" -






That same month, the Paul Butterfield Blues Band further elevated the concept of Indian-influenced rock music with the title track of their album "East-West". Led by guitarist Mike Bloomfield, the 13-minute instrumental fully explored the modal improvisation introduced by McGuinn on "Eight Miles High".






Ray Davies' second raga rock song with the Kinks, "Fancy", from 1966's Face to Face album, again used chord changes minimally, but sufficient to keep the composition identifiable as Western pop.






By contrast, Harrison adhered to the authentically Indian, single-chord form in "Love You To" and "Within You Without You", released on Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band in June 1967, and both songs were arranged in a Hindustani classical structure.

The Beatles - "Within You Without You" -


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## Guest (Aug 3, 2018)

Further examples of the subgenre in 1968 were the Rolling Stones' "Street Fighting Man", with its use of tambura and shehnai over distorted acoustic rhythm guitars,






and George Harrison's final Indian-style composition for the Beatles, "The Inner Light", which he recorded in January with Indian classical musicians in Bombay. These Bombay sessions also yielded Harrison's first solo album, a raga rock soundtrack to the 1968 film Wonderwall, titled Wonderwall Music.

The Beatles - "The Inner Light" -






According to Bellman, the musical exploration evident in raga rock over 1965-67 was largely replaced by a formulaic approach in 1968. He cited the Moody Blues' July 1968 release "In Search of the Lost Chord" as a work that combined the now-familiar sounds of sitar and tabla with an album-wide concept that reinforced the perceived connection between LSD and Transcendental Meditation (TM), following the Beatles' and Donovan's public endorsement of TM guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.






The Moody Blues - "Legend of a Mind" -






Source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raga_rock


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## Guest (Aug 3, 2018)

n the 1990s, the British indie rock group Cornershop began to assimilate Asian instruments such as the sitar and dholki into their music, culminating with their 1997 album When I Was Born for the 7th Time. The album, which fused Indian music with rock, funk, hip hop and country music, featured the UK #1 single "Brimful of Asha" (itself a tribute to Indian singer Asha Bhosle) and a cover of The Beatles' "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)" sung entirely in Punjabi.











In 1996, the British rock group Kula Shaker had Top 10 raga rock hits with "Tattva" and "Govinda", both of which included Sanskrit lyrics. The band continued to introduce raga rock material into their repertoire, including "Song of Love/Narayana", which lead singer Crispian Mills had also sung on The Prodigy's 1997 album, The Fat of the Land.











The Brian Jonestown Massacre released the albums Their Satanic Majesties' Second Request in 1996 and Give It Back! in 1997, both of which contained Indian and psychedelic rock influences.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raga_rock


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

For me, the Doors' _The End_ is the quintessential rock raga.


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## Guest (Aug 3, 2018)

Strange Magic said:


> For me, the Doors' _The End_ is the quintessential rock raga.


The story behind the tune -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_End_(The_Doors_song)

and the tune itself -


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

interesting thread.
The Velvet underground has some interesting tunes, like Venus in Furs and All tomorrow's parties where the guitar are tuned with all the strings on the same note (they called it the ostrich tuning) that makes the instrument resonate a sitar and giving to those songs a distinct indian/oriental flavour

All tomorrow's parties





Venus in furs


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

Amon Duul II - Kanaan





I can think also of some folk raga (John Fahey, Robbie Basho and other similar guitarists), but I'm not sure if it's off topic.
This one for instance was covered by Jimmy Page who called it "white summer" but the original* made by Davey Graham is amazing






*not really an original song, since it's already a transformation of "She moved through the fair"


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## Guest (Aug 4, 2018)

norman bates said:


> ...but I'm not sure if it's off topic...


Never worry about posting something that's "off-topic" in any thread that I create or even completely derailing it (and this applies to everyone) - you can drive the train right off the tracks as far as I'm concerned - threads should weave in and out and I've never met a tangent that I didn't like... There comes a point where the original thread topic wears itself out and can be revitalized by discussing something tangential... So knock yourself out, eh?


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## ldiat (Jan 27, 2016)




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## The Deacon (Jan 14, 2018)

Butterfield Blues Band 2nd lp, "East-West", Jimmeh. '66


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## The Deacon (Jan 14, 2018)

Bobby Calender - Rainbow

Spike drivers

Folkswingwrs

Gabor Szabo

Malachi - holy music

Oriental sunshine - dedicated to the bird we love

Shocking Blue -acka raga

Gualberto - a la vida al dolor

Elyse (weinberg) -oh indeed I do

Kali Bahlu - how can I tell my guru?

Broselmaschine - la rotta


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