By 1968, despite, or maybe because of, their huge popularity and success, the Beatles found themselves spiritually exhausted. “We’d been the Beatles, which was marvelous,” Paul McCartney later recalled in The Beatles Anthology. “We’d tried for it not to go to our heads and we were doing quite well – we weren’t getting too spaced out or big-headed – but I think generally there was a feeling of: ‘Yeah, well, it’s great to be famous, it’s great to be rich – but what it’s all for?'”

The group tried to find the answer through the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the leader of the Transcendental Meditation movement. Their association with the guru resulted in a visit to the Maharishi’s ashram in Rishikesh, India, in February 1968, which became a major media event. Not only did the Beatles go to India for a spiritual reawakening through meditation, but the trip proved to be one of their most creative periods – they wrote reportedly 48 songs, with most of them ending up on the White Album, released later that year.

The band’s planned three-month stay at the ashram was cut short, however, following sexual misconduct allegations against the Maharishi. “We made a mistake there,” Lennon later said, as quoted in The Beatles Anthology. “We believe in meditation, but not the Maharishi and his scene. … We thought he was something other than he was.”

Despite it ending on a sour note, the Beatles’ visit made a tremendous impact and not just on the White Album. “The relationship between the Beatles and the Maharishi brought about an enormous interest in the West in Indian clothing, meditation, yoga and the playing of the sitar,” wrote Paul Oliver in his book Hinduism and the 1960s. “Although the Beatles had apparently left Rishikesh with varying degrees of negative feelings towards the Maharishi, in later life they tended to feel more benign towards him, and to say publicly what a positive effect he had on their lives.”

February 2018 marks the 50th anniversary of that historic India trip, which is being commemorated with an upcoming exhibit at the Beatles Story museum in the Fab Four’s hometown of Liverpool; and due out February 13th is The Beatles in India, a new book by photographer Paul Saltzman, who was at the ashram with the Beatles. In honor of that milestone, here are 16 things you might not know about the trip – from what life was like at the ashram to the stories behind some of the songs they wrote in India, and what led to the bands to split from the Maharishi.

1. It began with a newspaper ad for meditation classes. In February 1967, George Harrison’s wife Pattie Boyd, who was searching for spirituality in her life, came across an advertisement in a newspaper for Transcendental Meditation classes. Immediately she signed up to be a part of the Spiritual Regeneration Movement. Boyd later told her husband about what she did, and he became interested as well.

In August of that same year, the Harrisons, along with the other members of the Beatles, attended a lecture that the Maharishi was giving in London. “Maharishi was every bit as impressive as I thought he would be, and we were spellbound,” Boyd recalled in her 2007 memoir Wonderful Tonight. That same group, accompanied by Mick Jagger and Marianne Faithfull, later attended a 10-day conference of the Spiritual Regeneration Movement being held in Bangor, Wales.

During their time at the conference, the Beatles announced they were giving up drugs. “It was an experience we went through,” McCartney said, as quoted in Philip Norman’s Beatles book Shout! “Now it’s over and we don’t need it anymore.” Their stay at the conference, however, was cut short upon news of Beatles manager Brian Epstein’s unexpected death.

It was then that Maharishi invited the Beatles to stay at his ashram in Rishikesh, where he held a course for people who want to become Transcendental Meditation instructors.

2. Donovan, Mia Farrow and Mike Love were just three of the Beatles’ fellow noteworthy guests at the ashram. The members of the Beatles and their significant others arrived in India in February 1968 – first George Harrison and John Lennon, and then later Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr. In addition to the Beatles, singer Donovan, actress Mia Farrow and the Beach Boys’ Mike Love, there were other Westerners staying at the ashram during this period.

Among the notable ones were Paul Horn, an American jazz flautist whom The New York Times later described as a founding father of New Age music; Prudence and John Farrow, siblings of Mia Farrow; Nancy Cooke de Herrera, an American socialite who was an early Western proponent of Transcendental Meditation;

Tim Simcox, an American actor who appeared in many TV series such as Bonanza and Gunsmoke (Cynthia Lennon recalled in her 2005 book John that John Lennon accused her of having an affair with Simcox); model Jenny Boyd, the sister of Pattie Boyd and the future wife of drummer Mick Fleetwood; Lewis Lapham, the only journalist allowed at the retreat while on assignment for The Saturday Evening Post; Mal Evans, the Beatles’ longtime roadie and personal assistant going back to the group’s early days at the Cavern Club; Alexis “Magic Alex” Mardas, a Greek inventor and an employee of Apple Corps; and photographer Saltzman.

“The weeks the Beatles spent at the ashram,” Saltzman later wrote, “were a uniquely calm and creative oasis for them: meditation, vegetarian food and the gentle beauty of the foothills of the Himalayas. There were no fans, no press, no rushing around with busy schedules, and in this freedom, in this single capsule of time, they created more great music than in any similar period in their illustrious careers. “

3. Life at the ashram was like summer camp. Funded by a $100,000 donation from American heiress Doris Duke, the Maharishi’s ashram was built in 1963, covering 14 acres of forest. The property, said Saltzman, consisted of six long bungalows each containing five or six double rooms, along with flower beds of red hibiscus blossoms, and several vegetable gardens. In addition to the Maharishi’s own bungalow, there was a post office, a lecture theater, and a swimming pool.

Nancy Cooke de Herrera supervised the preparation of the Beatles’ quarters prior to their arrival. “The Beatles never realized what had been done when they walked into their rooms,” she later said. “They had mattresses on their beds. We had curtains put up, we had mirrors. We even had toilet fixtures that worked.” Cynthia Lennon recalled her room at the ashram with John as having a four-poster bed, an electric fire, and some chairs.

In The Beatles Anthology, McCartney compared the experience of being at the Rishikesh retreat to a summer camp. “You would get up in the morning and go down to a communal breakfast,” he said. “Food was vegetarian … and I think we probably had cornflakes for breakfast. After breakfast, you would go back to your chalet, meditate for a little while, have a bit of lunch and then there might be a talk or a little musical event.

Basically, it was just eating, sleeping and meditating – with the occasional little lecture from Maharishi thrown in.” Mike Love remembered in his memoir Good Vibrations that the surrounding animal life made its way into the ashram: “Spiders, stray dogs, and even an occasional tiger roamed the grounds. The night sounds were a shrill chorus of wildlife – peacocks, crows, and parrots. The wails and cackles may have unnerved some, but I felt at peace.”

At the end of the day, the musicians would play music together, according to Donovan. “Songwriting came easy,” he wrote in The Autobiography of Donovan. “Paul Mac never had a guitar out of his hand. He let us all get a few songs in though, and you can hear the results on the records that followed, the Beatles’ White Album, and my own The Hurdy Gurdy Man.”

4. The Maharishi had some unique quirks. The Maharishi turned out to be more business- and media-savvy than his followers might have initially guessed. According to The Love You Make, a book by former Beatles associate Peter Brown, prior to the Beatles’ India trip, the Maharishi was negotiating with lawyers for ABC about a TV special that would include an appearance by the band.

Despite Brown warning the Maharishi that this arrangement was not possible, the Maharishi continued to tell ABC’s attorneys that he could still make the deal happen. Finally, Brown, accompanied by Harrison and McCartney, visited the Maharishi in Sweden, and told him to not use the Beatles for his own business purposes – to which the Maharishi nodded and giggled.

“He’s not a modern man,” Harrison said, as quoted in Brown’s book, on the plane ride back. “He just doesn’t understand these things.” In his book With the Beatles, Lewis Lapham recounted the time when the Maharishi organized a group photo of his students, including the Beatles.

“He cast himself as the director on a movie set,” Lapham wrote of the Maharishi. In preparation for the photo shoot, the Maharishi oversaw the construction of a tier of bleachers as well as the seating arrangements. He reportedly told the photographer, “Before you snap, you must shout 1, 2, 3 … any snap and you must shout.” The Maharishi then told his pupils, “Now come on everybody, cosmic smiles … and all into the lens.”

Lapham also wrote that the Maharishi apparently loved helicopters and recalled the guru gazing at a chopper “like a child looking at an enormous, complicated toy.” McCartney remembered the Maharishi using a one to take him to New Delhi one day. There was room for one more person in the helicopter to ride with the Maharishi, and Lennon took up the invitation. “I asked [John] later, ‘Why were you so keen to get up with the Maharishi?'” McCartney said in The Beatles Anthology.”

‘To tell you the truth,’ he said, ‘I thought he might slip me in the Answer.’ That’s very John!” McCartney also recalled a conversation with the Maharishi when the latter asked about what car to purchase. “We said, ‘Well, a Merc, Maharishi. Mercedes, very good car’ – ‘Practical? Long running? Good works?’ – ‘Yes.’ – ‘Well, we should get a Mercedes, then.'”

5. George and John were really into meditating …Of all the Beatles at the ashram, Harrison and Lennon were the most committed to the discipline of meditation. “I was in a room for five days meditating,” said Lennon in The Beatles Anthology. “I wrote hundreds of songs.

I couldn’t sleep and I was hallucinating like crazy, having dreams where you could smell. I’d do a few hours and they you’d trip off, three- or four-hour stretches. It was just a way of getting there, and you could go on amazing trips.”

Cynthia Lennon said in Bob Spitz’s book The Beatles that for John, nothing else mattered when it came to mediation, adding “John and George were [finally] in their element [at the ashram]. They threw themselves totally into the Maharishi’s teachings, were happy, relaxed and above all found a piece of mind that had been denied them for so long.”

Harrison felt that both the meditation and the Maharishi made an impact in his life. “The meditation buzz is incredible,” he told Paul Saltzman. “I get higher than I ever did with drugs. It’s simple … and it’s my way of connecting with God.”

And Harrison was very serious about the band’s purpose at the ashram. “He was quite strict,” McCartney later said of Harrison in The Beatles Anthology. “I remember talking about the next album and he would say, ‘We’re not here to talk to about music – we’re here to meditate.’ Oh yeah, all right Georgie Boy. Calm down. Sense of humor needed here; you know. In fact, I loved it there.”

Credits: David Chiu - https://www.rollingstone.com/

On Saturday, Nathaniel Rateliff made his debut as the musical guest on "Saturday Night Live" with Regina King hosting. Rateliff performed his latest single "Redemption," backed by singers from the Resistance Revival Chorus; Rolling Stone called the performance "powerful," while Billboard proclaimed it was "rousing."

"Redemption" was written for and featured in the newly released Apple Original film, Palmer. In addition, Rateliff was joined by his band The Night Sweats to perform their song "A Little Honey," appearing on their critically lauded 2018 album Tearing at the Seams.

The "SNL" performance culminates a monumental year for Rateliff who in 2020 released his solo album, And It's Still Alright (Stax Records), to widespread acclaim; the record peaked at #3 on iTunes' Top Albums chart, debuted at #1 on Billboard's Americana/Folk chart, landed at #2 on their Current Rock chart and resided at #1 on the Americana Albums Chart for eight consecutive weeks.

The lead single and title track was #1 for eight consecutive weeks at Triple A Radio, #1 for nine consecutive weeks on the Americana Singles chart and #1 for three weeks at Non-Commercial radio, while NPR's "World Cafe" ranked the track #1 on their list of Public Radio's Most Popular Songs Of 2020.

Additionally, the single "Time Stands" peaked at #1 on the Americana Singles chart and appeared within the Top 5 at Triple A Radio. Rateliff also performed on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon," "The Late Show With Stephen Colbert" and "Jimmy Kimmel Live!"

Credits: TV News Desk / https://www.broadwayworld.com/author/TV-News-Desk

'Down In Texas ’71' captures a special snapshot in time during the pivotal year of 1971 for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame group.

Renowned for their rousing and mesmerizing live performances, The Allman Brothers Band are preparing to officially release another historic show via the Allman Brothers Band Recording Company label. Recorded on September 28, 1971 at the Austin Municipal Auditorium in Austin, TX, Down In Texas ’71 will be available through an exclusive pre-sale at Merch Mountain and beginning March 26 (the band’s formation anniversary) at The Big House Museum gift shop and online store, and as a digital release.

The nine-track collection features “Statesboro Blues,” “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed” and “Stormy Monday,” among others, and as a bonus available only on the physical CD is an exclusive radio interview with band members Berry Oakley and Duane Allman, recorded just a few months ahead of this performance.

Down In Texas ’71 captures a special snapshot in time during the pivotal year of 1971 for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame group. Coming two months after the release of At Fillmore East in July and occurring one month before the death of Duane Allman in October, the Austin show presents the original ABB line-up—Duane Allman, Gregg Allman, Dickey Betts, Berry Oakley, Butch Trucks and Jaimoe—at the peak of their creativity.

An innovative “You Don’t Love Me” and the jazz-inspired “Hot ’Lanta” give hints of where the group may have taken their music if Duane had lived. In addition, Down In Texas ’71 features saxophonist Rudolph “Juicy” Carter sitting in on six out of the CD’s nine tracks, which is the most extensive guest appearance available with the band’s first incarnation. Juicy and Jaimoe had played together with Percy Sledge, and it was Juicy who coined the moniker Jaimoe for the drummer born as Johnny Lee Johnson.

Proceeds from this exclusive release will benefit the Allman Brothers Band Museum. The Big House in Macon, GA is the three-story house where members of The Allman Brothers Band, their roadies, friends, and families lived between 1970-1973. It was the focal point of gathering in those early years when the magic that is the Allman Brothers Band was just taking shape and radiating from this historic Southern town. The Big House is now home to the largest collection of ABB memorabilia in the world.

The special pre-sale bundle package for this release is priced at $50, and includes the CD, a limited-edition Down In Texas T-shirt, as well as a one-of-a-kind reflective ABB badge sticker. This offer is available exclusively through the Big House online merch store, or at the museum gift shop. The Allman Brothers Band Museum at the Big House is located at 2321 Vineville Avenue, in scenic Macon, GA.

CREDITS: American Blues Scene Staff