Within You Without You
"Within You Without You" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Written by lead guitarist George Harrison, it was his second composition in the Indian classical style, after "Love You To", and inspired by his stay in India in late 1966 with his mentor and sitar teacher Ravi Shankar. Recorded in London without the other Beatles, it features Indian instrumentation such as sitar, tambura, dilruba and tabla, and was performed by Harrison and members of the Asian Music Circle. The recording marked a significant departure from the Beatles' previous work; musically, it evokes the Indian devotional tradition, while the overtly spiritual quality of the lyrics reflects Harrison's absorption in Hindu philosophy and the teachings of the Vedas.
The song was Harrison's only composition on Sgt. Pepper, although his endorsement of Indian culture was further reflected in the inclusion of yogis such as Paramahansa Yogananda among the crowd depicted on the album's cover. With the worldwide success of the album, "Within You Without You" presented Indian classical music to a new audience in the West and contributed to the genre's peak in international popularity. It also influenced the philosophical direction of many of Harrison's peers during an era of utopian idealism marked by the Summer of Love. The song has traditionally received a varied response from music critics, some of whom find it lacklustre and pretentious, while others admire its musical authenticity and consider its message to be the most meaningful on Sgt. Pepper. Writing for Rolling Stone, David Fricke described the track as "at once beautiful and severe, a magnetic sermon about materialism and communal responsibility in the middle of a record devoted to gentle Technicolor anarchy".[3]
For the Beatles' 2006 remix album Love, the song was mixed with the John Lennon-written "Tomorrow Never Knows", creating what some reviewers consider to be that project's most successful mashup. Sonic Youth, Rainer Ptacek, Oasis, Patti Smith, Cheap Trick and the Flaming Lips are among the artists who have covered "Within You Without You".
Production[edit]
Recording[edit]
Harrison recorded "Within You Without You" for the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, an album based around Paul McCartney's vision of a fictitious band that would serve as the Beatles' alter egos after their decision to quit touring.[75][76] Harrison had little interest in McCartney's concept;[77] he later admitted that, following his return from India, "my heart was still out there", and working with the Beatles again "felt like going backwards".[78] He presented the song after it was decided to exclude his composition "Only a Northern Song", which the Beatles recorded in February 1967.[79] In contrast to his prominence as a songwriter on Revolver, "Within You Without You" was Harrison's sole composition on Sgt. Pepper.[51][71]
Critical reception[edit]
Contemporary reviews[edit]
Recalling the song's release in his book The Beatles Diary, Barry Miles writes: "Some thought it a masterpiece, some a prime example of mock-philosophical babble. Either way, it was pure Harrison."[125] David Griffiths of Record Mirror praised the album's musical and lyrical scope, which included "life-enhancing philosophy", and added: "George Harrison's 'Within You Without You' is a beautifully successful and adventurous statement in song of a Yoga truth."[126] The Times of India's music critic similarly admired the Beatles for "explor[ing] farther reaches in the musical firmament" and described Harrison's composition as a "memorable" track.[127] In one of the few unfavourable reviews for Sgt. Pepper, Richard Goldstein, writing in The New York Times, said the song was "remarkable" musically and a highlight of the album,[128] yet he considered the lyrics "dismal" and full of "the very clichés the Beatles helped bury".[129][nb 12] Allen Evans of the NME found the "deep, rich rhythm" of the tabla "most appealing", although he bemoaned that it was difficult to decipher the lyrics "because they merge with the sitar music so closely".[131][132]
According to the Beatles' official biographer, Hunter Davies, writing in 1968, some contemporary reviewers speculated that the burst of laughter at the end of "Within You Without You" was inserted by Harrison's bandmates to mock the song. Davies corrected this misconception, saying: "It was completely George's idea."[105][nb 13] In a review published five months after the release of Sgt. Pepper, Hit Parader considered that the album had not endured as well as the Beatles' previous works, and opined: "Harrison has produced a soothing, sinuous, exotic sound for 'Within You Without You'. But even though his repetitious recitation of elementary Far Eastern philosophy is probably intended to reflect the infinity of the universe, it soon becomes a bit monotonous. The laughter at the end seems to be deflating the pretentiousness of the lyrics."[134]
Retrospective assessment[edit]
The song has continued to invite widely diverse opinions.[135][136] Among the most unfavourable assessments,[136] author and critic Tim Riley, writing in 1988, dismissed "Within You Without You" as "directionless", adding that it was difficult to conceive how "lines such as 'Life flows on within you and without you' were taken seriously".[137] He also said that the song was "the most dated piece on the record ... [and] could easily have been left off with little to no effect" on the album.[138] In a 2009 review, Alex Young of Consequence of Sound grouped it with the "major clunkers" on Sgt. Pepper.[139] Conversely, Ian Inglis considers the song to be "absolutely central to the form and content" of its parent album,[74] and Ian MacDonald views it as the "conscience" of Sgt. Pepper and "the necessary sermon that comes with the community singing".[70][nb 14] Musicologist Russell Reising writes that Harrison's song provides the exception on Sgt. Pepper, where the Beatles otherwise "retreated lyrically into predominantly banal, occasionally schmaltzy, and often trivial vignettes".[141] Author and critic Kenneth Womack terms it "quite arguably, the album's ethical soul".[142]
Writing for Rough Guides, Chris Ingham admires the track as "beautifully put together"; he describes it as both "some of the most exotic music released under The Beatles' name" and a "philosophical meditation on life and love beyond self ... [that], once surrendered to, is a central part of the Pepper experience".[143] In his book on the history of ambient music, Mark Prendergast includes "Within You Without You" among the album's "three outstanding cuts" and deems it to be "the most timeless piece of dronal psychedelia ever recorded".[144] AllMusic critic Richie Unterberger admires the melody, but he considers the track overlong and notes the potential for offence in this, "the first Beatles song where [Harrison's] Indian religious beliefs affected the lyrics with full force".[145]
Musicologist Allan Moore says that Harrison's "command of the quasi-Indian medium is of a very high order" and, with regard to the song's message, he writes: "In its explicit, prescient call to the me-generation, perhaps 'Within You Without You' is a key track [on the album] ... expressing the deepest commitment to the counter-culture."[146] PopMatters' Ross Langager has attributed a similar significance to the track:
Writing for Rolling Stone in 2002, David Fricke included "Within You Without You" on his list of the "25 Essential Harrison Performances".[148] He described it as, variously, the Beatles' "purest excursion ... into raga", and "at once beautiful and severe, a magnetic sermon about materialism and communal responsibility in the middle of a record devoted to gentle Technicolor anarchy".[102] In his review of the 50th anniversary edition of Sgt. Pepper for the same publication, Mikal Gilmore said that only "Within You Without You" and Lennon's "A Day in the Life" transcend the album's legacy as "a gestalt: a whole that was greater than the sum of its parts".[149] In 2017, "Within You Without You" was ranked at number 50 on a list of the best Beatles songs, as compiled by the music staff of Time Out London.[150]
Love remix[edit]
"Within You Without You" was included on the 2006 remix album Love,[188] which was created for the Cirque du Soleil stage show of the same name.[189] Harrison's vocal appears over the rhythm section from "Tomorrow Never Knows",[188] after the track opens with Lennon's lyric from the latter song.[190] Reviewing the album for PopMatters, Zeth Lundy writes: "The 'Within You Without You'/'Tomorrow Never Knows' mash-up, perhaps the most thrilling and effective track on the entire disc, fuses two especially transcendental songs into one: ... a union of two ambiguous, open-ended declarations of spiritual pursuit."[191][nb 20] Paul Moody of Uncut similarly considers it to be the "best of all" the mashups on Love, with the two tracks' "cosmic drones ... fitted together like a glove".[194] In their chapter on the Beatles' psychedelic period in The Cambridge Companion to the Beatles, authors Russell Reising and Jim LeBlanc describe "Within You Without You/Tomorrow Never Knows" as "the most musically and visually stunning segment" of the Cirque du Soleil show.[195]
Remixed and remastered by George Martin and his son Giles,[196] "Within You Without You"/"Tomorrow Never Knows" was the first track prepared for Love.[197] Speaking to Mojo magazine in December 2006, Giles Martin said that he had first created a demo combining the two songs, which he then nervously presented to McCartney and Ringo Starr for their approval. In Martin's recollection, "they loved it", which allowed the project to proceed.[198] A video clip of the completed track was made to promote the album and was included on the 2015 DVD 1+.[199] The Love remix is one of the songs in The Beatles: Rock Band.[200]