Indian sitar master has spoken out about his disappointment with the hippies that The Beatles attracted to him.
Speaking on Indian television, Shankar spoke fondly of the Beatles as people, but explained that he never felt comfortable with the pop star he became."All four [of the Beatles] came. All of them were very sweet but George was so special. He would corner me and ask me about the relation between spirituality and music, religion and music," he said.
"He met me a few times and then I started teaching him. And that news spread all over. That did help me. When people say that George Harrison made me famous, that is true in a way.
"Then what happened was that I became a pop star all of a sudden. All young people, bearded, long hair, wearing beads and not normal. They would behave like Naga sanyasis [joint smoking holy men] if they were permitted and I was not happy at all. I would tell George, 'What have you done?'."
Shankar was so disapproving of this kind of behavior that he actually cancelled his performance at the Monterrey Pop Festival in 1967 after he saw The Who smashing up instruments and claiming the festival was “all drugs and nobody normal there and at Woodstock in 1969 he asked “Who was listening to music? They were all stoned.”
Shankar has often been associated with the 60s and his spirituality has often been sought after by westerners destined to “find themselves”. These comments are sure to come as a shock to those who think they were on the path to spiritual enlightenment.
I am somehow reminded of Shankar's performance at the Concert for Bangladesh in 1971, when he and his band tuned their instruments on stage to raptuous applause. Shankar remarked to the audience "Thank you, if you appreciate the tuning so much, I hope you will enjoy the playing more."
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