One of the many bad things the sixties has left us with is the sound of the artists ‘going full maharishi’ in desperate searches for relevance.
I am no fan of Within You Without You and would happily see it erased from history. The HJHs are far from the only – or worst – act to indulge in crimes against this instrument during the sixties ‘sitar boom’. Here’s a quite brilliantly awful version of ‘Hi Heel Sneakers’ by Elvis from 1967 in a ‘chuck it all in’ arrangement with sitar, harmonica and horns fighting it out. Any sitar classics from the Hump? Ol Blue Eyes.
It can of course occasionally go right, as in Paint It Black, so I guess you can throw in your hits tho obviously the enjoyment is chiefly in the incongruity of say Peter, Paul, Mary and Ravi
Not sure if this actually contained a sitar but its a perfect example of a band jumping on the sitar boom with cringeworthy results.
I used to share your disdain for Within You Without You, but now think it’s a masterpiece.
However the Anthology version of Norwegian Wood with George’s initial effort, just repeating the melody is pretty awful.
“Mother and Younger Child”
In the positive corner, I am fond of Sheema Mukherjee’s part in The Imagined Village, none more than at 05:06 where, frankly, she goes bonkers.
DONOVAN invented the sitar, you know.
Nightfall by the Incredible String Band – one of the songs which use the sitar well:
I’m kind of missing the point of this thread I think, but I quite like sitar in general! Ananda Shankar (nephew of Ravi Shankar I think?) had some great tunes in the early 70s mixing sitar with synth and funk sounds. Check out these.. what’s not to love??
Jumpin’ Jack Flash
Dancing Drums
And who can forget the glorious Mathar by the Dave Pike Set from 1969?? Western jazzers do Eastern funk? More of this kind of stuff please!
In the late 90s I very nearly bought a sitar. Anyone on here got one, out of interest?
I had a few lessons when I was in India, but it was very tough and I wasn’t in any way disciplined enough for it. Was tempted to buy one and have it shipped home as they were very cheap, but I wouldn’t have known what to do with it.
Isn’t it quite easy to get a basic okay sound out of it, just by hitting a couple of strings?
What’s the point of any thread here other than sharing stuff. I guess listening to that terrible Byrds track today I thought about how in the mid-sixties the sitar had become a signifier of relevance, and thus very quickly became adopted by musicians and producers only interested in remaining ‘relevant’ – like Elvis. Much like the disco track in the late seventies – I’m very fond of the Kiss and Dusty Springfield tracks when they ‘went disco’ .
Mind Gardens is just the worst thing they ever did whether it contained a sitar or not. Not going to make much difference
Lord Sitar aka Big Jim Sullivan.
A whole album of Sitar re-imaginings
I like the version of Blue Jay Way on that album. It sounds even more Beatle-y than the Beatles!
It’s actually quite beautiful:
Sorry, I’m REALLY not getting into the spirit of this thread!
Me neither cos I quite like the whole album … in a coffee table, MOR, lounge-y sitar mashup type way
This is what I’m talking about – written by Tony Hatch and Jackie Trent. I would say the sitar here is the sixties equivalent of the dj remix:
The dancing policemen in this clip are genuinely disturbing.
It’s not what we usually expect from the much-commented ‘canteen culture’ of The Met.
The choreographer seems to have given up on the back two policeman half way through
Have all of you watched to the end? There are two set changes after the plods (Taylor eat your heart out) while the camera close-ups on Petula, culminating in The Changing-of-the-Guard-They-Are-A-Changing .
Was this video sponsored by the Board of Tourism? The only thing missing – had there been another verse – was a BA pilot and a couple of cute air hostesses coquettishly doing The Pony with a drinks trolley around Petula.
It was on the Ed Sullivan Show, which I think answers your question.
Famously the Yardbirds had a sitar player come in for Heart Full of Soul but weren’t happy with the results, so Jeff Beck just played the riff in sitar syle. Probably illustrates the slightly uneasy process of marrying classical Indian instrumentation with pop music!
Having said that, I love a bit of sitar/pop me….Traffic, Moody Blues, DONOVAN etc.
Astro Sounds From Beyond The Year 2000 by the 101 Strings Orchestra. A load of middle aged blokes embracing the wild psychedelic sound of exotic India. It’s a superb album. One track is titled Karma Sitar. Groovy. Sadly it appears to have been their worst selling album. Quickly returned back to the safety of”Theme from a Summer Place”.
I think in the 60s the sitar was essential listening though witness Ravi Shankar at The Concert for Bangladesh* saying “Thank you, if you appreciate the tuning so much, I hope you will enjoy the playing more.”
I think I’ve enjoyed listening to it more in the last twenty years than at the time.
*I know it was the seventies
I too like Within You Without you and the sitar in general, nay Classical Indian Music in general.
If pushed, I will take the sarod over the sitar.
Can’t be doing with bad sitar music when there are things like this to be heard/seen.
..or this.
Close thread.
Try Balsara here with “These Boots Are Made For Walking”
Here’s a one and a half hour mix of sitar madness I did a while ago. Track list in comments
Bad sitar = Kula Shaker
With a bit of public school racism thrown in