This column has in the past poked fun at western stereotypes of India, including the attraction of rich western pop stars to Hindu and Muslim spiritual guides and gurus. Just as there were rock n roll outfits who hired a sitar or tabla player to add some perceived degree of ‘depth’ to an otherwise ordinary album, there were also those musicians who concocted a lyric or two with vaguely ‘eastern spiritual’ dimensions. Long may they and their type be satirised.
But this week we turn our musical antennae toward several artists who took their religion like their bourbon – straight. All of the tracks are in some way inspired by South Asian spiritual teachers. Even if all the composers and performers were not necessarily chelas, they were or are gifted and spiritually committed artists. What I think you will find amazing is that they have found so many different ways to sing their praises and utter their prayers. Being spiritual in the rock n roll world definitely does not make you bland and ‘all the same’.
Bobby McFerrin
Don’t Worry Be Happy
McFerrin, the American pianist and singer, grew up in a musical and spiritual environment. His father was the first African-American man to join the Metropolitan Opera company, and made a record of Negro Spirituals that is a gem of the genre. Though McFerrin had been around for years, his late 1980s ditty Don’t Worry Be Happy shot him into the bright glare of ‘overnight’ mainstream worldwide fame. Sadly, it also typecast him unfairly as a music-lite jingle composer. The song, in fact, was inspired by the words of Indian mystic Meher Baba, a Parsi-turned-Hindu from Pune who developed a philosophy of evolutionary consciousness/realisation that appealed to millions (including musicians) worldwide.
Supertramp (Roger Hodgson)
Lord Is it Mine
Hodgson, the distinctive voice of the 1970s supergroup Supertramp, lived a lonely and painful life as a boarding school chap from a broken home. His guitar, which his father left to him after divorce, became his vehicle for finding Love/God, a pursuit that permeated many of Supertramp’s biggest hits. Influenced heavily by the teaching of Parmahansa Yogananda (Babaji), Hodgson’s genius is evident in his ability to explore a deep personal vein of experience, create an audience of millions of fans who loved his musings, and make great pop music, all simultaneously. This orchestral version of a song from Breakfast in America is simply stunning.
Gary Wright
Dreamweaver
Parmahansa Yogananda’s Autobiography of a Yogi was (and remains) a cultural touchstone in the west’s encounter with Hindu philosophy. Yogananda’s basic message, which drew parallels between the essential teachings of Jesus and Krishna, and his promotion of Kriya Yoga resonated with the European psyche. Gary Weaver, an American keyboard/electronic musician, first achieved recognition as a member of Spooky Tooth, a British bluesy rock band and collaborator of George Harrison’s. But his greatest fame came unexpectedly in 1975 when he released an all electronic album title Dream Weaver. No one, least of all Wright, expected the title track, a spaced out spiritual fantasy influenced by Yogananda’s teachings, to get any notice. Instead, it shot to the top of the pops on both sides of the Atlantic and remains to this day one of the classics of the ’70s.
The Who
Baba O’Reilly
Pete Townsend is one of rock n roll’s great imaginative minds. He was and is a devotee of Meher Baba and the Sufi Inayat Khan, both of whom inspired this major hit of The Who. After the success of Tommy, a rock opera, Townsend began sketching the outlines of a grander opera titled Lifehouse. This project was based on Inayat Khan’s teaching on the vibrational connection between sound and soul, and Townsend’s belief in the redemptive power of rock music. According to Townsend, Lifehouse “is a fantasy set at a time when rock ’n’ roll didn’t exist. The world was completely collapsing and the only experience that anybody ever had was through test tubes. In a way they lived as if they were in television programs. Everything was programmed. The enemies were people who gave us entertainment intravenously, and the heroes were savages who’d kept rock ‘n’ roll as a primitive force and had gone to live with it in the woods. The story was about these two sides coming together and having a brief battle.”
The project never saw the light of day but several songs, including Baba O’Reilly, were included into other Who albums. The song title derives from that of his spiritual guru Meher Baba and musical inspiration, composer Terry O’Reilly.
Richard Thompson
Outside of the Inside
Thompson (always ranked in the top 20 guitarists in the world) was an early rocker/folkie who turned to Sufism for solace and inspiration. For some years in the ’70s and ’80s he and his wife Linda lived in a Sufi colony in east England. They issued several records during this period, one of which shows both sporting turbans and robes. Though the communal living is a thing of the past, Thompson continues to take his Islam very seriously. And as this amazing track illustrates, he is not afraid to stick it to those, such as the Taliban/ISIS/Wahabis who advocate ignorance, bigotry and narrow-mindedness.
But this week we turn our musical antennae toward several artists who took their religion like their bourbon – straight. All of the tracks are in some way inspired by South Asian spiritual teachers. Even if all the composers and performers were not necessarily chelas, they were or are gifted and spiritually committed artists. What I think you will find amazing is that they have found so many different ways to sing their praises and utter their prayers. Being spiritual in the rock n roll world definitely does not make you bland and ‘all the same’.
Bobby McFerrin
Don’t Worry Be Happy
McFerrin, the American pianist and singer, grew up in a musical and spiritual environment. His father was the first African-American man to join the Metropolitan Opera company, and made a record of Negro Spirituals that is a gem of the genre. Though McFerrin had been around for years, his late 1980s ditty Don’t Worry Be Happy shot him into the bright glare of ‘overnight’ mainstream worldwide fame. Sadly, it also typecast him unfairly as a music-lite jingle composer. The song, in fact, was inspired by the words of Indian mystic Meher Baba, a Parsi-turned-Hindu from Pune who developed a philosophy of evolutionary consciousness/realisation that appealed to millions (including musicians) worldwide.
Supertramp (Roger Hodgson)
Lord Is it Mine
Hodgson, the distinctive voice of the 1970s supergroup Supertramp, lived a lonely and painful life as a boarding school chap from a broken home. His guitar, which his father left to him after divorce, became his vehicle for finding Love/God, a pursuit that permeated many of Supertramp’s biggest hits. Influenced heavily by the teaching of Parmahansa Yogananda (Babaji), Hodgson’s genius is evident in his ability to explore a deep personal vein of experience, create an audience of millions of fans who loved his musings, and make great pop music, all simultaneously. This orchestral version of a song from Breakfast in America is simply stunning.
When everything’s dark and nothing seems right,
There’s nothing to win and there’s no need to fight
I never cease to wonder at the cruelty of this land
But it seems a time of sadness is a time to understand
Is it mine, Lord is it mine?
Gary Wright
Dreamweaver
Parmahansa Yogananda’s Autobiography of a Yogi was (and remains) a cultural touchstone in the west’s encounter with Hindu philosophy. Yogananda’s basic message, which drew parallels between the essential teachings of Jesus and Krishna, and his promotion of Kriya Yoga resonated with the European psyche. Gary Weaver, an American keyboard/electronic musician, first achieved recognition as a member of Spooky Tooth, a British bluesy rock band and collaborator of George Harrison’s. But his greatest fame came unexpectedly in 1975 when he released an all electronic album title Dream Weaver. No one, least of all Wright, expected the title track, a spaced out spiritual fantasy influenced by Yogananda’s teachings, to get any notice. Instead, it shot to the top of the pops on both sides of the Atlantic and remains to this day one of the classics of the ’70s.
Fly me high and through the starry skies
Or maybe to an astral plane
Cross the highways of fantasy
Help me to forget today’s pain
The Who
Baba O’Reilly
Pete Townsend is one of rock n roll’s great imaginative minds. He was and is a devotee of Meher Baba and the Sufi Inayat Khan, both of whom inspired this major hit of The Who. After the success of Tommy, a rock opera, Townsend began sketching the outlines of a grander opera titled Lifehouse. This project was based on Inayat Khan’s teaching on the vibrational connection between sound and soul, and Townsend’s belief in the redemptive power of rock music. According to Townsend, Lifehouse “is a fantasy set at a time when rock ’n’ roll didn’t exist. The world was completely collapsing and the only experience that anybody ever had was through test tubes. In a way they lived as if they were in television programs. Everything was programmed. The enemies were people who gave us entertainment intravenously, and the heroes were savages who’d kept rock ‘n’ roll as a primitive force and had gone to live with it in the woods. The story was about these two sides coming together and having a brief battle.”
The project never saw the light of day but several songs, including Baba O’Reilly, were included into other Who albums. The song title derives from that of his spiritual guru Meher Baba and musical inspiration, composer Terry O’Reilly.
Richard Thompson
Outside of the Inside
Thompson (always ranked in the top 20 guitarists in the world) was an early rocker/folkie who turned to Sufism for solace and inspiration. For some years in the ’70s and ’80s he and his wife Linda lived in a Sufi colony in east England. They issued several records during this period, one of which shows both sporting turbans and robes. Though the communal living is a thing of the past, Thompson continues to take his Islam very seriously. And as this amazing track illustrates, he is not afraid to stick it to those, such as the Taliban/ISIS/Wahabis who advocate ignorance, bigotry and narrow-mindedness.
And what’s the point of Albert Einstein
What do we need Physics for?
Heresy’s his inspiration
Corrupt and rotten to the core
Curse his devious mathematics
Curse his deadly atom war
Limited-time offer: Big stories, small price. Keep independent media alive. Become a Scroll member today!
Our journalism is for everyone. But you can get special privileges by buying an annual Scroll Membership. Sign up today!