Raga rock
[14] According to Rob Chapman, the other record "chiefly credited with introducing raga motifs into Western pop" is the Kinks' July 1965 single "See My Friends", which was another top-ten hit in the UK.
[19] Before either of these examples, the Beatles' April 1965 single "Ticket to Ride", which was number 1 in many countries around the world, featured a melody that author Ian MacDonald terms "raga-like"[20] over a subtle Indian drone produced by electric guitars.
[21] While "Heart Full of Soul" and "See My Friends" were both influential on the emerging trend,[22] according to author Jon Savage, "the first truly mass exposure" was through the Beatles' 1965 film Help!, which included incidental music played by Indian session musicians.
[23][nb 1] Writing in 1997, Jonathan Bellman commented that the Yardbirds and Kinks recordings were often overlooked in discussions of raga rock's origins, as history instead highlighted the Beatles' "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)".
[33] Whereas earlier recordings by the Kinks, the Yardbirds and the Beatles had used Indian sounds to complement standard song forms, the Byrds incorporated the improvisational technique typical of Shankar's work and of John Coltrane's jazz interpretations of ragas.
[34] In his 1968 Pop Chronicles interview, however, Byrds guitarist Roger McGuinn denied that "Eight Miles High" was raga rock;[35] co-writer David Crosby also dismissed the term.
[41] Kempton wrote dismissively of the event,[31] during which McGuinn and Crosby spoke earnestly of the group's adoption of Indian influences, with the two musicians demonstrating raga techniques on sitar and acoustic guitar, respectively, while their two bandmates appeared bored and instead read magazines.
[43] According to Gendron, however, the fusion of Indian and Western sounds continued to be treated with disdain by writers from the American cultural press, who viewed the new subgenre as part of the consolidation of folk rock.
[44] In May 1966, the Rolling Stones released the raga rock single "Paint It Black",[45] which featured a sitar part played by guitarist Brian Jones and became an international number 1 hit.
[48] William Echard identifies the song's sitar-like guitar solo as both an authentic indicator of raga rock and a device seemingly aimed at exploiting the trend.
[33] In Lavezzoli's view, Bloomfield's playing on "East-West" "opened the door to unlimited freedom of expression for all rock guitarists, from Eric Clapton and Jerry Garcia to Duane Allman and Jimi Hendrix".
[57] Released on the World Pacific record label in June,[58] the Folkswingers' Raga Rock album featured Harihar Rao, a Los Angeles-based sitarist[47] and ethnomusicologist, accompanied by jazz musicians and members of the Wrecking Crew.
[59][nb 4] A September 1966 issue of Life magazine reported on the growth of the raga rock trend in association with the proliferation of psychedelic-themed shops in San Francisco and New York.
[72][nb 6] One of Crosby's final songs with the Byrds, "Mind Gardens", from the 1967 album Younger Than Yesterday, incorporated drone and raga rock ambience,[75] and vocals evoking the khyal tradition in style and ornamentation.
[77] In Lavezzoli's description, guitarist Robby Krieger successfully conveyed "the brooding quality of the darker ragas" in his contribution to "The End", by first creating a drone on plucked open-tuned strings while also playing a motif in the manner of a sitar or veena, and then, towards the climax of the song, adopting the Indian jhala style, with rapid strumming alternating with the melody line.
[79] Further examples of the subgenre in 1968 were the Rolling Stones' "Street Fighting Man", with its use of tambura and shehnai over distorted acoustic rhythm guitars,[80] and Harrison's final Indian-style composition for the Beatles, "The Inner Light",[51] which he recorded in January with Indian classical musicians in Bombay.
[87] In addition to using Indian elements in their single "Dark Star",[88] Garcia's band the Grateful Dead incorporated raga rock, among several other styles, into the extended jams they performed in concert in 1968.
[96] In the 1990s, the British indie rock group Cornershop began to assimilate Asian instruments such as the sitar and dholki into their music, culminating with their 1997 album When I Was Born for the 7th Time.
The band continued to introduce raga rock material into their repertoire, including "Song of Love/Narayana", which lead singer Crispian Mills had also sung on the Prodigy's 1997 album The Fat of the Land.
