Simply Shady

Harrison recorded the track at an impromptu session held at his Friar Park home studio with the L.A. Express, who were touring Britain as Joni Mitchell's backing band at the time.

Harrison's vocals on the track were marred by his contracting laryngitis towards the end of the sessions for Dark Horse – a result of his having overextended himself on business and musical commitments, as well as his punishing lifestyle.

According to George Harrison's recollection in his autobiography, I, Me, Mine, the visit he made to India in 1974 was his first since 1968,[2] when the Beatles had studied Transcendental Meditation at Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's ashram in Rishikesh.

[13] In a 1994 interview held at Shankar's home in California,[14] Harrison spoke of the reluctance he used to feel before visiting India or meeting with friends such as A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada of the Hare Krishna movement, due to the "craziness" taking place in his life as a rock musician.

[28] Leng likens the track to contemporary work by Neil Young, particularly "Yonder Stands the Sinner", adding that Harrison arrives at "the same impasse" as the Canadian singer: "decadence, dependency, and despair".

[41][42] In this case, Harrison name-checks "Sexy Sadie",[26] John Lennon's thinly veiled attack on the Maharishi[43] and the latter's alleged sexual advances towards one of the female students at the Rishikesh retreat.

[44][45][nb 3] Inglis views this mention in "Simply Shady" as significant on three levels: Harrison is alluding to a casual sexual partner in the present; recalling his former mentor and guru, the Maharishi; and supplying "a coded reference" to his past as a Beatle.

[57][58][nb 4] Leng cites the recording of "Simply Shady" – an impromptu session with the L.A. Express, who were touring the UK as Joni Mitchell's backing group – as an example of the unpredictable approach that Harrison adopted when making Dark Horse.

[67] Lead guitarist Robben Ford recalls that on arrival at Friar Park, at 1 pm, the musicians were entertained by Boyd until Harrison woke up, at which point the couple "didn't interact and she just disappeared".

[72] Recalling the release in 2001, Record Collector editor Peter Doggett paired the song with "Dark Horse" as the two tracks that most alienated Harrison's fans due to the ravaged quality of his singing.

[101] In Rolling Stone's highly unfavourable critique of Dark Horse,[102][103] Jim Miller condemned Harrison for showing disdain towards the Beatles' legacy during the tour and then releasing an album on which his voice was blown.

[108][109] In a 1979 interview with Rolling Stone, Harrison cited "Simply Shady" as the song that best summed up a fallow period in his personal life that ended when he found lasting happiness with Arias.

[13] Arias has commented on the surprising background to the song, saying, "He's in India, a very spiritual place, writing about a very material experience", adding that a tape has been discovered of Harrison working on the composition while at the Lake Palace hotel in Udaipur.

"[110] Among Beatles biographers, Chip Madinger and Mark Easter write that, as the first vocal track on Dark Horse, "Simply Shady" "bring[s] the LP to a screeching halt", and they describe it as "Somnambulistic in tone and tempo".

[69] Alan Clayson considers that "Simply Shady" would have benefited from a sparser musical arrangement,[nb 8] but he recognises an element of intrigue in Dark Horse, with Harrison revealed as "an ex-Beatle in uncertain transition".

[114] Writing in Classic Rock, Paul Trynka highlights the song among the "beautiful, small-scale moments" that were overlooked at the time of the album's release, describing it as "a shamefaced confessional on the banality of drunkenness".

[115] Like Simon Leng, Robert Rodriguez identifies the subject matter as highly unusual among Harrison's work up to 1974, and he includes "Simply Shady" on his list of the artist's most underrated songs from the 1970s.

[116] While labelling the track a Lennon-style "self-flagellation", Rodriguez praises the musicianship on the recording and the musical arrangement, and considers that Harrison's "detached delivery proves to be just as chilling in its own way as [Lennon's] typical emotional approach was".