Iâve just done a little post about Within You Without You, but update! (One of) the Indian musicians - uncredited and previously unknown (the original tapes at Apple didnât even have a record of the musicians names) has been âfoundâ! His name is Buddhadev Kansara, heâs now in his 80s and living in London, and he played the tamboura on Within You Without You.Â
Kansara was originally asked to play another instrument on the album, Sgt Pepperâs Lonely Hearts Club Band, recorded in Abbey Road, but did not have time. âHe took his friend Natwar Soni to the recording session and gave Natwar his tabla, tuned it and said âI donât have time today because I need to get to workâ,â [Dr Mike Jones, a doctor of music from the University of Liverpool] told the Press Association. âBut because they needed a tamboura track, Kansara could strum a tamboura track and that could be recorded. Kansara is a Sikh temple musician. He plays regularly in temples for worship. George was drawn to those spiritual values.â
Asked why his name had not come out previously, he said: âThere were very few people to tell and some of the Indian musicians who worked on the record didnât even hear the track. Itâs not part of their mainstream lives. On the album sleeve they were never credited, that wasnât deliberate or a snub. The idea was that they werenât The Beatles, they were Sgt Pepperâs Lonely Hearts Club Band.â
He revealed: âI was in correspondence with Apple Corps. They said âweâve looked at the Abbey Road tape boxes and they say that there were four Indian musicians who played, but one Indian musicianâs name has been left offâ.
ââDo you know who that musician is?â
âWe found out who that fourth musician is. No-one has ever put his name to Within You Without You until now. Weâve begun a detective story not just to identify the musician but collect his stories.â
He said: âGeorge Harrison got very into Indian music in 1965 ⌠two years later he was recording Within You Without You on Sgt Pepper. Itâs his only track on Sgt Pepperâs Lonely Hearts Club Band. Heâs very disillusioned with being in The Beatles at that point. On that track there are no other Beatles. Itâs just him and until recently, unknown Indian musicians.â
The names of three other Indian musicians who worked on the track are in the public domain. Jones said one of the musicians âdidnât even hear Within You Without You for three years. He was in India. It came on the radio and he said, âoh, I played on that. Thatâs The Beatlesâ.
âThese Indian musicians were very disconnected from The Beatles. They were Indian classical musicians who had recently arrived in London by different routes. Their focus is just Indian classical music.
âOne musician was given a copy of Sgt Pepper before it was released. But he didnât hear it for at least a year because he didnât have a record player at home.â
Jones and John Ball, a tabla and santoor player, only discovered Kansara played on the track after his name was given as a contact as someone who might know of the person who did.
âNot only did Kansara know, he played the tamboura on there and then went to work,â Jones said. Kansara and his friend Soni, the two surviving musicians, will play at a concert in Liverpool, which will mark the contribution of the four Indian musicians who played on Harrisonâs composition and the impact Indian music had on The Beatles.
âFifty years after the release of Sgt Pepper they at last get to be acknowledged as having made a contribution to the album,â Jones said.
[Mystery Indian musician on Sgt Pepper album track identified, Story Source x]
The bottom photo is Buddhadev Kansara today. I think he could be the guy sitting opposite George in the middle photo? Oh and I think that's an arguable point - that George was "disillusioned" by this point. I don't think that's quite true. Everyone paints George as always fed up of being a Beatle. I don't think he was. I think there were things he wanted to change, and he was miffed at being ignored or treated as second rate as a songwriter, rightly so, but I don't think he was "disillusioned", not at this point. My opinion of course.
Pic of Buddhadev Kansara: Chen-Yu Lin/PA.