Indian classical music, the Beatles and the blues

As leading musicians come to London's Southbank for the Darbar festival of Indian classical music, Amit Chaudhuri on the beauty of a tradition that shares some of its roots with the bluesSexual intercourse began in 1963, noted Philip Larkin, between the end of the Chatterley ban and the Beatles' first LP. The career of Indian classical music in the western world began roughly three years later, when George Harrison, alerted to Ravi Shankar's virtuosity by the Byrds, took a short crash course in ...

Read full article Share article