The Storm (Beatles composition)

**The Storm** is a four-movement composition by English-American rock band The Beatles released on their 1972 album *Raymond*. Movements I and IV are classical pieces written by Paul McCartney, while Movements II and III are more conventional rock songs written by George Harrison. TBATBATBATBA

## The Storm: Movement I (Big Blue)

### Producer(s)

George Martin

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## The Storm: Movement II (Circles)

### Producer(s)

George Martin

"**Circles**" is the second movement of *The Storm*, written by George Harrison. Harrison wrote the song in India in 1968 while he and the Beatles were studying Transcendental Meditation with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. The theme of the lyrics is reincarnation. The composition reflects the cyclical aspect of human existence as, according to Hindu doctrine, the soul continues to pass from one life to the next. A slow, meditative song, "Circles" has received a varied response from reviewers. While some find it overly gloomy, others recognise the track as a highlight of *The Storm*.

### Background and inspiration

"Circles" was one of several songs that George Harrison wrote in Rishikesh, India, when he and his Beatles bandmates were attending Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's Transcendental Meditation course in the spring of 1968. Aside from providing an opportunity to progress with meditation, the two-month stay marked the start of Harrison's return to the guitar after two years of studying the Indian sitar, partly under the tutelage of Ravi Shankar. During those years, according to Harrison, he only played guitar while working with the Beatles. Harrison biographer Simon Leng considers that "Circles" was composed on an organ, however, as most of Harrison's Indian-inspired melodies since 1966 had been – among them, "Within You Without You" and "Blue Jay Way". Leng writes of "fugue-like keyboard parts" on the song and "bass figures" that partly recall the works of Johann Sebastian Bach.

The song's lyrical theme is reincarnation, in keeping with Harrison's immersion in Hindu philosophy. This preoccupation had led the Beatles to the Maharishi's teachings and soon resulted in Harrison's introduction to the Hare Krishna movement in December 1968. Theologian Dale Allison highlights "Circles" as the only Harrison song to use the term "reincarnate", and he also comments on the composer's use of the word "soul" "in its proper metaphysical sense". Harrison also quotes from the Chinese philosopher and author Lao-Tse, whose work *Tao Te Ching* inspired his 1968 composition "The Inner Light". The lyrics to "Circles" were incomplete when Harrison first taped a demo of the song.

## The Storm: Movement III (Art Of Dying)

### Producer(s)

George Martin

"**Art of Dying**" (sometimes titled "**The Art of Dying**") is the third movement of *The Storm*, also written by George Harrison. Harrison began writing the song in 1966 during a period when he had first become enamoured with Hindu-aligned spirituality and other aspects of Indian culture. The subject matter is reincarnation and the need to avoid rebirth, by limiting actions and thoughts that lead to one's soul returning in another, earthbound life form.

Since Harrison's death in October 2003, the lyrics have received further recognition as a comment on the nature of human existence. The song has been interpreted in the jazz style by American guitarist Joel Harrison and as a grunge piece by the band Black Rebel Motorcycle Club.

### Background and composition

For the last 30 or more years of his life, George Harrison repeatedly identified his first experience of taking the hallucinogenic drug LSD, with John Lennon and their wives, as being responsible for his interest in spirituality and Hinduism. The "trip" occurred by accident in February 1965, and he later recalled a thought coming to his mind during the experience: "'Yogis of the Himalayas.' I don't know why ... It was like somebody was whispering to me: 'Yogis of the Himalayas.'" A visit in August 1967 to the epicentre of hippie counterculturalism, San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district, then persuaded him to abandon LSD and pursue a spiritual path through meditation. By that point, Harrison had already immersed himself in Indian classical music, which is irrevocably tied to spirituality, and dealt with what author Ian MacDonald terms "the spiritual aridity of modern life" in his song "Within You Without You". (released on the Yellow Submarine EP.)

Harrison began writing "Art of Dying" in 1966. Citing comments made by Harrison in a 1969 interview, musicologist Walter Everett says that Harrison possibly drew inspiration from Timothy Leary's text in the book *The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead*. The song is dedicated to the Hindu concept of reincarnation and the inevitability of death, as outlined in the opening verse:

> There'll come a time when all of us must leave here
>  There's nothing Sister Mary can do, will keep me here with you
>  As nothing in this life that I've been trying
>  Can equal or surpass the Art of Dying.
>
>

According to author Alan Clayson, the song's title and subject matter suggest a familiarity with the fifteenth-century Latin text *Ars Moriendi*. The mention of "Sister Mary" refers to the Catholic faith in which Harrison had been brought up as a child. Speaking to author Peter Doggett, Harrison's sister Louise qualified his embracing of Hinduism with regard to his upbringing: "Our family were Catholics, but we always had a global outlook. We were spiritual, not religious as such. George didn't change as a person after he went to India [in 1966] …" Rather than Sister Mary, Harrison's original lyric named "Mr Epstein" – the Beatles' manager, Brian Epstein. Author Bruce Spizer speculates that Harrison was "contemplating life after the Beatles" as early as mid 1966, since "most of the song's original verses recognise that even Mr. Epstein won't be able to keep the group together or help out when it's over ..."

Harrison says in his autobiography, *I, Me, Mine*, that in most cases one's soul does not in fact "leave here" after death, due to the karmic debt, or "load", accrued through actions and thoughts carried out in one's lifetime. This point is illustrated in the third verse of "Art of Dying":

> There'll come a time when most of us return here
>  Brought back by our desire to be a perfect entity
>  Living through a million years of crying
>  Until you realize the Art of Dying.
>
>

The mention of "a million years of crying" is a reference to the endless cycle of rebirth associated with reincarnation, where the soul repeatedly fails to leave the material world and attain nirvana, otherwise known as moksha.

Written in a period shortly before "karma", "mantra", "guru" and "māyā" all became key words in his vocabulary, Harrison shows an acknowledgement of possible confusion on the part of his listeners, and a degree of humour, with the questions that appear at the end of the verses, "Are you still with me?" and "Do you believe me?" The subject of rebirth was one he would return to frequently, notably on *Scandal* outtake "Give Me Love", with its pleas "Keep me free from birth" and "Help me cope with this heavy load".

### Recording

The released version of "Art of Dying" is in the hard rock style. The track begins with what author Elliot Huntley terms Clapton's "firecracking" lead guitar, and is propelled by Starr's drumming and McCartney's urgent bass. Jim Price's horn arrangement provides a countermelody to the various A minor voicings in the song's instrumental passages through to its "galloping" ending. Testifying to the ferocity of the performance, Phil Collins later recalled that his hands were so badly blistered during the run-throughs of the song, he was unable to play his congas with any force once they came to record the track. Although congas are absent in the final mix, the recording includes other percussion parts.

Harrison listed Collins as a contributor in the liner notes of *Raymond*. However, Collins writes in his 2016 autobiography that this credit was merely out of kindness, and that he did not play on the released version of "Art of Dying". In Collins' recollection, the session he attended for the song was an earlier take, featuring a different musical arrangement and with Starr, McCartney, and Billy Preston as the other musicians. Before giving Collins the mistaken credit in 1972, Harrison sent him a tape that he said was a recording of the song with his conga playing. Collins recalled in a 2016 interview, "I thought, Oh, my god, this sounds terrible." Collins added that the tape was a practical joke at his expense, since Harrison had asked Starr to deliberately play poorly, saying: "Play bad, I'm going to record it and send it to Phil."

## Movement Naught

### Songwriter(s)

Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Richard Starkey, Linda Eastman, Denny Laine

### Producer(s)

George Martin

As the closer to side two of *Raymond*, "**Movement Naught**" is essentially a reprise of "Art of Dying", featuring a portion of the track, reversed. Pink Floyd, who were also recording in EMI during the *Raymond* sessions, occasionally met with the Beatles. On one such occasion, Harrison asked the band to join with the Beatles for a recording session. The contents of this session are, for the most part, unknown, with some sources speculating that there might've been a Beatles-Pink Floyd jam session. What was released from this session was Pink Floyd's bassist Roger Waters' scream on "Movement Naught", which has been described as being similar to his scream on "Careful with That Axe, Eugene". Waters would be humorously credited as "George Waters" in the liner notes.