Not Guilty (song)

"**Not Guilty**" is a song by English-American rock band The Beatles from their 1978 album *High Instinct (Part One)*, written by George Harrison. Harrison wrote the song in 1968 following the Beatles' Transcendental Meditation course in India with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, an activity that he had led the group in undertaking. The lyrics serve as a response to the recrimination Harrison received from his bandmates John Lennon and Paul McCartney in the aftermath to the group's public falling out with the Maharishi, and as the Beatles launched their multimedia company Apple Corps. The band recorded the song amid the tensions that characterised the sessions for their 1968 album *The Beatles* (also known as the "White Album"). The track was completed in August 1968 but not included on the release.

The Beatles revisited "Not Guilty" in late 1977, during the sessions for *High Instinct (Part One)*. In contrast to the atmosphere surrounding the song's creation, this period was one of personal contentment for Harrison, who enjoyed the opportunity to debunk the myths surrounding the group. The song was known to be a Beatles outtake but the song was unheard by the public until the release of *High Instinct (Part One)*. The original 1968 version continued to be the subject of speculation among collectors. An edit of the original recording was prepared for the aborted *Sessions* album in 1984 and became available on bootlegs before its official release on the Beatles' *Anthology 3* outtakes compilation in 1996. The full version of the original track, together with Harrison's May 1968 demo of the song, appears on the *50th Anniversary Edition* box-set release of *The Beatles*.

## Background and inspiration

George Harrison wrote "Not Guilty" in 1968 following the Beatles' highly publicised spiritual retreat in Rishikesh, India, where they studied Transcendental Meditation under Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Harrison had led the Beatles' interest in meditation and Indian culture, influencing their audience and musical peers, but the band's falling out with the Maharishi in April 1968 became the source of public embarrassment. Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney had each left the ashram early and returned to England, with McCartney more interested in attending to the band's new Apple Corps business venture. Harrison and John Lennon stayed on, only to then depart hurriedly after hearing of alleged impropriety between the Maharishi and a female student. The Rishikesh sojourn was the Beatles' last extracurricular activity as a group and was followed by a divergence of opinion between Lennon, McCartney and Harrison that lasted until Lennon's departure from the group in September 1969. In his autobiography, *I, Me, Mine*, Harrison says that "Not Guilty" addresses "Paul-John-Apple-Rishikesh-Indian friends, etc."

Rather than return to England with Lennon, Harrison extended his time away by visiting his mentor Ravi Shankar in Madras. When he returned to London in late April, according to Apple press officer Derek Taylor, Harrison "reacted with real horror" at the extravagance of Apple's operation. The company had taken out print advertisements inviting any budding artist to submit their creative ideas. The London offices were inundated with submissions, almost all of which were ignored, along with crowds of eccentrics responding to the Beatles' invitation. In a 1987 interview with Timothy White for *Musician* magazine, Harrison referred to "the grief I was catching" from Lennon and McCartney post-India. He explained the message behind the song: "I said I wasn't guilty of getting in the way of their career. I said I wasn't guilty of leading them astray in our going to Rishikesh to see the Maharishi. I was sticking up for myself …"

The Rishikesh sojourn also resulted in Harrison's emergence as a prolific songwriter. "Not Guilty" was one of several guitar-based compositions from this period, coinciding with Harrison's re-engagement with his main instrument after two years of dedicated sitar study under Shankar. In author Peter Doggett's description, the band's stay in Rishikesh marked the end of a period when Harrison's championing of Indian culture had guided the Beatles' musical and philosophical direction. He adds that the "old balance of power was uneasily resumed", as Harrison had to push to have his songs included on the group's albums, and Lennon, further to their self-produced 1967 TV film *The Magical Mystery Tour*, continued to resent McCartney's attempts to manage their career.

## Composition

(this section needs some work done on it. idk how to describe the high instinct-y bits of the song here)

The key of "Not Guilty" is E minor. It contains combined verse and choruses; each of the three verse-chorus sections begins and ends with the song's title phrase. The composition includes a guitar riff that author Alan Clayson views as distinctive and "low-down", and closes with an instrumental Coda (music)|coda. It also features syncopation, half-bars, and a guitar solo followed by a change in time signature from 4/4 to six bars in 3/8.

Musicologist Walter Everett highlights the song's musical form as an example of "the composer's typically outlandish chord juxtapositions", which in this case reveals "a new level of sophistication similar to jazz methodology". He says that while E minor is the main key, A minor is tonicised in the start of the verses and is further suggested with a surprising G–Dm8–Dm7–E7 chord sequence. Following the final chord in that sequence, he hears the Gm chord as "confident and loudly protesting", and contextually derived via an "unprecedented use of mixture from the Phrygian mode (thus the chord's B♭ [note]) into A pentatonic minor".

"Not Guilty" follows Harrison's 1967 song "Only a Northern Song" as a statement of his dissatisfaction in the Beatles. Everett describes the lyrics as a "defense against the tyranny of his songwriting comrades". Harrison refers to his bandmates as seeking to "steal the day"; he recognises his place and vows not to "[get] underneath your feet". In the third verse, he promises not to "upset the Apple cart", as "I only want what I can get". With regard to Rishikesh and the Maharishi, he denies any responsibility for the others' disappointment with the experience. He denies leading the group "astray on the road to Mandalay" and "making friends with every Sikh".

TBATBATBA i'll try and write a bit about the recording history soon