The Beatles famously visited India with The Beach Boys’ Mike Love, Donovan, and Mia Farrow. In retrospect, Love had a lot to say about the trip through his words and through his music. Here’s a look at why these rock stars decided to go to the other side of the world.
The Beach Boys’ Mike Love said the trip to India helped The Beatles grow
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During a 2023 interview with Forbes, Love said he wrote his song “Pieces Brothers” as a tribute to visiting the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in India with John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and George Harrison, though the song is primarily written in honor of the quiet Beatle. In the song, Love sings, “We were drawn to Rishikesh not for fortune or for fame but for enlightenment we came.”
In a 2014 article he wrote for HuffPost, Love put the trip in the context of two careers. “By 1968, both The Beatles and The Beach Boys had plenty of fame — we were looking for something deeper,” he said. “The Maharishi taught us how to go beyond thinking and action in order to grow from within.”
Mike Love said the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi gave him and The Beatles new skills
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Love delved more into the trip. “During our time at Rishikesh, the Maharishi taught us how to meditate, and at the end of the day he would impart the knowledge he’d gained from his master, Guru Dev (‘divine leader’),” he said. “The Maharishi’s meditation technique, which is still taught to this day, is called Transcendental Meditation.” Fans might be surprised to learn that, while meditation itself is as old as the hills, the Maharishi himself founded Transcendental Meditation in 1955.
Love said learning Transcendental Meditation was a life-changing experience for him. “Students are taught to develop the inner value of life, as well as the outer value — in order to be truly complete,” he said. “This practice has guided the last 46 years of my life and I’m forever grateful to have discovered it.”
How the trip to India impacted the Fab Four and rock ‘n’ roll history
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The Beatles’ time in India inspired much of The White Album. White Album songs like “Helter Skelter” and “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” had a tremendous impact on music, both mainstream and underground. For that reason, the Fab Four’s spiritual journey will always have a place in rock ‘n’ roll history.
The White Album topped the Billboard 200 for a total of nine weeks, staying on the chart for 215 weeks. According to The Official Charts Company, The White Album reached No. 1 in the United Kingdom for eight weeks. It stayed on the chart for 37 weeks. All of The Beatles’ studio albums were rereleased in the U.K. in the 1980s. During that decade, The White Album reached No. 18 and lasted on the chart for another two weeks.
Love learned a lot from his time in India, and the trip inspired The Beatles to record one of the greatest albums of all time.
