George, on Ravi's "Tana Mana" ?

[ABCKO]

Other than "Friar Park", does George play on any other track (if so, which ?) ?

And, I'll try again... any idea on which tracks he played on, on Ravi's "Chants of India" ?

[FPSHOT]

I have the Tana Mana album, as also others from Ravi. Wonderful albums to me.

Ravi Shankar's music does not really go in to detail about 'who did what, track by track' which also applies to quite some of George's songs.

The recordings are mainly mantras and there the focus is not so detailed about 'who does what'

George did Auto Harp & Synthisiser on the Tana Mana album, yet even the relation that he played on Friar Park is new to me. Maybe he did, but I have no info on that.

As for Chants Of India same thing applies, Ravi tells about it in his Raga Mala autobiography partly written by George

"George played bass and acoustic guitars. On other numbers he played vibraphone, marimba, autoharp and glockenspiel, and also contributed some background vocals. At the very end of the last piece "Sarvé Shaam" which concludes with the chant "Om Shanti Shanti Shantihi" his voice sounds particularily powerful"

About these recordings Ravi also tells;

The lengthy final sessions for the album which took place at George's home, started in very much the same way as those in 1974, with all the musicians sitting on the carpeted ground floor of the drawing room, which is blessed with delightful views out through the French windows on to the gardens. Everything was set up for us there. Cables ran from the artists's microphones to the first floor studio. Cameras were trained on us so that George and the recording engineer John Etchells, installed upstairs in the studio, could see us on TV monitors. We also wore earphones linked up to them so that they could make suggestions to us.

[ABCKO]

Yep, George DID play auto harp on "Friar Park" *

* The 1996, George produced, 4 CD Ravi box-set, "In celebration", has "Tana mana" (the song) and "Friar Park" and, as with all the other songs that are on that set, they list credits for each of the tracks and George's credited as playing auto harp on "Friar Park" (but he's not on "Tana mana")

On the "Tana mana" CD, George is credited as playing auto harp and synthetisers... but no specification on which tracks he did.

And yes, as much as I've LOVED some of Ravi's other works, "Tana mana" (the album) is the best collection of his songs I've heard yet...

... though "I am missing you" (from "Shankar, family and friends" 1974) is still, by far, my top Ravi song... and one of the most beautiful pieces I've EVER heard !

[ABCKO]

Oh, speaking of "I am missing you", glad I just got "In celebration", as it solved a memory lapse that had kept me guessing for the past 13 years !

... and it came flooding back to me as I got and played it, when it came in the mail just a few days ago !

1996, when that CD set came out, I had went to the local HMV and gave it a test-listen there and loved "I am missing you" right away, and then saw on the track credits that George, Ringo and the likes of Billy Preston and Klaus Voorman played on it !

... but, buying a 4 CD set, for just one song... I passed...

6 or 7 years later, after remembering how much I ha loved that song, I asked someone to make and send me a CD with most of "Shankar, family and friends" (as the album was, and still is long out of print)... and I loved the song just as much when I then got it... but, from the sound of it there was no "western" intrumentation on it all... and I'd been wondering ever since...

... where had George and Ringo "gone" to ?

... or had I mis-remembered who'd played on that song, or had the wrong song (on which they had played) ?

Neither !

The version on "In celebration" is an unreleased version (not the same one as "Shankar family and friends"), and it DOES feature Ringo, George, Klaus, Billy ect... ! *

* George is only credit with playing guitars... but, at times, you can clearly make him out on the chrorus !)

... and, to be honnest, as good as that version is, I think I still MUCH prefer the "official" version as the "pop" instrumentation takes some of the song's "charm" away.

Funny comment on that by Ravi, saying that George had kept insisting on doing a more pop-like version of the song, but that he (Ravi) had never cared much for the idea...

[FPSHOT]

I will get back on the albums later, but before I forget, there is a most beautiful Raga which comes from a documentary DVD and is called Raga Rangeela Piloo

LzN2gUGYUGc

[ABCKO]

BINGO !

I was rumaging in my archives at home, actually looking for something else, then I found a page that I'd printed, some years ago, from this site...

http://www.hariscruffs.com/

... which has a listing of George's guest contributions, nothing specific on "Tana Mana"... but they do have THIS !

CHANTS OF INDIA
Ravi Shankar

Released May 6, 1997 in the US

Produced by George Harrison

George did backing vocals on ‘Asato Maa' and ‘Hari Om'
George played bass and glockenspiel on ‘Gaayatri'
George played vibraphone and acoustic bass on ‘Vandanaa Trayee'
George played autoharp, marimba and did backing vocals on ‘Sarve Shaam'
George played guitar, bass and did backing vocals on ‘Prabhujee'
George played acoustic guitar, bass, autoharp, glockenspiel, vibraphone and backing vocals on ‘Geetaa,' ‘Poornamadah,' ‘Omkaaraayah Namaha,' ‘Sahanaa Vavatu,' ‘Svara Mantra,' ‘Mahaa Mrityunjaya,' ‘Mangalam (Tala Mantra)' and ‘Veenaa-Murali'

... and while we're at it, in case anyone else had been wondering...

THE RADHA KRSNA TEMPLE (LONDON)
The Radha Krsna Temple

Released May 21, 1971 in the US; May 28, 1971 in the UK; May 18, 1993 in the US

Produced by George Harrison.
George and Paul co-produced ‘Hare Krsna Mantra' and ‘Prayer To The Spiritual Masters'

George played guitar on ‘Govinda' and possibly also on ‘Sri Isopanisad'
George played guitar, bass and harmonium on ‘Hare Krsna Mantra'
George played may have played guitar and tamboura on ‘Sri Guruvastak' [Gurvastakam]
George may have done backing vocals on ‘Prayer To The Spiritual Masters'

[FPSHOT]

Good research !!! even though I always call this site - which is really very good - in terms of this particular section the 'may have' site