Ravi Shankar and George Harrison (in a screenshot from a 1997 interview). Q: “Westerners have

Ravi Shankar and George Harrison (in a screenshot from a 1997 interview).

Q: “Westerners have been fond of Indian music since the big breakthroughs of the ‘60s — primarily via Ravi’s music — without necessarily acknowledging or even being aware that it is a classical music based upon a complex system of knowledge and performance. What do you feel are the elements that make this sometimes dense form of expression so accessible to Western ears?”

George Harrison: “You don’t have to know all about it, you just have to be open to it — to the rhythms and the sounds of it. You don’t have to know exactly how they do it. Which in some sense, I guess, is what led to the bastardization of Indian music, which, I suppose, I started back with [adding sitar to Lennon/McCartney’s] ‘Norwegian Wood.’ But, you know, all I was doing really was trying to get the sound. You can’t resist the sound of the instruments, you can’t resist the sound of Indian classical music if you’re ready to surrender to it and not judge it. Just accept it and listen to it. Which is why I got into it. It was just overpowering, in a transcendental way.” - Los Angeles Times, 10 May 1997 (x)