"Be Here Now" is a song by English musician George Harrison from his 1973 album Living in the Material World. The recording features a sparse musical arrangement and recalls Harrison's work with the Beatles during 1966–1968, through its Indian-inspired mood and use of sitar drone. Part of Harrison's inspiration for the song was the popular 1971 book Be Here Now by spiritual teacher Ram Dass – specifically, a story discussing the author's change in identity from a Western academic to following a guru in the Hindu faith. Some Harrison biographers interpret "Be Here Now" as a comment from him on the public's nostalgia for the past following the Beatles' break-up.
Harrison wrote the song in Los Angeles in 1971, while working on the soundtrack to the Ravi Shankar documentary Raga, and shortly before organising the Concert for Bangladesh. The recording took place in late 1972 at his Friar Park home, with musical contributions from Klaus Voormann, Nicky Hopkins, Gary Wright and Jim Keltner. Contrary to the song's message, its release coincided with heightened speculation regarding a possible Beatles reunion, following Harrison, Ringo Starr and John Lennon recording together in Los Angeles in March 1973.
"Be Here Now" has received critical attention for its dreamlike sound and the quality of Harrison's acoustic guitar playing. Stephen Holden of Rolling Stone described the track as a "meltingly lovely meditation-prayer", while author Ian Inglis views it as a moving musical expression of "the spiritual, scientific, and metaphysical implications of time".Inglis, p. 42. Singers Robyn Hitchcock, Ian Astbury, and Beck have each covered the song.
Background and composition In his 1980 autobiography, I, Me, Mine, George Harrison recalls coming up with the tune for "Be Here Now" while staying in Nichols Canyon, Los Angeles, in the spring of 1971. At the time, Harrison was in Los Angeles producing the soundtrack to Raga,Badman, p. 36. an Apple Films documentary about Indian sitarist Ravi Shankar.Lavezzoli, p. 187.Clayson, p. 308. The same visit led to Harrison staging the Concert for Bangladesh in New York that summer,Lavezzoli, pp. 187–88. following a plea from Shankar, a Bengali Hindu, that something be done to raise international awareness for refugees of the Bangladesh Liberation War.Greene, pp. 185–86.Shankar, pp. 217, 219–20. In his autobiography, Harrison says of writing the song: "I was almost falling asleep. I had the guitar in bed and the melody came fast."Harrison, p. 252. In keeping with this description, the mood and melody of "Be Here Now" have a meditativeJohn Metzger, "George Harrison Living in the Material World", The Music Box, vol. 13 (11), November 2006 (retrieved 11 January 2015). and dreamlike quality.Spizer, p. 255.Tom Doyle, "George Harrison Living in the Material World", Q, November 2006, p. 156.
The song is in the musical key of A, with a time signature of 4/4 throughout."Be Here Now", in George Harrison Living in the Material World: Sheet Music for Piano, Vocal & Guitar, Charles Hansen (New York, NY, 1973), pp. 78–79. According to his handwritten note on the lyrics reproduced in I, Me, Mine, Harrison played the guitar part in open G tuningHarrison, p. 253. – which would typically require the placing of a capo on the guitar's second fret, to attain an open chord of A major.Keith Wyatt, "G Whiz: How to Play Like Keith Richards, Master of Open G Tuning", Guitar Legends, March 2007, pp. 60, 61. Author and music journalist Paul Trynka writes of "Be Here Now" containing "modal folk riffs". The composition includes a recurring guitar motif, played over the chords of A major and A major 7, and is structured into two sections of verse separated by a middle eight.
Lyrical inspiration and interpretation
Harrison drew inspiration for the song's lyrics from "The Transformation: Dr. Richard Alpert, PhD. into Baba Ram Dass". A humorous story,Clayson, p. 322. "The Transformation" was the first of four sections in Ram Dass's book Be Here Now, a popular introductory text to Hindu spirituality.Allison, p. 85. As Richard Alpert, Dass had been a Harvard academic and an associate of Timothy Leary during the early 1960s,Tillery, p. 43. before embracing Hinduism – like Harrison in 1966, via experimentation with hallucinogenic drugsGeorge Harrison, in The Beatles, pp. 179–80.The Editors of Rolling Stone, pp. 34, 36. – and changing his name.MacDonald, pp. 164, 167fn. Before the book's publication in 1971, according to musicologist Ian MacDonald, the phrase "Be here now" had become a "hippie maxim",MacDonald, p. 167. reflecting a fundamental contention of Hindu philosophy regarding the all-importance of the present moment. For Harrison, the present meant his identity outside the public's perception of him as a Beatle,Allison, p. 137. a role he had already tired of in 1965–66,The Editors of Rolling Stone, pp. 144–45. during the height of the band's fame.Doggett, pp. 21–22.Lavezzoli, p. 176.
Author Ian Inglis writes of the parallels between "Be Here Now" and one of Harrison's 1968 compositions for the Beatles, "Long, Long, Long", due to the two songs' "common subject matter: time". In "Be Here Now", Harrison delivers his message in simple terms, stating that "The past was", whereas "Now is".Josh Hathaway, "VCV: George Harrison – 'Be Here Now'" , Blogcritics, 25 February 2010 (retrieved 11 January 2015). According to theologian Dale Allison, the song also addresses the Hindu concept of maya,Allison, pp. 83, 115. whereby the physical world is an illusion and the only truth is to realise the divine nature of one's soul.Tillery, pp. 106–07.Schaffner, pp. 142, 159. Harrison warns against what Allison terms "mistak[ing] the material world, which is only a grand illusion, for the real world", particularly in the lyrics to the middle eight:Allison, pp. 114–15.
Harrison's musical biographer, Simon Leng, views "Be Here Now" as the singer questioning the validity of his role as a world-famous musician.Leng, p. 137. Leng writes of Harrison yearning to escape "a Fab Four prehistory that so obsessed the media and his fans", and draws parallels between the former Beatle's predicament and a comedy sketch by Monty Python, featuring the character Arthur "Two Sheds" Jackson.Leng, p. 133. In the sketch, Jackson is a composer of modern symphonies, yet the interviewer fixates on the trivial detail of how he acquired his unusual nickname."Time Machine: 6 October 1969 – Something completely different", Mojo, October 1999, p. 35.
In his book discussing the religious themes in Harrison's songwriting,Inglis, p. 171. Allison qualifies the literal message of "Be Here Now" by stating, "this song must be understood as an endorsement [of Dass's book]", yet it is "hardly the typical George".Allison, pp. 84–85. Allison cites many compositions from throughout Harrison's career, all covering issues of karma and reincarnation, as evidence that Harrison "encourages all of us to ponder our inescapable end and so imagine the future", rather than focusing only on the here and now.Allison, pp. 79–80, 85. Harrison returned to the specific theme of "Be Here Now" in later songs such as "Flying Hour"Inglis, p. 102. and "Just for Today",Huntley, p. 208. the last of which adopts the here-and-now message as an inspirational statement for members of Alcoholics Anonymous.Allison, pp. 137, 142, 148.
Recording Harrison recorded "Be Here Now" for his second post-Beatles solo album, Living in the Material World,Badman, p. 83. the sessions for which began in October 1972."Living in the Material World", georgeharrison.com (retrieved 23 December 2013). With Phil McDonald serving as engineer, the recording took place at Apple Studio in London, according to the album credits.Album credits, booklet accompanying Living in the Material World reissue (EMI Records, 2006; produced by Dhani & Olivia Harrison), p. 36. Bassist Klaus Voormann has stated that Harrison's Friar Park home studio in Oxfordshire was the true location, however,Leng, pp. 124, 126, 133. a contention supported by Jim Keltner, the drummer at the sessions.Snow, p. 70. Harrison self-produced Material World and deliberately pared down the sound,Lavezzoli, p. 194.Joe Marchese, "Review: The George Harrison Remasters – 'The Apple Years 1968–1975'", The Second Disc, 23 September 2014 (retrieved 3 October 2014). keen to avoid the big production employed by Phil Spector on All Things Must Pass, his acclaimed 1970 triple album.The Editors of Rolling Stone, p. 180. Author Robert Rodriguez writes that, as a producer, Harrison "gave the tunes breathing space, allowing the instruments to sparkle", which included "a nearly imperceptible undercurrent of sitar" on "Be Here Now". Inglis views the recording as "musically evoking the mystery and profundity of time", as a complement to the song's lyrics.Inglis, p. 103.
Besides Harrison, the musicians on the song were Gary Wright (on organ), Nicky Hopkins (piano) and the rhythm section of Voormann and Keltner – all of whom served as the core band on Material World.Leng, pp. 124–25, 132–33. Behind Harrison's acoustic guitar and the sitar drone, the sparse instrumentation provides what author Elliot Huntley terms "a lesson in understatement".Huntley, p. 93. In the search for a good sound, Voormann recorded his part, on standup bass, in one of the bathrooms at Friar Park; he remembers being interrupted during a take by longtime Beatles aide Mal Evans flushing the toilet.
In his book The Beatles Forever, Nicholas Schaffner describes Harrison's use of Indian instrumentation on "Be Here Now" and "Living in the Material World" as marking "a return to the quasi-Indian mode" of his work with the Beatles during 1966–68,Schaffner, p. 159. following which, Harrison admitted, he had rarely played the sitar.Steven Rosen, "George Harrison", Rock's Backpages, 2008 (subscription required; retrieved 11 January 2015).Mitchell Glazer, "Growing Up at 33⅓: The George Harrison Interview", Crawdaddy, February 1977, p. 41. Although Schaffner credits the part as a tambura, other commentators describe the instrument as a sitar."Top Album Picks: Pop", Billboard, 9 June 1973, p. 54 (retrieved 23 December 2013).
Among the other tracks recorded for the album, "The Light That Has Lighted the World" and "Who Can See It" similarly reflect Harrison's desire to escape his Beatles past.Rodriguez, p. 156.Leng, pp. 127–28, 129–30. In March 1973, following the completion of Material World, Harrison recorded "I'm the Greatest" in Los Angeles with his former bandmates Ringo Starr and John Lennon,Leng, pp. 138–39. for inclusion on Starr's first rock solo album, Ringo.Spizer, pp. 305, 306. The session immediately led to rumours of a possible Beatles reunion,Badman, p. 92. partly encouraged by the three musicians having severed ties with manager Allen Klein.Woffinden, p. 75.Schaffner, p. 160.
Release and reception Apple Records released Living in the Material World on 30 May 1973,Castleman & Podrazik, p. 125. with "Be Here Now" sequenced as the second track on side two of the LP.Spizer, p. 253.Harry, pp. 74, 253–54. It followed what Rodriguez describes as the "funky, up-tempo" "The Lord Loves the One (That Loves the Lord)"Rodriguez, p. 157. and was the first of four consecutive ballads that otherwise filled the LP's second side.Huntley, pp. 92–93. As with all the new compositions on the album, Harrison donated his publishing royalties for the song to the Material World Charitable Foundation,Ingham, pp. 127–28.Clayson, p. 323. a charitable trust he set up to avoid the tax problems that had hindered his aid effort for the Bangladeshi refugees.Madinger & Easter, p. 438. The album was a commercial success, continuing the run Harrison had enjoyed as a solo artist with All Things Must Pass and The Concert for Bangladesh.Schaffner, pp. 159, 160.Leng, pp. 141–42.