A lot of people know about the time The Beatles spent in Rishikesh in 1968. They went there to learn transcendental meditation from Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, and while not everyone enjoyed the experience the same way, it was a highly productive and creative time that gave us lots of incredible songs. Two of them, however, weren’t about very positive experiences. John Lennon and George Harrison left India having lived vastly different experiences, and this Harrison song was meant to be a response to Lennon, but it was cut out of the White Album.
Lennon’s Song About Their Time in India
After The Beatles returned from India, they went to the studio to record their legendary White Album, a double album with several songs inspired by their time there. Songs like “Dear Prudence” and “Mother Nature’s Son” are the most famous ones, but there is one that didn’t make it onto the album that revealed a rift within the group. When John Lennon and Paul McCartney left India, it was with a bitter taste in their mouth. While the meditation practices had been fruitful, allegations of sexual misconduct surfaced against the Maharishi, and Lennon left the ashram speaking badly about the whole experience. He even dedicated a song to the Maharishi, the legendary “Sexy Sadie.”
“Sexy Sadie” is a thinly veiled attack on the Maharishi, in which Lennon accuses him of defrauding his disciples, and warns, “You’ll get yours yet, however big you think you are.” He also seems to lament that The Beatles followed his teachings when he sings, “We gave her everything we owned just to sit at her table.”
The accusations against the Maharishi were never formally investigated, and as years went by, many of the female disciples, including Prudence Farrow, who inspired “Dear Prudence”, claimed not to be aware of any form of misconduct, but the whole situation understandably soured the experience for John Lennon, who held the Maharishi in high esteem.
However, while his reaction to those allegations may have been understandable, it seems one of his bandmates took it as a personal attack. George Harrison had been the one most invested in going to India and learning meditation, and he felt like Lennon was blaming him for the disappointing ending of the experience. He wrote a song in response to “Sexy Sadie,” which was left out of the White Album, one that was a clear dig at Lennon.
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George Harrison’s ‘Not Guilty’
In response to “Sexy Sadie”, George Harrison wrote a song called “Not Guilty.” Some people incorrectly assumed that he was defending the Maharishi, but the truth is that he was defending himself. He was the driving force behind their trip to India, and he felt that John Lennon and Paul McCartney were blaming him for the way it all ended, especially since The Beatles were closely linked to the Maharishi in the media.
Harrison’s point of view was that, regardless of the Maharishi as a person, the experience of transcendental meditation, and their time there as a band wasn’t all negative, and most importantly, wasn’t his fault. “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,” Harrison explained.
At the time they were recording the White Album, The Beatles, and particularly Paul McCartney, were very invested in launching their record label, Apple, and the timing of the scandal wasn’t in their favor. Harrison addresses that in the song, saying, “I won’t upset the apple cart, I only want what I can get. I’m really sorry that you’ve been misled. But like you heard me said, Not guilty.”
The Beatles recorded several takes of the song, but it was the record executives who chose to leave it out of the album. In 1968, while the breakup wasn’t on the horizon, tensions were rising within the band, and since they weren’t playing live, the press wasn’t being kind to The Beatles. So, they advised them to keep it out of the album, so it wouldn’t look like Lennon and Harrison were in the middle of a feud. Harrison eventually put out the song in 1979, on his solo, self-titled album. The song remains a hidden gem for Beatles fans, with early takes of The Beatles’ version of it on Spotify. It speaks of a time of tensions and growing pains for a band that had been through a lot and was changing from within, while simultaneously changing the world around them.
