Love You to

George Harrison's first full foray into Indian music was a bold and daring move.  By playing the sitar on Lennon's Norwegian Wood in late 1965, he had introduced the pop world to its unique sound.  And the power of the Beatles was quickly demonstrated when seemingly every lead guitarist in every band on both sides of the Atlantic ran out to get a sitar and use it on their next release.  The other Beatles, especially Paul, had certainly bought in, and several tracks on the album Revolver incorporate harmonies and scales reflective of the Indian influence.  But asking Western fans to listen to an entire song in an unfamiliar style was a much riskier proposition.  Would they come along for the ride?

George was aware that he did not possess the skill necessary to pull off the composition that he had in mind, so he recruited some musicians from the North London Asian Music Circle to assist him.  Only the tabla player, Anil Bhagwat, is known to us, since he is actually credited on the sleeve of the album Revolver - a rare honor for anyone who ever played with the Beatles.  It has been surmised that George wanted to preserve the illusion that he played the entire sitar part himself, thus the names of the sitar and tamboura players have never been revealed.

During the afternoon session on April 11th, 1966, George sang and played acoustic guitar as Paul supplied occasional backing vocals for a few takes of the song.  George also worked on the free form introduction, which is perhaps the only part of the recording where he truly plays a sitar.  The other musicians arrived for the evening session, and only required three additional takes to nail their parts once they had learned them.

Engineer Geoff Emerick, only recently promoted to full time first engineer on Beatles' sessions, was particularly proud of the percussive sound he captured from the tabla.  He placed a microphone closer to the instrument than anyone had ever attempted before, bringing the deep tones of the drum to the forefront.  He would continue this practice with various other instruments over the next few years, with equally impressive results.

Onto the master take, Paul overdubbed a rather subdued bass line and George played an electric fuzz guitar, which jumps forward with an angry growl from time to time during the song.  Two days later, on April 13th, the recording was completed with a tambourine played by Ringo and a double-tracked vocal from George.  Paul did attempt some high harmonies at this session, but they were not used in the final mix.

Love You To sits in the middle of side one on the album Revolver.  On the British version of the LP, it follows Lennon's I'm Only Sleeping.  George and Paul's swirling backwards guitars at the end of that number lead nicely into the free form sitar introduction of Harrison's song.  In contrast, the sitar sounds as if it is from another world on the American LP, coming as it does right on the heels of the stately strings of McCartney's Eleanor Rigby.

The song's only other appearance is on the 1999 Yellow Submarine Songtrack.  Just the opening of the number is actually used in the animated film to introduce the character of George as something of a mystic guru standing atop a mountain with the wind blowing through his hair.  He then appears in the most material of possessions - a car - which changes colors every time he drives by, until cartoon George quips, "It's all in the mind."