Within You Without You

"Within You Without You" is a song written by George Harrison and released on The Beatles' 1967 album, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. It features only Harrison and a group of uncredited Indian musicians, although producer George Martin arranged the string section, and Harrison and assistant Neil Aspinall played the tambura. It is the second of Harrison's songs to be explicitly influenced by Indian classical music, after "Love You To", and Harrison's only composition on Sgt. Pepper. "Within You Without You" was written on a harmonium at the house of long-time Beatles friend Klaus Voormann, while "there were lots of joints being smoked".

The song, originally written as a 30-minute piece and trimmed down into a mini-version for the album, is in Mixolydian mode. The laughter at the end was Harrison's idea to lighten the mood and follow the theme of the album. Sped up to C#, an instrumental version at the original speed and key appears on the Anthology 2 album.

The song was also included on the 2006 remix album Love. For this album, George Harrison's lyrics and melody were mixed over the rhythm of "Tomorrow Never Knows", and elements of the percussion were placed alongside "Love You To" in "Here Comes the Sun". The blending of these two similar songs is considered the most effective form of mashup on the album. All of the music for Love was remixed and remastered by the Beatles producer Sir George Martin and his son Giles.

"Within You Without You" is also the most popular of the Harrison Indian sitar songs.

Personnel

 * George Harrison-Lead Vocals, Sitar,Tambura and Acoustic Guitar (1962 Gibson J-160E)
 * Neil Aspinall-Tambura
 * Erich Gruenberg, Alan Loveday, Julien Gaillard, Paul Scherman, Ralph Elman, David Wolfsthal, Jack Rothstein, Jack Greene –Violin
 * Reginald Kilbey, Allen Ford, Peter Beavan – Cello
 * Unknown- Swarmandal, Dilruba, Tabla, Tambura