"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. According to Prema Music, dilrubha player Amrit Gajjar played on the track. 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. The Love remix is one of the songs in The Beatles: Rock Band. The original version was also released as downloadable content along with the rest of the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album in November 2009.
"Within You Without You" is also the most popular of the Harrison Indian sitar songs.
Lyrics[]
[Verse 1]
We were talking about the space between us all
And the people who hide themselves behind a wall of illusion
Never glimpse the truth, then it's far too late, when they pass away
[Verse 2]
We were talking about the love we all could share
When we find it, to try our best to hold it there with our love
With our love, we could save the world, if they only knew
[Chorus]
Try to realise it's all within yourself
No one else can make you change
And to see you're really only very small
And life flows on within you and without you
[Verse 3]
We were talking about the love that's gone so cold
And the people who gain the world and lose their soul
They don't know, they can't see, are you one of them?
[Chorus]
When you've seen beyond yourself then you may find
Peace of mind is waiting there
And the time will come when you see we're all one
And life flows on within you and without you
[Outro]
Ha-ha-ha-ha
Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha
Ha-ha!
Personnel[]
- George Harrison - Lead Vocals, Guitar (1962 Gibson J-160E), Sitar, Tambura
- Neil Aspinall - Tambura
- Anil Bhagwat - Tabla
- 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 - Dilruba