When they set off for India in February, 1968, to follow the teachings of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, The Beatles were on top of the world. In 1967, which went down in history as the great year of psychedelia (a genre which they had done a lot to create with the album Revolver (1966) and pieces like Tomorrow Never Knows or Love You To), they had blown the competition away with the single Strawberry Fields Forever/Penny Lane, the film Magical Mystery Tour and the unforgettable I Am the Walrus, not to mention the album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, which was hailed upon its release (and is still thought of today) as the greatest pop album of all time. They even opened a shop and a label, Apple Records. Everything seemed to be possible for these musicians whose fabulous compositions were even being taken up by jazz artists.
But in 1968 The Beatles had tired of psychedelia and American groups like The Band and Creedence Clearwater Revival were making the genre look pretty old hat. In India, The Beatles relaxed, meditated a little, and wrote a lot of songs. Their friend Donovan (who came too, along with Mike Love from the Beach Boys, actress Mia Farrow and her younger sister Prudence as well as the Four's respective partners) taught them the rudiments of guitar picking. Lennon would use it on Dear Prudence and Julia, as would McCartney on Blackbird and Mother Nature’s Son. In fact, they wrote so many songs that one day Harrison, who was very taken with the Maharishi, would complain: "We're not fucking here to do the next album. We're here to meditate!" The stay soon came to and end: Lennon started to wonder whether the Maharishi was simply a scam artist; rumours started to circulate that the guru had tried to sexually abuse young people in his famous Rishikesh ashram. What's more, the band were stunned and devastated to discover that their faithful manager, Brian Epstein, who had discovered them, had died of an overdose.
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