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(c) Ian Hammond 1999
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   The Harrisong (9)
Wonderwall


In 1967 Harrison accepted a film-writing role for Wonderwall because, he has said, it gave him an opportunity to promote Indian music. The director gave Harrison complete control over the content.

Harrison did not simply write a theme song and then leave the rest to George Martin as McCartney had done for The Family Way (as I understand it to be the case). George did the lot, which involved going to the film studio to pick up the film cues and then writing little bits of music tailor made for each section. He wrote all the incidental music in the film, far more than appears on the album.
  I had a regular wind-up stopwatch and I watched the film to "spot-in" the music with the watch. I wrote the timings down in my book then I'd go to Abbey Road, make up a piece, record it and when we'd synch it up at Twickenham it always worked. It was always right.
 
  Harrison, Wonderwall CD cover notes

He hired the Remo Four, a four piece Liverpool unit with keyboards, guitar, bass and drums along with harmonicas, wind and brass instruments. The Remo Four handled broad range of styles making them well suited for the variety of music required for the film.

The band was supplemented by Indian musicians, Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr and others. Harrison's job involved organising, writing and producing the music rather than performing.

Some material was recorded in the EMI Bombay studio. Four years before Band On The Run, Harrison went through the experience of working in a studio with the barest of facilities. Noise from the road and adjacent rooms leaked into the uninsulated studio.

The album presents a selection of the film music. The pieces can be characterised as Indian or Western. Here's a brief rundown.

1 Microbes Indian A gentle extended wind duet.
2 Red Lady Too Western An ambling waltz on jangle piano.
3 Tabla & Pakavaj Indian Breathtaking Indian percussion.
4 In The Park Indian Slow boogie for zither and tuned drums.
5 Drilling A Home Western Slapstick at its best.
6 Guru Vandana Indian Evocative wind duet.
7 Greasy Legs Indian Two part invention for Peter Pan.
8 Ski-Ing Western Eric Clapton heavy riff and Indian solos.
9 Gat Kurwani Indian Short brilliant gat for sitar and tabla.
10 Dream Scene Indian Indian vocals, western atmospherics.
11 Party Seacombe Western A better Flying.
12 Love Scene Indian Love in a warm climate.
13 Crying Indian Exactly that.
14 Cowboy Music Western Every cowboy cliche in the book.
15 Fantasy Sequins Indian Would you believe an Indian-Irish jig?
16 On The Bed Western Smashing piano and Tijuana brass.
17 Glass Box Indian Sitar duet with tabla.
18 Wonderwall To Be Here Western Tschaikowsky film music.
19 Singing Om Indian Indian Gregorian chant.

Half the pieces are very short. Three are rather long pieces comprising short varied sections. The long sectional pieces are more complex than songs like Happiness or the medleys on Abbey Road.

There's a great variety of style. The western pieces, where Harrison would have dictated more of the detail, are all interesting in their own right. A number of them include Indian cross-over material.

He manages to get a perfect take on slapstick (Drilling A Home), cowboys (Cowboy Music) and the plush cinematic Tchaikowsky tradition (Wonderwall To Be Here).

Red Lady Too, Party Seacombe and On The Bed share the feature of this album which really stands out: atmosphere. This is technicolor music that remains in your memory. The color is more important than the individual themes.

Some tracks have backwards music, electronic effects and sound collages. Some sections of Dream Scene could be interchanged with Revolution 9 quite easily. Until Lennon produced Revolution 9, George Harrison was the groups major investor in the avant garde. We'll remember this when it comes time to look at the possible influences Lennon had in making Revolution 9.

Here's another summary looking at duration, style (Indian or Western or both) and the key centers. There is a surprising degree of tonal organisation.

1 Microbes Indian 3:38 Ab:
2 Red Lady Too Western 1:55 c:
3 Tabla & Pakavaj Indian 1:05 D:
4 In The Park Indian 4:08 Ab:
5 Drilling A Home Western 3:06 G:,Ab:,Bb:
6 Guru Vandana Indian 1:04 Ab:
7 Greasy Legs Indian/Western 1:27 D:
8 Ski-Ing Western/Indian 1:48 c:
9 Gat Kurwani Indian 1:05 c:
         
10 Dream Scene Indian/Western 5:26 Eb: C:,B:,Bb:,Ab:,d:,Gb:
         
11 Party Seacombe Western/Indian 4:31 C:
12 Love Scene Indian 4:17 C:
13 Crying Indian/Western 1:14 e:-eb:
14 Cowboy Music Western 1:20 C:
15 Fantasy Sequins Indian 1:49 Eb:
16 On The Bed Western/Indian 2:21 Eb:
17 Glass Box Indian 1:03 F:
18 Wonderwall To Be Here Western 1:23 G:
19 Singing Om Indian 1:53 C:


In the individual track reviews I noted places where Harrison was first, as in imitating a stuck record needle before Blackbird. This should remind us that pioneers are always first. Many of the genial ideas of the Beatles came to them simply because they continually searched out new territory.

Wonderwall was the first release on the new Apple label. Oasis nicked the name for one of their albums. The film has been restored (http://www.wonderwallfilm.co.uk/). The site has more detail on the musicians who contributed to the album. The director recalls the Bee Gees also expressing an interest in writing the score. Harrison is recalled as saying that he was involved in making Magical Mystery Tour, but that that was "Paul's project".

The cover of Wonderwall (see above) shows an English man in a suit and bowler hat on the left hand side. In the middle is a red wall which separates him from an idyll where scantily clad maidens swim in a pond. The picture could have easily have portrayed Harrison's life: a pommie peeking into the orient. Not the first, nor the last.

Harrison's music has recently been used for one of the first iMax movies, a documentary set in the Himalayas (Vaughan Williams was the last person to do that job, in the thirties I believe). I'm not sure how much he's had to do with film scores in between, despite running his own film production company.

Wonderwall is an early example of a major Harrison skill: the ability to organise and execute a large scale plan. We will see this again on his mammoth first album and the concert for Bangladesh. It was on Wonderwall that he first tasted freedom in a major project away from his best friends. One might suspect that he found a little more respect as well.

I almost forgot to say: Wonderwall makes for great listening.


The Inner Light
A Sanskrit scholar, moved by Within You Without You, sent Harrison a piece from the Tao Ching, which George then set (making him the first Beatle to set a traditional piece of verse). The band track was recorded in India during the Wonderwall sessions.

Back in England, Harrison avoided singing lead until encouraged by his comrades. It remains a McCartney favourite, who tells us to listen to the melody. In no other song is Harrison's voice laid quite so bare. His Buddy Holly exercises help out here. Lennon suggested it be the B-side of Lady Madonna, giving Harrison a side of a single at last.

An intro leads to a single verse and refrain. The whole is repeated with a solo over the intro. A freely composed coda, overlaying the instrumental intro/solo, with some imaginative unison and harmony closes the song. Note that Blue Jay Way, It's Too Much and this song have all used complex closing structures.

Harrison's use of open sections is particularly effective here: the verse melody does not complete (and is thus left open). Listen to him sing "the less one really knows", where "knows" is left suspended, leaving it to the band to resolve a bar later.

Formally the song, in Eb:, consists of an instrumental section and a verse as follows I V I V I, where the first instrumental functions as intro, the second as a solo and the third as the coda. The bass remains on Eb: throughout but Harrison overlays a pattern involving Ab and F minor.

Macca's right. Listen to the melody and the simple way he sings without affectation. I love the way he sings "father".



Harrison's Indian Legacy
This is the last of Harrison's Indian pieces for the Beatles. Let's take stock.

First, I'll make a claim for rock and for Harrison: I can't think of any other Western Pop genre that has been able to evangelise other styles so completely as Rock, and I believe Harrison was the man who led the way. I would be more than happy to be corrected!

Ravi Shankar was as much Harrison's protegee in things pop as George was Shankar's in the art of playing the sitar. Shankar has since been called the father of World Music (and recently was voted the 100 most popular artist of the century by a pop music magazine poll).

Indian music influences have become part of the fabric, be it combined with America bluegrass instruments in the score of Dead Man Walking or on the 1998 Alanis Morrisette single Uninvited. It is pervasive.

The traditions, in particular of melody and momentum, that Harrison explored in these Indian pieces has not been lost. Harrison kept up his interest in things Indian and transferred the lessons to other threads of his writing, in particular to his religious pieces.

Harrison returned to the guitar with all the cebrebal and mechanical skills he had picked up in two years of diligent study of the sitar and his on-going spiritual journey.