The Inner Light
Non-Album b-side: “Lady Madonna”
Written by: George
The reverse of 1968’s “Lady Madonna” was the third and final of George Harrison’s major Indian-influenced tunes released with the Beatles, and in my opinion it’s his finest. The instrumental track is warm and energetic, boasting joyful melodic lead lines and a galloping beat that makes me wish I wasn’t too white to dance.
The lyrics are mostly transcribed from a poem in the Tao Te Ching and serve as a crash course on transcendental philosophy:
Without going out of your door
You can know all things on Earth
Without looking out of your window
You can know the ways of heaven
Simple yet potent and when combined with an instrumental track that makes you feel like dust motes dancing in a shaft of infinite light it becomes one of the sweetest unsung songs in Harrison’s Beatle catalog.
This tune, along with “Love You To” and “Within You and Without You” stand tall among the tracks listeners come across and think “This is the Beatles?” and so begins their transformation from casual to crazed fan.
