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"The Inner Light" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles, written by George Harrison. It was released on a non-album single in March 1968, as the B-side to "Lady Madonna". The song was the first Harrison composition to be featured on a Beatles single and reflects the band's embracing of Transcendental Meditation. The lyrics are a rendering of a poem from the Taoist ''Tao Te Ching'', which Harrison set to music on the recommendation of Sanskrit scholar Juan Mascaró, who had translated the passage in his 1958 book ''Lamps of Fire''. The song became a comparative rarity among the Beatles' recordings in the decade following its release; it has subsequently appeared on compilation albums such as ''Rarities'', ''Past Masters, Volume Two'' and ''Mono Masters''. Harrison recorded the instrumental track for "The Inner Light" in India in January 1968, during the sessions for his ''Wonderwall Music'' soundtrack album. The only Beatles studio recording to be made outside Britain, the song introduced instruments such as sarod, shehnai and pakhavaj to the band's sound and features contributions from Indian classical musicians including Aashish Khan, Hanuman Jadev and Hariprasad Chaurasia. Aside from Harrison's lead vocal, recorded in London, the Beatles' only contribution came in the form of group backing vocals at the end of the song. Among music critics, "The Inner Light" has received praise for the its melodic qualities and for its evocation of the meditation experience. Jeff Lynne and Anoushka Shankar performed the song at the Concert for George tribute in November 2002, a year after Harrison's death. An alternative take of the 1968 instrumental track was released in 2014 on the remastered ''Wonderwall Music'' CD. Screenwriter Morgan Gendel named a 1992 episode of the television series ''Star Trek: The Next Generation'' as an homage to the song. ==Background and inspiration== In his autobiography, ''I, Me, Mine'', George Harrison recalls that he was inspired to write "The Inner Light" by Juan Mascaró, a Sanskrit scholar at Cambridge University.〔〔 Mascaró had taken part in a debate, televised on ''The Frost Programme'' on 4 October 1967,〔Winn, p. 130.〕 during which Harrison and John Lennon discussed the merits of Transcendental Meditation with an audience of academics and religious leaders.〔Everett, p. 152.〕〔 In a subsequent letter to Harrison, dated 16 November, Mascaró congratulated him on the success of his song "Within You Without You"〔Lavezzoli, p. 182.〕 and expressed hope that they might meet again before the Beatles departed for India,〔 where the group were to undertake a meditation course with their guru, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.〔Greene, pp. 89–90.〕 Mascaró also enclosed a copy of his book ''Lamps of Fire'', an anthology of religious writings,〔Turner, p. 147.〕 including some from Lao-Tzu's ''Tao Te Ching'',〔Lavezzoli, pp. 182–83.〕 and enquired: "might it not be interesting to put into your music a few words of Tao, for example no. 48, page 66 of ''Lamps''?"〔Harrison, p. 119.〕 Harrison wrote the song during a period when he had undertaken his first musical project outside the Beatles, composing the soundtrack to the Joe Massot-directed film ''Wonderwall''.〔Leng, p. 33.〕〔Miles, p. 283.〕 When writing "The Inner Light", he made minimal alterations to Lao-Tzu's text〔Allison, p. 38.〕〔Everett, pp. 152–53.〕 and used the same title that Mascaró had used.〔 In ''I, Me, Mine'', Harrison says of the changes required to create his second verse: In the original poem, the verse says "Without going out of ''my'' door, ''I'' can know the ways of heaven." And so to prevent any misinterpretations – and also to make the song a bit longer – I did repeat that as a second verse but made it: "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" – so that it included everybody.〔Harrison, p. 118.〕 After "Within You Without You", "The Inner Light" was the second composition to fully reflect Harrison's immersion in Eastern spiritual concepts, particularly meditation,〔Tillery, p. 87.〕〔Inglis, pp. 11, 139.〕 an interest that had spread to his Beatles bandmates〔 Available at (Rock's Backpages ) (subscription required).〕〔MacDonald, p. 185.〕 and to the group's audience.〔The Editors of ''Rolling Stone'', p. 36.〕 The lyrics espouse meditation as a means to genuine understanding.〔Greene, pp. 91–92.〕 Theologian Dale Allison describes the song as a "hymn" to quietism and comments that, in their attempt to "relativize and disparage knowledge of the external world", the words convey Harrison's enduring worldview.〔Allison, pp. 26, 27.〕 Author John Winn notes that Harrison had pre-empted the message of "The Inner Light" in an August 1967 interview, when he told New York DJ Murray Kaufman: "The more you learn, the more you know that you don't know anything at all."〔Winn, p. 116.〕 Writing in his study of Harrison's musical career, Ian Inglis similarly identifies a precedent in the song "It's All Too Much", where Harrison sings: "''The more I learn, the less I know''."〔Inglis, pp. 10, 11.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Inner Light (song)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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