In 2012 a group of travellers occupied the Beatles Ashram in Rishikesh. We painted big murals on the walls of the old derelict satsang hall and played music. At this time there was a strong sense of magic in the air. I had grown up on the Beatles, learnt music via the Beatles so for me it was something very special to walk in the footsteps and tread the ground where they wrote the White Album. The White Album which had always been my favourite Beatles album it was amazing to wander around and to see where they drew some of their inspiration for the lyrics of the songs. Mr city policeman sitting pretty little policeman in a row. From I am the Walrus in the ashram there are what looks like giant UK bobbys policeman helmets about 5 or 6 in a row across the roof of one of the buildings .. they have ladders on the side and you can climb up and go inside through a hole in the top of the roof. I think they were built as meditation domes although these ones were quite different to the other ones where the number 9 meditation dome is. These domes are much smaller and of different design. One day I remember we were jamming near that place we were playing Dear Prudence and I broke my G string. Isnt it just always the case ! ? Always the G :) I had no replacement and I remembered hearing music coming from a dome as we walked past earlier so I went wandering back there and it was a guy playing guitar in number 9 meditation dome. I said hello and introduced myself, he was an American and his name was Joe. Amazingly enough he had a G string for me and he kindly gave it to me along with some plectrums that he had brought from the US, its almost impossible to find good plectrums in India so I was really grateful. Something about that meeting there at that time the random nature of it, sometimes you can meet someone and look them in the eyes and you get this feeling like Deja Vu or like a moment of significance and you look at each other vaguely puzzled with a sense of having done this all before somewhere or having met in another lifetime. So I went on my way and we continued jamming away. It was a magic time. The little local mafia guys who try to extort money from you for entrance to what is a derelict site so we used to go round the back and climb in. Its like a great big compound. They would try to scare us with stories of deadly wild elephants and tigers and they would say that we couldnt stay but it was all just to scare us so we didnt camp out there. They were quite strict about kicking everyone out at night but one night we managed to stay there in that place high up on a rooftop where they shot the video for I am the Walrus. It culminated in the satsang hall being covered with amazing murals at one end of the hall in the middle was a painting of the Beatles and to the left and right the famous gurus and swarmis. At the other end of the hall there were painted two colliding circles black and white sacred geometric patterns. I was only partly involved in the actual painting my frien Frieya made an incredible mural of a woman releasing a dove holding it to her face as she released it into the air. The mural was entitled Black Bird Fly. and I painted some of the background in red but mainly I was playing music. That was a time when I just couldnt stop playing music ... All day every day we would jam and I was learning Gypsy songs for the first time in my life. So for hours and hours each day I would jam with Sparrow and other friends and I loved the discovery of this new style. We would play all the old sea shanties and its like you get a sense of history when you sing those old words .. most of those songs lost in time no one knows from where they came they are carried down through many centurys of generations on the lips of the men and women who sing them. Later that year I would meet Joe again in Kathmandu on freak street. He had met another Joe at the airport she was a girl and she also played guitar. We jammed on a rooftop in freak street and I remember playing Hey Joe .. the first song I ever learned strumming on guitar. It was one of those moments in your life that you will just never forget. The music was so high. That simple iconic song.. but something in the air some magic some observing presence.. That was the time when I was right in the middle of the breakdown. I mean you could call it a breakdown thats what it would be termed/labelled if it were to be described by a doctor... But it wasnt a breakdown it was a most incredible breakthrough. All of the stories that had held me prisinor locked in the stress and strain of the thinking mind was at once expulsed in one great big whooooooosh .... and the bullshit was gone forever.
Posted on: Sun, 30 Nov 2014 00:19:15 +0000
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