Ravi Shankar, Dead At 92

From USA Today.com

Ravi Shankar, the sitar virtuoso who became a hippie musical icon of the 1960s after hobnobbing with the Beatles and who introduced traditional Indian ragas to Western audiences over a 10-decade career, died Tuesday. He was 92.

A statement on the musician's website said he died in San Diego, near his Southern California home. The musician's foundation issued a statement saying that he had suffered upper respiratory and heart problems and had undergone heart-valve replacement surgery last week.

Labeled "the godfather of world music" by George Harrison, Shankar helped millions of classical, jazz and rock lovers discover the centuries-old traditions of Indian music.


His close relationship with Harrison, the Beatles lead guitarist, shot Shankar to global stardom in the 1960s.

The pair spent weeks together, starting the lessons at Harrison's house in England and then moving to a houseboat in Kashmir and later to California.

Gaining confidence with the complex instrument, Harrison recorded the Indian-inspired song "Within You Without You" on the Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," helping spark the raga-rock phase of 60s music and drawing increasing attention to Shankar and his work...

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SGT. PEPPER!

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band - released June 1, 1967

Today, June 1, 2012 marks the 45th anniversary since the release of The Beatles'  landmark album, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

It's almost like a page torn out of a book of legends and fantasies! This album is host to a number of "firsts" in Rock and Roll history; It was the first big concept album, the first Rock album to win a Grammy award for 'Album Of The Year', the first to include complete printed lyrics to every song and and the first of The Beatles records to simply have "Beatles" on the cover... which led to another unmistakable first...

It was the first to spawn the "Paul is dead" phenomenon that still polarizes Beatlemaniacs to this very day. Some of the "clues" include the freshly dug grave site, the guitar-shaped wreath implies a left-handed guitar (Paul played lefty), and Paul is standing backwards on the back of the album sleeve as well, further fueling any speculation of his death. Not to mention lyrical cues in tracks such as A Day In The Life (He blew his mind out in a car), and Good Morning, Good Morning (Nothing to do to save his life).

Furthermore, this record was an engineering achievement. The studio sessions were a series of recordings and multiple over dubs all done on 4-tracks. Considering all the arrangement and cacophony on Sgt. Pepper, George Martin and engineer, Geoff Emerick could almost be creative madmen for having tackled this project on.

This record is surely one you must experience for yourself!

ENJOY THE SHOW!