Edited by Luca Beatrice. Text by Antonio Taormina, Fulvio Ferrari, Matteo Guarnaccia, Gabriele Ferraris, Steve Della Casa.
The influence of Eastern mysticism on the music of The Beatles
Following the release of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967), the Beatles—at that point the most famous band in the world—found themselves increasingly drawn to Eastern mysticism, culminating with the band’s 1968 trip to India (accompanied, of course, by wives and girlfriends as well as an entourage of friends, assistants and reporters). The journey that John, Paul, George and Ringo made to study at the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s ashram would become a key event in the history of Western pop culture: followed breathlessly in the international media, it caused an enormous stir and was fundamental in spreading a certain fascination with the East that influenced music, literature, cinema and fashion at the end of the 1960s.
Nothing Is Real takes its title from a memorable line from the Beatles’ song “Strawberry Fields Forever.” Eastern thinking and spiritual practices felt liberating and modern to a generation looking for alternatives, and the Beatles’ trip was a watershed moment, announcing definitively that Europe and the United States had a genuine trend on its hands. Taking the Beatles’ 1968 journey as its point of departure, Nothing Is Real invokes this extraordinary moment through contemporary reports, archival photographs, album covers, books and magazines from the period, and artworks by Ettore Sottsass, Alighiero Boetti, Francesco Clemente, Luigi Ontani, Aldo Mondino and Julian Schnabel.
Featured image is reproduced from 'Nothing Is Real: When the Beatles Met the East.'
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In 1967, The Beatles released their seminal album, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, and in 1968 they traveled to India to study with yogi Maharishi Mahesh, initiating a worldwide craze for all things Eastern. Unique on our list, Nothing Is Real: When the Beatles Met the East investigates this moment of global experimentation and expression through a wealth of archival materials, including books, magazines, album cover, photographs, ephemera, art and objects of design. Featured here is the October, 1970 cover of the underground alternative magazine Oz, dedicated to the themes, Fun, Travel and Adventure. continue to blog
This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of the Summer of Love, and we’ve put together a good old-fashioned hippie book list. Pictured here is the cover of the August 1971 issue of Observer magazine, with a feature on the “Hippie Trail to Mother India.” It’s reproduced from Nothing is Real: When the Beatles Met the East, an eclectic combination of western psychedelic ephemera, hippie news media, design objects, comics, album graphics and art alongside the traditional Indian materials that inspired their design. Weird thing is, it all looks pretty contemporary. Like Williamsburg, but better. continue to blog
FORMAT: Pbk, 9 x 11 in. / 176 pgs / 200 color. LIST PRICE: U.S. $35.00 LIST PRICE: CANADA $47.5 ISBN: 9788836633883 PUBLISHER: Silvana Editoriale AVAILABLE: 2/28/2017 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Active AVAILABILITY: In stock TERRITORY: NA LA ASIA AU/NZ AFR ME
Published by Silvana Editoriale. Edited by Luca Beatrice. Text by Antonio Taormina, Fulvio Ferrari, Matteo Guarnaccia, Gabriele Ferraris, Steve Della Casa.
The influence of Eastern mysticism on the music of The Beatles
Following the release of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967), the Beatles—at that point the most famous band in the world—found themselves increasingly drawn to Eastern mysticism, culminating with the band’s 1968 trip to India (accompanied, of course, by wives and girlfriends as well as an entourage of friends, assistants and reporters). The journey that John, Paul, George and Ringo made to study at the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s ashram would become a key event in the history of Western pop culture: followed breathlessly in the international media, it caused an enormous stir and was fundamental in spreading a certain fascination with the East that influenced music, literature, cinema and fashion at the end of the 1960s.
Nothing Is Real takes its title from a memorable line from the Beatles’ song “Strawberry Fields Forever.” Eastern thinking and spiritual practices felt liberating and modern to a generation looking for alternatives, and the Beatles’ trip was a watershed moment, announcing definitively that Europe and the United States had a genuine trend on its hands. Taking the Beatles’ 1968 journey as its point of departure, Nothing Is Real invokes this extraordinary moment through contemporary reports, archival photographs, album covers, books and magazines from the period, and artworks by Ettore Sottsass, Alighiero Boetti, Francesco Clemente, Luigi Ontani, Aldo Mondino and Julian Schnabel.
