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George Harrison - Art of Dying
Identifier
015385
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
"Art of Dying" is a song by George Harrison, released on his 1970 triple album All Things Must Pass. It was written in 1966–67 when Harrison first became immersed in Hindu spirituality, and its subject matter is reincarnation – the "art" in question being the need to avoid rebirth, by limiting actions and thoughts whose consequences lead to one's soul returning in another, earthbound life form.
There is a second meaning in the words too, because the art of dying is also the art of annihilation. The two are not incompatible.
Harrison initially used LSD, but where Lennon went one route and used drugs, Harrison went the spiritual route. It was a visit in August 1967 to the epicentre of hippie conterculturalism, San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district, that persuaded him to abandon LSD and pursue a spiritual path through meditation. By that point, he had already immersed himself in Indian music, which is irrevocably tied to spirituality.
He dealt with "the spiritual aridity of modern life" in his song "Within You, Without You" (on the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band).
A description of the experience
George Harrison - Art of dying - album version
This version was co-produced by Phil Spector. The backing musicians include Eric Clapton and the rest of the latter's short-lived band Derek and the Dominos, as well as Gary Wright, Billy Preston and a teenage Phil Collins. I have to say that the music and its stridency somehow masks the importance and gentleness of the message, but then that's me.
Here is a different version - still George Harrison, but he recorded it during a rehearsal at 1970.
George Harrison - Art Of Dying - Acoustic Version
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There'll come a time when all of us must leave here
Then nothing sister Mary can do
Will keep me here with you
As nothing in this life that I've been trying
Could equal or surpass the art of dying
Do you believe me?
There'll come a time when all your hopes are fading
When things that seemed so very plain
Become an awful pain
Searching for the truth among the lying
And answered when you've learned the art of dying
But you're still with me
But if you want it
Then you must find it
But when you have it
There'll be no need for it
There'll come a time when most of us return here
Brought back by our desire to be
A perfect entity
Living through a million years of crying
Until you've realized the Art of Dying
Do you believe me?