THE ART OF DYING.
Everybody is worried about dying but the cause of death (which most can't figure out
unless they are diseased) is birth, so if you don't want to die you don't get born!
So, the 'art of dying' is when somebody can consciously leave the body at death, as
opposed to falling down dying without knowing what's going on. The Yogi who does
that (Maha-samadhi) doesn't have to reincarnate again.
WHAT IS LIFE
This song was written for Billy Preston in 1969. I wrote it very quickly, fifteen
minutes or half an hour maybe, on my way to Olympic Studios, London, when I was producing
one of his albums. Because of the situation at the session it seemed too difficult to go
in there and say 'Hey I wrote this catchy pop song' while Billy was playing his funky
stuff. I did it my self later on All Things Must Pass.
YOU
was written for Phil Specter's wife Ronnie. I wrote it and laid the track down with
Leon Russell. I tried to write a Ronette sort of song. We never got to make
the whole album because we only did four or five tracks before Phil fell over, and then he
decided to release Try Some Buy Some as a single.
I forgot about it and years later dug the tape out and re-worked it, overdubbed it and did
it myself even though it was recorded it Ronnie's register - a bit high for me.
BEWARE OF DARKNESS
was written at home in England during a period when I had some of my friends from the
Radha Krishna temple staying: 'Watch out for Maya'.*
I like the melody-it's sort of strange. The lyrics are self-explanatory.
*MAYA - THE COSMIC ILLUSION (THAT WHICH IS NOT)
AWAITING ON YOU ALL
is about Japa Yoga meditation which is repetion on beads (mala) of mantras. A mantra is
mystical energy encased in a sound structure, and each mantra contains within its
vibrations, a certain power.
They are constructed from the first fifty letters of the Sanskirit
alphabet (Devanagari-language of the Gods) and they turn the mind toward concentration on
the supreme releasing spiritual energy in the Chakras* of the Body.
Most mantras for Japa utilise the many names of God, and the maha-mantra
has been prescribed as the easiest and surest way for attaining God-Realisation in this
present age. (It can also rebuild the atoms in the body and make your life sublime!)
*CHAKRAS - STORAGE PLACES FOR THE VITAL ENERGY
RUN OF THE MILL
I like the words to Run Of The Mill. It was the first song I ever wrote that
looked like a poem on paper, whereas most of them don't seem much until you put the lyric
with the tune. It's like the North of England thing-you know, 'Trouble at t'mill':
it was when Apple was getting crazy - Ringo wanted it blue, John wanted it white, Paul
wanted it green and I wanted it orange. Paul was falling out with us all and going
around Apple offices saying 'You're no good' - everybody was just incompetent (the Spanish
Inquisition sketch). It was that period - the problem of partnerships...
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