11.52am
22 December 2013
Pineapple Records said
they kind of glossed over the juiciest part of the whole thing — John’s moral indignation against their Indian Swami host, the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. The story I heard was that when he heard that he had slept with Mia Farrow
The Maharishi had allegedly made sexual advances towards one of the women in their entourage, but it wasn’t Mia Farrow… that was a widespread rumour…
Pineapple Records said
he and the other Beatles went to bang on his tent and demand an explanation. Later, John supposedly wrote “Sexy Sadie ” to commemorate him.
The story, according to Peter Brown, was that they’d confronted him after learning about the incident (where the young woman was also fed chicken inside the strictly vegetarian camp) to inform him that they “were leaving”… When The Maharishi asked “but why?” John blurted out “you’re the cosmic one, you should know”… ‘Sexy Sadie ‘ was originally titled ‘Maharishi’, but John was urged to change it to avoid any legal hassles… It was said that he later regretted the decision… I’d love to hear a version of him singing “Maharishi” instead, that’d be fantastic…:-)
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Pineapple Records9.06pm
15 May 2015
thanks for those details; I suspected the story I’d heard suffered from “embellishment” over the years.
“Maharishi” would have been quite cool for that song. I wonder why John in that case didn’t come up with a title that rhymes better with it, like “Lana Deeshi” or something…
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6.44pm
26 January 2017
“Who the f**k do you think you are” was the original lyric, heard on an unknown partial take. (He throws in a great falsetto wail afterwards.)
Allegedly he also replaced some of the verse lines with cutting insults such as “you stupid t**t”
The song was written with a lot of malice towards the Maharishi, but the anger is channeled through Paul’s mesmerising piano, Ringo’s stellar groove, and George’s idea to change the name to Sexy Sadie . I won’t get myself started on the guitar solo
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Zig"The pump don't work cause the vandals took the handles!"
-Bob Dylan, Subterranean Homesick Blues
"We could ride and surf together while our love would grow"
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6.48pm
26 January 2017
The rumor itself of Maharishi’s advances were told to John by none other than Alex Mardas (Magic Alex).
Makes me question their validity, as George did not believe them, and Alex was eager to gain a spot in the Beatles inner circle. John also had the “Rolling obsessions” referred to by @Ron Nasty, which caused him to easily jump ship on his latest guru and turn to something else to fill the void in his heart.
Who knows if the rumors are true, but I think John was ready to leave this phase of his life, and chose to believe Mardas because it enabled him to continue his search, and depart from his latest stop empty handed.
"The pump don't work cause the vandals took the handles!"
-Bob Dylan, Subterranean Homesick Blues
"We could ride and surf together while our love would grow"
-Brian Wilson, Surfer Girl
11.38pm
15 May 2015
the famous atheist novelist Kurt Vonnegut had some wry observations about the Maharishi, with whom Kurt’s wife and daughter became enamored. The most significant thing he could say about him was what a fine, expensive gold watch he wore…
A ginger sling with a pineapple heart,
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5.25pm
22 December 2013
sir walter raleigh said
The rumor itself of Maharishi’s advances were told to John by none other than Alex Mardas (Magic Alex).Makes me question their validity, as George did not believe them, and Alex was eager to gain a spot in the Beatles inner circle. John also had the “Rolling obsessions” referred to by @Ron Nasty, which caused him to easily jump ship on his latest guru and turn to something else to fill the void in his heart.
Who knows if the rumors are true, but I think John was ready to leave this phase of his life, and chose to believe Mardas because it enabled him to continue his search, and depart from his latest stop empty handed.
This page http://wogew.blogspot.ca/ contains Magic Alex’s account of the events, and there’s certainly some inconsistencies in what he says… such as his claim that he was there “for several months” while he also states that Paul wasn’t there when he first arrived… meaning that he was only there for several weeks… It’s hard to know what really happened for certain but I personally doubt that John would’ve lashed out as he did without there being atleast some validity to the story… The excuse that he was only “human” is pretty pathetic, if the story is true… he was in a position of power over someone who came to him for help and allegedly abused that trust…
While the sexual abuse claims, not to downplay the allegations, could indeed have been sensationalized to some extent… It appears that The Beatles were all ready having doubts about the sincerity of The Maharishi’s convictions… There was a feeling amongst them that The Maharishi was using their worldwide reach to expand on his own following and this incident pushed them to finally sever their ties… They’d been dealing with this for years… Everybody wanted something from them and there were very few that they could actually trust within their circles…:-)
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