Various Artists – A Strange Light From The East

My favourite Cherry Red compilations are those that cover a scene as opposed to a particular artist. A Strange Light From The East, subtitled Eastern Influenced Western Music 1965-72, is a romp through the introduction of Indian sounds, the sitar in particular, into (mostly) British and American pop/rock music. The first time a sitar was used on a pop record was The Beatles’ Norwegian Wood, thanks to George Harrison’s friend David Crosby introducing him to Indian classical music and the works of master sitarist Ravi Shankar. As with most Beatles innovations, the impact was immediate and maybe not wholly understood. As this compilation will show, very few of the artists “got it” beyond adding a new, hip sound to their arsenal. The entire concept of Indian scales is vastly different from its Western counterpart. Whereas European classical and American blues based songs are built on chords and harmony, Indian scales are melodic, incorporating microtonal slides instead of absolute pitches. Few artists were as willing to explore those differences the way Harrison and company did, and so the results – and therefore A Strange Light From The East – are uneven.

The first disc begins, oddly enough, with Bert Jansch’s take on Anji, a spectacular acoustic fingerstyle piece that helped lay the foundation for acoustic psychedelia and “folk-baroque”, but it is not an example of Eastern influence. Originally intended to include sitar, The Yardbirds’ Heart Full Of Soul ended up using Jeff Beck’s effects pedals to simulate the instrument when the hired sitarist struggled with the 4/4 beat. Roger McGuinn used Eastern modal structures played on his 12 string to record the trippy Eight Miles High. It isn’t till song number five, Cyrkle’s Turn Down Day that an actual sitar appears to provide a noticeable drone. While Paul Butterfield Blues Band do not feature any Eastern instrumentation, their thirteen minute tour de force, East West, incorporates a heady brew of blues, modal jazz and Indian classical for a stunning piece that absorbs divergent elements and creates something wholly unique. Big Jim Sullivan, on the other hand, relies on the sitar and tabla to create a cover of The Beatles’ She’s Leaving Home which both honours and deconstructs the original.

Songs like Mirage’s take on Tomorrow Never Knows and the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band’s Buddha make valid attempts to do something relevant with the new sound but don’t quite hit the mark. A very young Andy Summers has better luck using the sitar as a primary instrument in Dantalion’s Chariot’s moody This Island. Kaleidoscope embrace exotic vocal scales and “raga rock” to great effect on Egyptian Gardens, but Yardbird Jimmy Page relied on unorthodox tuning of his acoustic guitar to create the beautiful, Eastern influenced instrumental White Summer. The always reliable Spirit present lysergic psychedelia with sitar on Girl In Your Eye, while The Twilights take it a step further on Devendra. Boeing Duveen & The Beautiful Soup cap off the disc with Which Dreamed It, one of the more successful marriages of East and West in the set.

Disc two shows how by 1968 the Eastern influences were being better understood and more naturally incorporated into popular music. The Rascals’ Sattva is a magnificent melding of the two musical cultures, as is The Ceyleib People’s Menyatt Byl Com (featuring a young Ry Cooder). The Pretty Things offer an early prog masterpiece which incorporates a myriad of influences with Bracelets Of Fingers, and on Pentangle’s Once I Had A Sweetheart, John Renbourn uses sitar to gloriously enhance the folk melody.

Other tracks, like East Of Eden’s Waterways and Elmer Gantry’s Velvet Opera’s Air weave the sounds of sitar, violin and woodwinds in a manner which enhances both the Western structure and Eastern influence. Give them high marks for effort, but the Stooges’ We Will Fall uses chant, sitar and viola to create a disturbingly dark atmosphere that never quite gels and goes on much too long. Humble Pie present a rarely heard side of themselves with the introspective acoustic track, Light Of Love. Still, bands like Blossom Toes continued to use Eastern sounds as mere accent (Just Above My Hobby Horse’s Head), while Walter Horton and Martin Stone created Indian sounds with an effects-laden guitar (Netti Netti). Steve Howe exhibited his abundant talents on several stringed instruments with Tomorrow’s Real Life Peppermint Dream and The Incredible String Band live up to their name with the exoticism of Koeeoaddi There.

Dutch band Shocking Blue successfully introduced sitar into the hard rocking Love Buzz which kicks off disc three of this compilation. The same instrument enhances a variety of other genres: pop (Lynne Pike’s Given Time), heavy psych (Blonde On Blonde’s Spinning Wheel), folk (John Renbourn’s Lamento Di Tristan), and even parody (The Hubbels’ Hippy Dippy Funky Monkey Double Bubble Sitar Man). As noted on the previous discs, there were always bands who moved beyond mere curiosity or lip service to figure a way to make the Indian influence fit naturally into what they were already doing. A prime example is Third Ear Band, whose Ghetto Raga uses oboe, cello and hand percussion to create a dark and haunting instrumental.

Welsh musician Meic Stevens mixes folk and Indian traditions superbly on Yorric, while German prog band Abacus meld atmospheric sitar and acoustic guitar together on Song For Brunhilde. Indian musicians also got in on the game by introducing Western influences into their tradition. Nitai Dasgupta incorporated traditional Indian vocals into Western spaciness, Ravi’s nephew Ananda Shankar blended the two traditions in his cover of the Stones’ Jumping Jack Flash, and sitar master Pandit Kanwar Sain Trikha experimented with Western percussion, but gave no concession on his track Folk Piece In Kahrwa. The final track, Yes’ Siberian Khatru, seems like a gratuitous add on, as Howe’s sitar-guitar occupies only a few short measures.

Kudos to the team at Cherry Red for continually finding new paths to trod and exploring the minor tributaries that contribute to the scene along the way.  A Strange Light From The East is a tremendous sampling of how disparate cultures affect one another, and of how music can – and does – change the world.

TRACK LISTING
Disc One
01. Bert Jansch – Anji (3:13)
02. The Yardbirds – Heart Full Of Soul (2:30)
03. The Byrds – Eight Miles High (3:36)
04. The Riot Squad – I Take It that We’re Through (2:51)
05. The Cyrkle – Turn Down Day (2:35)
06. The Mirage – Tomorrow Never Knows (2:36)
07. The Misunderstood – I Unseen (IBC Acetate) (2:02)
08. The Paul Butterfield Blues Band – East West (13:13)
09. Tuesday’s Children – Strange Light From The East (2:25)
10. Big Jim Sullivan – She’s Leaving Home (2:37)
11. Dantalion’s Chariot – This Island (3:56)
12. The Flower Pot – Wantin’ Ain’t Getting’ (2:05)
13. The Zodiac – Libra – The Flower Child (3:31)
14. Kaleidoscope – Egyptian Gardens (3:05)
15. West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band – Buddha (2:09)
16. The Yardbirds – White Summer (3:57)
17. The Fugs –Hare Krishna (3:22)
18. The Misty Wizards – It’s Love (2:11)
19. Hi Revving Tongues – (The Psychedelic) Illusion (2:09)
20. Spirit – Girl In your Eye (3:17)
21. The Lemon Pipers – I Need Someone (The Painter) (2:44)
22. The Twilights – Devendra (1:50)
23. Chad & Jeremy – Sunstroke (4:12)
24. Boeing Duveen & The Beautiful Soup –Which Dreamed It (2:34)

Time – 79:40

Disc Two
01. Spencer Davis Group – After Tea (3:21)
02. July – The Way (Unreleased Version) (2:02)
03. Tales Of Justine – Sitting On A Blunestone (2:39)
04. East Of Eden – Waterways (Demo) (6:41)
05. Elmer Gantry’s Velvet Opera – Air (3:11)
06. Tomorrow – Real Life Peppermint Dream (3:19)
07. The Rascals – Sattva (4:25)
08. Incredible String Band – Koeeoaddi There (4:47)
09. Pretty Things – Bracelets Of Fingers (3:42)
10. Merrell Fankhauser &HMS Bounty – A Visit With Ashiya (3:23)
11. The Ceyleib People – Menyatt Dyl Com (4:13)
12. The Nirvana Sitar & String Group – Head (2:51)
13. The Stooges – We Will Fall (10:18)
14. Blossom Toes – Just Above My Hobby Horse’s Head (2:55)
15. Humble Pie – The Light Of Love (3:01)
16. Pentangle – Once I Had A Sweetheart (4:38)
17. Walter Horton & Martin Stone – Netti (11:54)

Time – 77:20

Disc Three
01. Shocking Blue – Love Buzz (3:48)
02. Clark-Hutchinson – Impromptu In ‘E’ Minor (8:19)
03. Lynne Pike – Given Time (3:06)
04. Jeremy Harmer – Tuesday P.M. (2:17)
05. Blonde On Blonde – Spinning Wheel (2:48)
06. The Hubbels – Hippy Dippy Funk Monkey Double Bubble Sitar Man (3:05)
07. Third Ear Band – Ghetto Raga (Edit) (8:55)
08. John Renbourn – lament di Tristan (1:57)
09. The Fox – Butterfly (3:26)
10. Meic Stevens – Yorric (08:48)
11. Ananda Shankar – Jumpin’ Jack Flash (3:37)
12. Notai Dasgupta – Baitha Tano (4:27)
13. Abacus – Song For Brunhilde (4:36)
14. The 40 Watt Banana – Nirvana (02:55)
15. Pandit Kanwar Sain Trikha – Folk Piece In Kahrwa (4:37)
16. Wizz Jones – American Land (4:02)
17. Yes – Siberian Khatru (8:55)

Time – 79:38

ADDITIONAL INFO
Record Label: Cherry Red Records
Country of Origin: International
Date of Release: 21^st August 2026

LINKS
Cherry Red Records – Boxset Info