George Harrison began work on what would be his debut solo album in late 1967. Those sessions resulted in Wonderwall Music, released a year later. He travelled to Bombay in order to work with some musicians, and back to London to record some vocals. In that time, today’s song – ‘The Inner Light’ – was recorded. It was the last of Harrison’s songs during his time in the Beatles to explore the Indian influences that had been something of a trademark for him since 1966.

There’s a lot of information on its Wikipedia page that I don’t want to regurgitate. I’ve basically come to take it as an ode to meditation. Feeling content and peace within yourself and those around you. He took a lot of the lines from the Chinese Tao Te Ching text, putting a glorious melody on the words which are backed by a strong harmonium drone and floating Indian flutes.

Upon completion, it was made B-Side to ‘Lady Madonna’ and released in March 1968 while The Beatles went to India for some Transcendental Meditation. It was the first Harrison song to appear on a single. Harrison was proud of it, Paul McCartney held it in high regard. It worked out well in the end. For the song at least – the band were never quite the same from this year onwards.