"Dear One" is a song by English musician

George Harrison George Harrison (25 February 1943 – 29 November 2001) was an English musician and singer-songwriter who achieved international fame as the lead guitarist of the Beatles. Sometimes called "the quiet Beatle", Harrison embraced Indian c ...

, released in 1976 on his album ''

Thirty Three & 1/3 ''Thirty Three & ⅓'' (stylised as ''Thirty Three & 1/ॐ'' on the album cover) is the seventh studio album by English musician George Harrison, released in November 1976. It was Harrison's first album release on his Dark Horse record label, th ...

''. The song was inspired by, and dedicated to, Paramahansa Yogananda, whose 1946 book ''

Autobiography of a Yogi ''Autobiography of a Yogi'' is an autobiography of Paramahansa Yogananda (5 January 1893 – 7 March 1952) first published in 1946. Paramahansa Yogananda was born as Mukunda Lal Ghosh in Gorakhpur, India, into a Bengali Hindu family. '' ...

'' was a great influence on Harrison. Aside from keyboard player Richard Tee, Harrison plays all the instruments on the recording.

History

Harrison wrote the lyrics to "Dear One" in 1976 during a vacation to the

Virgin Islands The Virgin Islands ( es, Islas Vírgenes) are an archipelago in the Caribbean Sea. They are geologically and biogeographically the easternmost part of the Greater Antilles, the northern islands belonging to the Puerto Rico Trench and St. Croix ...

, shortly before starting work on ''

''. In his autobiography, '' I, Me, Mine'', Harrison says that he believes the song is the only one he ever wrote in open A tuning. The lyrics are directed to Premavatar Paramahansa Yogananda, author of ''

'', who Harrison called "a great influence on my life". While in India in 1966, Harrison was given a copy of Yogananda's book by

Ravi Shankar Ravi Shankar (; born Robindro Shaunkor Chowdhury, sometimes spelled as Rabindra Shankar Chowdhury; 7 April 1920 – 11 December 2012) was an Indian sitarist and composer. A sitar virtuoso, he became the world's best-known export of North Ind ...

's brother, after which, author Peter Doggett writes, Harrison "read every Indian spiritual text he could find". Apart from American musician Richard Tee on organ, Harrison played all the instruments on the recording: acoustic guitars,

synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

s and percussion ( hi-hats). As with the song " See Yourself", Harrison dedicated "Dear One" to Yogananda on the credits to the ''Thirty Three & 1/3'' album. In his ''

Encyclopedia of Popular Music ''The Encyclopedia of Popular Music'' is an encyclopedia created in 1989 by Colin Larkin. It is the "modern man's" equivalent of the '' Grove Dictionary of Music'', which Larkin describes in less than flattering terms.''The Times'', ''The Kno ...

'',

Colin Larkin Colin Larkin (born 1949) is a British writer and entrepreneur. He founded, and was the editor-in-chief of, the ''Encyclopedia of Popular Music'', described by ''The Times'' as "the standard against which all others must be judged". Along wit ...

describes the track as a song that "could have come straight off of The Beatles' '' Abbey Road''". He adds: "'Dear One' weaves a haunting, Indian-influenced melody with a big pop chorus to create an intensely moving song of devotion.""Harrison, George – Thirty-Three & 1/3: Encyclopedia of Popular Music"
oxfordindex.oup.com (retrieved 8 March 2015).

Personnel

– vocals, acoustic guitars,

hi-hat A hi-hat (hihat, high-hat, etc.) is a combination of two cymbals and a pedal, all mounted on a metal stand. It is a part of the standard drum kit used by drummers in many styles of music including rock, pop, jazz, and blues. Hi-hats consist o ...

, shaker, backing vocals * Richard Tee – organ

References

George Harrison songs 1976 songs Paramahansa Yogananda Song recordings produced by George Harrison Music published by Oops Publishing and Ganga Publishing, B.V. Indian mythology in music {{beatles-song-stub