More than two decades after his death, late Beatle John Lennon’s unpublished song ‘India, India’ will be performed in public for the first time in a new musical.
According to The Times, Yoko Ono, Lennon’s widow and guardian of his estate, has sanctioned the use of the songs ‘India, India’ and ‘I don’t want to lose you’ in the musical Lennon, the Story of the Musician’s Life.
Lennon wrote ‘India, India’ in the late 1970s for a musical of his own writing named after his song The Ballad of John and Yoko. However, the show was never performed and the track remained unheard.
It seems likely that in ‘India, India’ Lennon was writing about his 1968 visit to India, when the Beatles indulged their spiritual side at the ashram of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in Rishikesh.
A part of the song’s lyrics goes like: “India, India…Take me to your heart…Reveal your ancient mysteries to me.” It shows Lennon’s search for spiritual enlightenment on his India trip. In the latter part of the song Lennon says that his heart is in England with the girl he left behind: “But somewhere in my mind…I left my heart in England…With the girl I left behind…I’ve got to follow my heart.”
Lennon will open in New York on July 28, with previews in San Francisco and Boston.