“Achilles Last Stand”: How India was transformed from North Africa into Led Zeppelin’s…

There certainly is something to be said about the fact that music has opened us up to other cultures and backgrounds a lot more. Without any information, we are given insight into the way people live and what they enjoy in an instant. In the modern age, thanks to technological advancements, we can experience the music of other countries immediately. However, in the past, this music had to be brought to us, like The Beatles did with India.

“George Harrison, on his own, opened up India to England,” said XTC guitarist Andy Partridge when talking about their influence, “The man brings back a sitar and flirts with sitar lessons and all of a sudden, India means things to people […] Single-handily, George Harrison brought India to English consciousness. In a non-colonial and non-judgemental kind of way.”

In the same interview, Partridge talks about how pioneering The Beatles were as a band but equally how restrictive they were, given nobody could ever match them. “The Beatles made the template for pop groups, and they also spoiled the template for pop groups,” he said. “Because you could never get to the heights that they were at.” 

While Partridge certainly has a point, and nobody might have been able to match the heights The Beatles rose to, some bands undoubtedly came close. In the same way that The Beatles opened up the world to music in India, Led Zeppelin did the same thing with music in North Africa.