How George Harrison prevented John Lennon from singing “Maharishi, what have you done?”

I love a good forbidden giggle. The kind when being told to stop only increases the amount you laugh and you end up fighting a physical battle with your own silly mind. While the stares of disappointment pointed at me, largely come from friends and family, John Lennon had the entire world patiently waiting for him to stop playing silly games.

Because, while I am as big a Beatles fan as the next person, and their music makes up 99% of my love for them, one particular moment lives firmly in my memory. A press conference, where a 26-year-old Lennon was forced to apologise to an American audience for comparing The Beatles to Jesus. As the camera shutters clicked, Lennon’s mouth desperately restrained a grin that was itching to stretch itself in response to the ridiculousness of the situation he had found himself in. While his music makes up a large part of my respect for him, that one minor incident is the cherry on top of a cake of overwhelming love for the man.

He often trod the line between silliness and offence, ultimately that was what made the esoteric nature of his music and lyrics so charming. There was something perennially boyish about him, all the way up until the band’s final performance on the rooftop of London’s Apple Studios, where he forgot the lyrics to ‘Don’t Let Me Down’ and instead embraced the performance of lyrical gibberish.

As such, the trouble he may have caused was par for the course for the rest of the band. Particularly with the Jesus Christ comparisons, they bravely followed him into the murky breaches of media scrutiny and backed him to the very end. Alongside their creative synergy, that’s what made The Beatles so special.

But there was one occasion where George Harrison stepped in to prevent an oncoming issue from getting that far. On their track ‘Sexy Sadie’ from The White Album, Lennon began singing ‘Maharishi, what have you done?’ For Harrison, who by the time The White Album was being recorded had firmly embedded himself into India and Hinduism, it prevented his bandmate from referencing the spiritual leader, particularly in any way that could borderline slander his name.

Harrison recalled the moment Lennon conjured up the line, during a drive to Delhi, “I said, ‘You can’t say that, it’s ridiculous.’ I came up with the title of ‘Sexy Sadie’ and John changed ‘Maharishi’ to ‘Sexy Sadie’. John flew back to Yoko in England and I went to Madras and the south of India and spent another few weeks there.”

Harrison spared his mischievous bandmate from any more political blushes. But it seemed as though Lennon had some sort of contrarian itch to scratch within the creation of this song. Because upon his return to London and the release of the album, Lennon decided to then scratch the words ‘Sexy Sadie’ into a piece of wood in the Apple offices. Sensibly, the offices later used it as a work of art and memorabilia but at the time, it was a physical enactment of whatever sense of rebellion seemed to be simmering within Lennon.