‘Sour Milk Sea’ was one of the demo songs recorded in May 1968. Although it was an early contender for the White Album, it was eventually given to Apple recording artist Jackie Lomax.
The song was written by George Harrison. Although not explicitly mentioned, the song contains clear references to Transcendental Meditation, the “very simple process” which takes “no time at all”. Although the connection has never been acknowledged by the group, the refrain of “Get back to where you should be” bears a similarity to the chorus of The Beatles’ 1969 hit ‘Get Back’.
I wrote ‘Sour Milk Sea’ in Rishikesh, India. I never actually recorded the song – it was done by Jackie Lomax on his album Is This What You Want? Anyway, it’s based on Vishvasara Tantra, from Tantric art. ‘What is here is elsewhere, what is not here is nowhere’. It’s a picture, and the picture is called ‘Sour Milk Sea’ – Kalladadi Samudra in Sanskrit. I used Sour Milk Sea as the idea of – if you’re in the s**t, don’t go around moaning about it: do something about it
I Me Mine
The Beatles taped a version at Kinfauns, Harrison’s bungalow in Esher, Surrey, prior to the sessions for the White Album. They recorded 23 demos of songs on his Ampex four-track machine. That early version of ‘Sour Milk Sea’ remains unreleased, and is only available on unofficial bootleg recordings.
The Beatles never attempted a studio version of ‘Sour Milk Sea’. It was taped by Lomax at Abbey Road on 24, 25 and 26 June 1968; Harrison produced the song, with Paul McCartney on bass, Ringo Starr on drums, Eric Clapton on guitar, and Nicky Hopkins on piano.
Lomax was the first artist to sign to The Beatles’ Apple label. ‘Sour Milk Sea’ was released as a single in August 1968, with the catalogue number Apple 3. It was part of Apple’s “Our first four” set of singles, which also included The Beatles’ ‘Hey Jude’, Mary Hopkin’s ‘Those Were The Days’, and the Black Dyke Mills Band’s ‘Thingumybob’.
The song also appeared on Lomax’s debut album, Is This What You Want?, released by Apple in March 1969.
Lyrics
If your life’s not right, doesn’t satisfy you
Don’t get the breaks like some of us do
Better work it out, find where you’ve gone wrong
Better do it soon as you don’t have long
Get out of Sour Milk Sea
You don’t belong there
Get back to where you should be
Find out what’s going on there
If you want the most from everything you do
In the shortest time your dreams come true
In no time at all it makes you more aware
Very simple process takes you there
Get out of Sour Milk Sea
You don’t belong there
Get back to where you should be
Find out what’s going on there
Looking for release from limitation?
There’s nothing much without illumination
Can fool around with every different cult
There’s only one way brings result
Get out of Sour Milk Sea
You don’t belong there
Get back to where you should be
Find out what’s going on there
Very good song, good performance by Lomax, good production by George & top notch rhythm section.From ‘Within You, Without You’ on, George showed he was quite the producer & arranger.
I hear a lot of Savoy Truffle in this. Is George imitating himself? Which was penned first, Sour Milk Sea or Savoy Truffle? There is nothing wrong with borrowing I am just pointing out what I hear. Eric Clapton was over the top in this song. It is great guitar playing but a little bit of subtlety would have gone better musically, in my opinion. Split the difference between this and While My Guitar Gently Weeps and it would have been perfect. Ringo actually rocks near his best in this tune. Great job Ringo!
Of course I was referring to the Lomax version, not the demo.
I came here to see if it was a primitive Savoy Truffle. Glad to see I’m not the only one who hears the similarity.
I hear elements of the bass for Taxman.
It has a similar VIBE to Savoy Truffle, and maybe even Old Brown Shoe. Don’t know if there is anything specific about the melodies that make them similar though.
Odd how Paul can “borrow” from George and no one ever mentions it.
I find it fascinating how many critics use the us v them so much… who contributed what, who wrote the song. The fact is the basically all the songs had so many contributions from all be it the lyrics (Lennon: McCartney) the drumming process (Ringo), the amazing rifts on most songs and his own brilliant songs ( Harrison)… and don’t ever forget Martin with arrangement, percussion and performing on so many songs
They were a very tight group in every sense!
Makes their phenomenon even more amazing
So many Lennon/McCartney hits can be seen as answering songs to previous singles*; similarly, I suggest that “Get Back” was an answering song to “Sour Milk Sea”, the first time Paul had answered a song by George, and intentionally so. Paul was deliberately trying to engage George when jamming on what quickly became “Get Back”, as can be seen in the famous clip from Peter Jackson’s “Get Back”, wherein a previously rather listless George perks up when Paul invents the chorus.
* Paul said:
“He’d write ‘Strawberry fields,’ I’d go away and write ‘Penny Lane,’ […] If I’d write ‘I’m Down,’ he’d go away and write something similar to that. To compete with each other. But it was very friendly competition because we were both going to share in the rewards anyway.”
When I first heard the Kinfaus bootleg, more than 20 years ago, it was on a cassette tape with no tracklist at all. For a while I thought I was listening to ‘Glass Onion’, until I realized it was an unknown George’s song. Even now when I play it I have the same ‘GO’ feel. 🙂
just caught what u meant LOL, GET BACK GET BACK in the outro
No question, there are similarities between Sour Milk Sea (which I just heard for the first time on the new Beatles channel on XM) and Get Back. My first thought was, oh my, the Beatles kinda stole from another artist. But then I read that Harrison penned it. So Paul was more than a little inspired by George, when he did Get Back. Wow.
There’s a good ‘outfake’ of this song available on YouTube. It’s Jackie Lomax’s version without his vocal, but with the Beatle’s demo added to it. So you get George singing it and Paul, Ringo, Eric and Nicky playing on it.
I just heard the outfake you mentioned. The song is infinitely better with Harrison’s vocal instead of Lomax’s. I always liked this song but now I love with Harrison’s vocal. Makes me long for its inclusion on the White Album with a possible Lennon’s contribution.
Now that they’re remixing and remastering the White Album, I hope they include a version of this song with Lomax’s vocal wiped and replaced with Harrison’s vocal. Not only is there a demo to work from for vocals, but supposedly two vocal attempts in the studio exist as well.
It’s expecting too much… hope for the best of course, but let’s prepare for the worst… no Sour Milk Sea, some crap Rocky Raccoon instrumental version, a pointless alternative version of Bungalow Bill. Has Anthology taught you nothing?
There DOES exist a studio version of Harrison on vocals. These must have been the scratch demo lyrics on the day of the recording because the words are somewhat indistinct.
I think the Jackie Lomax sounded very professional, but I liked George’s voice better.
Jackie Lomax’s recording sounded professional, but i liked George’s voice more.
I’d love to see a detailed analysis of the now-released 50th Anniversary Esher demo and the other bootleg versions. The former starts on D and has some gorgeous vocal harmonies and a fascinating falsetto faux guitar interlude, while the version I had (from something called “Anthology Outtakes”-also curious about the origins of that) is in E.
Sad Harrison didn’t record this with a stronger vocal. He gave my sweet lord to Preston and then went back and did the number 1 hit version. SOUR MILK SEA deserved the same amount of love. The BEATLES VERSION here gives us 70% of what the song could have been. LOMAX version is a disaster as well as PRESTON of MY SWEET LORD
The chords and the feel remind me of Savoy Truffle (which I also like a lot)
Does George play on Lomax’s version, or did he just produce it?
I tend to think of Lomax’s recording as a White Album outtake, but I’m unclear if it’s 1/2 of the Beatles playing on it or 3/4ths!