Craving

\"Craving\" is a composition by Indian musician Ananda Shankar, released as part of his self-titled debut album in 1970. The track spans 3 minutes and 34 seconds and exemplifies Shankar’s fusion of traditional Indian classical music with Western psychedelic rock and funk. The album marked a departure from conventional sitar performances by incorporating electric instrumentation, synthesizers, and rhythmic elements drawn from contemporary Western genres.

Shankar composed and arranged the piece, blending the sitar with Moog synthesizers, electric guitar, and a driving bassline. The track features his signature rapid-fire sitar phrasing overlaid on a groove-oriented backbeat, a stylistic choice that aligned with the experimental cross-cultural movements of the late 1960s and early 1970s. The recording took place in London, where Shankar collaborated with session musicians, though specific personnel credits for this track remain partially undocumented in widely available sources.

The album Ananda Shankar was issued by Reprise Records in the United States and CBS in India, with \"Craving\" standing out as one of its most rhythmically dynamic tracks. The composition avoids traditional raga structures, instead adopting a repetitive, hypnotic motif that emphasizes improvisation within a fixed harmonic framework. Shankar’s use of distortion and wah-wah effects on the sitar further distinguished the track from his classical roots.

\"Craving\" gained retrospective recognition for its influence on later generations of electronic and world fusion artists. While the original album did not achieve immediate commercial success, the track became a cult favorite among collectors of psychedelic and Indian fusion music. Reissues of the album in the 2000s, including a 2005 remastered edition by EMI, reintroduced the work to new audiences. No official singles were released from the album, and live performances of \"Craving\" by Shankar are not extensively documented.

The broader album context pairs \"Craving\" with other experimental tracks like \"Saregama\" and \"Raghupati\", though each composition explores distinct fusions of Indian and Western elements. Shankar’s approach on this record laid groundwork for his subsequent collaborations, including the 1975 album Ananda Shankar and His Music, which expanded on these cross-genre experiments.