Greetings and salutations Hivers. Today let’s go into another Three Tune Tuesday post.

As always, thanks to @ablaze for making this series. Lots of people participate in it! Follow the tags to find a ton of good music recommendation.

A few weeks ago I shared some of my favorite sitar songs. (See the post here.) These weren’t just traditional ragas, but sitar appearing in unexpected places. From classic rock to ambient grooves, the instrument’s presence always adds a hypnotic texture and otherworldly pull. That is probably why after George Harrison introduced the instrument to the West, it became a mainstay. As I mentioned last time, in recent years as music has become safer, we don’t hear it nearly as often, but even now I imagine it pops up sometimes.

Let’s do it again. Here are three more sitar-flavored tracks that deserve a listen:

The Rolling Stones - Paint It, Black

The Stones beat The Beatles to the punch here — this is probably the first Western rock song to put sitar front and center. Brian Jones picked it up after George Harrison made it cool, and while Jones wasn’t exactly Ravi Shankar, the droning, circular riff gives this song a dark, exotic intensity that perfectly matches its descent into grief and madness. The lyrics are raw; the instrumentation is Eastern. Somehow it works.

This one didn’t just borrow from Indian music — it set off a whole wave of psychedelic rock that would stretch well into the 70s.

Paper Sun – Traffic

This one doesn’t just feature sitar — it leans into it. Right from the intro, the sitar sets the tone, droning and spiraling around the melody in a way that evokes both psychedelic haze and classical raga structure. Dave Mason was behind the sitar work here, adding an authentic Eastern flavor to a song that’s otherwise rooted in British psych-pop.

It’s got that distinctive late–60s swirl—flute, tambura, tabla-like percussion. Lyrically it deals with illusion and disillusionment, making the sitar feel like more than just window dressing. It’s there to unmoor you. To make the sunshine a little too bright. A little unreal.

The Beatles - Love You To

Where “Norwegian Wood” flirted with the sitar, “Love You To” committed. George Harrison studied with Ravi Shankar and clearly wanted to do it right — this is a full-on raga rock piece, with tabla, tambura drone, and a genuine attempt at Hindustani classical structure. It’s not just a novelty or backdrop — it is the song.

This is the moment when Harrison started to see Indian music not as flavor, but as a spiritual and compositional home. He would go further in later tracks (“Within You Without You”), but “Love You To” was the leap.

So what’s your favorite?