The ones I know of are The Beatles’ I Am The Walrus - “elementary penguin singing Hare Krishna” (a reference to Allen Ginsberg apparently), George Harrison’s My Sweet Lord, Lennon’s Give Peace A Chance and Stevie Wonder’s Pastime Paradise.
Can anyone think of any other examples?
How about the “Hare Krishna Mantra” as performed by the Radha Krishna Temple and produced by George Harrison? It went to #12 on the UK charts in 1969.
Honestly, I’ve never been too clear on these lyrics, but I think this counts. Done Too Soon by Neil Diamond:
It’s possible that the line is actually “Ramar Krishna,” though.
Boy George’s “Bow Down Mister”:
Hare Krsna by Husker Du.
Tenacious D’s “Kielbasa”
I can’t recall for sure if any of their lyrics mention Hare Krishna, but John ‘Bloodclot’ Joseph and Harley Flanagan from the hardcore band Cro-Mags were Krishnas. Wouldn’t surprise me if they mentioned Hare Krishna.
Dave Davies’ ‘Transformation 2’
I think God by John Lennon may mention it.
‘Hare Krishna,’ by Placebo, is sort of an altered version of the chant set to music. Not sure if that counts.
Lennon’s ‘God’ does mention it.
Keep looking at George Harrison. A lot of his solo work is about religion. I mean entire albums.
Grabage
Subhuman
“Hare, Hare Krishna,
was that your sister,
a convent girl?”
Quite far off the beaten track, but there you have it.
John Prine wrote:
‘Come back to us Barbara Lewis Hare Krishna Beauregard’ (yes that’s the title)
Which includes the immortal wisdom of
“For if heartaches were commercials / we’d all be on T.V.”
Old straightedge band Shelter were all Hare Krishna’s. Let me dig my albums out and see if they mention it specifically in a song. I know they talk about their religion a lot, like in “In Defense of Reality”. They’re still at it, and their new guitarist is…yummy. Can I say that?
Pizzicato 5 sang Hallelujah Hari Krishna
George Harrison also sang It Is “He”