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| "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" | ||
|---|---|---|
| Song by The Beatles | ||
| From the album The Beatles | ||
| Album released | 22 November, 1968 | |
| Recorded | 25 July, 1968 | |
| Genre | Rock | |
| Song Length | 4:44 | |
| Record label | Apple Records | |
| Producer | George Martin | |
| The Beatles Album Listing | ||
| The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill (Track 6 of Disc 1) | ||
| While My Guitar Gently Weeps (Track 7 of Disc 1) | ||
| Happiness is a Warm Gun (Track 8 of Disc 1) | ||
It was written by George Harrison, who originally composed it with a solo acoustic guitar and an organ; an early longer version can be heard on the Beatles Anthology. Eric Clapton played lead guitar on the album version of the song with a Gibson Les Paul guitar.
The song was later covered by various groups and artists, such as Clapton, Jeff Healey (in 1990, on his Hell to Pay album), Peter Frampton, Marc Ribot and Spineshank, among others.
In 2004 George Harrison was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. "While my Guitar Gently Weeps" was played in tribute by fellow inductee Prince, along with Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne, and Dhani Harrison (video).
Composition and recording
According to Harrison, inspiration for the song arrived from reading the I Ching, which, as he put it, "seemed to me to be based on the Eastern concept that everything is relative to everything else, as opposed to the Western view that things are merely coincidental."
Taking this idea of relativity to his parent's home in North England, Harrison committed to write a song based on the first words he saw upon opening a random book. Those first words were "gently weeps", and he immediately began the song. The initial incarnation was not final, as Harrison would state, "Some of the words to the song were changed before I finally recorded it."
The composition was met with little to no interest by the other Beatles. Let down and yet undaunted, Harrison invited his friend Eric Clapton to join him during a day's recording session. Despite Clapton's doubts ("Nobody ever plays on the Beatles' records"), Harrison convinced him otherwise. The inclusion of Clapton allowed for two things: a moment's relief amidst the inner turmoil the band was experiencing and a chance for Harrison to free himself of lead guitar, playing only rhythm and vocal.
Some concerns are given whether or not the famous solo in "Gently Weeps" is actually Clapton, as rumors report that the solo was re-cut and that Clapton's solo was not the one that was pressed. Contrary to this is a quote by Harrison, which offers:
"So Eric played that, and I thought it was really good. Then we listened to it back, and he said, 'Ah, there's a problem though; it's not Beatley enough.' So we put it through the ADT double-track to wobble it up a bit."
A popular belief and "clue" to the infamous Paul is Dead hoax is that in the end of the song during the Clapton solo, Harrison starts crying out a moan similar to "Paul, oh Paul, oh Paul."
Concert For George
On November 29, 2002 Dhani Harrison, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and Eric Clapton performed a live version of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" at the Concert for George.
"While My Guitar Gently Weeps"