July 1, 2022     —–     Chart #150

Hello Music Friends,

Have you seen us on Facebook? CLICK HERE to like our page. Today is Chart #150, a big milestone! Had to go with something really good for 150. So I took the easy route and picked another fantastic song by the Fab Four.  “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1968 double album The Beatles (also known as “the White Album”). It was written by George Harrison, the band’s lead guitarist. Harrison wrote “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” as an exercise in randomness inspired by the Chinese I Ching, or “The Book of Changes”. The song conveys his dismay at the world’s unrealized potential for universal love, which he refers to as “the love there that’s sleeping”.

The song also serves as a comment on the disharmony within the Beatles following their return from studying Transcendental Meditation in India in early 1968. This lack of camaraderie was reflected in the band’s initial apathy towards the composition, which Harrison countered by inviting his friend and occasional collaborator, Eric Clapton, to contribute to the recording. Clapton overdubbed a lead guitar part, although he was not formally credited for his contribution. Harrison first recorded it with a sparse backing of acoustic guitar and harmonium – a version that appeared on the 1996 Anthology 3 outtakes compilation and, with the addition of a string arrangement by George Martin, on the Love soundtrack album in 2006. The full group recording was made in September 1968, at which point the song’s folk-based musical arrangement was replaced by a production in the heavy rock style. The recording was one of several collaborations between Harrison and Clapton during the late 1960s and was followed by the pair co-writing the song “Badge” for Clapton’s group Cream.

On release, the song received praise from several music critics, and it has since been recognised as an example of Harrison’s maturing as a songwriter beside his Beatles bandmates John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Rolling Stone ranked “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” 136th on its list of “The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time”, seventh on the “100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time”, and at number 10 on its list of “The Beatles 100 Greatest Songs”. Clapton’s performance was ranked 42nd in Guitar World’s 2008 list of the “100 Greatest Guitar Solos”. Harrison and Clapton often performed the song together live, during which they shared the lead guitar role over the closing section. Live versions featuring the pair were included on the Concert for Bangladesh album in 1971 and Live in Japan in 1992. Backed by a band that included McCartney and Ringo Starr, Clapton performed the song at the Concert for George in November 2002, a year after Harrison’s death.

On September 6, during a ride from Surrey into London, Harrison asked Clapton to play guitar on the track. Clapton, who recognized Harrison’s talent as a songwriter, and considered that his abilities had long been held back by Lennon and McCartney, was nevertheless reluctant to participate; he later recalled that his initial response was: “I can’t do that. Nobody ever plays on Beatles records.” Harrison convinced him, and Clapton’s lead guitar part, played on Harrison’s Gibson Les Paul electric guitar “Lucy” (a recent gift from Clapton), was overdubbed that evening. Recalling the session in his 2007 autobiography, Clapton says that, while Lennon and McCartney were “fairly non-committal”, he thought the track “sounded fantastic”, adding: “I knew George was happy, because he listened to it over and over in the control room.”

Harrison recalled that Clapton’s presence also ensured that his bandmates “tried a bit harder” and “were all on their best behaviour”. The Beatles carried out the remaining overdubs, which included an ascending piano motif, played by McCartney, over the introduction, Hammond organ by Harrison, and further percussion by Starr. McCartney also added a second bass part, played on his Fender Jazz Bass rather than on either of his usual Höfner or Rickenbacker models.

Still wary that his contribution might present too much of a departure from the band’s sound, Clapton requested that Harrison give the lead guitar track a more “Beatley” sound when mixing the song. During final mixing for the White Album, on 14 October, the guitar part was run through an ADT circuit with “varispeed”, with engineer Chris Thomas manipulating the oscillator to achieve the desired “wobbly” effect. According to Everett, Lennon’s tremolo-rich guitar part, recorded on 5 September, was retained only in the song’s coda.

A cast of greats perform the song at Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction:  https://youtu.be/dWRCooFKk3c

George & Eric live (and a bunch of other amazing cats):   https://youtu.be/i8rVI7AMKiY   

Keep rockin my friends,

Stan