While My Guitar Gently Weeps

"While My Guitar Gently Weeps"
Song by The Beatles from the album The Beatles
Released	22 November 1968 (1968-11-22)
Recorded	5 September 1968,[1] EMI Studios, London
Genre	Rock, blues rock
Length	4:46
Label	Apple Records
Writer	George Harrison
Producer	George Martin
The Beatles track listing
30 tracks Side one "Back in the U.S.S.R." "Dear Prudence" "Glass Onion" "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" "Wild Honey Pie" "The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill" "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" "Happiness Is a Warm Gun" Side two "Martha My Dear" "I'm So Tired" "Blackbird" "Piggies" "Rocky Raccoon" "Don't Pass Me By" "Why Don't We Do It in the Road?" "I Will" "Julia" Side three "Birthday" "Yer Blues" "Mother Nature's Son" "Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey" "Sexy Sadie" "Helter Skelter" "Long, Long, Long" Side four "Revolution 1" "Honey Pie" "Savoy Truffle" "Cry Baby Cry" "Revolution 9" "Good Night"
Music sample "While My Guitar Gently Weeps"

"While My Guitar Gently Weeps" is a song by George Harrison, first recorded by The Beatles in 1968 for their eponymous double album (also known as The White Album). The song features lead guitar by Eric Clapton.^[2]

"While My Guitar Gently Weeps" was ranked #135 on Rolling Stone's list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time", #7 on their list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time, and #10 on their list of The Beatles 100 Greatest Songs.^[3][4][5]

Writing and recording

Inspiration for the song came to Harrison when reading the I Ching, which, as Harrison put it, "seemed to me to be based on the Eastern concept that everything is relative to everything else... opposed to the Western view that things are merely coincidental."^[6] Taking this idea of relativism to his parents’ home in northern England, Harrison committed to write a song based on the first words he saw upon opening a random book. Those words were “gently weeps”, and he immediately began the song. As he said:

"I wrote "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" at my mother's house in Warrington. I was thinking about the Chinese I Ching, the Book of Changes... The Eastern concept is that whatever happens is all meant to be, and that there's no such thing as coincidence - every little item that's going down has a purpose. "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" was a simple study based on that theory. I decided to write a song based on the first thing I saw upon opening any book - as it would be a relative to that moment, at that time. I picked up a book at random, opened it, saw 'gently weeps', then laid the book down again and started the song."^[7]

The initial incarnation was not final, as Harrison said: "Some of the words to the song were changed before I finally recorded it.” A demo recorded at George's home in Esher includes an unused verse:

I look at the trouble and see that it's raging,

While my guitar gently weeps.

As I'm sitting here, doing nothing but ageing,

Still, my guitar gently weeps.

As well as an unused line in the very beginning:

The problems you sow, are the troubles you're reaping,

Still, my guitar gently weeps.

This line was eventually omitted in favour of the one appearing on The Beatles.

An early acoustic acoustic guitar and organ demo of the song featured a slightly different third verse:

I look from the wings at the play you are staging,

While my guitar gently weeps.

As I'm sitting here, doing nothing but ageing,

Still, my guitar gently weeps.

This version was released on the 1996 compilation Anthology 3 and was used as the basis of the 2006 Love remix, with a string arrangement by George Martin.^[8][9]

The band recorded the song several times, including a version with a backward guitar solo^[1] (as Harrison had done for "I'm Only Sleeping" on Revolver^[10]), but Harrison was not satisfied.^[1] On 6 September 1968, during a ride from Surrey into London, Harrison asked his friend Eric Clapton to add a lead guitar solo to the song. Clapton was reluctant; he said, "Nobody ever plays on the Beatles' records"; but Harrison convinced him and Clapton's solo, using a Gibson Les Paul guitar, was recorded that evening.^[11] Harrison later said that in addition to his solo, Clapton's presence had another effect on the band: "It made them all try a bit harder; they were all on their best behaviour."^[11]

Personnel

• George Harrison – double-tracked vocal, backing vocal, acoustic guitar
• Paul McCartney – backing vocal, piano, Hammond organ, bass
• John Lennon – electric guitar
• Ringo Starr – drums, tambourine, castanets
• Eric Clapton – lead guitar

Personnel per Ian MacDonald^[12]

Performances

On The Concert for Bangladesh, Clapton performed the song on a Gibson Byrdland hollowbody guitar, and later acknowledged that a solid-body guitar would have been more appropriate.^[13]

The version in the Prince’s Trust Rock Concert 1987 (released on DVD by Panorama) reunited Harrison, Starr and Clapton, and features an extended coda with the guitars of Harrison and Clapton interweaving. Mark King (of Level 42) played McCartney's bass line. On 14 July 1992, Harrison and Clapton performed a live version of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" in Japan. This live version also has background vocals.

On 3 June 2002, within the Golden Jubilee of Elizabeth II concert at Buckingham Palace Garden, Paul McCartney performed the song with Clapton, as a tribute to George Harrison who had died the year before. They were introduced by George Martin. The performance appears on the DVD release Party at the Palace. On 29 November the same year, McCartney, Starr, Dhani Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Marc Mann, and Clapton performed "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" at the Concert for George in memory of Harrison. This version featured Clapton with Marc Mann playing Clapton's original solo and also a second, as well as McCartney on the piano.

In 2004, Harrison was inducted posthumously into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist. "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" was played in tribute by Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne, Steve Winwood, Steve Ferrone, Marc Mann, and Dhani Harrison, along with fellow inductee Prince.

Cover version

In 1990 Canadian musician Jeff Healey recorded a cover version of this song that was released on his 1990 CD "Hell To Pay." Healey's version of this song featured George Harrison and Jeff Lynne on backing vocals and acoustic guitar.

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b c} Lewisohn 1988, pp. 153.
2. ^ While My Guitar Gently Weeps by The Beatles Songfacts
3. ^ Rolling Stone 2004.
4. ^ Rolling Stone 2008.
5. ^ Rolling Stone 2010.
6. ^ Harrison 2002, p. 120.
7. ^ Beatles 2000, p. 306.
8. ^ While My Guitar Gently Weeps | The Beatles Bible
9. ^ "Concert for George - Production Credits, Great Performances, PBS". http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/episodes/concert-for-george/production-credits/105/. 
10. ^ Lewisohn 1988, p. 78.
11. ^ ^{a b} Lewisohn 1988, p. 154.
12. ^ MacDonald 2005, pp. 300–301.
13. ^ The Concert for Bangladesh Revisited with George Harrison and Friends, DVD, 2005.

References

• Beatles, The (2000). The Beatles anthology. Michigan: Chronicle Books. ISBN 0811826848. 
• Harrison, George (2002). I, Me, Mine. San Francisco: Chronicle Books. ISBN 978-0-8118-3793-4. 
• Lewisohn, Mark (1988). The Beatles Recording Sessions. New York: Harmony Books. ISBN 0-517-57066-1. 
• MacDonald, Ian (2005). Revolution in the Head: The Beatles' Records and the Sixties (Second Revised ed.). London: Pimlico (Rand). ISBN 1-844-13828-3. 
• "The RS 500 Greatest Songs of All Time". Rolling Stone. 9 December 2004. http://www.rollingstone.com/news/coverstory/500songs/page/2. 
• "The 100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time". Rolling Stone. 12 June 2008. http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/20947527/the_100_greatest_guitar_songs_of_all_time/print. 
• "The Top Ten Beatles Songs of All Time". Rolling Stone. August 2010. http://www.rollingstone.com/music/photos/28431/194023/0.