While My Guitar Gently Weeps
High Quality: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUarGqmzgCE&feature=email&fmt=18
Copyright - 1968 EMI Records Ltd.
“While My Guitar Gently Weeps” is a rock ballad written by George Harrison for The Beatles on their double album The Beatles (also known as The White Album).
George Harrison originally performed the song with a solo acoustic guitar and an organ; a demo version, longer than the officially released version, can be heard on the Anthology 3 album and in reworked form on the Love album. Eric Clapton, who was a good friend of George, played lead guitar on the album version of the song with a Gibson Les Paul guitar. On The Concert for Bangladesh, he performed it on a Gibson Super 400 hollowbody guitar, and later acknowledged that a solid-body guitar would have been more appropriate.
In 2004 George 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 fellow inductee Prince - who ended the song with a now famous guitar solo - along with Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne, and Dhani Harrison.
The song was ranked #135 on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 greatest songs of all time.
The composition was met with little to no interest by the other Beatles. The band recorded it several times, at first in the aforementioned acoustic style, and later in an electric version featuring a backward guitar solo (as Harrison had done in “I’m Only Sleeping” on Revolver), but no version seemed to work. Let down but 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 a moment’s relief from the band’s inner turmoil, as well as a chance for Harrison to free himself of lead guitar, playing only rhythm and vocal.
Some have wondered whether the famous solo in “Gently Weeps” is actually played by Clapton; it has been rumoured that the solo was re-recorded and that Clapton’s solo was not the one that was pressed. Indeed, the style is reminiscent of Harrison’s later lead guitar style, as demonstrated throughout Abbey Road and in his solo work. However, Harrison has said of the solo:
“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 [automatic double-track] to wobble it up a bit.”
A popular belief and “clue” to the infamous Paul is Dead urban legend is that towards the end of the song, during the Clapton solo, Harrison cries out a moan something like “Paul, oh Paul, oh Paul.”
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.
An acoustic version can be found on the 1996 album Anthology 3, and again on the 2006 soundtrack to the Cirque du Soleil show Love. This demo version features only Harrison; it includes an additional final verse not included on the Beatles’ final version, and the Love album includes a string accompaniment (arranged by George Martin).
Concert for George
On 29 November 2002 Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Dhani Harrison, Jeff Lynne and Eric Clapton performed “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” at the Concert for George in memory of Harrison, who died a year earlier after a long battle with cancer. This version featured Eric Clapton playing his original solo and also a second in memorial to his good friend.
Lyrics:
I look at you all see the love there that’s sleeping
While my guitar gently weeps
I look at the floor and I see it need sweeping
Still my guitar gently weeps
I don’t know why nobody told you
how to unfold you love
I don’t know how someone controlled you
they bought and sold you
I look at the world and I notice it’s turning
While my guitar gently weeps
With every mistake we must surely be learning
Still my guitar gently weeps
I don’t know how you were diverted
you were perverted too
I don’t know how you were inverted
no one alerted you
I look at you all see the love there that’s sleeping
While my guitar gently weeps
I look at you all
Still my guitar gently weeps
Oh, oh, oh
oh oh oh oh oh oh oh
oh oh, oh oh, oh oh
Yeah yeah yeah yeah
yeah yeah yeah yeah
Duration : 0:4:46
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Technorati Tags: 1968, Album, beatles, George, Harrison, The, White