01 WHILE MY GUITAR GENTLY WEEPS
Eric Clapton ignites a jaded Fab Four
Like most of George Harrison’s output for The Beatles, the song that provided one of the high points on the ‘White Album’ took a long time to reach its final form. During the album’s gestation, Harrison was convinced that John and Paul were keener to get their own songs down than work on his contributions, and consequently his lack of confidence was at its lowest ebb. He was convinced of the song’s value, though, and invited his friend, blues virtuoso Eric Clapton, to join them in the studio and work on it, correctly anticipating that the presence of such a well-respected musician would charge the atmosphere. Clapton recorded with the band live, with Harrison on acoustic guitar, Mccartney on piano, John Lennon on bass and Ringo back on drums after his brief departure from the band. The resulting takes were nothing less than magical. Clapton delivers his sweetly forlorn guitar licks and rhythmic accompaniment from the intro onwards, coaxing a plaintive performance out of ‘Lucy’, the red Les Paul he’d given to Harrison earlier in the year. The verse features an ineluctable descending bassline of A, G, F#, F under an A minor chord; the slow tempo brought to life by the restless harmonic movement. The bridge section (‘I don’t know why...’) lifts the song to another level through a shift to the parallel A major tonality. It’s Clapton’s melodic solo over the instrumental verse section that steals the show, though. With a delicious tone and perfect phrasing, Clapton captures the essence of the song’s main theme, a yearning for universal love and harmony. Despite the flawless performance, Clapton was concerned it didn’t sound ‘Beatley’ enough, and Automatic Double Tracking effects were added to give it more of the sound he was looking for. The legacy of the song has transcended its context, with some critics claiming it created the template for rock in the 1970s. The song continued to be a part of George Harrison’s live sets throughout his career, including his live concerts in Japan with Eric Clapton in 1991. It’s now firmly established as the quintessential guitarist’s song, as evinced by the number of inspirational solos played in the many cover versions recorded. And going back to the source, Harrison’s original acoustic demo, enhanced by George Martin’s strings for the Love album, is a testament to the range of its enduring appeal.
Critics have argued that Whilemy Guitar... created the template for rock in the 1970s