Saturday February 12, 2022 “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” Prince, Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne, Steve Winwood et al.
We will finish out the Beatles week with George Harrison’s “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” played by an all star group of musicians saluting George who was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist in 2004. George left us in 2001 at the young age of 58.
Featured prominently on vocals in this version are Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne, two of George’s buddies from the Traveling Wilburys and that is George’s son Dhani behind Petty on acoustic guitar and Steve Winwood is on organ.
On the original version of this George Harrison song it is Eric Clapton playing the guitar solo as one of the very rare guest musicians that appeared on Beatle records. George often had a difficult time getting his compositions on Beatles albums, hey he was competing with Lennon/McCartney songs, and they were originally not enthused by this song until Clapton showed up in the studio. In this video however we have Prince out-Claptoning Eric Clapton. I’m imagining that if Clapton watches this video he stops at 3:28 when Prince begins his remarkable solo.
If you have watched the Beatles documentary Get Back you will be familiar with George quitting the group but he was not the first to leave. Long before that incident Ringo quit. allegedly when he discovered that his drum tracks, for a variety of reasons, were being played by Paul. “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” is the first song he played on when he returned to the group.
The original version is included on the 1968 album The Beatles (the White Album).
Stay safe and well…and as you listen to the variety of artists covering Beatle tunes this week it is safe to suggest that this was not only the most successful band in music history but also the most influential.