Between February and April of 1968, The Beatles embarked on a transcendental meditation retreat and course with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in Rishikesh, India. During their spiritual respite, the songs of their ninth album, The Beatles (the White Album), started taking form. John Lennon and Paul McCartney would often meet secretly to write in between meditative breaks, while George Harrison, who had been squeezing in typically two or more of his own songs on prior Beatles records, was also becoming a more prolific songwriter—even writing for other artists—as well as a musician, during this time.
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Already bringing more diverse instrumentation, including the tambura, 12-string and slide guitars, and the sitar—the latter, which he had already been studying for two years—into The Beatles’ arrangements, Harrison first infused more of an India sound on the Yellow Submarine track “Love You To,” and the sitar-drenched “Norwegian Wood,” off 1965 release Rubber Soul.
As The Beatles were recording the White Album following their trip, Harrison was also pushing to record several of his songs and ended up with one on each side of the double album, kicking off (on Side One) with a track he had been working on for some time: “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.”
Moving Parts
Starting out as a more stripped-back song—undergoing several arrangement and lyric shifts along the way—the final recorded version featured Harrison’s friend Eric Clapton, who overdubbed a lead guitar part, although he was never formally credited for his contribution. Clapton and Harrison had remained friends since The Yardbirds supported The Beatles in 1964, and their White Album collaboration was just one of many musical unions for the two; Harrison would later help Clapton co-write the song “Badge,” for Cream’s final album, Goodbye, in 1969.
Earlier on, Harrison recorded “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” with McCartney on harmonium organ, the version that later appeared on the 1996 Anthology 3 outtakes compilation. Another version with a string arrangement added by longtime Beatles producer George Martin and his son Giles was later released on the Love (Cirque Du Soleil) soundtrack album in 2006.
Moving Meanings
Initially, the song was more of an experiment using the theory of I Ching, the Chinese “Book of Changes.”
“‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’ was just a simple study based on the theory that everything has some purpose for being there at that given moment,” said Harrison. “I was thinking that anything I see when I open a book, I’m going to write a song about. So I opened this book and I saw ‘gently weeps.’ I shut the book and then I started the tune.”
Lyrically, the song would shift in meaning by Harrison, and eventually, the song would speak more to the disharmony within The Beatles following their return from India through the telling of a more somber love story.
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 needs sweeping
Still my guitar gently weeps
I don’t know why nobody told you
How to unfold your 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 why you were diverted
You were perverted, too
I don’t know how you were inverted
No one alerted you
Folk-Turned-Full Band
At first, Harrison said he played the song for Lennon, McCartney, and Ringo Starr and they had no interest in it.
“I knew inside of me that it was a nice song,” said Harrison in a 1987 interview.
Finally recording the song in September 1968 at Abbey Road Studios, the track, also sung by Harrison, shifted from a more folk-leaned arrangement to one more produced with a heavier full-band sound. Harrison was also trying to craft a guitar solo for the song, which he later scrapped, bringing in Clapton to fill the lead instead—which is introduced by McCartney’s piano part in the final recorded White Album version.
“He said, ‘Oh, no. I can’t do that,’” said Harrison. “Nobody ever plays on The Beatles’ records.’ I said, ‘Look, it’s my song, and I want you to play on it.’ So Eric came in, and the other guys were as good as gold – because he was there. Also, it left me free to just play the rhythm and do the vocal.”
Harrison added, “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 Beatle-y enough’ – so we put it through the ADT, to wobble it a bit.”
The sound was rounded out with McCartney on bass, piano, and organ, Lennon on rhythm guitar, and Starr on drums, tambourine, and castanets and though it was only released as a B-side to “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” became one of the band’s biggest hits.
Harrison’s “Guitar Gently” Lives On
Harrison and Clapton often performed “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” together live, sharing the lead guitar over the closing, and released their version on the 1971 Concert for Bangladesh and Live in Japan in 1992. Harrison and Starr also performed the song at The Prince’s Trust Rock Gala on June 5, 1987.
On Nov. 29, 2002, exactly one year after Harrison died, McCartney, Starr, and Clapton performed the song together during the tribute Concert for George.
Photo: Steve Morley/Redferns/Getty Images
