The Regular Friday Post
Rando Lyric: And I can see you when I close my eyes
Last week’s rando lyrics: The lyric, “How to unfold your love” is from the song "While My Guitar Gently Weeps”, by The Beatles, written by George Harrison - the song is Track 7 on Side 1/Disc 1 of the album “The Beatles” (known as “The White Album”) released in in November 1968. Produced by George Martin.
Links: (Wikipedia) While My Guitar Gently Weeps (Wikipedia): The Beatles (The White Album)
Welcome to The Regular Friday post!
From The Beatles website: “"While My Guitar Gently Weeps" is a song written 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, although he was not formally credited on the album.
"While My Guitar Gently Weeps" was ranked #136 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. In an online poll held by Guitar World magazine in February 2012, "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" was voted the best of Harrison's Beatle-era songs.” Link: While My Guitar Gently Weeps
“Written and sung by George Harrison, “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” is considered one of the Beatles' masterpieces.
Rolling Stone ranked it #10 in their “100 Best Beatles Songs” list, and listed it as one of the five hundred greatest songs ever recorded.
The lead guitar on this track was performed by Eric Clapton, a lifelong friend of Harrison’s. However, Clapton was not listed in the credits on the album. Clapton was the only guest artist to ever contribute a guitar solo to a Beatles album.”
Link: (Genius) While My Guitar Gently Weeps
(On Eric Clapton's involvement):
George Harrison explains in an interview:
When we actually started recording this, it was just me playing the acoustic guitar and singing it, and nobody was interested. Well, Ringo probably was, but John and Paul weren’t. When I went home that night, I was really disappointed because I thought, ‘Well, this is really quite a good song; it’s not as if it’s crap!’ And the next day I happened to drive back into London with Eric [Clapton], and I suddenly said, ‘Why don’t you come play on this track?’
“And he said, ‘Oh, I couldn’t do that; the others wouldn’t like it…’ But I finally said, ‘Well, damn, it’s my song, and I’d like you to come down.’ So he did, and everybody was good as gold because he was there. I sang it with the acoustic guitar with Paul on piano, and Eric and Ringo. Later, Paul overdubbed bass. Then we listened back to it and Eric said, ‘Ah, there’s a problem, though; it’s not Beatlesy enough.’ So we put the song through the ADT [automatic double tracker] to wobble it a bit.”
Link: (ibid)
(On the song's title):
Per George Harrison:
About the song’s name:
"I picked up a book at random, opened it, saw ‘gently weeps,’ then laid the book down again and started the song.
About the recording with Eric Clapton on lead guitar –
It was good because that then made everyone act better. Paul got on the piano and played a nice intro, and they all took it more seriously."
Link: (ibid)Ed. I’ve written several posts about George Harrison/Eric Clapton collaborations (my favorite being the “Badge” / “Bridge” song title incident…), this is another that ends happily as a cool story with Mr. Harrison and his efforts to overcome the internal Beatles’ issues. I’m glad this one turned out the way it did, I always loved this song - and there are so many songs by The Beatles and each of the members that I love (how can you not?). George and Ringo to me always seemed like the underdogs and I’m glad whenever I can write about one of their efforts…
Some Stuff
The “biz”:
Tik Tok Potential Forced Sale Drama
Last Nail In The Sheeran Case? (Ed. hopefully…)
More Stuff:
A Song To Play…
Lyrics
(From Genius) Link><
[Verse 1] 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 [Bridge] 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 [Verse 2] 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 [Guitar Solo] [Bridge] I don't know how you were diverted You were perverted, too I don't know how you were inverted No one alerted you [Verse 3] I look at you all, see the love there that's sleeping While my guitar gently weeps (I look) Look at you all Still, my guitar gently weeps [Outro] Oh, oh Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh Oh, oh, oh, oh Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, oh, ooh
Some Links For Today:
(Ed. A little sparse today…)
(If the link description sounds interesting , click on it.)
*From American Songwriter:
4 Music Lawsuits That Changed The Industry
ED. None of these result in compensation to me in any way, and I’m not endorsing any of them, but some of my readers may find them as interesting as I did…
The “ME!” Section…..
What I’m Listening2: The “That Time Of Year” playlist…
Shameless Self Promotion Section:
My song is out! Link: “>Long Road Back<”click on this link for streaming options, then scroll down for links (or just click on these links) to Amazon, Apple, Pandora, iTunes and even Spotify
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Disclaimer Section
This Substack is free, I receive no compensation of any kind from companies or products I mention. Some linked or quoted material may be copyrighted by others, and I credit them. I rely on the “Fair Use” doctrine for educational purposes (Link: Fair Use). *I do not use AI for any of the text that’s found here, things I link to (such as some images) might…
-Michael Acoustic
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This Week’s Conversation With Mika, The Cat:
Mika: “If you won’t let me go outside and back inside every 2 minutes when it’s 33 degrees outside then stop looking at me, cuz I’m not looking at you!!”
Ed. Wasn’t much of a conversation…
Cheers and keep playing!!
Michael Acoustic
“It’s never really final - you just run out of things you can bear to change…”
Great track. Clapton's guitar is terrific ... it sounds like it's actually crying.
Then there's Prince's version. Whoa!
Knew what was coming when I saw the lyric last week. One of my all time favs. The '04 RNR Hall of Fame performance is just unreal.