While My Guitar Gently Weeps

While My Guitar Gently Weeps is a song on the Beatles' White Album, released in 1968. It was written by George Harrison, who originally composed it with a solo acoustic guitar and a mellotron; an early version can be heard on the Beatles Anthology. Eric Clapton played lead guitar on the album version of the song with a Gibson Les Paul guitar. It was later covered by Clapton, and also by Jeff Healy.

Composition and recording

According to Harrison, his inspiration for the song "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" arrived from his readings of the I Ching, which, as he put it, "seemed to me to be based on the Eastern concept that everything is relative to everything else, as opposed to the Western view that things are merely coincidental."

Taking this idea of relativity to his parent's home in North England, Harrison committed to write a song based on the first words he saw upon opening a random book. Those first words were "gently weeps", and he immediately began the song. The initial incarnation was of course not final, as Harrison would state, "Some of the words to the song were changed before I finally recorded it."

The composition was met with little to no interest by the other Beatles. Let down and yet 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 for two things: a moment's relief amidst the inner turmoil the band was experiencing and a chance for Harrison to free himself of lead guitar, playing only rhythm and vocal.

Some concerns are given whether or not the famous solo in "Gently Weeps" is actually Clapton, as rumors report that the solo was re-cut and that Clapton's solo was not the one that was pressed. Contrary to this is a quote by Harrison, which offers:

"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."