Talk:While My Guitar Gently Weeps

I think we can use Robert Fontenot's about.com article on the song to support a mention of Toto. Unlike some about.com contributors, Fontenot has been identified as a reliable source for our purposes (here) – in other words, I still disagree with this change from last December!. Okay, each cover recording has to be notable, but in instances where the actual cover may not merit inclusion (and I'd say Toto's appears to be one), it's quite acceptable to list a few notable artists who have recorded or performed a song, without giving details about their version. If a music journalist writes an article dedicated to the song and bundles up a list of select covers, as Fontenot does in his series, then that should be good enough. In the case of "Gently Weeps" (and the lead section of our article touches on this), the song has been recognised as a guitarist's "guitar song". So it's in keeping with its legacy to ensure we at least convey the range of artists/guitarists who have covered the track. (Which is why I favoured a passing mention of musicians as diverse in style as Marc Ribot, Eric Schoenberg, Charlie Byrd, etc.) If the article content was fully developed to reflect all that's notable about "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", I think this point would be more obvious. As would, say, how the track came to be seen as Harrison and Clapton's signature song together (by each of them, and by commentators) and how it gained a new lease of life through the Anthology 3/Love demo. JG66 (talk) 03:28, 9 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Ah! I did not know there was such a table for RS music critics. Thanks for linking that. I was regretful that I could not find a suitable citation to support adding these covers. I listen to several of them on Youtube and thought them terribly good. However, to play the

Richard-of-Earth (talk) 05:54, 9 January 2017 (UTC)[reply

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Yes, it's fantastic that someone here did all that work researching the bios of the various about.com contributors.

As for adding the Muppets … well, I guess so if you want! My thinking is, if a couple of commentators made the point that the song was/is ripe for parody, and had been satirised by say, the Rutles or Saturday Night Live, then why not use the briefest of mentions such as in Fontenot to add that the Muppets also performed it (if it's not discussed in any detail by other sources). As far as I know, though, that's not a point that commentators make, but the track is viewed as one of the "greatest guitar songs" and Clapton's playing is recognised in "greatest guitar solo" polls. So, in that context, the addition of guitarists such as Ribot might make sense. You're right that it's a case of picking names as desired from a long list; I guess I'd counter that by saying we pick and choose what merits inclusion in an article all the time, from 100s or 1000s of pages' worth of text that the (many) sources have devoted to each and every Beatles song. But really, I'm not too fussed. This is an article I'd like to expand soon and get to GA, so everything's a bit hypothetical until that issue touched on in the Lead (7th "greatest guitar song" etc) is developed in the main body of the article. JG66 (talk) 03:27, 10 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Reading this article you would think Eric Clapton did this song, not the 4 Beatles. He was brought in by Harrison as a sessions musician on the final recording, mainly to get Lennon and McCartney to take the song serious after many rejections by the band - 28. Clapton was told what to do. His guitar was double tracked with an organ in the mixing. The sound men made the guitar sound like how Harrison's would be. https://www.soundonsound.com/people/beatles-while-my-guitar-gently-weeps What makes the recording is the haunting organ and bass in the background, not the lead which was not exceptional at all. Why all this fuss about a sessions man - that was what he was on this recording, and would have been paid the union rate for a sessions man by EMI. Hundreds of people played on Beatles recordings, including Brian Jones of the 'Stones. No one makes a big thing about that. 94.3.15.159 (talk) 15:18, 22 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I don't disagree with you at all, and thank you for starting a discussion. More is needed on a lot of aspects of the song, and less might be needed on others, but Clapton's guitar contribution is a highly notable aspect of the track. The article just hasn't been well thought out yet. But the answer's not to add mention in the lead section that Clapton was a "session musician" on the Beatles' recording. He was there as a friend of the Beatle who wrote the song, and at this time, Harrison was making quite a bit of music with Clapton outside the Beatles, and enjoying it. He was a "guest". JG66 (talk) 15:39, 22 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Officially Clapton was a sessions man. It is that simple. He was. Whether he was a buddy of Harrison is irrelevant. His contribution was minimal. He was told what to do and his work was also changed after the recording in the mixing. The sessions trumpeter in Penny Lane had a great impact in that song, but no one lauds the player. The article heavily implies Clapton made this recording and without him it would have been a flop. That is is nonsense of course. Clapton's contribution should be put into perspective. 94.3.15.159 (talk) 02:01, 23 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I've just listened to the Esher Demo of this song, and the harmonium on that version sounds a lot like Bach's Ich ruf' zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ, BWV 639, particularly the version played by Leonid Roizman as it would be used by Andrei Tarkovsky only four years later in Solaris. Has any reliable source mentioned this Bach influence upon the song? If so, it should go into the article. --46.93.158.170 (talk) 19:01, 13 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry but there’s simply no way Paul could have played both bass parts. The Bass VI the Beatles had was right handed, so it was definitely John playing the Bass VI. Rivirian King of the Rails (talk) 23:08, 6 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Paul is widely credited with playing the fuzz bass and this reddit page (https://www.reddit.com/r/beatles/comments/9wmbd2/while_my_guitar_gently_weeps_third_versiontake_27) reveals that on the basic track for the released version, Paul is playing piano and John is on the organ not to mention that it was very unlikely that John would've had any interest in overdubbing bass.

It wasn't just Giles Martin who got the bass credits incorrect - Ken Scott's recollection was also wrong (according to https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/beatles-while-my-guitar-gently-weeps, he and John Smith the tape op remember virtually nothing) - and if you listen to the track, the tone of the bass is very similar to what Paul used on "Glass Onion" and "Yer Blues", so it was obviously his left-handed Fender Jazz Bass.

220.244.15.80 (talk) 11:52, 7 June 2022 (UTC)[reply]

In the first half of the last paragraph: the sentences about what Alan Smith thought and said about it - don’t these say much more about him than about anything to do with either the song ir George Harrison? In which case, delete them? Boscaswell talk 09:53, 18 July 2022 (UTC)[reply]

If I Google "unused verse of while my guitar gently weeps" I see this text highlighted, attached to a link to this wikipedia article:
"A demo that Harrison recorded at his home in Esher includes an unused verse: "I look at the trouble and hate that is raging / While my guitar gently weeps / As I'm sitting here, doing nothing but ageing …" This version also includes the line "The problems you sow are the troubles you're reaping", which he similarly ... "
But that text doesn’t appear in the article - there doesn’t seem to be any mention at all of this unused verse. Shouldn’t there be? I’ve gone back through a page or two of the edit history and can’t see it being deleted, and it’s not in the notes, either. What’s the go? Boscaswell talk 08:22, 13 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Read the article. It's there. I don't consider it notable. Many songs are originally written differently than the final version. Sundayclose (talk) 22:04, 13 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I've just watched what is possibly the only remaining original live TV recording of X-Ray Spex performing Identity with the saxophonist who was brought in to replace Lora Logic. (Guy Garvey series 4, Sky Arts). The sax riff is a speeded up, slightly distorted version of While My Guitar Gently Weeps. All sources agree that Logic wrote/arranged/gacked?? all the sax contributions to Germ Free Adolescent - the replacement sax player just played what she had laid down, after Styrene fired her. This is pure OR I know, can't put it in the article and cite it to the recording on YouTube, but its fascinating. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2.26.85.209 (talk) 00:22, 3 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]