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The Beatles worked on the “Weeping Sound” for the White Album
The lyrics to Harrison’s first big Beatles song came about by accident. Harrison had already written most of the music on the India trip from February to April 1968, but only started looking for the right words after his return. Inspired by the theories of the “I Ching”, he pulled a book from the shelf in his parents’ house, opened a page and wrote a text based on the first words that caught his eye. It was “gently weeps” – and probably came from the poem “Rain on the Roof” by Coates Kinney, which contains the line: “And the melancholy darkness/ Gently weeps in rainy tears.”
Even though the band had already used Harrison songs on six albums, Harrison still believed that Lennon and McCartney weren’t taking them seriously. Lennon later remarked that “there was an embarrassing period when George’s songs just weren’t that good. But no one wanted to complain, so we worked on them.”
George Harrison complained: “They didn’t make any effort.”
The first recording of “While My Guitar Genly Weeps” dates from July 25, 1968. A second version with the full band (Lennon played the organ) was recorded on August 16 and September 3 and 5. This time you can hear playing around with the tape speed, maracas and a guitar solo played backwards, which, however, never creates the “weeping sound” that Harrison had imagined.
Producer George Martin had just embarked on a four-week vacation when the band attempted another version on September 5, this time with Lennon on lead guitar and a lurching rhythm provided by Ringo. But this attempt didn’t meet with any approval either. “They just didn’t make any effort,” Harrison later complained. “I drove home that night and thought, ‘It’s just going to make me cry,’ because I knew the song was damn good.”
The next day, Harrison took Eric Clapton with him from Surrey to London – and had an idea how he could encourage his colleagues to get more involved: He asked Clapton if he would like to come into the studio and take over the guitar part. Clapton initially refused. But Harrison didn’t let up: “Look, it’s my song after all. I want you to play on it.” (Months earlier, Clapton, Harrison, McCartney and Starr had been in the studio with Jackie Lomax to record his version of Harrison’s “Sour Milk Sea.”)
Eric Clapton kept the pace and energy in the studio
With the popular guest in the studio, the Beatles suddenly got going – McCartney’s harmonies in particular sound exceptionally inspired. “It was an interesting experience,” says Harrison, “how nice people treated each other when you brought a guest with you. They just didn’t want to show to outsiders how bitchy they could sometimes be.” Clapton’s delicate and lyrical solo was the perfect ferment: the recording was completed that same night. “It’s wonderfully elegiac,” Mick Jagger told Rolling Stone in 2002. “Only a guitarist could have written this song. I love it.”
Clapton became one of Harrison’s closest friends – and at the same time his biggest competitor. When Harrison briefly left the band during the “Let It Be” sessions, Lennon growled: “If he’s not back by Tuesday, we’ll just take Clapton.”