While My Guitar Gently Weeps

Every now and then I’m drawn back to listening to The Beatles’ ‘White Album’.  Owing to its sprawling all-styles-and-quality nature, it is an album that invites debate – that is its weakness and its strength – but for me personally, there are three songs that always stand out.  Neatly, but quite by chance, the trio comprises one effort each from John, Paul and George.  Even more intriguingly from an album where many of the songs are acoustic guitar based, they all have a piano introduction.  Spooky or what?

The first is McCartney’s ‘Martha My Dear’.  Most commentators dismiss this as a typical piece of McCartney whimsy but I like it.  It just drips with melodic invention where the same idea is barely used twice.  The main theme is curiously phrased across bars so that it has a slightly wonky rhythm which extends and then contracts like an elastic band.  Love the jaunty piano and orchestral flourishes as well.

The second is John’s ‘Sexy Sadie’, his scathing sideswipe at the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.  Who’d have thought that Lennon, an instinctive writer rather than a grafter, could come up with such a McCartney-esque melody?  It too has a slightly strange melodic progression which tends to be linear rather than cyclical.  In this respect it is a natural bedfellow for ‘Martha My Dear’ but where MMD is jaunty, SS has a classic Ringo backbeat that just nails it to the floor making it tougher and more Lennon-like.

But I’ve saved the best till last.  The third is probably my favourite song from the whole album and it is George’s ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’.  This is where Harrison comes of age, baring his soul in the most emotional way and underpinned by the uncredited Eric Clapton’s mesmerising guitar.  Up to that point The Beatles didn’t entertain guests on their albums but the addition of El Clappo adds a new dimension to their sound.  George noted later that when Eric arrived to do his stuff the whole band upped its game.  That’s peer pressure for you.  Interestingly, Jethro Tull guitarist Martin Barre tells a similar story about the recording of ‘Aqualung’ when Jimmy Page paid a visit to their studio.  Martin’s solo on that track is probably his finest ever!

Hundreds of years before, the likes of Bach and Mozart knew all about the power of a descending harmonic progression and George hammers this home in a stately yet frankly over-the-top way during the verse and then glides weightlessly over the chorus cum middle section.  It is a powerful combination which lends itself to a massive guitar solo.  It is the kind of trick that Pink Floyd used frequently some years later but here Eric Clapton shows remarkable restraint and taste.  Perhaps he was frightened of showing up the most famous band on the planet?  Either way, it works beautifully.

There are several versions on YouTube but this is one of my favourites from the Concert For George in 2002.  Eric gets to sing as well as play and he is backed by a bewildering array of drummers, guitarists and keyboardists – including Ringo and Paul and Dahni Harrison who looks so like his Dad, it makes your heart bleed.

Beatles Remastered

Hi gang! And a happy New Year to all. As usual, my Christmas revolved around being woken at the crack of dawn by marauding kids and eating far too much but I did come out the other end with a set of Beatles Remasters, which means I now own one or two albums that I have (whisper it) never owned before, (like ‘Help!’), in nifty little digipaks.


It’s a long time since I’ve sat down and listened to a whole load of Beatles albums in chronological order and it was an interesting experience. What immediately strikes you is the sheer amount of generally above average songs that were generated over a seven year period and the exponential curve that the maturation and experimentation takes. The few years from 1963 to 1966 show a remarkable grasp of musical form which in the view of composer and broadcaster, Howard Goodall, saved the great heritage of western classical music from a slide into atonal obscurity. Whilst he may be overstating the case, there is no doubt that the world benefited enormously from the inventive joyfulness of their output based on little more that the musical structures known intimately to Bach and Beethoven hundreds of years before.

One other aspect also occurred to me and it helps to explain why the standard was maintained over a period of many years. Listened to in sequence it becomes apparent that there is always one dominant songwriter at the top of their game at any one point helping to keep the brand on course for sustained greatness. More specifically, there are three eras. The first is the early years where Lennon dominates. After all, it was his band and his vision that started it all. Virtually all of the initial ‘Beatlemania’ songs – ‘Please Please Me’, ‘I Wanna Hold Your Hand’ and ‘A Hard Days Night’ for example - were a product of his ear for an explosive and memorable tune. Clearly McCartney was a catalyst but I put the initial burst of energy down to Lennon.

The second is the middle period where McCartney, having found his composing feet under the wing of Lennon steps out of the shadow and mesmerises us with his melancholy ballads – ‘For No one’, ‘Eleanor Rigby’, ‘Blackbird’ and of course, ‘Yesterday’. The third period is probably the most interesting. In the final years Lennon and McCartney have lost the cohesion that made them such a force to be reckoned with and it is George Harrison that takes centre stage. His ‘Something’ is the finest song Lennon and McCartney never wrote and ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’ is a high spot on the ‘White’ album. Author Neil McDonald disagrees with me on this latter point but I stand by it – it still gives me the shivers even today. Add in ‘Here Comes The Sun’ and you can see why the final rites still have a fascination.

(To read more about my book which describes the effect of The Beatles, and many other bands, in my life see 'Memoirs of a Music Obsessive'.)

Can't Buy Me Love

Right, let’s be a bit more controversial for this post. If history has taught us anything at all it is that, to quote a classic silver screen tag line, ‘Nobody’s perfect’. Even the greatest icons have their lesser moments, the trick seems to be to overwhelm those moments with a wealth of acclaimed work so that no one notices.

One of the greatest exponents of this principle was The Beatles who managed quite successfully to overshadow their own failings with a constant production line of brilliant songs. But strip away the good stuff and what are you left with? Welcome to some of The Beatles Worst Songs Ever.

‘Within You Without You’ – Does anybody not skip over this track nowadays? It is the wart on Sgt Pepper’s nose and not what most people would have you believe, i.e. a beautiful piece of eastern-inspired music, but a complete dirge. Whilst I am happy to indulge George in his other Indian influenced efforts (‘Love You To’ for example) and even John in his (‘Jealous Guy’) I really can’t be doing with this.

‘Ob-la-di Ob-la-da’ – Whilst I can live with most of McCartney’s whimsy (even frogs), I’m afraid that this just doesn’t do it for me and it rather spoils the otherwise excellent first side of the ‘White Album’. What were Marmalade thinking of? (answer: the money).

‘Dig A Pony’ – Fans will tell you that ‘Let it Be’ is just as good as other Beatles albums but this song belies that contention (along with a few others). Yet another Lennon/McCartney song that I cannot stand, basically because it is waaay too long and it drags like a sack of coal up a steep incline.

‘All Together Now’ – This song, knocked up to allow the Fabs to appear in their own ‘Yellow Submarine’ film, just redefines ‘filler’. It is rather depressing to see the greats of the popular song sunk to riffing around a nursery rhyme melody like it was their latest golden egg.

‘Octopus’s Garden’ – There’s a limit to how much ‘loveable’ Ringo a person can stomach, and this is it, or it could possibly be ‘Don’t Pass me By’.

‘One After 909’ – I feel that I dislike this so much because it arrived out of context. What was OK on the first Beatles album sounds naive and dated on ‘Let it Be’. Let’s face it, this is a bog standard rock ‘n’ roll structured song which belongs in the 1950s, not in the late 1960s rubbing shoulders with ‘Let it Be’ and ‘Don’t Let Me Down’. It just reeks of barrel scraping.

Right, that’s it. I’m off to calm down and listen to ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ and ‘Eleanor Rigby’, arguably two of the greatest songs ever written. Strange that they came from the same stable as all the above!

White Noise

What would you do if faced with the prospect of following up one of the most culturally important albums ever? Good question. If you are The Beatles, you do the following. A) Bugger off on a long holiday somewhere hot like ooh…India. B) Write a whole load of acoustic guitar based songs whilst convening with the likes of Donovan etc C) Come home and release the whole lot on a huge sprawling double album despite people telling you that a judicious pruning would produce a much better single album. D) Watch it become, little by little, one of your best loved albums.

Yes, I’ve rediscovered the White Album after at least 20 years of its being discarded in a cupboard with a load of other ‘Oh, God did I buy that’ albums. So what do I think of it now? Yes, it could’ve been edited a bit and yes, it’s got some real clunkers on it but without them, it just wouldn’t be the same and thereby lies the appeal. Funny how it has crept up those ‘best of’ charts that appear from time to time so that it is close to being the best regarded fabs album.

From my viewpoint, I like it because it is such a mixed bag. You’d be hard pushed to find another double album that has so much musical variety, real quality rubbing shoulders with utter rubbish and a listen-to-once-only avant-garde musical collage. The only other double LP that comes anywhere close that I can think of immediately is Elton John’s ‘Goodbye Yellow Brick Road’ and that, perhaps advisedly, left off the collage.

But the one factor that has struck me after reacquainting myself with the ‘White Album’ is how playful it is. It is a million miles from the critical earnestness of ‘Sgt Pepper’ and seems to display a band who are unaffected by the pressure of success and have actually transcended the need to succeed. In other words they are free to experiment and have a good time doing it. Either that or they have lost the plot entirely under the influence of certain substances – you choose. It’s the little things that make me laugh. It’s John’s raucous ‘Eh-up!’ just before plunging into George’s ‘While my Guitar Gently Weeps’ and the snatch of intricate classical guitar that prefaces the jaunty singalong of ‘The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill’ which still make me smile.

But it’s not all whimsy. There are some real gems on this album, like McCartney’s ‘Martha My Dear’ and ‘Blackbird’ and Lennon’s ‘Revolution’, ‘Happiness is a Warm Gun’ and the immaculate ‘Sexy Sadie’. Without them the album would fall into the trap of being too irreverent and mediocre but being the Beatles, there is always enough real invention to keep you listening. How did they do it?

Pop! What is it Good For (Slight Return)

In a previous post I referred to Paul Morley’s 6 Milestone Singles as revealed during his TV programme, ‘Pop. What is it Good For?’ Well, as promised here are mine.

For those who are new to this concept, these are 6 singles that have specific memories for me as turning points in my own musical journey, rather than just a list of my favourite singles that would probably be a little different albeit with some overlap. So, no ‘Strawberry Fields’ or ‘God Only Knows’ which would appear in my best ever list but in this context have no ‘Milestone’ significance.

So, without further ado, here they are:

‘She Loves You’ – The Beatles
For anyone of my age, it is likely that they will have been influenced by the moptops. This single burst into my life in 1963 and set in motion a lifelong passion almost by force. Even listening to it today after 45 years, when I’m a bit bored by it, it still has a real energy that just bursts out of the speakers at you. Genuinely life changing.

‘Back Street Luv’ – Curved Air
The single that opened up the door to albums irrevocably. After this, the pick ‘n’ mix of the singles chart was no longer enough and the purchase of far too many earnest progrock albums ensued.

‘Your Generation’ – Generation X
Billy Idol and cohorts arrived in the nick of time to blow away the cobwebs from the complacent 1970s corporate rock and suddenly, punk was the lifeline that got my musical interest back on track. I even started buying singles again. The likes of The Stranglers, Adverts, Sex Pistols and many of the punk associates like Siouxsie and XTC followed in a great rush of loud, invigorating, life affirming noise.

‘Scar’- Lush
A 6 track EP (on new-fangled CD) that took my breath away with its harmonic complexity, aural architecture and jagged rhythms. It introduced me to the world of Shoegazeing and to Lush in particular and I was hooked. They are still my favourite band ever despite their lack of success and just about everybody else’s derision.

‘Shine On’ – The House of Love
About as near to a perfect single as I’ve ever heard and it was created in the 1990s, long after the birth of popular music. Everything works, from its hushed verse to its sing-a-long chorus, heady harmonised middle section complete with gut-wrenching key change, beautiful evocative lyric and rampant guitar lines. There are not many songs that have everything. This one does and it helped to demonstrate that perfect pop is not just the preserve of the 1960s as many would have you believe.

‘Patience’ – Take That
A bit of surprise this one, but it has reminded me of the greatest lesson you can learn about pop music - that it can still surprise you, even 50 years on if you keep an open mind (and ears). This is a wonderfully constructed song that gladdens the heart. The fact that it is Take That is absolutely superfluous – never discount anybody in this game or you miss out.