Also totally ripped off by Green Day, but I never knew it until now.
“Eh up!”
The Beatles - “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” (Bass, Isolated)
Like I say. Amazing bass line.
So deceptively simple. So fat. So totally in the pocket for what the song never knew it wanted.
But, just for a second, imagine how this song would sound without it. Totally different. Likely not for the better.
I think “WMGGW” is a good song; I wouldn’t call it a great song. Not by itself. Some of the rhymes are asinine, and most of the changes are the sort of meat-beating thing you write 2 weeks after taking up guitar. It’s definitely no “Something.”
But, for me? The players and arrangement just transform the tune. In particular, Clapton’s fills and solo + Paul’s pretty-perfect choice for the bass line1 make George’s little ditty about life or the I Ching or Boethius’s Wheel or whatever into something unexpectedly menacing.2
The Beatles - “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” (Clapton Guitar, Isolated)
Yep. Slowhand and Macca make this song sound dangerous. So good.
The Beatles - “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” (The Beatles, 1968)
Well. Conceptually perfect. Paul hits a clam and a frequently misattributed non-clam along the way. But nothing’s out of keeping with the slacker-sloppy style and tone of the part he’s playing. ↩
In other news, fucking Chicago owes Paul a coke. ↩
