The Mystery Bass of While My Guitar Gently Weeps

[Music] while my guitar gently weeps is one of the most widely beloved beatles songs written by george harrison it is perhaps most well known for being the only beatles track to feature a guest guitarist george's friend eric clapton who stepped in to record an uncredited solo that ranks as one of the most riveting moments on the white album but that's not what this episode is about instead we're going to explore mystery that has perplexed beetles fans and scholars alike for decades first i'm going to point out the mystery then present evidence from various sources and attempt to solve it and as a fair warning once i point it out you can't unhear this the central mystery in while my guitar gently weeps is about something that normally isn't a source of controversy in most beatles songs who is playing bass on the vast majority of beetle songs the answer to that question is paul mccartney in a role that dates back to their earliest days playing in clubs in liverpool and hamburg but some fans believe that a rare exception occurred on this song and that the base was in fact played by another beatle and no not rinko in order to get to the meat of this mystery let's first step back to the origins of the song and trace the rather convoluted history of this very special composition in early 1968 the beatles were facing burnout both from the highs of their epic sergeant pepper project and from the lows of the tragic death of their manager brian epstein in a much needed respite the band and their partners traded the pressures of a studio in england for an ashram in india inspired in large part by george harrison's deepening interest in indian culture and eastern philosophy although each of the band members ultimately had very different feelings about the quality of the trip the change of scenery did seem to spawn a fresh creative energy in its wake that the band harnessed in the form of song demos that would eventually take shape as the white album among these demos was a beautiful new ballad by george harrison [Music] on july 25 1968 george recorded a sparse acoustic version of the song at emi studios a few weeks later on august 16th the full band convened to run through the song with george on guitar [Music] paul on bass [Music] ringo on drums and john playing an organ after running through 14 takes they did a quick mix of the track and shelved it for a few more weeks while george went on vacation the version we're familiar with today was started on september 5th 1968 but in a few weeks since recording the august version a number of major events had taken place that would influence this recording dramatically firstly ringo had announced to the group that he was taking an extended hiatus from the band out of what he called a moment of turmoil and feeling like an outsider among the three other beatles soon realizing the weight of ringo's absence the band dispatched an apologetic telegram encouraging him to come back from his self-imposed exile in the mediterranean and promising that things would be better and so he did a few days later returning to emi studios welcomed with flowers adorning his drum kit with the quartet reunited once again while my guitar gently weeps would be the very first song that the restored beatles would tackle and the quality of the performances on the new september version seemed to reflect that renewed spirit the second major development had to do with equipment up to this point the beatles had primarily worked with four track tape recorders which as the name suggests only allowed for four independent channels of audio to be recorded onto a single tape that meant that multiple instruments often had to be combined onto a single track in order to make room for more complex arrangements and additions that the beatles were increasingly fond of using this often required compromises and a fair degree of studio engineering magic on the part of emi engineers to pull off but the band had experimented with state-of-the-art eight-track recorders at other studios nearby and this had piqued their interest in getting one set up at their home at emi while ringo was gone the band had stumbled upon a brand new eight-track recorder in a nearby room and requested that it be set up for their use immediately at this point when the beatles asked for something they got it the band saw this technological leap as a creative boon enticing them to add even more layers of instruments and sounds to their compositions equipped with this new setup george had the tapes from the august sessions copied over to the new 8-track machine to continue work on it but after a bit of late night experimenting with ideas like a backwards guitar solo george decided to abandon work on the prior version entirely and start from scratch for this new version he had brought a secret weapon his close friend eric clapton invited by george to the studio to contribute an extremely rare guest guitar part with eric clapton on electric guitar george on acoustic guitar ringo on drums paul on piano and john most likely on organ the group worked their way through more than 20 takes eventually settling on take 25 as the winner for the backing track a fun little tidbit during down time in this session paul ran through a primitive version of a song that wouldn't be released for another year and a half [Music] incidentally this same snippet also confirms that eric clapton was indeed there despite receiving no credit on the final album sleeve [Music] but back to wall my targetly weeps which was finally taking shape with everyone's hands already occupied with various instruments during the recording the backing track the bass part normally played by paul who instead was on piano here would have to be added later on on the next day september 6th the band reconvened to finish the track by adding more vocals [Music] additional percussion and the bass part so here's where we get to the mystery let's first listen to the isolated bass track to hear if we can identify what's happening during the verses of the song it sounds like there's one bass guitar alternating between single notes and power chords what is clear is that this is a much heavier sound than on most beatles songs and the band was clearly fond of it during this period using it for a few other white album tracks recorded in august and september 1968 such as back in the ussr [Music] elter skelter [Laughter] [Music] and glass onion and frankly it's awesome the default answer to the question of who is playing bass is as any beatles fan knows paul not surprisingly then many beatles websites credit paul with the part here but here's where things get weird giles martin son of legendary beatles producer george martin made a rather stunning claim in a 2018 interview with npr john was uh he played the base on one muktai johnny whoops it was a final take here there's a sort of chugging there's a ding ding ding which is which is a sixteen bit paul is playing piano and organ and singing this claim was echoed in the extensive liner notes included with the 2018 white album deluxe edition a breathtaking project that giles oversaw for some fans this alleged revelation was a major shock first off could jon even play a bass part well yes but with an important caveat if this were john playing he likely wouldn't have been playing a typical four-string bass guitar but instead something called a fender six which is a hybrid instrument that looks like a standard six string guitar but is tuned to a lower octave to make it sound more in the range of a bass guitar that means that a guitar player like john or george could easily pick up this instrument and add a fairly convincing bass accompaniment to a song the beatles in fact owned offender 6 which incidentally made a public appearance right before this session in george's hands during the filming of the hey jude promotional video on september the 4th there are also photos of john holding it around this period so clearly both beetle guitarists had some interest in it so giles's 2018 revelation about john could be true but the mystery doesn't end there during the bridge sections of the song something else gets added in at least one other instrument comes in to mimic the bass line this gets a little buried in the final mix but if we isolate it it's a lot clearer [Music] ken scott who was the young aspiring studio engineer at emi during those recording sessions for walmart guitar gently weeps recalled in his 2012 memoir that the four-string bass was sometimes doubled by a six-string bass on some songs by this time paul had acquired a fender jazz bass which he used in lieu of his rickenbacker and defender base6 was always around the studio you hear it on piggies while my guitar gently weeps glass onion and rocky raccoon the two parts were always played together and never overdubbed individually scott suggested that the band now equipped with the extra flexibility of the 8-track recorder may have been inspired to copy a similar style from the music of bert campford a german composer and record producer who had befriended the band in the early 1960s and in fact played a major role in bringing the beatles into the spotlight signing their first official recording contract you can hear a similar doubling of the baseline in some of his work [Music] funnily enough a few years later john complained about this type of bass sound during the sessions for his imagine solo album bass sounds too travelling it sounds like the kent again this style was also popular in early american country western records where it was referred to as tic tac style [Music] adopting this special style here fits with their overall approach during the white album of incorporating references and nods to nearly all genres of music in some form or another but back to the question at hand ken scott's account seems to suggest that paul had to have been playing here and that someone else john george or possibly both of them joined during the bridge part to emulate the tic-tac sound this bridge part is even referenced in the fantastic mini-series mccartney 3-2-1 [Music] unfortunately the mystery of who is actually playing these parts is never addressed it seems that nearly every beatles website fan forum contributor and reddit commenter has a slightly different take on what actually happened during that session so while we don't have a definitive answer from paul himself we do know based on ken scott's recollection that at least two beatles were playing this part at some point calling into question many of the unofficial accounts of this session perhaps giles is right and this was john taking the helm on the fender six base throughout a role that he would allegedly take up again less than a week later during the sessions for helter skelter a topic that i'll save for another episode but short of definitive proof this mystery may be left up to you to decide what do you think is the most accurate lineup here let me know in the comments all mysteries aside while my guitar gently weeps is a hauntingly beautiful ballad with layers of diverse yet complementary musical ideas that transport you to another place entirely during its five minute journey the song for good reason is more than just a beloved fan favorite it's also one of the most highly appreciated beatles songs by other musicians inspiring countless live performances including one of the most memorable live solos of all time performed by prince in 2004 at a rock and roll hall of fame induction ceremony [Music] aside from the technical milestone of it being the first beatles song to take advantage of emi's eight-track recorder and aside from featuring the first and only guest guitarist on any beatles recording while my guitar gently weeps represents something even more significant in the beatles story the moment when george harrison established himself as a songwriter on par with the lennon mccartney machine paving the way for subsequent beatles masterpieces like here comes the sun and something and also previewing the pent-up talent that would come pouring out a few years later across georgia's solo epic all things must pass and although we lost george far too soon he left an indelible impact through songs like these on his fellow beatles on the music world and on us the fans [Applause] i hope you enjoyed this episode and please share and subscribe to my channel if you haven't already as always thanks for watching

Channel: You Can't Unhear This

Views: 2,160,643

Keywords: beatles, ycut, john lennon, paul mccartney, george harrison, music, 1960s, George Martin, Recording, Abbey Road, EMI

Id: nDCMK2VPeBA

Length: 14min 24sec (864 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 01 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/phistreddit]

I still think the chunky more aggressive bass playing power chords is Paul on the Jazz Bass (with bridge mutes) the other cleaner bass is John doubling the line on the Bass VI (with no mutes), sort of like a Tic Tac bass. In the 2018 White Album booklet, both John and Paul are credited to bass.

You can hear it’s sort of double tracked , and after the first bridge, the double tracking disappears. These guys can explain it a lot better than I can. Jazz isolated, VI isolated.

And as for the chunky, clicky bass tone, you can hear the same sound on Glass Onion, and Yer Blues Which are pretty much confirmed to be the Jazz Bass. George used the VI on Golden Slumbers and Carry That Weight, which sounds much cleaner and bassier IMHO (please correct me if I’m wrong, this is the r/BassVI community after all 😅)

[u/skucf]

After watching that and listening I think that track is John on the bass vi and George on the 12 string and possibly Paul on the jazz bass. But I actually can’t hear the jazz bass so I’m not even sure it’s there.

[u/CurryRun]

I watched this last night before discovering this sub and I was certain until the last minute the dude would argue that Clapton was all over the record...on bass/Bass VI!