While my guitar gently weeps…
This morning I found a thread on MNSpeak that pointed out a great YouTube video clip of an all-star tribute rendition of While My Guitar Gently Weeps, featuring George’s son, Dhani Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty, Prince and others (if you can help me name them, that would be great). Few commenters seem to “get” the historic value of the performance (historic for modern times, at any rate). Prince shines! He provides the highlighted guitar work and seems to be showing Dhani that he can still do one of his signature moves (laying back while playing), albeit with a little assistance (this was a few months before his reported hip surgery, to be fair). Dhanni responds with delight and a big grin. It is eery how Dhani looks just like his father, especially when singing. To me, the star of the performance is Jeff Lynne and he provides the highlighted vocals for the tribute. He’s played this song many times and can sing it like no other. Here he sings with with George, Elton, Ringo, Paul, Phil Collins, Eric Clapton and others in 1987,
The remaining Beatles, with Eric Clapton, performed the song at the Concert for George in 2002. Clapton, in this version, provides both the guitar and vocal highlights, though Jeff Lynne is there to play along. Dhani Harrison, Billy Preston and many others are on stage.
You can download a much better version of the VH1 tribute here. Some people claim this is the better version, but I disagree.
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