Apropos my Traveling Willbury's kick, I've just been listening to George Harrison's "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," performed when Harrison was posthumously inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame in 2004.
There must be more than a dozen versions of this great song on YouTube, starting with George Harrison and Eric Clapton's performance at the 1971 Concert for Bangladesh and progressing through the years to the two concerts that, sadly, outlived George. One is the 2002 Memorial Concert in which Lynne also plays, but Clapton is featured, and the other the 2004 performance, which is my favorite.
Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne share the lead, and do a splendid job. Even more incredible is the two+ minute guitar solo at the end by Prince - about the finest guitar work I've ever heard.
Here it is ... rest in peace, George. Your music will live forever.
6 comments:
That Prince guitar solo is insane. I love how he falls off the stage, then gets put back on without seeming to realize it's happening.
Yeah, and if you look closely, you can see someone from the audience - one of his assistants, no doubt - holding his back as he falls into the audience, and pushing him back on stage....
I also love how he just puts down his guitar and leaves the stage at the end. Incredible performance.
He doesn't as much put the guitar down, as much as throwing it up into the air and it seeming to never land...
Not to detract from you video, but a favorite cover version of that song is from the movie, Across The Universe, sung by MArtin Luther McCoy. In the film it's played to go along with the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. (and the breaking up of the main characters), but I think that it's a fantastic rendition.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okzl5gkzIiY
I guess different strokes and all that, John ... I think the Across the Universe version is ok, but not even in the same universe as the Petty, Lynne, and Prince... (but I did like the movie)...
about Prince's guitar ... you can see it come down, a little ... but you're still right - he doesn't just out it down, he throws it up in the air and walks off ...
Why can't they have something like this on America's Got Talent? Maybe they will tomorrow nite. I miss George.
Absolutely the sexiest guitar solo I've ever been fotunate enough to see. The spark that it ignites in me is not his talent/skill in playing the guitar,as it is in is comfort and sexual attraction to the guitar itself!
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