The Beatles - While My Guitar Gently Weeps - Guitar Cover - Eric Clapton

Eric Clapton's crying lead guitar and expertly crafted solos add flair to this George Harrison masterpiece from the White Album. Clapton was invited to perform on this track after George's initial attempts to record a backwards guitar solo yielded unsatisfactory results. The entire song was redone with Clapton on electric lead guitar, George on his Gibson J-200 acoustic guitar, Paul on piano, and Ringo on drums. George and Paul later overdubbed vocals, Paul his bassline, Ringo additional percussion, and a third guitar part that doubles the bass during the bridge. John Lennon is credited to have played electric rhythm guitar on this song but upon analysis no other electric rhythm guitar is heard on this song other than Clapton. Listening to the isolated drum track reveals organ bleed. This would indicate that John played organ on the released version of the song. See the responses below for more info!

The song begins with George strumming his acoustic guitar in a simple "1 2 3+4+" pattern until the D chord (0:12) where he strums "1 2+3+4+" His strumming pattern changes throughout the song and efforts were taken to match his strumming as accurately as possible in this video. After the Paul's piano phrase, Clapton introduces his guitar with a riff ending on a staccato G# note (0:14). When he is not playing lead phrases, Clapton follows the chord progression by hitting the descending bass note and then outlining the chord with individual string picking. This individual string picking was never played the same way twice throughout the song and the nuances are replicated in this video. Interestingly, Clapton continued to outline an A minor chord even when the acoustic guitar and piano play an F major chord during the verses (0:23, etc). In the first verse, Clapton does a short riff during the G chord (0:27) that utilizes open strings before playing a bending lick (0:30), a style that he is well known for.

The second verse features more alternating picking from Clapton and acoustic guitar strumming from George. This style of lead guitar is a perfect accompaniment to a strumming guitar and rhythmic piano because it fills the sound without being too intrusive nor too heavy. Notice the lead guitar strumming the open D, G, and B strings on every beat during the G chord, with a passing note on the second fret A string (0:44). Clapton plays another lead phrase to introduce the first bridge of the song (0:47). The phrase ends with a C note (minor third to A) being bent into the root of the next chord (C#m), demonstrating Clapton's proficiency at creating melodic licks. He also carries his vibrato on the bent C# note over two whole bars.

The bridge sees the introduction of a third guitar doubling Paul's bassline (0:50). This guitar has a clear octave sound to it and a bright chiming nature. There are 3 possibilities for how this sound could be created but only one is plausible. The first is for the player to overdub 2 guitar tracks, each doubling the bass an octave apart. However, the slides in the mystery guitar part are so well timed together that it would be impossible to double them that closely if the octaves were played separately. The second possibility is for the player to have played the octaves on a 6 string guitar, similar to how George played in the early years of the Beatles on songs such as "Please Please Me". This does not seem reasonable either as the line is much more complicated than those in the early years and the player could not have been so in sync with the bass. The most realistic option for this mystery guitar part is for George to have overdubbed with his 1965 Rickenbacker 12 string. The tone of the guitar certainly sounds like a Ric! Some may say that this guitar part was actually played by John and hence why he is credited as playing electric guitar on this song. However, upon review of the isolated tracks of "While My Guitar", Clapton's guitar is clearly audible on the drum and piano microphones. If John played a Ric 12 during the recording of the basic track, the 12 string would have bled through to other microphones, but this is not the case. Similarly, had John played this 12 string line during the bridge during the basic track recording, Paul would have actually doubled this guitar line, not the other way around! It is highly doubtful that John would have been interested enough to come up with this complex countermelody for a George song. This leads me to believe that "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" (1968) is the last song for George to have played his Ric 12!

See the rest of the description in the pinned comment below!

Instruments Used:
Eric Clapton Lead Guitar: Gibson Les Paul Standard (2006)
George Harrison Acoustic Rhythm Guitar: Gibson J-160E Standard
George Harrison Overdub Guitar: Rickenbacker 360/12C63
Amplifier: Fender Custom Vibrolux Reverb (1995)
ADT Plugin: Waves Abbey Road Reel ADT