While My Guitar Gently Weeps : The Music of George Harrison

While My Guitar Gently Weeps : The Music of George Harrison
by Simon Leng

While My Guitar Gently Weeps : The Music of George Harrison
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Book Summary Information

Author: Simon Leng
Brand: Hal Leonard
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2006-04-01
ISBN: 1423406095
Number of pages: 304
Publisher: Hal Leonard
Product features:
  • Published by Hal Leonard 304 Pages
  • The Music of George Harrison by Simon Leng
  • Artist: George Harrison Author: Simon Leng

Book Reviews of While My Guitar Gently Weeps : The Music of George Harrison

Book Review: This is THE Biography of George That Really Matters
Summary: 5 Stars

It is SO nice to see George's music get the sympathetic in-depth analytic treatment it deserves. Leng covers both the Beatles and post-Beatles eras. I'm sure George would have approved. After all, he was the one who said he was trying to dispose of the detritus of his past even as Beatles fans were insisting on dredging it up. Just as with Lennon, 'the music was the thing' for George. And Leng delivers the goods. George would love it that Leng dispenses with George's Beatles past in 45 pages, leaving 280 for George's solo decades. Sometimes the musical analysis gets a bit too technical for many readers, but some of those reader may one day revisit the book after learning a bit more about the technical side and be appreciative of Leng's attention to musical details.

Of course, in doing justice to George I find that Leng errs on the side of being too positive re. many of George's more lugubrious meditations on Krishna consciousness. I wrote a book (on Amazon.com) called 'Let's Put the Beatles Back Together Again 1970-2010: How to Assemble & Appreciate the 2nd Half of the Beatles' Legacy'. In it I believe I honor George by selecting out only the best of his solo work and juxtaposing it with the best of the other three Beatles to create a Beatles future way way beyond 1970. Though the individual Beatles might object to this mode of listening to their work, it's not their call to make, but ours. And believe me, for Beatles fans this is the way to go.

Leng has lots of insights into George's playing and composing, and his career. A welcome contribution Leng makes is to excerpt scads of local reviews that lauded George's 1974 Dark Horse tour performances. Falsely, the tour got the reputation of having been a disaster, but really it was a single pan from 'Rolling Stone' that did all the damage. While George did feel mauled, he did not retreat into himself for very long afterward. He was even ready to head out on another North American tour in 1976 and would have but for a case of hepatitus and a cancelled record contract.

Bravo Simon Leng for doing so well a job so worth doing.

Summary of While My Guitar Gently Weeps : The Music of George Harrison

Far from being "the quiet one," George Harrison was a writer and arranger of terrific power and beauty, and his guitar playing was fundamental to the Beatles' sound and success. Now fully revised and expanded, this new edition of While My Guitar Gently Weeps: The Music of George Harrison is the most comprehensive evaluation of George Harrison's musical career ever published. Treating each of Harrison's songs with unprecedented analysis, author Simon Leng reveals Harrison's eclectic approach - from teenage Nashville twang through Indian raga, psychedelia, gospel, soul, and pure pop - and thoroughly defines Harrison's role in the Beatles. First-hand accounts of the Concert for Bangladesh and the making of All Things Must Pass take the reader deep into the most fertile and controversial periods of Harrison's long solo career that culminated with Brainwashed. Enhanced with insights from key figures who worked closely with Harrison throughout his extraordinary career, While My Guitar Gently Weeps is a remarkably stirring study and portrait of a great artist whose musical and spiritual quest changed the lives of millions of people around the world while redefining popular music and rock 'n' roll.

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