The only thing I enjoy more than exploring music (old and new) is telling people how much I know about music. This is where I want to bridge the past and present and expand your musical knowledge so that you can appreciate the things you listen to even more. There is no pattern here, just one interesting piece of musical history each week that I want to share with you. Of course you could find all of these things online but there is a good chance you wouldn’t know to look otherwise. Some you might  know and if you do Let me know in the comments!

“While My Guitar Gentle Weeps” , off of the Beatles “White Album” features some of George Harrisons finest guitar work. Wait , you mean that wasn’t him? Nope, that was Eric Clapton, in an uncredited effort, with that haunting vibrato. So how did that happen? Well, it boils down to one legendary guitar and an unfocused band struggling to finish a song. The song, written by Harrison, was in recording limbo. The rest of the band, but especially Paul McCartney and John, were less than enthusiastic about the song. As such, they put little effort into recording attempts. George was also struggling to record guitar parts that he was satisfied with. Simply put, a song with a lot potential was going nowhere. This is where “Slow Hand” comes in. Clapton had been friends with Harrison for several years at this point and they even co-wrote the song “Badge” for Clapton’s band Cream. While in New York on tour with Cream, Clapton purchased a beautiful Gibson Les Paul with a red finish. The guitar had previously been owned by another great guitarist in Rick Derringer, who sold the instrument after being disappointed with the paint job he had done on it. Clapton would never use the instrument much so he gifted it to George Harrison in 1968. Harrison named the guitar “Lucy”. Harrison grew fed up with his Beatles bandmates  and decided to bring Clapton in to fill the parts on “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”. The decision was so spur of the moment that Clapton didn’t even arrive with a guitar. So Harrison gave him “Lucy” to use for the recording and Clapton cut his parts, including the signature solo, in just one take.