While My Guitar Gently Weeps: The Music of George Harrison

by Simon Leng

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 Bangla Desh 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.

Simon Leng is the respected biographer of Carlos Santana (Soul Sacrifice [Firefly]). A part interviewee on VH-1, Mr. Leng has been featured on BBC National Radio, as well as a number of other regional BBC shows and was the editor and publisher of a Latin-Jazz magazine. His books have been published worldwide with translations in German, Polish, Spanish, and Italian. Mr. Leng lives in Ireland with his wife and two young children.

"Simon Leng approaches George Harrison with affection and insight, which makes this book a great pleasure to read. His thorough analysis of Harrison's music is never dry, because Leng deeply understands the man who made the music and the times that made it all possible."
--Anthony DeCurtis, Rolling Stone

"[A] superb tribute to a man who is finally being recognized as an equal talent to his Beatle bandmates... Leng proves to be a careful and open-eared critic, able to see beyond the media cliches about Harrison's 'preaching' to find the beauty in his most-maligned work."
--Record Collector

"[N]o Beatle fan should be without this. Each entry details the track information, including accompanying musicians, and features scene-setting observations, anecdotes and trenchant reflections on Harrison's spiritual beliefs and their relationship with a secular music form... A rare case of a new Beatles-related title with function and purpose."
--Hi-Fi News