Originally published at: Prince's epic "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" guitar solo has a new director's cut | Boing Boing
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Prince cues up @ 3:30. And melt yo face!
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I thought they tracked down the guitar: It was given to Oprah.
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Absolute legend.
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I’ve never actually thought about this before but I think you might be on to something here.
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I love how the tag at the bottom “EPIC GUITAR SOLOS” just links back to this solo. Because after all, it is a category with only one possible entry, obvs.
And 'tude is a big part of a guitar solo, and the 'tude rolling off Prince practically drowns out the guitar. Man.
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This is a null statement, “objectivity” and “Beatles” do not, and cannot, intersect in any possible universe
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[guitar sobs loudly]
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I think it was this Rolling Stone story that cemented my faith in Harrison. Lennon and McCartney were in such a pissing match and he was the adult in the room saying “Hey how about we stop being shitheads and keep writing awesome songs, ya morons?”
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I think you’re right that there’s probably a lot to unpack with the racialized elements (and you’re definitely right that it’s hardly representative of Prince’s work over all). But I will say that this video legitimately blew my then-18-year-old mind and inspired that teenage punk to re-evaluate some things he thought he knew about popular music.
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It’s just facts…
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I’m guessing the person to Tom Petty’s left is George Harrison’s son?
(Insert “horse George Harrison walks into a bar & the bartender says ‘why the long face?’” joke)
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However it got there, it turned out great–they did a letter perfect version of the song, then Prince added a great new coda to it. Dhani is so happy to be up there, especially when Prince starts playing.
Jeff Lynne’s voice is underrated, he does a great job here. He ended up being more known as a producer/writer but ELO wouldn’t have been half as good without him singing.
Not sure I like the new cut any better than the old one, not a fan of split-screen focus on one person, it takes away from the “you’re there” sensation.
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Hey. I see a video of I guy I feel I like clearly having a good time, and making a good noise too. He was not not at the rehearsal, so he sat out the mid chorus and came in at the end, which show him to play fair too. The may not fit in with a particular sociopolitic narrative, but it has worth.
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I’m having a bit of a déja vu. It just so happens that this weekend I’ve been watching a DVD of the very moving 2002 Concert for George, filmed in the London Royal Albert Hall, with a very similar lineup including Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty, Dhani Harrison and Marc Mann (very faithfully reproducing George Harrison’s classic guitar solos, as he does in the first part of this clip). Weirdly, on that occasion Eric Clapton didn’t manage to take his own solo in this song to an interesting place after having played the iconic bits from his classic recording. Price’s solo in this version, although technically impressive, feels a bit tacked-on to the rest of this performance, while the “lost” guitar is hardly a mystery: it was caught by his guitar tech Takumi Suetsugu - a stage trick they performed many times.
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Prince looked like he was enjoying himself, which is nice. 
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But every artistic complaint needs sociopolitical special sauce to make it more valid, I guess.
And, according to the article, Prince was at the rehearsal, he just didn’t get to play because Jeff Lynne’s lead guitarist kept horning in on the solos. It might be interesting to investigate the racial dynamics of that, I suppose.
The racial dynamics of the music industry are very real, I assure you, not something Black people made up in their heads to make white people feel bad. Thousands of Black artists have historically been screwed over by the white music establishment for the entire history of recorded music, while white run labels and white artists have made literally billions off of Black musical forms. Let’s not forget that Prince himself, one of the most hard-working and talented artists of the second half of the twentieth century had to fight for control of his work, which was what the name change was all about.
Racial dynamics are a part of every aspect of modern life. Every single one. There is no getting away from that, but the ability to ignore that is not something that Black people have the luxury of doing, like those of us who are white. Exploring racial dynamics in our society is not something interesting that maybe we can get around to one day after we solve the “real” problems in society. It’s critical if we ever want to have an actual just and humane society. That includes looking at those dynamics in our culture, which has a huge impact on how we understand ourselves, others, and the world we live in.
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Find George, and you will find The Guitar.
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I wonder if it would’ve been less problematic if Tom Petty had taken the solo.
