While My Guitar Gently Weeps - by Simon Leng (Paperback)

About the Book

For all Beatle fans, this blend of bio and song review assesses George Harrison's immense contribution to music. Treating all of Harrison's songs individually, Simon Leng investigates the background of their creation, and finds not just pop and rock, but big band, gospel, and Indian and Polynesian influences.

Book Synopsis

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.

About the Author

Simon Leng is the respected biographer of Carlos Santana (Soul Sacrifice âFireflyã). A past 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.