Song you are on a kick of right now? | Page 11 | Fab Forum | The Beatles Bible

Had to take a longish train journey into the city yesterday so I thought I’d attempt to listen to the White Album all the way through, something I haven’t done in a while. I only got as far as Helter Skelter , so I either underestimated the album’s length or overestimated my travel time but either way, as I was walking to the station, listening intently, I was blown utterly away by While My Guitar Gently Weeps , one of those moments where you suddenly remember how absolutely incredible a song is, like you’re listening to it for the first time.

Granted, there may be heavier songs on the White Album , but WMG is heavy in a whole different way to any of the others. John’s “ey-up!” at the end of Bungalow Bill suddenly hurls the listener into the path of the juggernaut. That menacing, laboriously descending chord sequence (emphasised to the max by Paul’s ridiculously thick, chugging bass) reflecting the universal, soporific world-weariness of George’s wonderful and cryptic lyrics, like each bar of the song is another trudging step down into some existential void. To counteract the sheer doom of it all there’s the gorgeous melody of the bridge. And then at the end Clapton’s guitar sighs and sobs and laments as perfectly as one might have directed it to- at about 3:39, tell me that instrument ISN’T weeping, with George’s unearthly moans in the background. And the band keeps on going, driving that menace onwards and onwards, Paul getting carried away with himself and letting out some wailing “yeah”s like a man possessed just as it fades out. Bloody brilliance. It’s for moments like this, when a song just HITS me all over again, that I still listen to the Beatles’ music, songs I’ve heard hundreds of times before, again and again, day in, day out.