While My Guitar Gently Weeps

Writer: Harrison
Recorded: September 5 and 6, 1968
Released: November 25, 1968
Not released as a single

The lyrics for George Harrison’s inaugural masterpiece with The Beatles, “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” came into existence through a fortuitous yet intentional turn of events. Harrison crafted the majority of the music during the Beatles’ sojourn to Rishikesh, India, spanning from February to April in 1968. However, the lyrics were penned after the band’s return to England. Drawing inspiration from the philosophical concept of relativism found in the I Ching, Harrison plucked a book from the shelf at his parents’ residence. He then opened it to a random page and constructed lyrics based on the first words he encountered, which coincidentally happened to be “gently weeps.” (These words may have originated from Coates Kinney’s well-known 1849 poem “Rain on the Roof,” which features the lines “And the melancholy darkness/Gently weeps in rainy tears.”)