Badge with George Harrison
Badge with George Harrison
Returning a Favor, George Helped Write One of Cream's Biggest Hits.
As everyone now knows, it was Eric Clapton who played the lead guitar riff on George Harrison's masterpiece "While My Guitar Gently Weeps." *(see earlier blog called "Guitars Gently Weeping" for more details). This collaboration occured in September, 1968 as the Beatles were starting to wind down the sessions for what would become the "White Album."
Since Eric Clapton and George Harrison were such good friends, they spoke often in those days. Incidentally, Clapton was notoriously in love with George's wife which was another good reason to keep the lines of communication open. (*again, see earlier blog "Guitars Gently Weeping" for more info on this too.) So, in the fall of 1968, based, in part, on a scathing Rolling Stone review of one of their concerts, Cream, especially Clapton, decided it was time to fold and shut down the band. The Cream members, Ginger Baker (drums), Claton and Jack Bruce (bass guitar and vocals) all agreed to write a new song apiece to add to several live tracks to fill up one last LP to be aptly called "Goodbye Cream." Eric Clapton was having trouble completing even one tune so George Harrison drove to Eric's home, also located in Surrey at the time, in October, 1968 to help construct a song. After all, Eric had done a stellar job on George's own "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" that it was only fair to return the favor. Ringo Starr also showed up. (to be further explored momentarily)
George Harrison, 1968.
Words and music were being fleshed out into what was turning into a decent song. Both men were pleased with what they were coming up with. George remembers it this way, "We were working across from each other and I was writing the lyrics down and we came to the middle part so I wrote 'Bridge.' Eric read it upside down and cracked up laughing - -'What's BADGE mean?' he asked. After that Ringo walked in drunk and gave us that line about the swans living in the park."
So it came to pass; as a gag, they just called the song "BADGE" which of course had nothing to do whatsoever with the song itself. In actuality, the lyrics have no continuity either from verse to verse especially considering a drunk Ringo Starr gave them the final verse to the tune which, like all the other lyrics, amounted to nonsense. It didn't matter, the song remains to this day, the most well known tune on the "Goodbye Cream" album, one of Cream's most well known and well loved songs and a staple for bar bands everywhere. It was realeased in April, 1969 long after Cream broke up and reached #18 in the UK Charts by early May.
The Beatles didn't credit Clapton with his solo on the "White Album." Partly because of that and partly because of the then ongoing hassles with Northern Songs and all the copywrite madness going on with the Beatles, George opted to disguise himself with a pseudonym. His writing had been so elemental and strong on this song that Clapton insisted that George get a songwriting credit. So George, as L'Angelo Misterioso (mysterious angel) was given a song writing credit on this great tune.
Music: George played rhythm guitar on this song on the finished recording and his playing is instantly recognizable in the famous bridge: one can hear the decending arpeggio on this song that George later employed to great effect on the "Abbey Road" album on such songs as "You Never Give Me Your Money," and "Carry That Weight." In all cases, George played his guitar through a Leslie organ speaker to get that unusual sound. As a result of George doing that, may artists began copying the effect including Clapton himself, Jimmy Page (Good Times, Bad Times) and Peter Frampton (almost everything he played).
Cream bassist Jack Bruce: was just quoted in Classic Rock magazine (July 2008, issue #120), recalling his one and only session with George Harrison back in 1968: "I met George druing the session Cream did for "Badge" and I was very impressed with his playing. I took it for granted that people like McCartney and Lennon were brilliant but didn't really analyse it. But when you actually play with George you could see what an amazing guitar player he was, doing things that I hadn't even thought of."
High praise indeed from one of the greatest bassists in Rock history and about the only other bassist to rival Paul McCartney during the 1960's. As this correspondant stated in an earlier blog, George did finally start getting recognized for his guitar playing chops late in the Beatles' recording career and then well into his solo years. As it turned out, he could also write fantastic rock songs.
By John Haberstroh (Bassist for BeatleTracks) Find us at www.beatletracksband.com
Returning a Favor, George Helped Write One of Cream's Biggest Hits.
As everyone now knows, it was Eric Clapton who played the lead guitar riff on George Harrison's masterpiece "While My Guitar Gently Weeps." *(see earlier blog called "Guitars Gently Weeping" for more details). This collaboration occured in September, 1968 as the Beatles were starting to wind down the sessions for what would become the "White Album."
Since Eric Clapton and George Harrison were such good friends, they spoke often in those days. Incidentally, Clapton was notoriously in love with George's wife which was another good reason to keep the lines of communication open. (*again, see earlier blog "Guitars Gently Weeping" for more info on this too.) So, in the fall of 1968, based, in part, on a scathing Rolling Stone review of one of their concerts, Cream, especially Clapton, decided it was time to fold and shut down the band. The Cream members, Ginger Baker (drums), Claton and Jack Bruce (bass guitar and vocals) all agreed to write a new song apiece to add to several live tracks to fill up one last LP to be aptly called "Goodbye Cream." Eric Clapton was having trouble completing even one tune so George Harrison drove to Eric's home, also located in Surrey at the time, in October, 1968 to help construct a song. After all, Eric had done a stellar job on George's own "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" that it was only fair to return the favor. Ringo Starr also showed up. (to be further explored momentarily)
George Harrison, 1968. Words and music were being fleshed out into what was turning into a decent song. Both men were pleased with what they were coming up with. George remembers it this way, "We were working across from each other and I was writing the lyrics down and we came to the middle part so I wrote 'Bridge.' Eric read it upside down and cracked up laughing - -'What's BADGE mean?' he asked. After that Ringo walked in drunk and gave us that line about the swans living in the park."
So it came to pass; as a gag, they just called the song "BADGE" which of course had nothing to do whatsoever with the song itself. In actuality, the lyrics have no continuity either from verse to verse especially considering a drunk Ringo Starr gave them the final verse to the tune which, like all the other lyrics, amounted to nonsense. It didn't matter, the song remains to this day, the most well known tune on the "Goodbye Cream" album, one of Cream's most well known and well loved songs and a staple for bar bands everywhere. It was realeased in April, 1969 long after Cream broke up and reached #18 in the UK Charts by early May.
The Beatles didn't credit Clapton with his solo on the "White Album." Partly because of that and partly because of the then ongoing hassles with Northern Songs and all the copywrite madness going on with the Beatles, George opted to disguise himself with a pseudonym. His writing had been so elemental and strong on this song that Clapton insisted that George get a songwriting credit. So George, as L'Angelo Misterioso (mysterious angel) was given a song writing credit on this great tune.
Music: George played rhythm guitar on this song on the finished recording and his playing is instantly recognizable in the famous bridge: one can hear the decending arpeggio on this song that George later employed to great effect on the "Abbey Road" album on such songs as "You Never Give Me Your Money," and "Carry That Weight." In all cases, George played his guitar through a Leslie organ speaker to get that unusual sound. As a result of George doing that, may artists began copying the effect including Clapton himself, Jimmy Page (Good Times, Bad Times) and Peter Frampton (almost everything he played).
Cream bassist Jack Bruce: was just quoted in Classic Rock magazine (July 2008, issue #120), recalling his one and only session with George Harrison back in 1968: "I met George druing the session Cream did for "Badge" and I was very impressed with his playing. I took it for granted that people like McCartney and Lennon were brilliant but didn't really analyse it. But when you actually play with George you could see what an amazing guitar player he was, doing things that I hadn't even thought of."
High praise indeed from one of the greatest bassists in Rock history and about the only other bassist to rival Paul McCartney during the 1960's. As this correspondant stated in an earlier blog, George did finally start getting recognized for his guitar playing chops late in the Beatles' recording career and then well into his solo years. As it turned out, he could also write fantastic rock songs.
By John Haberstroh (Bassist for BeatleTracks) Find us at www.beatletracksband.com
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