<P> "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1968 double album The Beatles (also known as "the White Album"). It was written by George Harrison, the band's lead guitarist . The song serves as a comment on the disharmony within the Beatles following their return from studying Transcendental Meditation in India in early 1968 . This lack of camaraderie was reflected in the band's initial apathy towards the composition, which Harrison countered by inviting his friend and occasional collaborator, Eric Clapton, to contribute to the recording . Clapton overdubbed a lead guitar part, although he was not formally credited for his contribution . </P> <P> Harrison wrote "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" as an exercise in randomness inspired by the Chinese I Ching . The song conveys his dismay at the world's unrealised potential for universal love, which he refers to as "the love there that's sleeping". Harrison first recorded it with a sparse backing of acoustic guitar and harmonium--a version that appeared on the 1996 Anthology 3 outtakes compilation and, with the addition of a string arrangement by George Martin, on the Love soundtrack album in 2006 . The full group recording was made in September 1968, at which point the song's folk - based musical arrangement was replaced by a production in the heavy rock style . The recording was one of several collaborations between Harrison and Clapton during the late 1960s and was followed by the pair co-writing the song "Badge" for Clapton's group Cream . </P> <P> On release, the song received praise from several music critics, and it has since been recognised as an example of Harrison's continued maturity as a songwriter beside his Beatles bandmates John Lennon and Paul McCartney . Rolling Stone ranked "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" 136th on its list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time", seventh on the "100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time", and at number 10 on its list of "The Beatles 100 Greatest Songs". Clapton's performance was ranked 42nd in Guitar World's 2008 list of the "100 Greatest Guitar Solos". Harrison and Clapton often performed the song together live, during which they shared the lead guitarist's role over the closing section . Live versions featuring the pair were included on the Concert for Bangladesh album in 1971 and Live in Japan in 1992 . Backed by a band that included McCartney and Ringo Starr, Clapton performed the song at the Concert for George in November 2002, a year after Harrison's death . </P> <P> George Harrison wrote "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" after his return from India, where the Beatles had been studying Transcendental Meditation under Maharishi Mahesh Yogi during the spring of 1968 . The visit had allowed Harrison to re-engage with the guitar as his primary instrument, after focusing on the Indian sitar for the previous two years, and also marked the start of a prolific period for him as a songwriter . Inspiration for the song came to him when he was visiting his parents in Warrington, Cheshire, and he began reading the I Ching, or "The Book of Changes". As Harrison put it, "(the book) seemed to me to be based on the Eastern concept that everything is relative to everything else, as opposed to the Western view that things are merely coincidental ." Embracing this idea of relativism, he committed to writing a song based on the first words he saw upon opening a book, which happened to be "gently weeps". Harrison continued to work on the lyrics after this initial writing session . </P>

Who played the solo in while my guitar gently weeps
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