“I remember absolutely nothing about it”: Abbey Road engineer shares mystery surrounding Eric Clapton’s While My Guitar Gently Weeps solo
Record producer and engineer Ken Scott says that barely any studio personnel who worked on The Beatles’ famous White Album can remember the experience of Eric Clapton recording the solo for While My Guitar Gently Weeps.
Scott has worked with the likes of Pink Floyd, David Bowie, and the Jeff Beck Group across his career, and was one of five main engineers for the Fab Four. Though Clapton’s famed uncredited work on the track has gone on to be seen as an important part of Beatles history, it seems those who worked with the band at the time can’t remember much about how it came together.
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In an interview with Rick Beato, Scott says he even tried hypnotherapy to try and revive his memory. In part, he feels his recollection of that time may be hazy as it was another day in the office at that time. Little did he know back then how significant it would go on to be.
“I remember absolutely nothing about it,” Scott says [via Guitar World]. “But I’m not the only one. When I was writing my book [Abbey Road to Ziggy Stardust], [I was] asked the question, ‘What was it like Eric coming and playing on that? How did they react?’ and all of that, and I’ve just had to answer, ‘I can’t remember.’”
He adds, “I went to John Smith, who was my assistant engineer, my button pusher at that point [who said], ‘I don’t remember anything about it.’ I went to Chris Thomas, George Martin’s assistant, who was producing at that point because George was on holiday, and [he said], ‘I don’t remember anything about it.’
“The one thing I vaguely remember – Chris and I have talked about it – is Eric saying that the only way he’d play on it is if he sounded like The Beatles, as opposed to Eric Clapton.”
To achieve Clapton’s wishes, Scott says they used ADT on his guitar: “ADT is either artificial double tracking or automatic double tracking, whichever you choose to use. It stemmed from John [Lennon] not wanting to sing the song twice.
“He went to Ken Townsend, who was one of the amp room guys, and said, ‘Is there a way you can come up with something so that I don’t have to sing it twice?’ Ken went away, and as brilliant as he was, he came back and said, ‘I may have got it.’”
You can watch the full interview below:
The post “I remember absolutely nothing about it”: Abbey Road engineer shares mystery surrounding Eric Clapton’s While My Guitar Gently Weeps solo appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Source: www.guitar-bass.net
