George Harrison - Wah Wah - On Electric Guitar

[trashiscool1]

Love is harrisongs.

[witchever99]

. George was a great guitar player and was quite capable of strumming a few chords while writing a cool song. As the Yardbirds and Clapton were riffing on robert johnson George had already sold millions with a little ensemble called THE BEATLES !

[jonnyboyW20]

this is F@#%ing amazing

[muhrvis]

Why does everyone think that any cool guitar must be Eric Clapton? No, it is George... Clapton got quite a few riffs from George, you know.

[iLoveJohnLennon17]

I love you George! 3

[Cantormatis]

Who is playing bass guitar? Clapton could be playing lead here; and george on bass, unless george took multiple takes and this is a guide vocal?

[789TheBeatles]

@Cantormatis This is George on lead guitar and Phil Spector on bass guitar.

[CaptainSpauIding]

@789TheBeatles Spector occasionally played bass when he was not beating the living shit out of Ronnie.

[Cantormatis]

@Cantormatis Spector played bass?

[MrAngemystere]

@Cantormatis:

This is George Harrison on guitar, solo, with Phil Spector on incompetent bass. This is just a demo, although it seems to have surprised some people who, bizarrely, seem to think that Clapton played the all of the guitars on the final recording. In reality, Clapton played the wah wah, but Harrison played all of the very distinctive and classic slide guitar solos on this track. This is a great riff.

[ThrowbackMountainDew]

Where can you find the studio version and not the live or demo?

[Icanhasoboe]

@ThrowbackMountainDew you can...buy the album

[songsforeverful]

I learned this riff on my mexican fender strat.

I wish I could play the other bits.it is difficult.

[blindgrunt59]

@songsforeverful dude keep trying it will fall into place ! believe me!!!!!!......

[LahTzu]

Wawa employs 16,000 associates throughout portions of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia.

[theofficemaster19]

George Harrison is the man!

[diagreen]

NOBODY AND I MEAN NOBODY COULD STRING TOGETHER CHORDS LIKE THIS GUY.SO CREATIVE.ALMOST EVERYBODY SOUND SILLY NEXT TO HIM.i feel lucky to have lived when he did.wish he couda hung around longer

[diagreen]

PRICELESS.thats what i always say when somebody posts this.

[22MrSamuel]

haha goerge kinda looks like jesus lol

[elfw69]

I prefer this version to the wall of sound album version in ATMP, great to hear the song in the raw and intended form.

After hearing this version, i grudge Spector for over producing the ATMP album version.

[bamboosa]

The Concert for George version of Wah Wah doesn't exist on utube - bummer. Hearing this demo I was surprised to hear this song pretty well fleshed out - kudos to Spector on his very dense extrapolation of what was implied in the demo. He may have become an insane psychopath years later, but he definitely had "ears".

[nafaidni]

@bamboosa

It exists now. Might wish to see it.

[69MC97gc]

"You made me of a Lifetime,cheaper than a Dime"-just listen to the words.Then listen to Journey and their first Album,first song"Of a Lifetime"-It is in the past,but please listen to the lyrics...and btw ,Journey was in touch with George when they formed the band---

[richie1905]

This is outstandin!

[animanera69]

I love you George!

[vestidadeprimavera]

I love you, I love you, I love you.

[raulamx]

this is just just just amazing, so amazing :) we msssss u George

[MrRocker04]

this was recorded during the demo Spector sessions. It's george on bass, just laying a guide down, overdubbed after the vocal/guitar. And it is definetly George on guitar. George was a extremely proficent guitar player when he wanted to be, and this was one of those times.

[bc1969214]

Was it Spector's idea to add the horn section instead of the guitar used here? I like both versions, the final one with all the instruments melding together is awesome though. Impressively inventive. I was hoping to find the one from Concert for George somewhere on youtube, but so far no go. Lots of smiles from the band on that one.

[jonotknapp]

does anyone know of a tab for that bridge? (you cant see me crying etc)

[diecilire]

fantastic!

[barilko5551]

bass player was probably KLAUS VOORMAN and Im sure as hell think he knew what he was doing - thats why these things are called `demos`...i guess he got better on the final recording..eh

[johnnydemo9]

It couldve been Carl Radle?

He also played bass guitar

on All Things Must Pass.

[therealnotpalc]

sure sounds like clapton on guitar

could this be true?

[LittleHarrisonGirl]

yeah, I already thought that, too, but I read a description of this bootleg, and there are only harrison and spector, no clapton ;-)

[jwdavis1]

@LittleHarrisonGirl just watched the martin scorcese documentary and they talked about this recording. Clapton was definately there. Harrison commented that they practiced it for hours, then walked into the control room with Phil Spectre and Clapton said " I love it" to which Harrison answered " I hate it, you can have it on your album"

[subg88]

@jwdavis1

They were talking about an early take with the band recording ATMP, not this particular recording which is just a demo run through by Harrison.

[MrAngemystere]

@jwdavis1:

I saw the excellent documentary, but I believe you've got the quote completely wrong. Harrison told Spector that hated all of the reverb, Spector's "Wall of Sound," for which the album became famous/notorious. The recollection is in the early part of the first part of the documentary. Clapton never recorded Wah Wah. The song remains a favourite from Harrison's classic All Things Must Pass, still the best selling of the Beatle solo albums.

[MrAngemystere]

NO. It's George Harrison on guitar. It gets a bit annoying, but many attribute to Eric what George actually played, and certainly the Bangladesh and Japan concert clips show Harrison in very, very fine form playing with/against Clapton. And that's not even counting Harrison's killer slide guitar playing. Don't forget, Harrison played on numerous Clapton tracks dating back to the Beatle days.

[yennel]

you idiot!!!!!

[MrAngemystere]

@MrAnusmysphincter: Your attempt at parody of your superiors only reveals your dearth of decency and intelligence, typical of the right-wing PIGGIES ("what they need is a damn good wacking!") of which you are one. You are your own cutting parody of all that is stupid, coarse, ignorant, and envious. MrAnusyYOU'REasphincter, indeed. Every now and then a moment of truth, eh, oinker?

[kotek1]

@therealnotpalc this is a genuine question here, but how can you tell? Clapton seems to me more like an imitator, who could do other rock/blues/whatever but who didn't really have his own style or innovate anything.

[nafaidni]

@therealnotpalc

Clapton probably wrote the guitar chords. George is playing them, though. Not sure who plays bass...

It proves that George can perform pretty complex riffs if he feels like it.

[clairdenisetpotee]

@nafaidni....WTF?? Clapton NEVER wrote any chords for any Harrison song. Clapton himself said he never quite got all of Harrison's weird (for rock) diminished, minus 5ths, augmented 9ths chords. Both Clapton and Harrison shared lead guitar on famous tracks (like Cloud Nine). So yeah. George played quite a lot of complex riffs throughout his career. And Your Bird Can Sing. Old Brown Shoe. Wah Wah. Your Love is Forever. Etc. Those all had unusual chords, without Clapton's help.

[nafaidni]

@clairdenisetpotee

That's good to know, then. But why do people keep saying they can recognize "Clapton's style of playing" on songs like That's What it Takes? Doesn't that imply that he's making up his own chords to play? The way he plays any specific riff can't be much different from the way anyone performs it. His riffs are just recognizable.

And by complex, I mean having an excessively large amount of notes in a short period of time. >.>

[clairdenisetpotee]

@nafaidni, people who talk up "Clapton's playing," are those who often never actually played a guitar in their life. They don't know squat Clapton's or Harrison's guitar techniques. Or any other guitar player's.

A lead rock guitarist, be he Clapton or Harrison, sets down an improvisational set of notes based on a scale (usually pentatonic) over a preset chord progression (the pattern of chords making a song or piece).

Harrison wrote the chord progression. Both he and Clapton solo over it.

[nafaidni]

@clairdenisetpotee

Well, they identified it well on that particular song. Unless they somehow looked up the song to find out that Clapton played the solo at the end and then deliberately came back to ask, "Did Clapton play on this? The solo at the end sounds like him", then I'm going to assume they're not completely clueless.

Besides that, don't think I myself make assumptions that Clapton played on this. I never listen to Clapton.

[clairdenisetpotee]

@nafaidni, nah, I didn't see anything from anyone anywhere that claims Clapton played the solos on Wah Wah. All of the solos are bottleneck slide and they use major and diminished scales. Pure Harrison. Clapton played straight blues riffs. Both Harrison and Clapton played the intro riff together, but Clapton's on the wah wah pedal. Harrison plays through a wah wah here, and pretty well, too. Seems Clapton and Harrison played together so often because they were like brothers, real tight.

[clairdenisetpotee]

@nafaidni, there's a lot of Harrison bootlegs out there, and they've been out there for years. Long before you tube. They're well documented on who played what. They confirm Harrison as the solo guitarist on lots of stuff that we already suspected he played on. Like It Don't Come Easy or Day After Day. George played session lead for a lot of people. From jazz-rock guy Tom Scott to soul man Billy Preston. He even played on a Cheech and Chong song. They were the Harry and Kumar of the day.

[rifham]

@nafaidni I think you've got it reversed.

[nafaidni]

@rifham

Not really, no. I'm just mirroring what I've seen other people say on the comments.

[clairdenisetpotee]

@nafaidni, remember, it's one thing to have an opinion. That's merely a feeling or belief. When most people say things on the comments section about a guitarist, they often give voice to their feelings and beliefs, and not about what they actually know about playing guitar. Most people who post here and elsewhere are not guitarists.

Actual musicians will explain what a featured guitarist is doing, and why it makes his or her playing interesting.

Harrison was a very interesting guitarist.

[klausgroi]

this is very rare... I didn't know this bootleg, I don't know many bootlegs of him...

[sailtheseaofcheese]

wow did that bassist have no idea what he was playing or what!

[randlec6]

Nice job finding this, this is better than the studio version. Your can really hear the lyrics clearly.

[randlec6]

and of course the guitar is pure golden.

[williamhthompson]

@randlec6 really? that is an absurd opinion.

[34bx]

I love this song!!

but I really enjoy it better the live version