My teenage son has recently got into the Beatles. Nothing wrong with that of course and the Fab Four are certainly an important part of a balanced musical diet. I however am old enough to remember the UK punk era of the mid-late 70′s when the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and similar “dinosaur” acts were suddenly about as fashionable as flared trousers.
At around the same time I started a lifelong love affair with (what was then called) black music: soul, funk, jazz, disco, reggae and the host of micro-genres that followed…so in those formative years the Beatles just never seemed particularly relevant to anything in my musical life. The fact that they were later worshiped by Oasis only helped to further distance me from them.
That said, the influence of Messrs Lennon and McCartney – and to a lesser extent Harrison – runs through popular music like lettering through a stick of seaside rock; meaning that fans of soul, reggae and (especially) jazz will have more than a few Beatles cover versions in their collection.
Which brings us nicely to Jimmy Ponders’ reading of the George-penned classic, While My Guitar Gently Weeps. From the 1974 Cadet LP of the same name, this is a brooding-but-funky outing and the rather abrupt fade-out only leaves us wishing for an extended, freakier version.
Download: Jimmy Ponder – While My Guitar Gently Weeps (right click)
