Rock and roll

Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll or rock 'n' roll) is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, from a combination of African-American genres such as blues, boogie woogie, jump blues, jazz, and gospel music, together with Western swing and country music. Though elements of rock and roll can be heard in blues records from the 1920s and in country records of the 1930s, the genre did not acquire its name until the 1950s.

"Rock and roll" can refer either to the first wave of music that originated in the US in the 1950s prior to its development into "rock music", or more broadly to rock music and culture. For the purpose of differentiation, this article deals with the first definition.

In the earliest rock and roll styles of the late 1940s and early 1950s, either the piano or saxophone was often the lead instrument, but these were generally replaced or supplemented by guitar in the middle to late 1950s. The beat is essentially a blues rhythm with an accentuated backbeat, the latter almost always provided by a snare drum. Classic rock and roll is usually played with one or two electric guitars (one lead, one rhythm), a string bass or (after the mid-1950s) an electric bass guitar, and a drum kit. Beyond simply a musical style, rock and roll, as seen in movies and on television, influenced lifestyles, fashion, attitudes, and language. In addition, rock and roll may have contributed to the civil rights movement because both African-American and white American teens enjoyed the music. It went on to spawn various genres, often without the initially characteristic backbeat, that are now more commonly called simply "rock music" or "rock".

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While My Guitar Gently Weeps

"While My Guitar Gently Weeps" is a song written by George Harrison, first recorded by the Beatles in 1968 for their eponymous double album (also known as "the White Album"). The song features lead guitar by Eric Clapton, although he was not formally credited on the album.

"While My Guitar Gently Weeps" is ranked at number 136 on Rolling Stone's "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time", number 7 on the magazine's list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time, and number 10 on its list of The Beatles 100 Greatest Songs. In an online poll held by Guitar World magazine in February 2012, "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" was voted the best of Harrison's Beatle-era songs. In October 2008, Guitar World ranked Clapton's playing at number 42 in its list of the "100 Greatest Guitar Solos".

Composition and recording

Inspiration for the song came to Harrison when reading the I Ching, which, as Harrison put it, "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". Taking this idea of relativism to his parents’ home in northern England, Harrison committed to write a song based on the first words he saw upon opening a random book. He later explained the process:

Gently Weeps

Gently Weeps is the fifth U.S. solo album by ukulele artist Jake Shimabukuro, released in September 2006 on the Hitchhike Records label. In Japan the album was released on June 19, 2006 by Sony Music Distribution, with 17 tracks, many of which differed from the U.S. release, and additional bonus tracks on a CD-ROM.

Awards and reviews

Gently Weeps peaked at #2 on Billboard's Top World Music Albums in 2006. The album won the 2007 Na Hoku Hanohano Award for Instrumental Album of the Year.

AllMusic's review of Gently Weeps noted that:

John Diliberto's review of the album included the following synopsis:

Track listing

All tracks composed by Jake Shimabukuro except where noted