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The rise of soulless writing
Painting by numbers doesn’t make you an artist; and writing to a template does not make you a writer.
Former Beatle George Harrison passed away on 29 November 2001. In 2004, he was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
As part of the event, a one-off supergroup assembled to play a rendition of the Harrison-penned “While my guitar gently weeps” from the Beatles’ famous White Album. On stage that night was Tom Petty, Steve Winwood, Jeff Lynne and Harrison’s son Dhani.
For the first three and a half minutes, it is a by-the-numbers recreation of the Beatles song with Petty and Lynne sharing vocal duties. And then Prince appears from the side of the stage where he has been stood all along. In an instant, you are witnessing one of the greatest moments in rock and roll history. Prince’s unrehearsed solo is transcendent. And even Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne — both of whom can play a bit — look on in awe as Prince’s flourishes and licks make the song entirely his own. It is a solo of emotion and passion dragged from the soul of a musician at the very peak of his powers.
I mention this guitar masterclass because it is the very antithesis of modern talent show musicianship in which everything adheres to a prescribed formula: “Take four or five…
