“THIS GUITAR (CAN’T KEEP FROM CRYING)”

“This Guitar (Can’t Keep From Crying)”,released in December 1975, this would serve as the final single from Apple Records. 

Writing during a holiday in Hawaii, George later told Musician in 1987 that “This Guitar (Can’t Keep from Crying)” “came about because the press and critics tried to nail me on the 1974–5 tour. They got really nasty.” George gave as good as he got, adding the lyrics, “Learned to get up when I fall, can even climb Rolling Stone walls. … Thought by now you knew the score, you missed the point just like before. While you attack, create offense, I’ll put it down to your ignorance.” 

That set the tone for Extra Texture (Read All About It), George’s darkest, most downbeat record. In fact, bassist Klaus Voormann – a friend from Harrison’s mop top days and another regular solo Beatles collaborator – is reportedly missing from “This Guitar (Can’t Keep from Crying)” because he tired of the bad vibes surrounding these sessions.

George instead overdubbed a keyboard bassline, completing a song that also featured David Foster on piano, Gary Wright on an ARP synth that offers a feel very similar to his contemporary hit “Dream Weaver,” and Jim Keltner on drums. Alas, “This Guitar (Can’t Keep from Crying)” became the first Harrison single to fall short of the Billboard Top 40. In fact, it didn’t even chart. Thus began a lengthy period of disengagement, as Harrison refused to tour again for some 17 years. When he finally returned, Jim Keltner would be on hand again, collaborating with Harrison on the platinum-selling Cloud Nine and Traveling Wilburys projects in the late ’80s.