While My Guitar Gently Weeps vs itself

In my opinion it's one of the best songs of the Beatles. Great piano solo (McCartney), great rhythm (Ringo and George), great composition (Harrison), great guitar solo (Clapton), great arrangement, great pathos. In this song the Beatles find a superb jam rock dimension (more than 4 and a half minutes, paroxysmal rhythm, dramatic melody, pathos).  

Vinnie Moore recorded a great instrumental version of "Weeps" for his 1988 album Time Odyssey (still his overall best record, which features Jordan Rudess and is Dream Theater-styled prog-metal before DT showed up).

Both versions are outstanding. The bigger issue is that the original would not fit, as well, a story board like the acoustic version did ... which gave us a sort of ballet, that is very difficult to do on stage with the proper effects, but as seen here on film, it is excellent, and the acoustic version shines quite a bit. It adds a "lonely" feeling, that matches the visuals and the design for the film and cartoon sequences, which were put together extremely well, and more importantly ... very well thought out around the lyrics of the song.

This was the kind of thing that a lot of experimental dance groups and the like tried so hard to develop in the 70's and 80's, only to get laughed off and dumped, because the visualization of it all was so difficult to appreciate and live by ... something that the original song does not skimp at ... it allows the music to carry you, and the only visual needed is the lyrics telling you when the guitar should weep or not. Within a visual medium, this becomes a lot harder, unless one looks at the whole thing as a poetic exercise in being alone and hearing something sad on your guitar! The film, and staging on the acoustic version clarifies this in a way that the original song couldn't ... which left it to our imagination to find that staging.

It's very difficult for me to say ... which is better. I like the visualization way more than the original song ... which, for me, did not have any "visuals" like so many other pieces in that album did, but I think that the Beatles, at that time, were probably obsessed with not being so "meaningful", and "pointed" that folks would stop liking the band. Thus a "personal" tone, makes more sense as the next step, which only helped show how far apart and different they were ... but together, they still could play very well and beautifully so.

Btw, I was looking for the staging names and director, and could not find it ... anyone know? This could easily be one of the guys in 10CC that did so many videos (for The Police) ... a sort of look and feel that is very clear in this particular film.

Both versions are fine ... the main difference is that the 2nd one (the acoustic version), really takes it away from the radio/rockmusic feel, and makes the piece way more interesting ... though we might not like to say that because we love that original so much.