{"id":184585,"date":"2025-08-29T12:45:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-29T12:45:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/184585\/"},"modified":"2025-08-29T12:45:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T12:45:12","slug":"the-only-song-george-harrison-wrote-for-eric-clapton-and-later-recorded-himself","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/184585\/","title":{"rendered":"The Only Song George Harrison Wrote for Eric Clapton and Later Recorded Himself"},"content":{"rendered":"

While Cream<\/a> was working on their fourth and final album, Goodbye, Eric Clapton<\/a> and George Harrison<\/a> began writing a song for it. The favor was being returned to Clapton, who played lead guitar on Harrison\u2019s classic \u201cWhile My Guitar Gently Weeps<\/a>,\u201d from the Beatles<\/a>\u2018 White Album, but somewhere along the way, their new Cream song ended up being mis-titled.<\/p>\n

\u201cEach of them had to come up with a song for that\u00a0\u2018Goodbye\u2019\u00a0Cream album, and Eric didn\u2019t have his written,\u201d\u00a0recalled Harrison<\/a>. \u201cWe were working across from each other, and I was writing the lyrics down, and we came to the middle part, so I wrote \u2018Bridge.\u2019 Eric read it upside down and cracked up laughing. \u2018What\u2019s a Badge?\u2019 he said. After that, Ringo [Starr] walked in drunk and gave us that line about the swans living in the park.\u201d<\/p>\n

The song remained as \u201cBadge\u201d and appeared on Goodbye, marking the duo\u2019s first collaboration. The two later reconnected on more projects in the \u201960s through \u201980s. Both play guitar, along with Ringo Starr<\/a> on drums, on Jackie Lomax\u2019s 1968 single \u201cSour Milk Sea,\u201d which Harrison had originally written for the White Album. Two years later, Clapton played guitar on Harrison\u2019s third solo album, All Things Must Pass.<\/p>\n

In 1987, Clapton also appeared on Harrison\u2019s eleventh album, Cloud Nine, playing guitar on the title track, \u201cThat\u2019s What It Takes,\u201d \u201cWreck of the Hesperus,\u201d and \u201cDevil\u2019s Radio,\u201d four years before the two toured Japan together in 1991.<\/p>\n

[RELATED: Remember When George Harrison Was Found Guilty of \u201cSubconsciously\u201d Plagiarizing His \u2018All Things Must Pass\u2019 Hit \u201cMy Sweet Lord\u201d]<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"George Harrison (left) and Eric Clapton at Limehouse Studios in London during the recording of \u2018Blue Suede Shoes,\u2019 spotlighting rockabilly songwriter and guitarist Carl Perkins. In the background are drummers Slim Jim Phantom and Ringo Starr. (Photo by Dave Hogan\/Hulton Archive\/Getty Images)\u2018Journeyman\u2019<\/p>\n

When Clapton began working on his 1989 album Journeyman, Harrison had another contribution for his friend. \u201cRun So Far\u201d was never released as a single but was Harrison\u2019s sole contribution to the album, which was considered a return to form for Clapton, who was previously struggling with an alcohol addiction. <\/p>\n

Harrison\u2019s lyrics spoke directly to Clapton\u2019s personal struggles and the feeling of being trapped in addiction.<\/p>\n

You fly
Out as your smile wears thin
And I sigh
Knowing the mess you\u2019re in
And you know that you can\u2019t get away
And you know you can\u2019t hide it from yourself<\/p>\n

Lonely days, heavy heart
No escape, can only run so far<\/p>\n

I know
Something I ought to say
Stuck here
Trying to find a way
And you know that you can\u2019t get away
And you know you can\u2019t hide it from yourself<\/p>\n

Lonely nights, blue guitar
No way out, can only run so far
Lonesome tears, at the bar
One-way street, can only run so far<\/p>\n

For the album, Harrison, who also plays guitar and sings harmony on \u201cRun So Far,\u201d also offered Clapton two more songs for Journeyman, including\u00a0\u201cCheer Down,\u201d which he co-wrote with Tom Petty<\/a> and later appeared on the soundtrack for Lethal Weapon 2 (1989), and \u201cThat Kind Of Woman,\u201d first recorded by Gary Moore and later covered by Clapton in 1990.<\/p>\n

Once released, Journeyman\u00a0was a comeback for Clapton, hitting the Top 20 (at No. 16) and winning a Grammy Award for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance for the single \u201cBad Love.\u201d <\/p>\n

Harrison\u2019s version of \u201cRun So Far\u201d was later released on his twelfth, posthumous album, Brainwashed,\u00a0in 2002. It was co-produced with his son Dhani<\/a> and Traveling Wilburys bandmate Jeff Lynne<\/a>, who also plays guitar and bass and sings on the track. <\/p>\n

Photo: Dave Hogan\/Hulton Archive\/Getty Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While Cream was working on their fourth and final album, Goodbye, Eric Clapton and George Harrison began writing…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":184586,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[59452,25420,171,46908,46910,975,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-184585","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-beatles","9":"tag-cream","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-eric-clapton","12":"tag-george-harrison","13":"tag-music","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115112124442470679","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184585"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184585\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/184586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}