A Hard Day's Night- The Beatles (Guitar Cover)
Shoutout to @12footchain @MichaelSokil and @DRguitar918
Their covers helped me figure out some important moments in the song
One of the greatest intros of all time, songs of all time, albums of all time, guitar solos, etc. This is a big one! A Hard Day's Night is the opening song to the album and film of the same name, in 1964. It is my favorite early Beatles album, and in my top 5 movies of all time too
Now that we've gotten the accolades out of the way, let's discuss the inner workings of this classic song. It was recorded on April 16th, 1964 in Studio Two at EMI. It took nine takes to get the backing track right- George on electric, John on acoustic and vocals, Paul on bass and vocals and Ringo on drums
George used his new Rickenbacker 360/12 12-string electric guitar into a Vox AC-50 amp. John played his Gibson J-160e acoustic. These are the only two guitars used on the song, although many overdubs occured
Overdubs included bongos, cowbell, piano, and vocals. There were two guitar overdubs- the solo and the ending arpeggios, both George playing the Rickenbacker 12
Therefore, in total there are four guitar tracks heard: The two backing track guitars (acoustic and electric rhythm) and two overdubs (George's solo and outro)
The opening chord has caused more controversy than almost any moment in music history. Paul played a D note on bass, while George martin played a D-G-D chord on piano. Here's my best guess as to what John and George are playing (thanks to Michael, Doug, Dom for their videos)-
John on J160e: 103213 (with thumb wrapped around)
George on 360/12: 133213 (with thumb wrapped around, barring A and D string 3rd fret)
The solo is equally as confusing. George Martin plays piano, while George plays the 360/12. They recorded together it at half speed, meaning George Martin slowed down the song 50% for them to record to. Then he doubled the speed of that overdub track, so it matched the song again. Therefore, it ends up sounding very high pitched and fast
I used a similar technique to record my version of the solo, albeit not with tape machines. I slowed down the whole song by 50% in iMovie, recorded my guitar solo along to that, and then sped up that guitar by 200% in iMovie. Easy!
For gear, I'm using my 1966 Gibson J-160e acoustic electric. It's a real vintage acoustic, like Lennon's. It has replacement tuners, but that's it. It's all original otherwise, and I'm using Ernie Ball pure nickel roundwound 11 gauge strings on it
My Rickenbacker is a 1999 360/12v64 with a custom Ernie Ball roundwound set. I'm using an Analogman King of Tone pedal to boost the signal a little bit. My amp is a 2010's Vox AC-30C2x
INTERESTING NOTES:
0:00 See my description above of the opening chord^
0:05 John plays C with the pinky on high E 3rd fret during verses
0:12 George hits the Low C note twice before going to E
0:17 John plays C 332010 here
0:17 George chromatically slides up 3rd, 4th, 5th frets on the D-string to transition from the open G chord to the C5 chord (X35XXX)
0:18 George slides his index back to the 2nd fret of the A string, while keeping his pinky on 5th fret of D string, creating a B over G chord. Then slides up X35XXX X46XXX to X57XXX
0:46 John plays an extra Bm chord before Em
0:54 John plays G longer by mistake, then fixes it and goes to Em quickly
0:56 George plays a C7 then a D7
1:14 George slides up from a normal C chord position to D7 (X5453X) here instead of the C5 to D5 chromatic ascension
1:20 The guitar solo begins. See description above, how it was recorded at half speed
1:24 During the solo, George plays a low Bb note after the first C-D-F hammer-ons
1:43 John again plays an extra Bm before Em
2:13 George plays a C7 here
2:21 John and George sustain the opening Fadd9 chord, although George hits his early
2:22 George's overdubbed arpeggio outro enters
MY GEAR:
1966 Gibson J-160e
1999 Rickenbacker 360/12v64
Analogman King of Tone
Vox AC-30C2X
Neumann TLM-103
#thebeatles #aharddaysnight #guitarcover
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