Beatles guitar parts when Harrison & when not ?

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by johnny moondog 909, Oct 3, 2016.

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  1. Kim Olesen

    Kim Olesen Gently weeping guitarist.

    Location:
    Odense Denmark.
    They were still half a year from their "we'll let Paul have his way and play some leads too" phase.
     
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  2. slane

    slane Forum Resident

    Location:
    Merrie England
    I don't think Paul even had a usable electric guitar until he got his Casino just after the Beatles For Sale sessions.
     
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  3. zipp

    zipp Forum Resident

    OK.

    How about It's All Too Much?

    Some say it's John, some say Paul and some say George on lead guitar.
     
  4. Onder

    Onder Senior Member

    George said it was played by Paul.
     
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  5. zipp

    zipp Forum Resident

    Apparently he said Paul played lead on It's All Too Much in an interview in 1999. Do you know where that interview was?
     
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  6. Ern

    Ern Senior Member

    Location:
    Portugal
    Billboard Magazine 19 June 1999, interview by Timothy White, in reference to It’s All Too Much:
    "But, now, I don’t think I was playing the guitar feedback, as I say, I was playing the organ, so I think that was probably Paul that did that."

    Not firmly conclusive, but I think we can rule out George on guitar, and Paul was coming with that 'agressive' style guitar playing, in some songs.

    If only we could hear the basic track takes! If those inicial takes were Guitar, Organ, Bass and Drums, then my guess is George (organ), Paul (guitar), John (bass) and Ringo (drums). Not a difficult bass line for John to handle, due to his limitations as a bass player.
     
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  7. zipp

    zipp Forum Resident

    Sounds more than possible.
     
  8. winston32

    winston32 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Norway
    Sorry if BBC-recordings are out of topic, but did John play that wild solo on Lucille? Towards the end (starting at 6:05) of take 7 of She's A Woman, John plays something very similar to that solo.
     
  9. zipp

    zipp Forum Resident

    Yes it could be John. And I don't think it's off topic. The only thing we can be sure of is that in a live situation Paul would always be on bass but John could do a solo.
    As I think someone has already pointed out, when a live appearance was filmed the cameras always chose to show the crowd at the moment of the solo or they'd show George since he was nominally the lead guitarist. You get the impression it was a kind of an unwritten rule.
     
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  10. zipp

    zipp Forum Resident

    OK this was the original question. If by 'reassigned' we include tracks where George shared the lead or even replaced Paul then here's my list for the studio albums.

    Does everyone feel at ease with this list? The idea is to list songs where George could reasonably have been expected to feature alone on lead guitar (even if this would sometimes have meant double-tracking).

    • "You Can't Do That" - John plays lead

    • "Every Little Thing" - John plays lead (and also sings the main vocal on this Paul song)

    • "Long Tall Sally" - John plays the first solo, George plays the second

    • "Ticket to Ride" - Paul plays lead lines, George plays the hypnotic riff

    • "The Night Before" – Paul and George play the solo simultaneously

    • "Another Girl" - Paul plays lead

    • "Drive My Car" - Paul plays the main lead and solo

    • "Paperback Writer" - Paul main lead guitar (confirmed by George on Saturday Club)

    • "Taxman" - Paul plays the solo

    • "She Said She Said" – George on lead guitar and bass!

    • "And Your Bird Can Sing" – George and Paul on lead guitars

    • "Tomorrow Never Knows" - Paul plays backward guitar solo

    • "Sgt Pepper" - Paul plays main lead guitar

    • "Good Morning Good Morning" - Paul plays the solo

    • "It's All Too Much" – Probably Paul on lead guitar, George on organ (George in Billboard)

    • "Back in the USSR" – George and Paul lead guitars (Lewisohn)

    • "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" - Eric Clapton plays lead and the solo

    • "I Will" – No George

    • "Birthday" - John and Paul play lead guitars, George on bass

    • "Yer Blues" - John the first half of the solo, George the second

    • "Honey Pie" - John plays lead guitar solo, George plays bass

    • "Get Back" - John plays lead and the solo

    • "For You Blue" - John plays steel guitar including the solo

    • "The Ballad of John and Yoko" - John plays guitar

    • "I Want You" - John plays the melody lines and the solo

    • "You Never Give Me Your Money" – John plays lead
     
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  11. Kim Olesen

    Kim Olesen Gently weeping guitarist.

    Location:
    Odense Denmark.
    Not convinced about this one.

    But perhaps Michelle should be in there.
     
  12. zipp

    zipp Forum Resident

    You're the first to question Every little Thing which has been in the list from page one! But of course your comment is welcome.
    In 1964 Paul said : "John does the guitar riff for this one, and George is on acoustic." Difficult to argue with that, even if I do find the short descending solo somewhat George-like.

    As for Michelle, in 1993 George Martin said :
    "The guitar solo in 'Michelle' is my composition, actually. I wrote down the notes and said, 'I'll play this; George, you can do these notes with me on guitar. We'll play in unison.'"
    Since no keyboards can be heard on the recording, the unison piano work of George Martin was most likely played off microphone.
     
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  13. Kim Olesen

    Kim Olesen Gently weeping guitarist.

    Location:
    Odense Denmark.
    Paul has also claimed ownership of the Michelle solo, saying it was played high up on the bass fretboard.
     
  14. Cokelike-

    Cokelike- Forum Resident

    Location:
    Columbus, Oh
    Actually, I questioned this just a page ago. I still find it odd that John would take the lead here and then years later, George, during the LIB sessions would just bust out that intro. I mean, if he didn't play it during the original session how does he know it so well that he can just instantly recall it years later. Was he recently going back over Beatles For Sale tracks and learning parts he didn't play? It just seems so odd to me. Add to this that John played the acoustic on nearly every track during those sessions. But on this song we have George on acoustic? I'll grant you that Paul's quote carries a lot of weight but since they recorded this over 2 days and they scrapped the ''best'' take 4 on the first day, maybe it was this ''best'' take 4 that Paul was recalling which featured John on lead. Then maybe on the next day George came up with an improved intro and they used him on lead for the actual final ''best'' take. Not an improbable scenario, eh?
     
  15. Cokelike-

    Cokelike- Forum Resident

    Location:
    Columbus, Oh
    I know this one was much debated here. Remind me again, why this isn't Paul on bass? Please. :)
     
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  16. Lostchord

    Lostchord Dr. Livingstone, I presume

    Location:
    Poznań, Poland
    in Paul's words: I think we had a barney or something and I said, 'Oh, f*** you!,' and they said, 'Well, we'll do it.' I think George played bass
     
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  17. zipp

    zipp Forum Resident

    Sory, I missed your post on this. Your reasoning looks good. Maybe I should take Every Little Thing off the list.

    As for She Said She Said, Paul felt the others were getting at him because the song was about LSD and he hadn't taken it yet. He walked out of the session. So, in a way, Paul was the first and last Beatle to leave the group.
     
  18. Onder

    Onder Senior Member

    I was thinking about that possibility too. But on the other hand, the guitar sounds nothing like George's Rick 360/12, it's very much like 325/12.

    Plus Lewisohn says that the lead guitar was an overdub as it's on the master take only which points to Lennon playing it. He didn't want to sing and play the lead at the same time I guess. George would be ready to play live on every take as he was not singing.

    Ondra
     
  19. Ern

    Ern Senior Member

    Location:
    Portugal
    Source?
     
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  20. Onder

    Onder Senior Member

    Do you have source for it? It's strange as it's clearly a guitar with the treble knob rolled off.

    Ondra
     
  21. slane

    slane Forum Resident

    Location:
    Merrie England
    As far as I remember, it's in the intro of Recording Sessions. Lewisohn mentions the bass 'solo' of Michelle to Paul. Paul seems to miss that Mark is talking about the solo specifically and just mentions the 'Bizet thing' he did when he overdubbed the bass part. So it's not confirmation that the solo was done on the bass (I don't think it was).
     
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  22. zipp

    zipp Forum Resident

    He just talks about the bass lines on various songs : Michelle, Lucy, With a Little Help. He's not talking about the solo.
     
  23. Cokelike-

    Cokelike- Forum Resident

    Location:
    Columbus, Oh
    It's not possible that George simply played John's guitar? I mean these guys swapped instruments all the time. If Paul and John wrote this one together, wouldn't it make the most sense to have John play acoustic on the basic track? As he did on nearly every other song during the sessions? The basic track would be John-acoustic, Paul-bass, Ringo-drums. Then, when George, who has been perfecting his part and solo is ready, they add the guitar-piano-timpani overdubs.
     
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  24. zipp

    zipp Forum Resident

    "'Every Little Thing' is his song. Maybe I threw in something." John,1980.
     
  25. Onder

    Onder Senior Member

    Yes, they did swap their guitars. Part of the session was photographed (I believe Every Little Thing overdubs and early stages of What You're Doing backing track) and the only person captured with the Rick 325/12 is John.
    When you listen to the solo, 325/12 plays the riff and 6 string guitar palm muted guitar answers on low e string (E F# G# A). There is photo from this session of John playing Rick 325/12 and Paul playing John's Rick 325 upside down which I believe captures this solo overdub. Maybe @Ern can provide the photo.

    There were few anomalies during various sessions, like John playing drums (well just a snare) on I Need You for example which is much more extreme than this.

    Ondra
     
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