Beatles guitar solos by John Lennon

But isn't this George on slide lead on "Come Together"? Sorry, I know we went over this in the past, but that one just seems to not sink in with me...

And who played slide on one of the prototype versions of "Strawberry Fields Forever"? Perhaps the slide track from which we hear just a bit during the chorus of the official version?...

 

Bumping this... because Ron might be around!

 

mellotron

 

Not slide... just bending the notes on his Les Paul. Ron

PS Re: Revolution #1. Again, Lewisohn says George added the overdubbed lead guitar lines. He did so on a session (21 June 1968) that both Paul (in the US) and Ringo missed. Of course he doesn't say HOW he knows this as fact, but it seems as if he listened to the session tapes because he goes on about John "having a marvelous time" remixing Revolution #9 (same session) into stereo. Ron

 

Nah, it's not a great solo by any stretch, but it's ok. George's worst released solo, IMO, is All You Need Is Love. It starts fine, but he runs out of ideas pretty quickly, letting the string players do their thing while he seemingly stops midstream. It was live, but sheesh. Ron

 

No, not the mellotron. Lewisohn mentions that slide guitar part...

 

my info is from Recording the Beatles, for whatever that's worth

 

If you listen to Yer Blues, you can clearly hear John playing the solo throughout the entire ending. The second half is buried under George's overdubbed searing solo. Listen closely. It's there.

As for Run For Your Life, how could the acoustic guitar be an overdub. The song opens with it. Did they have Ringo counting out on his hi hat and leaving an open space? That is odd since the song is driven by acoustic guitar.

Long tall Sally and You Can't Do That are clearly Lennon playing the first solos in each.

Lastly, Jimmy Nicoll sucks and looks like a jackass miming to those songs. He is not even close to miming what Ringo plays. Laughably embarrassing.

 

I think the title of the thread should have been "significant guitar parts by JL" not just limiting it to leads.
Signficant guitar parts in songs are far more important than leads most often.
Across The Universe guitar intro is pure genius.

 

I just examined the MOGG file of Run For Your Life and the acoustic guitar is NOT overdubbed, it wouldn't make sense either. It's locked on one track along with the drums, tambourine and electric guitar. So the 4track layout for the song is as follows:

Track 1: drums, acoustic guitar, el. guitar, tambourine

There is even an outtake out there that proves that the tambourine and acoustic guitar were done during the recording of the basic track.

The electric guitar on this track plays the riff and off beats on 2nd and 4th during verses.
My guess is that the acoustic guitar is in fact George (Gibson J160e) and John is on the electric (Stratocaster). They did the same thing on Another Girl. Just my guess.

Then the things start to get bit complicated, because if you want to fill the rest of the instrumentation to get the released version you need 4 more tracks! Which means that Lewisohn is not accurate as he fails to mention any reduction mix being done. But it's not surprising as he didn't mention reduction mixes being done for Help and You're Gonna Lose That Girl either. My suspicion is that these are not documented in the paperwork at all.

Rockband isolation shows that the bass guitar is an overdub occupying its own track, track 2.
Then we have 2 vocal tracks, panned hard left and right in the stereo mix, tracks 3 and 4.
Then there is yet another track with the lead guitar (playing the riff and solo) and slide guitar, panned hard right in the stereo mix. The reduction mix must have been done. The most probable scenario is as follows:

Track 1: drums, acoustic and electric guitar, tambourine
Track 2: Bass Guitar
Track 3: Lead and Backing Vocals
Track 4: Lead and Backing Vocals double tracking for the chorus

Then the tracks 1 and 2 were combined to free up space for the guitar track.

Ondra

 

I think they did a internal bouncing on this song.
Below is my guess for the recording process of the song.
(I posted this on Helter Skelter's now defunct blog a few years back and have not reconsidered
it since then. So it could have some errors.)

 

Onstage, both songs, yes. And You Can't Do That was announced at the time as being by John, yes. But listen to Long Tall Sally in stereo and explain how one solo can be John and one George when they are both on the same channel, and the rhythm guitar is on the other?

 

Lewisohn is correct, George played lead on the initial recording onto which Paul overdubbed a new lead. They're both on the song.

 

I have a Guitar Player magazine that quotes George as saying "Nowhere Man" is he and John playing the lead line in unison on their Fender Strats plugged into the same amp.

 

The tone of the intro and the tone of the solo are the same- and there are near-mistakes in both which are John's style. Sweet Little Sixteen's solo certainly doesn't sound like George is playing. In Tune In it's noted that John played all the Chuck Berry solos when he sang the songs, and while perhaps once they'd started recording them properly it was obvious George should do them, even on radio, this one is early enough to be before that revelation. I say it's John, unequivocally.

 

This is noted earlier in the thread. There's a video of George saying this and demonstrating with Rocky.

 

Yes I completely agree.

 

Where?

And another question: did John play anything on "Come Together"?

 

It's some Strat documentary. Can't remember which.
I don't think John plays anything other than tambourine on Come Together but some think he played the high bendy bits at the end.

 

Yes, I had noticed it, but did not realize it was John that just kept going. I used to think it was an earlier George solo over which he decided to overdub, like on "Let It Be". John turns to single note soloing in the last two bars of his (mixed) solo, then for the conclusion of the chorus he sounds like being turned down at the desk. I'd love to hear clearly the rest of what he plays then!

 

Could be great to answer us, Ron...

 

Ain't the samples on a mellotron just classical instruments and voices anyway? Just asking.

I see now that in an old exchange between me and brainwashed, he seemed to claim that the slide guitar part on SFF would be doubled by a mellotron, if I got this right. Unless I'm wrong, the mellotron there (and all over?) plays the flute "stops" only.

 

No, he is not correct because he claims specifically that the stinging distored lead guitar overdub was done by George Harrison. Which is not true. Paul did the guitar.

Ondra

 

John overdubbed the middle eight solo on his Casino, using his Casino's bridge pickup with tone control slightly rolled off. The outro guitar is George on his Les Paul though.

Ondra

 

No idea about the studio version, but on the live versions of Day Tripper it sounds like Lennon plays the first part of the solo (the 3 repeats of the riff in B), before George takes over with the higher 'twiddly' bits. From memory the camera angles at the Budokan shows prove nothing either way (other than they were a bit stoned and couldn't be arsed).