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earlyprog View Drop Down
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Points: 2133 		Direct Link To This Post Topic: A Hard Day's Night (title track)
    Posted: February 02 2007 at 04:10
In the bonus material for the A Hard Day's Night DVD George Martin reveals that he suggested the guitar chord intro of AHDN and that Lennon played it and not Harrison on his 12-string as I always have thought.
 
It may seem like an insignificant detail to some, but I would really like to know if this intro chord is played on a 12-string. Anyone know?
 
By the way, the unusual  (for the time) guitar intro and outro, the use of 12-string and the classical piano solo, suggest AHDN should be regarded perhaps as the first true proto-prog song.


Edited by earlyprog - February 02 2007 at 04:13
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chopper View Drop Down
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Points: 20029 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 02 2007 at 08:00
I don't know offhand who played that chord, I'll have to look it up. It wouldn't surprise me if it was a 12-string as this was the start of their Rickenbacker era, I believe.
I do know that the solo is guitar and piano and the guitar part had to be played with the tape slowed down. Not sure how they played it live but I do have one live version where the solo is just spliced in from the studio version.
"I feel fine" could be the first proto-prog song - feedback at the beginning, dogs barking at the end...
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Points: 2133 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 02 2007 at 08:27
Originally posted by chopper chopper wrote:

I don't know offhand who played that chord, I'll have to look it up. It wouldn't surprise me if it was a 12-string as this was the start of their Rickenbacker era, I believe.
I do know that the solo is guitar and piano and the guitar part had to be played with the tape slowed down. Not sure how they played it live but I do have one live version where the solo is just spliced in from the studio version.
"I feel fine" could be the first proto-prog song - feedback at the beginning, dogs barking at the end...
 
The version of AHDN on "Live at the BBC" had the piano solo from the record cut into the session tape because noone could reproduce George Martin on piano.
 
Until recently I also felt "I Feel Fine" was the first proto-prog song but the use of the 12-string - especially in outro - and the piano(/guitar?) solo in AHDN give me the first clear hints of prog.
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Points: 20029 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 02 2007 at 13:46
None of my books say who played the opening chord or on what. Ian Macdonald's "Revolution in the Head" says the chord is G eleventh suspended fourth, the solo is guitar and piano doubled and the guitar on the fade was also recorded at half-speed, like the middle solo. Lennon is credited with electric and acoustic guitar so may well have played the opening chord.
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Points: 2133 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 04 2007 at 12:38
A reliable source on the subject confirms that the intro and outro guitar is a 12-string.
 
In a interview, George Martin said that he suggested a guitar chord intro and that Lennon "composed" it. Don't remember if Martin actually said Lennon also recorded it. It was sort of implied, but of course, Harrison could have recorded it.
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Points: 20029 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 04 2007 at 14:24
I was quite surprised to read that the outro was recorded at half-speed. It doesn't sound that hard to me.
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