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Name: pluto
E-Mail: pluto72@live.co.uk
Subject: RE: RE: RE: Let me clear this up better....
Date: Wednesday, December 30, 2020
Time: 6:02:38 PM
Remote Address: 80.42.97.229
Message ID: 320806
Parent ID: 320805
Thread ID: 320802
I think I'd better step in and clear this up lol. First however, let me thank you Keno for entering my 'Prince' vote. I have no idea what the problem is other than myself and technology 'issues' are no strangers. We'll see what happens next week.
I've got to admit to not knowing how wiki compile their pages, but I would imagine that they operate on the basis of information coming from the most verifiable sources as is possible.
As far as who played what guitar part on the recording of 'I Feel Fine', I maintain that what Wiki have down is pretty accurate, although I believe they could have credited Harrison with 'rhythm' as well as 'lead'.
"Lead Riff" I think you described it in an earlier post. I think that's a perfect description. I think we know the riff to which you refer, it's the one 'that'll set your feet a tapping' as John Lennon said (and more from that whole quote, later). The late Ian MacDonald in his 'gold standard' of Beatles music critique, 'Revolution in the Head' described it on page 122, thus 'The lack of a conventional rhythm guitar opens the sound out, allowing the syncopations in the riff to spark and jump'. Basically that is saying that that riff, the leitmotif, is the lead. That, in my opinion, is the 'Lead' wicked wiki are attributing to Lennon.
Here's the thing. Harrison played that part also. I don't know if you watched the Pachelli video I suggested where he breaks down the record, and the guitar parts. If you did you would have seen clearly that they were, in the main, playing that leitmotif lead/riff in synch. Of course Pachelli's demonstration is one thing, but no substitute for the horse's mouth.
On page 160 of 'Anthology' you can find quotes from both Lennon and McCartney on the subject of 'I Feel Fine'. Lennon said, and it could only be in reference to the 'leitmotif' "George and I play the same bit on guitar together-that's the bit that'll set your feet a tapping, as the reviews say". That was in 1964.
Harrison said "The guitar riff was actually influenced by a record 'Watch Your Step' by Bobby Parker. But all riffs in that tempo have a similar sound. John played it, and all I did was play it as well, and it became the double-tracked sound". It doesn't say what year that quote was made.
So there's no argument that the 'leitmotif', the 'Lead Riff' as we both agree on, was played by Lennon and Harrison in tandem. They both say that's how it was. So logically if Lennon is to be credited for 'Lead' on the basis of that riff, then so must Harrison be.
Harrison of course doesn't need that riff to be credited for 'Lead', as he played the 4 bar guitar break in the song. He played it in a 'conventional' lead style. There is no question of it not being Harrison who played it on the record. I learned the song years ago, looked at loads of videos of 'I Feel Fine', 'how to play' videos, videos of tribute bands, and the Beatles themselves, live. It is always Harrison's (or whoever is playing him) part. I have never read anything other than, that Harrison played that 4 bar break. I can perhaps leave the last word on that to the formidable Ian MacDonald, page 123 'Revolution in the Head' "Harrison's four bar guitar break similarly distills the overall feel of the track: not so much a solo as a pithy summary of it's bluesy mood and form".
So it was Harrison that played that 4 bar lead solo. I defy anyone to come up with a scrap of concrete evidence to the contrary. So that's Harrison secured his 'Lead' credit. Both should get rhythm credits, of that there is no argument in my opinion. They both play 'conventional' rhythm in parts of the verses, and all of the chorus is 'conventional' rhythm playing. Lennon supplies a 'conventional' rhythm on the 'G' chord to support Harrison's 4 bar solo. You can see that on the video we voted on. You view Lennon from behind, and his hand position on the neck indicates that he is playing the necessary G chord at the 3rd fret, whilst Harrison zooms up as high as the 9th, playing his simple little lead solo (I still get a nosebleed when I get as high up the neck, as the ninth).
Before I say a little bit more about the video we voted on, there's a couple of live Beatles performances on youtube that are pretty revealing re how they approached 'I Feel Fine' on stage. One, 'Blackpool Night Out', has Harrison playing a Gretch I think it is, and Lennon with a Rickenbacker. The other, 'I Feel Fine' Live in Germany, has both of them playing Epiphones (Casino's?). Being live performances in front of audiences, the approach in no way resembles what it would be when making a record. You'll see Harrison at one point playing the leitmotif on his own, with Lennon just chording, sometimes it's the other way round, sometimes they play in unison.
That's what you get with a live performance, it's not a 9 take studio recording with overdubbing, double tracking etc etc. The video we rated was not a live performance of course, nothing was plugged in, Ringo was on a monocycle, they were not playing to an audience, they were making a video. On that basis I would say there was very little incentive/need to exactly mime the guitar fingering they used when making the record. It would not have been possible, anyway. I don't think there's much you can take from that video as regards how the track was recorded, nothing we didn't know already, anyway.
There is one lingering thought though. I wonder if Ringo had had a bicycle rather than monocycle, his performance would have reached the height's of Zappa all these years ago on the Steve Allan show? Something to ponder.
Anyway that's my reasoning for saying that I think wiki have got it more or less right. They could have given Harrison a rhythm credit though, you would have thought.
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