John's Machine-Gun Triplets in All My Loving

drathbun · Post by **drathbun** » Sun Feb 05, 2006 10:09 am

In the "Day Tripper" thread, Jerry Koger and I were exchanging views on Lennon's guitar style affecting his sound and how to capture it in cover versions.

Well I've been practicing that machine-gun triplet sound of Lennon's from "All My Loving" for a week now and decided to put it into a recording. I don't think it turned out too bad! It really is all in the wrist and economy of movement.

I recorded my 320JG directly into a Behringer tube preamp with no effects save a little reverb in the mix. The Harrison guitar is an Ibanez AM73 (small ES-335 lookalike) and the bass is a RIC 4003.

http://www2.mtroyal.ca/~drathbun/MP3/allmyloving.mp3

jingle_jangle · Post by **jingle_jangle** » Sun Feb 05, 2006 11:44 am

Matt Munro lives!

Douglas, have you ever conducted a bus?

Seriously, I wish the triplets were a bit more forward in the mix, so we could hear them better.

But it sounds pretty smooth. A 320 is a big part of the whole thing. I just seem to loosen up when I play mine.

drathbun · Post by **drathbun** » Sun Feb 05, 2006 1:54 pm

Thanks Paul. I've never heard of Matt Munro and I tried to conduct a bus once but it had no sense of timing. Then I tried to blow it up but I burned my mouth on the tailpipe... yuk yuk!

I've pulled the vocal and bass back and brought the Ricky forward and centre in the mix. The file is updated. I also put a parametric EQ on the RIC gave the treble a bit more zing.

I found the only way to play those triplets in tempo was to relax completely. I ruined a number of takes because I seized up!

jingle_jangle · Post by **jingle_jangle** » Sun Feb 05, 2006 3:41 pm

My Matt Munro comment was in reference to your smooooth vocal stylings, Douglas. Matt Munro, known as "the singing bus conductor", was a Cinderella guy who ended up singing "From Russia With Love" (James Bond movie theme) and then faded back into obscurity, at least to me...(now there's going to be a post from someone in the Matt Munro Fan Club telling me he performed for the Queen just last Monday or something).

The technique on those triplets reminds me of drum line quads or snares "Loosen up! Loosen up!"

kog · Post by **kog** » Sun Feb 05, 2006 5:43 pm

Hey, Doug -- pretty cool. The triplets sound spot on. And I know what you mean about the number of takes -- it took me a ton before I got it. In fact, I think it took splicing together two or three takes to make it work.

Gee, now I wish I could share my version too, but I don't have a place to post it on the web.

jingle_jangle · Post by **jingle_jangle** » Sun Feb 05, 2006 7:41 pm

Jerry, www.yousendit.com is the quickest and easiest.

drathbun · Post by **drathbun** » Sun Feb 05, 2006 9:04 pm

Paul: I just did some research on Matt Munro and listened to some clips of him singing. I must say I'm flattered! He sounds more like Frank Sinatra to me than ... um... me! Munro was "discovered" or at least contracted by George Martin while he was making Peter Sellers records before the discovery of The Beatles. Now that I hear him, I remember a few of the songs...especially "My Kind of Girl" and "From Russia With Love". Munro died at the very young age of 54 so I doubt he was singing for Liz last week!

Jerry: Thanks! I would love to hear your version. I finally got into the groove pattern when I timed the upstroke at the end of the pattern of four triplets in the bar. I kept stopping for a beat after the bar and between chord changes. Once I got the habit of the upstroke between chord changes it fell into place nicely.

I read somewhere that the triplet pattern is a banjo strum. That makes perfect sense to me after reading John's sister's memoir about Lennon. She talks about Julia teaching John the banjo and how he played his first guitar with banjo tuning, chords and strum patterns.

Interestingly, George talked about those triplets as being just "natural" to John. George plays a standard strum pattern in his guitar part which complements the triplets nicely.

Have you noticed that I am impressed and a little obsessed with this fascinatingly complex yet simple song? I could go on about the bass line too!

wolfgang · Post by **wolfgang** » Sun Feb 05, 2006 11:18 pm

"LENNON:'All my loving' is Paul, I regret to say. Ha-ha-ha.
PLAYBOY: Why?
LENNON: Because it's a damn good piece of work.
[singing]"All my loving..."
But I play a pretty mean guitar in back."

from The Playboy Interviews with John Lennon & Yoko Ono First NEL paperback Edition July 1982 p145.

qmoder · Post by **qmoder** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 2:24 am

The triplets are cool I have always enjoyed doing them. I saw David Gilmour do with one night with Paul on Go Grahm Norton.
He played them on a Tele of all thing.

drathbun · Post by **drathbun** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 5:47 am

Are you sure it wasn't Dave's Esquire? It is frequently mistaken for a tele. I'm sure the triplets would sound great on that guitar! Especially played by my guitar-hero Gilmour!

This is what it looks like:

grinch · Post by **grinch** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 10:54 am

I did a cover of that song as well, with a few friends...

I'll post it soon.

winston · Post by **winston** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 11:08 am

Doug

Thanks for sharing your work. Your hard work really comes through in the recording since it sounds so relaxed. The guitar work in particular is extremely well done.

drathbun · Post by **drathbun** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 8:51 pm

Thanks Brian! It was a gas playing it. I especially like playing the bassline... I play it over and over it is so much fun. The middle eight really boogies!

Jerry just sent me his cover version of the song by email and it's terrific! Has a real swingin' feel to it!

jwh · Post by **jwh** » Tue Feb 07, 2006 12:02 pm

Does John play 3 string chords throughout the verses?

drathbun · Post by **drathbun** » Tue Feb 07, 2006 12:55 pm

I think it varies with the chord and grip he uses for the chord. For example, he plays the home E chord like this

XX6454 (low to high)

with his thumb muting the low E and A strings.

He plays the F#m the same funky way with the thumb muting the E bass string:

X44222 (low to high)

In my recording, I decided not to use those grips because 1) I can't wrap my thumb as far 2) I get a fuller sound out of barre chords and open chords.

So I play the beginning chords of the verses with open E, D B7 and A chords and F#m, B, C#m, barre chords but in the last rising progression move up the neck like John does but end in an open E. It plays better and sounds better IMO.