Posted: Wed Mar 08, 2006 1:16 pm
The opening bass note is indeed a "D" (A 5th in the Gm7 add 11 chord) Also, it's possible that John Lennon his hitting a slightly different variation of the chord on his Gibson J-160; the "Bible" does indicate this. That intro was very futuristic and ahead of it's time in April '64, to be sure. Contrary to popular belief, George Martin's piano and George H.'s Ricky are 1 octave apart during the solo. A lot of guitarists (And this is not a criticism at all guys-wish I was a much better player!!) will start the solo at 3rd fret low E string. It's actually an octave up from that (Check out Shea stadium) with the piano being MUCH MORE dominant in volume (You can just hear the octave overtones of George's '63 360/12 underscoring the piano) The 12 string arpeggios at the end of the song have to be THE FIRST foray into "THE SOUND"! (Unless The Searchers got their first-I'm very open to correction here!!) If one were to put together an "Audibly correct" Fab Four tribute, the visual of instruments would be QUITE DIFFERENT from the typical Hoffner/Gretcsh/325 lineup everybody seems to do. AND you MUST, absolutely MUST have 5 people, IF NOT MORE on stage to do the music accurately. The Beatles NEVER played "A Hard Days Night" live with John playing acoustic on stage, but the J-160 is ESSENTIAL to the sound of that record. These are the seeds of Folk-rock being planted. Thanks! Christian