Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Wolfgang, I agree on the solo for the record. It's not a 12 string at all, but an acoustic playing the high notes while the piano is playing an octave below. I can see how that could've been sped up, but like you, I think the ending was played regular speed. That's not a hard part.

I think maybe they got this awesome lead recorded and it took George a little while to master it right for the live shows later. You'd have to check live shows that were performed earlier. Closer to when HDN came out. Anybody? I've only heard Hollywood Bowl '64-'65 and the notes say HDN was from the '65 show.

Martin, although I can hear no octave strings, it sounds like the (electric)12-string Rickenbacker to me.

My guess: they were under enormous time pressure
to finish the movie's soundtrack. No time for poor George to practise the solo.

For what it's worth...

I have the September 8 1964 performance at the Montreal Forum on disc.
The quality is horrible so it is very very hard to tell.

But it really sounds like it is being played by George.

My reason to believe this is that he plays the solo a bit differently, it sounds like he's (or the same guitar is) playing a combination of G to C (forgot the technical name of it) back to G and then the fast part, whereas the album version has two different guitar doing this.

So at that point it seems he could play it...
I really wish that bootleg would be better quality, good show.

As far as what the actual instruments were playing the solo on the song, someone's got to find a bootleg of the first generation of HDN (outakes etc...) and hear what was recorded at that stage. I've heard Help! before like this and it's a great way to hear the first level for detail. But it would obviously depend on if those parts were recorded at that point or whether they were done afterwards when they bounced down tracks.

Here's what I can gather...

Take 1: Solo is played a bit like I described from the 1964 Montreal performance. Doesn't appear to be a 12 string.

Take 3b: Solo is played completly differently. The start is played in a similar way, but the "fast bit" is removed and replaced with something else.

Take 4: No solo, just an empty space. Chords are being played by the 12 string

Take 6: Didn't make it to the solo because of a "funny chord"...

Take 7: No solo, just an empty space. Chords are played by the 12 string.

Take 8: False start.

Take 9: Now this is the tricky part... This is the take that was used for the song from what I can tell. The solo is being played by an instrument and it isn't an overdub from what I can tell. Also appears to be the piano.

So after listening to it closely I can't really tell...
Because it doesn't sound like an overdub but I find that the notes drop too quickly for the piano. Also George Martin did say that the reason he recorded the In My Life solo at half-speed was because he couldn't play it that fast because "he wasn't a great piano player". So what would stop him from doing the same thing for AHDN? I don't know...


(Now this was a pointless post, haha)

Not really! You must have some stuff to reference ; - ) Excellent.

But like In My Life, I believe it was a sped up piano with acoustic playing higher.

Since I play piano as well, I'm more in tune with picking it up in a mix. Too bad I don't have those "reference materials".

I have to agree with Patrick. I only hear a piano. But when I saw them in Dallas in '64, George (as best as I recall) did a simulated lead on the 12 because I don't recall them dragging a piano around but I do recall the song as one of about 10 they did. But this was 40 years ago, deafening and I've slept since then.

come on peoples! george could play that riff!

Yeah that's the thing. I don't play piano, although I wish! If only I had one to play with...

And yes, I have quite a few discs that I can use as a reference
I wonder if he ever played it live on his '65 360, I really wish there were more pictures of him playing it.

Alex. I have no doubt George could play the solo, but I think for the recorded song, they creatively did it another way.

We know he can play it based on Hollywood Bowl show, which is pretty easy to hear. I just listened to again it and he's playing it higher up versus the lower registers.

What we were talking about is whether the recorded solo (piano w/ acoustic guitar) came first and George had to nail it later for shows. Or maybe they thought, even though he can play it on the 12 string, let's just do it with these other instruments for a different sound.

Either way, we all know he was the balls on guitar!

Well, the opening accord of a hard day's night is underlayed with piano, too. George Martin did this
(and from today's point of view a bit too often!) in almost every song the 12 string guitar was used for the solo part, but not in I should have known better.
We have a (Rick- 12 string) solo in A hard day's night, played by George Harrison and underlayed with a piano part (George Martin), but recorded at half speed to have it without faults, not to have a different sound! But no doubt,it is George's solo. Probably he was not allowed to practice enough to nail it at normal speed.