"A Hard Day's Night"

Backdated, archival post

[link to original on tumblr]

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When I listened to A Hard Day's Night to-day, the bass part for the title track seemed like it wouldn't be too hard to figure out.  I referenced the version on Live at the BBC too, although I'm not sure if that bass part matches the studio version exactly.

Even just in listening to it over the last few months, I noticed a little bass riff that occurs after "You know I work all day / To get you money to buy you things" (acting as an embellishment of the "things"?) and during the solo.  I think I have that figured out correctly, but - as with everything in this project - I might be wrong.

In order to play that riff, I have to play the preceding G note as an open string.  Before I figured that out though, I was playing the G note on the fifth fret of the D string.  In my recording, I sometimes go between the two, and because of the difference in the thickness of the strings, it sounds a bit weird at times.

A few years ago, I discovered this article/video/radio show clip that explains the opening crash.  According to that, the bass plays a D note at the beginning.  I haven't tried recreating it with the guitar parts, but I'll get around to it eventually.