"All My Loving"

Last night, I learned the bass part for the first two verses and the first chorus of "All My Loving."  The bass part in the third verse isn't the same, and the second chorus transitions into an ending tag so that's not the same either.

I referenced The Beatles Complete Chord Songbook for the chords but only after I had a go at figuring them out myself.  Mostly, I just lookt at the book to confirm what I already had (although I disregarded the B7 the book has in favor of a regular B major).

Re-Establishment

About two years ago, I started a project in which the goal was to learn every part to every song by the Beatles.  I don't think I ever thought I would actually achieve this (and I still don't), but I thought it a worthy objective all the same.

I started this project on tumblr, but recently I've started to feel dissatisfied with it.  I felt I should have a cleaner, more professional-looking platform.  (I found some aspects of tumblr's interface less than ideal too.)  Initially, I went with tumblr only because I could directly post audio files of my own recordings of the songs, as a way to demonstrate that I had in fact learned the parts I said I had.  But I can achieve the same thing just with embedded YouTube videos.

So essentially, I'm jumping ship.  I'm going to continue doing everything I would normally do for this project, just on Blogger rather than on tumblr.  I'll be going back and copying my old posts over to this blog, so I'll have the complete archive, but it'll take a while to transfer everything.

"One after 909"

Backdated, archival post

[link to original on tumblr]

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A couple days ago, I learned the bass part for the verses of the Let It Be version of "One after 909."  I decided that it's not really worth it to record anything unless I know at least two simultaneous parts, so I won't be posting a version, but I did notate as much as I know.

I referenced the recordings of "One after 909" on Anthology 1, and I discovered something interesting.  In the bridge in the first partial take in track 25, Paul McCartney starts to play the same bass figure that he took from Chuck Berry's "I'm Talking about You" and used in "I Saw Her Standing There" (which I wrote about back in November).

In "Talking about You," the figure is:

In "I Saw Her Standing There":

And in "One after 909":

The only difference is the key.  I should note that all three songs play this figure raised to different pitches too.  At the beginning of the bridge in "One after 909," it's actually played a fourth higher because it's underneath an E major chord, so it's exactly the same as what's played for the majority of the verses of "I Saw Her Standing There."

The "complete" take of "One after 909" on Anthology 1 (which the liner notes explain is an edit of takes 4 and 5) doesn't have this feature.  Apparently, McCartney elected to play a simpler bass part because he didn't have a pick with him.  This figure isn't present in the version on Let It Be either.

For what it's worth, here's some chronology:

11 February 1963 - "I Saw Her Standing There" recorded

5 March 1963 - "One after 909" [takes on Anthology 1] recorded

16 March 1963 - The Beatles' cover of Chuck Berry's "I'm Talking about You" (in E major, rather than the original's C major) broadcast live on the radio show Saturday Club.

"You're Going to Lose That Girl"

Backdated, archival post

[link to original on tumblr]

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I listened to Help! last week, and a couple days ago, I realized something about "You're Going to Lose That Girl."  There's the recurring line "Yes, yes, you're gonna lose that girl" in the backing vocals, and since it's sung by both George Harrison and Paul McCartney, that double affirmation ("Yes, yes") is present in the lyric itself and the number of voices singing it.

"I'm a Loser"

Backdated, archival post

[link to original on tumblr]

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A couple weeks ago, I learned the bass part for the choruses of "I'm a Loser," and I noticed something about the fifth and sixth measures:

This is the same phrase that starts the verses in "Tell Me Why."  The only difference is the key.  "I'm a Loser" is in G major, and "Tell Me Why" is in D major.  So the phrase in "Tell Me Why" is a fourth higher, but the intervals are the same: