"The Long and Winding Road"

"The Long and Winding Road" was the subject of a Jeopardy! clue yester-day (the correct response was "What is Let It Be?"), so last night I decided to figure out a part from it.  I think I got the electric piano solo from the version on Let It Be... Naked (I might have only the right hand of a two-handed part though). In any case, I noticed something about it.  I think it's something like:

As with all the parts I've figured out and my notation, there's the disclaimer that I might be wrong about something.

The first few notes sounded familiar, and it didn't take me too long to place them.  Bach's Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, BWV 645 (which I'd listened to the day before) begins with these same notes (in the same key and with the same upbeat):

(notation found here)

I'm not sure if the beginning of this part is intended to sound like the beginning of Bach's piece, but there is a certain similarity.

"Eight Days a Week"

Since last November, I've been slowly reading Mark Lewisohn's The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions.  A couple weeks ago, I read the entry for 6 October 1964 (p. 49) in which Lewisohn claims that "Eight Days a Week" was "the first pop song to feature a faded-up introduction."

Yester-day was Chuck Berry's birthday, so I listened to some of his music and rediscovered that the introduction in "Down Bound Train" also fades in.  "Eight Days a Week" is from 1964, but "Down Bound Train" is from 1956.

Here are screen clippings of the wave forms:

"Down Bound Train"

"Eight Days a Week"

I'm not sure if "Down Bound Train" could be classified as a "pop song," but it's certainly a song with a faded-in introduction that predates "Eight Days a Week."  Likewise, I'm not sure if the Beatles were familiar with this particular song (although they certainly were familiar with other Chuck Berry songs) or if the faded-in introduction of "Down Bound Train" had anything to do with the faded-in introduction of "Eight Days a Week."

"Sun King"

Last night I learned one of the guitar tracks and the bass part for the first section of "Sun King."  Of course, I learned the guitar part that's easier; the other one is probably more interesting.

I'd tried learning this guitar part one other time, but I got confused by the double stop.  I think I have the right notes now, but I'm not sure I play it very well.