Okay, that's pretty cool
A professor from Dalhousie University has figured out that the famous opening chord from the Beatles' "A Hard Day's Night" was the result of George Harrison's 12-string Rick being mixed with a piano stab from George Martin.
Nobody had ever figured this out in some four-and-a-half decades. And it's possibly the most famous single chord in rock in roll. That chord opens the movie A Hard Day's Night. That chord prompted a huge number of kids in 1964 to go out and buy guitars and form bands of their own. That movie defined, maybe still defines, what it's supposed to be like to be in a band. (Unfortunately, another movie defines what it's really like to be in a band.)
The fact that it took a mathematician with a computer to figure out there was an extra F note in the chord is pretty awesome. Part of me hopes he's right, but I have to admit there's also a part of me that hopes Paul and Ringo are laughing on the phone as they reminisce about how George Harrison went back and played the extra note in an alternate tuning during an early multitracking experiment. That's unlikely, actually, given the gear of the time, but it's awesome to think about.
Anyway, I thought it was pretty cool and wanted to pass it along.
Nobody had ever figured this out in some four-and-a-half decades. And it's possibly the most famous single chord in rock in roll. That chord opens the movie A Hard Day's Night. That chord prompted a huge number of kids in 1964 to go out and buy guitars and form bands of their own. That movie defined, maybe still defines, what it's supposed to be like to be in a band. (Unfortunately, another movie defines what it's really like to be in a band.)
The fact that it took a mathematician with a computer to figure out there was an extra F note in the chord is pretty awesome. Part of me hopes he's right, but I have to admit there's also a part of me that hopes Paul and Ringo are laughing on the phone as they reminisce about how George Harrison went back and played the extra note in an alternate tuning during an early multitracking experiment. That's unlikely, actually, given the gear of the time, but it's awesome to think about.
Anyway, I thought it was pretty cool and wanted to pass it along.
Comments
There are some rhythm and/or time signature shifts on Abbey Road that still take me by surprise.