![]() But few know that the tour may never have happened if an earlier visit to America hadn't gone the way it did. We all know now that the first Beatles tour of America stands as the greatest tour in rock-and-roll history, and that it was an event of great musical and social magnitude. Interesting that they did this at the same time as Ticket to Ride, which is such a break from their earlier sound and was ahead of it’s time.John Lennon was right: The Beatles never did another tour like the one in 1964. I always assumed this song was recorded in ’63 or 4, probably due to the similarity to TB. ![]() It was the combination of the gear & the room. I think Abbey Rd particularly enhanced John’s voice the most his voice never sounded as good to me, on post-Beatles recordings, and I think for this reason. The guitar swells are great, as is the reverb itself, from Abbey Rd’s great echo/reverb chamber–not an electronic effect! A large part of the sound of these records is from the gear(all tube) & the great rooms at Abbey Rd. One could moreso forgive the tuning on these harmonies as these are quite a bit more difficult compared to This Boy. But I think a lot of young bands are realizing now that perfection doesn’t always make a great record. You know the music was done by real people–one of the things missing today in our time-corrected, auto tuned music. Just a bit out tune on the vocals on the first verse, then near perfect after that but the mistakes and intonation errors have always been part of the charm, for me. I teach harmony and will absolutely be using this song as a demonstration in harmonic perfection with my students in the coming term. George is especially amazing I think here, (but he is my favourite and can do no wrong) but that harmony and the manner in which they recorded it is astonishing. It has everything and still now, almost 50 years later, it is like a roundhouse kick to the heart each and every time. We could sit and discuss and analyse this for hours on end but it all boils down to all of the above comments and the fact that it is just a brilliant brilliant song in every possible way. I had completely forgotten about this song until recently- I’ve a few 1st pressing 45s in a frame belonging to my mam, which she bought as a teenager and Ticket to Ride is one of them, hence the rediscovery and what a rediscovery it has been. Even Yellow Submarine is ranked higher! It really is a silly list anyway, with lots of incorrect information about the songs so it doesn’t really hold much merit. Rolling Stone magazine have this in their 100 greatest Beatles songs list at number 99. Harrison was the BOMB! So sometimes it’s just as much fun to pick out the 1 blooper or 2, as there were so damn few of hem! Peace PS: I just found this site this morn. Anybody who could “write” that 1st chord to “A Hard Day’s Night” or the outro for the same tune, or the intro to Eight Days a Week. There’s a certain character about the next chord after that tells me he was recouping from the “glitch”, and he did it to complete perfection too :-] I just felt this was the place to point that one out, though Harrison is my all time hero, right next to Hendrix, I might add. Listen to that swell chord, at the word “Side”. Right at the 1st “I could be Happy With You By My Side”, there’s a swell at”I”, then “Happy”, the 3rd one at the word “You” an the next one is at “Side”. But a haunting bad mistake in the guitar swells, apparent only on the Stereo version, as it seems they “ducked” it on the Mono one, or perhaps forgot about it by time it came to mix the Stereo one, which as they always pointed out, the Stereo mixes were usually done as an afterthought anyway, at least until just around MMT. I would NEVER say anything disparaging in regard to George’s guitar work.
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