Long Tall Sally- The Beatles (Guitar Cover)

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Big thanks to @MichaelSokil for lending me these guitars!

Originally written and recorded by Little Richard, The Beatles added Long Tall Sally to their live repetoire as early as the Quarrymen days in 1957. It remained a part of their setlist until their final 1966 tour. But the studio recording of it was made on March 1, 1964, during the Hard Day's Night sessions

It was released on the UK EP Long Tall Sally, and on the US album The Beatles' Second Album. The two guitar solos have confused some keen listeners who have studied the stereo mix. Because while John and George's guitars are split left and right for the entire song, the two guitar solos appear on the same (left) channel. This led some to believe that George played both solos, but in reality John and George's guitars switch sides right after John's solo. It is unclear why George Martin decided to do this in the stereo mix

John takes the first solo and George takes the second solo. For my cover, I kept the two guitars split left and right for the whole song, without switching sides like the stereo mix. John is on the right and George on the left channel

No overdubs were recorded, and apparently they finished on take 1! George Martin joined in on piano, playing in the backing track

John played his new Rickenbacker 'Miami' 325 guitar (with the white pickguard) into a Vox AC-50 amp, on the bridge pickup. I'm using Michael's 1982 Rickenbacker 320B, which is a reissue of John's FIRST 325 with the gold pickguard, also known as the Capri or Hamburg

George played his 1963 Gretsch Country Gentleman, also into a Vox AC-50. I'm using Michael's 2016 Gretsch Country Gent reissue, also on the bridge pickup. Both guitars are going into my Vox AC-30C2x

INTERESTING NOTES:
0:07 John and George play similar bar chord shuffle shapes, but different rhythmic patterns. John plays more on the downbeat and George more on the upbeat that follows
_*JOHN:*_
0:08 John often ends each pinky-stretching measure with two downbeat notes, but sometimes (like here) he plays the last note quicker on the upbeat
0:25 A good example of John ending the measure on the quicker upbeat note after the pinky stretch
0:32 John's solo starts. The first fast strum after the slide is a quintuplet, then the next two fast strums are quadruplets
0:41 John plays 3rd and 5th frets on the b-string before hitting the high e-string 3rd and 6th frets. The next set of notes are 3rd and *6th* frets of b-string to 3rd and *5th* frets of the high-e
0:46 This was the most surprising part of the song I discovered. John slides early into the 7th and 6th frets of the G and B strings. On his way back down to the 3rd fret, he keeps his pinky on the b-string 6th fret and his ring finger on the g-string 5th fret. This makes it a C/F
0:53 John hits a quick D note on the 3rd fret of the b-string before doing his normal bend
1:06 John plays a D shuffle on the A string 5th fret for the first time
1:07 John plays all hard low-string downstrum 16ths for this ascending G-Ab-A-Bb-B-C part of George's solo. Starting at 1:09 he includes the B note on the G-string
1:39 John remains on a G shuffle, instead of going to the D
1:54 John plays a little lead riff on the D and G-strings before the ending
_*GEORGE:*_
0:14 George does a straight G shuffle D to E without using the pink stretch to F
0:18 I wasn't sure if George included the E5 chord in this ascending fast riff, but I did anyway
0:34 During John's solo, George plays a different rhythm just here. It emphasizes the downbeat more, but he immediately goes back to his normal upbeat rhythm after
0:56 George starts this verse on the downbeat instead of his normal upbeat rhythm
1:04 George solo starts
1:07 George accidentally hits a high Ab note instead of high G
1:24 You'd think George would end the solo on a Low G note here. But after sliding down from the 5th fret of the a-string he immediately slides up the Low e-string
1:27 George utilizes the D note on the 10th fret of the Low e-string in between G chords
1:41 George now utilizes the G note on the 10th fret of the *a-string* in between G chords
1:57 He ends the song on a G9 chord

MY GEAR:
1982 Rickenbacker 320B. Modded by Michael to be closer to John spec- bigsby added, replacement pickguard and bowtie bridge. OLD flatwound strings
2016 Gretsch Chet Atkins Country Gentleman G6122-62 GE (Ernie Ball roundwound strings)
Vox AC-30C2X
Neumann TLM-103
Waves Abbey Road Plates and Chambers plug-ins

#thebeatles #rickenbacker #guitarcover