Beatles and Blues

[jdd707]

Ok, so we know that the Stones are blues guys and the Beatles were Pop. But don't count the boys from Liverpool out when it comes to the blues influence. Here is a poppy 12 bar blues song by the fab 4 .... pretty cool I think.

 

So what is the Gibson that George is playing ... J200?

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTu6o1IU8i8

[j45nick]

Pretty cool, indeed! Looks like a J200 to me, but I get lost once you get away from slope J's.

 

How can Yoko sit there through this without even tapping a toe?

[Work in Progress]

That's as poppy as blues will ever get. I couldn't listen to the whole thing. Then again, brace yourselves, I'm not a big Beatles fan!

[E-minor7]

The Fab never really bluesed it - maybe the camp just wasn't blue. This one and Yer Blues + a pretty weak 12 bar thing from approx. the Rubber Soul sessions is about it.

They made up for it in the solo years though.

 

Oh then there is Why Don't We Do It In The Road, , , to me that's more a rocker.

 

And how about f.x. Day Tripper – listen to those vocals▲

 

This is the guitar - Wasn't it the one that ended up with Bob. . .

 

 

 

 

With all respect for other guys choice of women – How could Y. Ono enter the most loved circus on earth and just don't share the vibe at all.. .

I know the band was tired, but let me put it straight. Lennon was in 2 minds about the act - he was ambivalent from the start to the very end. Had Ono encouraged the positive side – maybe after a well deserved hiatus – we would have had a couple, maybe 3 more magnificent first half 70's Beatles records.

Put the song-lists together yourself.

[duane v]

 

Is there any real reason to bring Yoko or any of the other Beatles wives or girlfriends in to a Beatles discussion, especially when talking about a Beatles song or their instruments.

 

Yoko is a strong lady.... Couldn't imagine going through what she had to.....

 

Oh and thanks Yoko for commissioning the Epi JL Rev Casino and the JL Gibby LPJ builds

[E-minor7]

Is there any real reason to bring Yoko or any of the other Beatles wives or girlfriends in to a Beatles discussion, especially when talking about a Beatles song or their instruments.

Now that's the Q.

 

I respect the woman, but repeat : How could Y. Ono enter the most loved circus on earth and don't share the vibe at all. . . ?

 

 

[duane v]

Sounds like a "Q" for Yoko

[j45nick]

 

Is there any real reason to bring Yoko or any of the other Beatles wives or girlfriends in to a Beatles discussion, especially when talking about a Beatles song or their instruments.

 

Yoko is a strong lady.... Couldn't imagine going through what she had to.....

 

Oh and thanks Yoko for commissioning the Epi JL Rev Casino and the JL Gibby LPJ builds

 

I only brought it up because she is sort of an odd counterpoint in the video, sitting in the middle like a statue while the guys are boppin'. No slight intended to the lady. Even when I don't necessariy dig a song, my foot, knee and head can't stop moving. Sort of like Stevie Wonder.

[Tman]

I'm married to a woman of Asian descent. I take it as a respect gesture not wanting to draw attention away from either George or John. My take on cultural differences of which there are many.

[BigKahune]

.

Beatles and blues -

 

Acoustic Beatles blues cover -

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OK21pcxsqg&feature=related

[jt]

Pretty cool, indeed! Looks like a J200 to me, but I get lost once you get away from slope J's.

 

How can Yoko sit there through this without even tapping a toe?

 

Nick, I wonder, too. The video is an outtake from the Let It Be film. Yoko presents the same vibe whenever on screen. This seems curious to me, too.

 

As for the tune, I like it. When I first saw the film years ago, I was stunned to find John playing the lap steel. I'd always assumed that George played the solo.

[57classic]

I'm married to a woman of Asian descent. I take it as a respect gesture not wanting to draw attention away from either George or John. My take on cultural differences of which there are many.

 

Perhaps you're right on this. I defer to you on this as I don't have the same insight. For someone without that perspective (me), her presence, and at the same time, lack thereof seems conspicuous. The absence of any outward emotional involvement, yet close proximity, does draw attention from them. I'm sure it was John's wish that she be right there.

[E-minor7]

I only brought it up because she is sort of an odd counterpoint in the video, sitting in the middle like a statue while the guys are boppin'.

To put it directly, the way she and John would prefer it themselves, she counterpoints the whole movement (which is no crime). I've heard her say, that in Japanese culture women don't smile in photos.

But listen – wasn't this the time of counter-culture. Wasn't the Fab about turning things upside down and giving them new colours. Wasn't this the era of Womans Lib and didn't Y.O. stand as one of the bravest fighters on that front. . .

 

She also represented the fluxus art, fine art, if you like, and Lennon was attracted to that way of thinking. Understandable and a good source for inspiration. But as artists, they simply can't be compared. I honestly don't think Y.O. ever realized that. And there always was a lack of humility towards the big band. Still Lennon provided pedestal after pedestal – might not have been the neatest boy in class, but this makes him a pure gentleman.

 

 

 

 

 

And for JT - For You Blue was in the movie since I first saw it in 1970 -

 

 

[jt]

And for JT - For You Blue was in the movie since I first saw it in 1970

 

Thanks. That's what I meant to write. "outtake" obviously wasn't the right word. "clip from" is more accurate.

[Rambler]

Blues wasn't really their point of departure, was it? Hari=Perkins, Scotty and Chet. Lennon=Berry, Bing and Smokey. Mac=Richard-Holly. Their bluesiest cover was Matchbox. Funny, Paul has the rep of being Mr Pop but he had some of the Fab's bluesiest takes: songs like Shes A Woman and Another Girl, the guitar breaks on Ticket, Drive My Car, Taxman and Good Morning. Lennon's stabs at the form (Yer Blues, I Want You) dont make it for me. Aint got that swing. Or the warmth. Dah Bluz, not the Blues.

[Buc McMaster]

"Elmore James' got nothing on this, baby!"

 

Great tune! Simple and direct, not a lot of frilly production.........well done, boys! George Harrison was a seriously underrated guitarist in a lot of circles. I have always admired his simplicity as a player, never too much, always tasteful. And hey - ya gotta love those boots!

[Rambler]

"Elmore James' got nothing on this, baby!"

 

Great tune! Simple and direct, not a lot of frilly production.........well done, boys! George Harrison was a seriously underrated guitarist in a lot of circles. I have always admired his simplicity as a player, never too much, always tasteful. And hey - ya gotta love those boots!

Well the boots are cute, but he's not a playing a lot of guitar in this instance (there are other ones where he do fine, particularly his bottlenecking).

[E-minor7]

Well the boots are cute, but he's not a playing a lot of guitar in this instance

Maybe not, but I always thought the intro-riff was something special. So elegantly relaxed -

[drathbun]

I think the consensus about this J200 is that Bob Dylan gave it to George when George visited him in upstate New York. It can be seen on the cover of Dylan's "Nashville Skyline" album:

 

 

and it was used to record during the White Album onwards. It exists in George's estate.

 

Here is John playing it:

 

 

and George:

 

[E-minor7]

I think the consensus about this J200 is that Bob Dylan gave it to George when George visited him in upstate New York.

 

Like suggested in post 4, I'm with you in the bigger lines DB, but ! , , , , Nashville Skyline was released in April 1969, Here Comes The Sun (played on the Jumbo) was recorded in London July that same year. That leaves us with a Gordian Knot, doesn't it.

 

For You Blue was recorded even earlier than Nashville S. sessions.

 

As was necessary in the end of our long discussion about Harrisons J-160E, the inner Sherlock here has to ask : Was there a second Beatles-camp J-200 ?

 

And 2 – Exactly when did Harrison visit Dylan in the Woodstock house ?

 

Watsons come forward -

[drathbun]

Like suggested in post 4, I'm with you in the bigger lines DB, but ! , , , , Nashville Skyline was released in April 1969, Here Comes The Sun (played on the Jumbo) was recorded in London July that same year. That leaves us with a Gordian Knot, doesn't it.

 

For You Blue was recorded even earlier than Nashville S. sessions.

 

As was necessary in the end of our long discussion about Harrisons J-160E, the inner Sherlock here has to ask : Was there a second Beatles-camp J-200 ?

 

And 2 – Exactly when did Harrison visit Dylan in the Woodstock house ?

 

Watsons come forward -

 

Well let's say there is a great deal of speculation about the guitars being the same one.

 

In Andy Babiuk's book "Beatles Gear" he says;

 

"Harrison's new guitar with the flowery pickguard was a Gibson J-200 that he'd acquired while in America. Legend has it the guitar is the same one that Bob Dylan is seen holding on the cover of his 1969 album Nashville Skyline."

 

 

Now "jackinvox" over at the BeatGearCavern has some good arguments for why there are two J200's, not one passed back and forth. He makes this interesting list:

 

"January 1968: Bob had a J-200.

July 1968: George had a J-200.

November 1968: Bob and George meet in Woodstock.

January 1969: George had a J-200.

August 1969: Bob had a J-200.

September 1969: George had a J-200."

 

and says that this photo:

 

 

Shows Bob and George together in November 1968 and that the Elliot Landy photo from the cover of "Nashville Skyline" was taken on January 1, 1968, the point being that is way too much back and forth for one guitar.

 

I would suggest that these two guitars are pretty much identical, from the grover tuners, to the tunomatic bridge and the sunburst pattern. These guys shared everything; guitars, weed, wives, and I think it is entirely possible the guitar was passed back and forth. I think someone should ask Dylan or Dhani.

 

Here they are passing a tennis ball back and forth in 1969:

 

[retrorod]

Beatles and Blues? The two words do not really go together. The Beatles just were not "Da Blues" no matter how you spin it

[E-minor7]

Look at Dylans shirt and length of beard from the Nov. 68 to the Jan. '69 shot – Identical. Then look at the strings being rolled up the same way on both the Woodstock and the For You Blue pics.

I'd say George purchased the J-200 under his US trip in the fall of 1968 and subsequently brought this brand new deer when visiting Bob in the hills shortly after. Dylan naturally was fascinated with the Jumbo and even went into photo-session with the burst beauty. George for his part took the guitar with him home and recorded For You Blue (maybe with the same strings – we know they were not new from the sound of the record) in Jan.1969. And presumably still had it around when Beatles minus Lennon began working on Here Comes The Sun the following summer. If Dylan in the meantime had bought one himself or borrowed Harrisons when he played Isle of Wight, South England that same season, is a matter of guesses. But Harrison + Lennon and Starr attended the festival gig and I think I read somewhere that Bob played more than 1 guitar during the - btw semi-weak - concert. A 200, oh yes - and maybe a Martin.

 

Could he have phoned George and asked him to bring the curved maple. Considering the smiles on the outdoor autumn photos, very well so.

 

The fine tennis action is from that Isle of W. event, if I'm not too far off. Glad you posted them. I have the 2 in a little collage myself and was about to do the same.

Maybe we should underline that Harrison never was seen with the J-200 again. He got another blonde Jumbo - was it a Maton, I'm not sure – which he played at the Bangladesh Concert. (Still living in the material world inside the Harrison estate).

 

As for the Nashville Flyer – he put it away also, didn't he. . . .

 

Hahahah, , , now watch it. Just found this one –

 

The strap is speaking.

[drathbun]

 

The strap is speaking.

 

Yes indeed. That strap speaks volumes.

[E-minor7]

Yes indeed. That strap speaks volumes.

Hehehe, , , next big question is. Did Dylan in reality borrow Lennons white suit from the Abbey Road cover, taken only a short month before the Isle of Wight performance.

The answer is NO !

 

But seriously – where is the evidence both Dylan and Harrison had J-200's in early '68 ?