Is Alex Lifeson wrong about how he plays his own famous The Spirit of Radio riff?

[rocketman]

I brought this up before but now I'm confident that he's missing something. Here is his own lesson on how to play his iconic The Spirit of Radio opening riff.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hc209Q9m6x8

 

Here is a live isolated guitar track.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeBCtBXzF3U

 

Unlike his own lesson you can hear an extra open E on the sixteenth of each beat. I listened to the riff at half speed many times in my youth and heard the same thing. Well, I'm not alone.

[rocketman]

Here is Mike Gross stating the same thing. He also explains why he thought it happened.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbSkYiYj9i8

[american cheez]

mike is cool and all, but i've seen him be wrong about stuff.

[Drog]

He has a chorus/phaser and delay on the studio and live tracks, so it seems like more.

[LPguitarman]

I agree Rocketman. I always add the open E also when I play it.

[zigzag]

Senior moment, perhaps.

[LPguitarman]

So rocket, I went home last night and played it. Just to confirm again, I found myself playing the open E coming off of the F# pull-off, the G# pull-off and the A pull-off. Are any of these the open E you are referring to?

[rocketman]

So rocket, I went home last night and played it. Just to confirm again, I found myself playing the open E coming off of the F# pull-off, the G# pull-off and the A pull-off. Are any of these the open E you are referring to?

 

Nope that's not it. Alex mentions these in his video, which I hear. For me it's the E at the end of the 16th that is picked after each D, which is played on the B string. So I think it's like this:

 

F#-E-D-E A-E-D-E F#-E-D-E G#-F#-E-D-E

 

while Alex shows

 

F#-E-D A-E-D F#-E-D G#-F#-E-D

[LPguitarman]

Nope that's not it. Alex mentions these in his video, which I hear. For me it's the E at the end of the 16th that is picked after each D, which is played on the B string. So I think it's like this:

 

F#-E-D-E A-E-D-E F#-E-D-E G#-F#-E-D-E

 

while Alex shows

 

F#-E-D A-E-D F#-E-D G#-F#-E-D

Right, I agree. Now that I think about it more, I am playing like your line.