Behold:The Holy Grail of Guitar Chords

It sounds like this........

The secret of The Beatles sound (well, Lennon's technique mostly) was revealed to me in a local pub, by an old boy known as Music John - 'He played Banjo chords on guitar' John whispered with lowered tones and knowing nods. If you've ever dabbled with guitar techniques and Beatles tunes, you'll know the Fab's catalogue is coloured with quirky chord shapes and unique sequences, unlike anything you'll find in other rocker's songbooks. It's these same singing, ringing chords and magical combo's that defines a demarcation line between disciples and disbelievers....

Roger McGuinn 'The chord changes really had magic in them'

Bob Dylan 'They were doing things nobody was doing. Their chords were outrageous, just outrageous'

Steve Jones 'The rest of us hate the Beatles. And it turned out he (Glen Matlock) loves them. He came up with all these Beatles influenced chords and melodies that I couldn't play.

From the moment it's first Cllaaaaaanggggg rang around the world, the opening chord to A Hard Day's Night has been the Holy Grail (and basis for raging debates and dissertations on the mechanics of the chord) for  guitar anoraks, plectrum analysers and Beatologists. George Harrison settled, but didn't solve the mystery in 2001.

George Harrison' It is F with a G on top (on the 12-string), but you'll have to ask Paul about the bass note to get the proper story'

The principles of the 'proper story' are:Fadd9  is the George chord, (you'll hear this being picked during the closing coda) but the recording is a composite of overdubbed instruments playing additional notes. Meaning,  the chord required for solo players is - G7sus4. The full theory and breakdown is here. My home made recreation of Fadd9 and extra instrumentation is here.......

But, getting back to Music John's revelation, Lennon was shown banjo shapes by his mother Julia. As his style developed he rounded out his chord library with more conventional shapes, but always coloured his compositions with these peculiar voicings. But it wasn't just the chords that were non-standard. Musicians of the early sixties typically favoured, shiny new Fenders in jet age shapes and Cadillac colours. Not The Beatles - their kit and instruments were a collection of oddities and eye-openers.

Lemmy on seeing The Beatles at The Cavern....

Music John's banjo chords theory, is only one component tone of The Beatles signature mix. Build in Lennon's love of descending bass lines, Ringo's left handed drummer/right handed kit arrangement and the north-south divide of blues boomers versus country lovers (why the Stones honk out riffs and the Fabs chime with arpeggios) and inspiration and influences taken from an assortment of sources, soul imports, Little Richard squeals, Motown hits, music hall melodies - and the harmonics of the hit makers starts to take shape.

Zip to 00:48 of Chuck Berry's You Can't Catch Me - and you'll find a line mainly famous as Beatles refrain, or Bobby Parker's opening riff for Watch Your Step, which Lennon openly admits was recycled for handful of Fab anthems.

Chuck Berry - You Can't Catch Me

Bobby Parker - Watch Your Step

Piley and I set about our eleventh podcast later this week, with sound-a-likes being the motif of the moment. So expect to hear some more 'sounds familiar' acts and tracks at some point soon.

Shabby Road Studios - keyboard not pictured

Rhythm, Riots and Revolution

Whatever your take on him (and the more I read the more mixed my opinion becomes) the musical legacy of John Lennon (and fellow Fabbers) is a body of work, that in the coming decades and centuries will be buffed, studied and beard-stroked over by academic experts and amateur enthusiasts alike. The beatification was already underway in the sixties. Fifty years on The Beatles, as an institution, have become so stately they now outrank the Royals. It follows then that their catalogue will, over time, be elevated to the level of historical classics.

Lennon was always a sprinter compared McCartney's marathon stamina and long-distance game play. Bullish at first, buzzing with rough-boy beans and bravado - later throwing himself deeply and completely into any new fashion, fad or thrill. His gang leader looning and mop-top song writing rush were an early creative growth spurt that spluttered and slowed just as Macca's late-onset ascent began to bloom, blossom and focus.

I'm no musicologist or phsycologist but my guess, for what it's worth is - that Lennon's attention deficit drive and fidgety, creative tics inform his signature songwriting style: shifting rhythms and twitchy time signatures,  more than his fractured background. That history gets written in the lyrics and interviews.

Like most heavyweight greats Lennon's life story can be a minefield of hypocrisy, silly mistakes and high irony:an abandoned child who had little to do with his first son, the working class hero in white Rolls Royce, a peace campaigner gunned to death. Whatever your thoughts, angles or arguments on him may be, the best of Lennon is defined by his legacy not his Legend.
  

Part of me suspects that I'm a loser, and the other part of me thinks I'm God Almighty - John Lennon

 So what's on the 70th birthday playlist ....

(Take 1 fumbles then) Take 2 of an overlooked Fab fave of mine.

An updated take on their trippiest track.

Dr Winston O'Boogie getting two songs from one chord sequence.

Late period Lennon with sort of riffing  contemporary Weller dips into

The Beatles - I'm a Loser (Take 2)



The Beatles - Tomorrow Never Knows (Leftside Wobble Edit)



John Lennon - Whatever Gets You Through The Night (home demo)



John Lennon - I'm Losing You



I'll leave the last word to Lennon - with a poppermost quote on Beatlemania at 20 seconds in




Thanks to all at the Unfinished Lennon site for helping locate the above clip and quote

Disco Dolly

It's Mrs Mond's birthday today - she's loves a bit of disco and a little spot of Dolly. So what say we fuse the two in one camp and funky bundle topped with a big blonde bow. Take your partners for some 12" disco-jiggery and a special dedi' to my endlessly patient, ever-glowin' birthday lovely...

Dolly Parton - Baby I'm Burnin



Dolly Parton - I Wanna Fall In Love



Dolly's roots are showing and they're Northern - one of her earliest singles from 1965...

Dolly Parton - Busy signal

Caining It

Here's something I've been meaning to clonk in the blog for yonks. A Michael Caine selection..so what's it all about Alfie?

Typically I'm not one for autograph hunting - and unlike Pileys legendary and  weighty volumes of celebrity scratchings my collection runs to a can-you-even-call-it-a-collection total of two: a signed summer season programme (Eastbourne '76) with Ray Allen and Cilla's sig's contained therein (BTW she tousled my hair and called me 'chucky egg'. She also wore a fur coat and sunglasses. At Night. In the summer. In Eastbourne). And a George Melly concert ticket - personalised 'yours always'

But, when the unblinking, heavyweight ledge that is Sir Michael of Micklewhite is hosting a biog-signing sesh quite literally around the corner from the office - I'll happily take a place in the queue.

Roy Budd - Get Carter Theme



Quincy Jones - The Self Preservation Society



Nancy Wilson - Alfie



If you're in any way a fan of Get Carter this online tour of the filming locations is well worth a squint

Update: Mike meets Mondo 

Wilde Boy - Tony Curtis RIP

It may sound strange, but Tony Curtis as Danny Wilde in The Persuaders was one of my earliest heroes and influences. It was the snappy chat and fancy togs that did it. I begged mum to get me a pair of kiddie driving gloves: velcro straps and knuckle cut-outs, some pretend leather trousers (beige the same colour seen here) and a yellow and blue suede suit as part of my Danny Wilde dressing-up gear.

The magic's still there. We spotted a Persuaders Ferrari Dino in the local Broadway a couple of weeks ago - I'm no petrol-head, but what a moment, the ol' ticker went up a gear instantly.

Anyway enough of my ol' guff and nonsense - let's raise glass for Bernard Schwartz. Another legend lost...

Killer Wattz - The Persuaders

Check the gloves....

There's a fine and dandy Persuaders blog here - if you fancy a peep

Dear Diary - September

Now then, now then - what have we here: bats at Hadleigh Castle (1st), Ouija boards by night (4th) a runaway (again) chum (14th) beer making (15th) and Cooke's slap-up pie and mash on a trip to nan's (22nd): update F.Cooke is now Shanghai

If you've seen Oil City Confidential (if you haven't seen it you must) you'll notice selected interviews take place against a backdrop of ancient rubble and ruins - that's Hadleigh Castle. A playground for local tots, teens and tear-aways through the ages. Captured by John Constable in 1829, the view from the castle to Canvey can be seen at 11 seconds in below...



The runaway friend (also hospitalised last month - a long story), spent a week's stretch in some rat-run of a squat, where, he was propositioned by the then headmaster from Grange Hill (pre-Bridgette the Midget era).

On a chirpier note, the wristband ordered last month arrived as well as my Goons Flexidisc (19th). If you were a Radio Luxembourg listener in '79, you may remember the Goons adverts for 'Binkleys Bonk'. The entire collection was rendered to flexi - I won't share the complete catalogue with you, just a couple for now. September's charts were topped by Sir Cliff, although my buys were...

UK Subs - Tomorrow's Girls



The Ruts - Something That I Said



The Goons Barclays Bank flexi-extracts 1



Goons Barclays Bank flexi-extracts 2



The Southerner an obscure John Steinbeck style depression era drama caught late one night and never forgotten is viewable here. You'll also notice the sick day is marked with a tick - more on that next month...

The Village Green Preservation Society

Phill Jupitus, Block (head)rocking Chalkwell Park last year

Tomorrow sees the third Village Green Arts Festival pitching up in Chalkwell park. A one day free event bulking up from 5000 festival go-ers in it's first year, to a borough-busting 20,000 in 09. And with the word of mouth buzz still spinning from last year - I'd expect to see that total topped this Saturday..

The tone of the day is a park-sized, polite picnic with tents and events: comedy, films and kiddy bits - soundtracked by live music from the main stage. Almost a louder, large-scale companion to the Leigh Folk Festival, wrapping up with a sensible 10pm turn in.

Home-grown talent always adds some local muscle to the bill. The Blockheads, Billy Bragg and Phill Jupitus for '09, and Snowboy and the Latin Section, The Famous Potataoes and The Dirty Fairies for '10

Grockles a go-go on the lineup include Carlene Anderson, Carter USM's Jim Bob and ex-Beta Band and Aliens man - Steve Mason whose set is top of my to-do list, having been looping his Boys Outside album for the last couple of months.

Steve Mason - Lost and Found

If only Wilco or Eddie and The Hot Rods to could be tempted to take the stage while the sunsets over Oil City for next year, that would be something truly special for us seasiders..

In the Teepee Tent with Billy Bragg - yes I am in here somewhere, and in the clip below

Lineup, maps and directions are available here

Everybody Talk about - Pub Musik

The annual booze based tear-up billed as the Sad Lads CD Swap, will be upon us soon(ish). A two-part pub do where CDs of newbie bits compiled by Piley, Marmite, Coops, E F Rice, Jack Gestures, Paul Glasses, myself and others are swapped in November and reprised by an end of year re-meet for evening's nattering about our year's best beats and bobs. The rules are straight forward: see E F's regulations footnoting this post.

My '09 selection box was weighted with 80% vintage bits. This year it's possibly 70/30 in favour of new tunes. Dipping through a year's listening, highlights how many oddities and offcuts remain unblogged and lingering on the sub's bench. Blitzen Trapper are a premium example. On heavy rotation at home or out and about - but not a peep to be seen in my (award winning) cyberspace scrapbook..

Blitzen Trapper - Fire & Fast Bullets



Blitzen Trapper - Saturday Nite



Just one Blitzen bit will be making the final cut - I'm not sure which yet, but once my compo's finalised I may clonk a Ltd Edt mix in the blog

Them's The Rules....

1. Circulate to everyone a CD no longer than 80 minutes in length, containing tracks for new groups you have either got into for the first time this year or established artists you have perhaps picked up an old track/album for this year.

2. You may have more than one track for an artist on the CD (although 80 mins of Springsteen would be pushing it)

3. You supply all those taking part with a CD including a full track listing. The CDs will be circulated on a date in early November down The **** (date will be decided nearer the time).

Dear Diary - August

Summer's here and the time is right for caravanning in Weymouth. Through the medium of stealthy net detection, I've discovered the Pebble Bank Caravan Park was where my cousins and I pitched up for a week. Although mum and dad had the good sense to lodge at a local B & B, avoiding the sound of early morning boots, boots, boots marching up and down again from the army camp next door. But what a week: windy beaches, a Radio One Roadshow and a trip to the pic's for Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (can you believe TV premiers were ever cinematic attractions?) Followed by a week in Codford St Mary.

I don't know if you remember, but the BBC ran a Spaghetti Western season over this summer, so slumbersome early morning paper runs (no, it didn't last) were made easier by pretending to be The Paperboy With No Name.

Planet Punk finally and firmly pulled me into it's dayglo grip with a studded wristband ordered (20th) possibly from the catalogue (2nd), a My Way TV special (27th) featuring Sid Vish and three Pistols album picked up in one month (16th and 25th) along with these singles ...

Dick I chavvy it's a Mudtown slusher

Sham 69 - Hersham Boys



The Specials - Gangsters



But it's not all noisy boy anthems - peeping through August's charts unearthed Bill Lovelady's forgotten guilty pleasure from the summer of '79

Podrophenia 10 - Originals Uncovered

He's written two garage classics, but who is he and what are they - find out in Podrophenia

Elvis, Madonna, Bowie and Blondie are just some of the glittering legends and heavy-hitters NOT appearing in the latest edition of Podrophenia. But pod-pickers, listen in and lend an ear as Piley and I lay bare, unwrap and unearth the low-level source material supplying these high flyers with smash hit songs and singles. All is revealed in Podrophenia 10. Along with Piley's tale of a tooth-brightening, eye-widening electric enema.

Podrophenia 10



Or try via iTunes

With only five tunes a'piece something had to give, so Superstar got the 11th hour bounce from my Podrophenia playlist. Mainly famous as a Carpenters classic (with retweaked lyrics sleep with you swapped for be with you) the original versh can be found tucked away on Delaney and Bonnie B Side - a gorgeous serving of blue-eyed soul.

Delaney and Bonnie - Groupie (Superstar)



Cher's affair is more of a stoner-rock spin on the theme.

Cher - Superstar



PS The album I mention but forget to name is here..