The Word - The Beatles (Guitar, Bass And Piano Cover) - Fender Stratocaster Sonic Blue

#thebeatles #cover #rubbersoul #guitarcover

“The Word” was recorded on November 10, 1965, at EMI Studios and is part of the famous Rubber Soul album. The session started at night and went into the early morning. The band needed only three takes to record the basic rhythm track. Later, they added overdubs like piano, harmonium (played by George Martin), extra guitars, percussion, and vocal harmonies.

The lyrics show one of the first times The Beatles moved past the usual idea of romantic love in their early songs. Here, “the word” means love, but seen as a universal and almost philosophical concept. John Lennon said this was one of the first times he wrote with that idea: to share love as a powerful and essential message.

**I forgot to mention in the video that George Martin plays the harmonium solo (2:02 - 2:16)


BASIC TRACK AND OVERDUBS

The rhythm track took three takes to finish. According to several sources, it featured John on rhythm guitar, Paul on piano, and Ringo on drums. Later, overdubs were added, including Paul’s bass, George’s lead guitars, maracas, and George Martin’s harmonium.
This was unusual for The Beatles, because normally their rhythm tracks included bass, drums, lead guitar, and rhythm guitar. Here, they replaced the bass with piano, which allowed the stereo mix to emphasize the bass more by panning it to the right, making the most of Paul’s excellent bass line.

Bass Line
The bass line gives the song a unique groove, keeping it bouncing and perfectly in sync with Ringo’s drums. Paul mostly plays this pattern:
D - D / D - C - A / C - C# - D
Sometimes he varies the pattern, changing the note order and groove but always using the same notes.

At times, he plays:
D - D / D - C - A / A - C - D
He only changes the patterns, even when the song shifts to G7, simply moving the notes to match the chord.

*At 2:11, he plays a slightly different groove, similar to the bass line in “And Your Bird Can Sing”, while still using the same notes.

George’s Overdubs

There was some doubt about the guitars in this song. In the 2009 remaster, John’s Strat rhythm and George’s riff are both panned to the left and sound very similar. However, the rhythm guitar has room reverb, which George’s Strat riff doesn’t, suggesting it’s an overdub rather than part of the original rhythm track.
From this, we can deduce that George recorded the "1st lead guitar overdub" with his Strat, panned to the left.

GRETSCH TENNESSEE OR 2ND STRAT?

In most YouTube covers, the lead riff is played on one or two Strats. However, the guitar panned to the right ("the 2nd overdub") doesn’t have the metallic Strat tone. While it sounds similar, it doesn’t resonate the same way. Listening to isolated tracks, it seems more like a Gretsch Tennessee, with a nasal tone, rather than the bright, metallic sound of a Strat. This is a detail that not many people have noticed.

*You can listen to the isolated TENNESSEE track here (at 13:28):
   • deconstructing The Word The Beatles - (Iso...  
‪@CristhoferCQ95_YTStems‬

FOLLOW ME:
YT SPANISH CHANNEL:
‪@juodetEspañol‬
Instagram
@_juodet
TIKTOK
@_juodet (TheJuoDet)

INSTRUMENTS USED:
GUITARS
2008 Fender Stratocaster MIM Black (Painted Like Sonic Blue and Modified With Deluxe Drive Pickups)
2023 Gretsch Tennessee Rose (Chinese Replica)

BASS
2017 Rickenbacker 4003s Fireglo

KEYBOARD
Roland XPS-10 Synthesizer