Old Brown Shoe- The Beatles (Guitar Cover)

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Old Brown Shoe was the b-side to The Ballad Of John and Yoko, released in the spring of 1969. It was recorded during the early Abbey Road sessions at EMI studios. There is some controversy and speculation as to who played what on it

The common personnel for a long time was Ringo on drums, Paul on piano, and George on bass/guitar. But in 2019, Giles Martin released the Abbey Road box set and listed Paul on drums. He claimed that Ringo couldn't have played on it because he was filming the movie The Magic Christian at the time. Giles listed John on piano and George on guitar

I believe Giles's theory is totally WRONG. Paul famously could not do a shuffle beat, and even says so in this 2005 documentary at his studio:
   • Klaus Voormann & Paul McCartney in Hog Hil...  

Furthermore, in the Get Back documentary you see an early version of Old Brown Shoe being rehearsed. Both Ringo and Paul take turns at drums, and Paul struggles a lot with the beat. Ringo can be heard in later clips nailing the shuffle

Why does this matter? Especially considering this is a guitar cover only...
Because, the backing track for the song (recorded on April 16 1969) features only drums, piano and guitar. If Paul was not on drums, that leaves the possibility that he played either piano or guitar

Listening to take 2 of the song, as heard on the 2019 box set you hear drums, piano, guitar and George's vocals. I believe George had to be playing piano because of the incredibly fast riff that is heard in the bridge of the song. George most likely could not have sung and played this at the same time, at least sung so clearly. He also is heard cutting off the rest of the band at the end, and the piano stops at the same time, while the guitar and drums continue to play briefly.

I believe Paul was the one playing the main guitar riff, on his Epiphone Casino. It could have been John, but the fast riff in the bridge requires a lot of technical skill that John sometimes lacked on guitar. I think George played the piano, which would make sense because we see him singing the song on piano in Get Back

George however most certainly played the guitar solo on his Fender Rosewood Telecaster, into a leslie speaker and treated with some ADT/Tape Flanging. It is unclear who plays the bass on the song, but it's either George on Fender Bass VI or Paul on his Rickenbacker bass

Now that we've got the lineup squared, this is what I'm using for my cover:
2021 Epiphone Casino USA on the bridge pickup, with the tone knob rolled down
Into my 1974 Fender Pro Reverb amp, with an Analogman King of Tone boost pedal
Paul would've been plugged into one of their Fender Twin Reverb amps

For George's solo, I'm using a 2010's Fender made in Japan Rosewood Telecaster. I'm using my Strymon Lex pedal in stereo, into two amplifiers- the 1974 Fender Pro Reverb, and my 1965 Fender Bassman amp

Both the main guitar and George's solo were double-tracked
For the right channel Casino, I rolled the tone knob down to 2.5 to match the tone of the record

Interesting Notes:
0:05 the left Casino slides up and down
0:26 the right Casino begins the riff first
0:33 the right Casino begins the riff first
1:14 the right Casino alternates Low E and A strings, then D and A
1:40 the two Tele solos play almost identically, but here the right channel plays G on the D-string, the left channel does not. For the rest of the solo, the left channel Tele lags behind a bit
2:26 the right Casino goes from A5 to A7 (575XXX)
2:44 the right Casino overshoots 6th/8th frets on high strings, goes to 7th and 9th
2:48 the left Casino hits the high C note later than other guitar
2:53 the left Casino sustains a C5, the right casino slides up to a C5 shuffle on the 8th fret of Low E for the rest of the song
2:59 the left Casino plays hammer ons on the 3rd to 5th frets of D string

MY GEAR:
2021 Epiphone Casino USA Royal Tan
2010's Fender MIJ Rosewood Telecaster
1974 Fender Pro Reverb
1965 Fender Bassman
Analogman King of Tone
Strymon Lex

Thanks for watching!

#thebeatles #guitarcover #epiphonecasino

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