Great reaction to a great Beatles song. I still have the original album, which unfortunately is in terrible unplayable condition. It is a hand-me-down from my sister, since I was only 4 when this came out. I am so glad you were able to sneak the opening chord past the AI copyright police. All this rock music you have been listening to has turned you into a rebel.😉 The harp illustrations were great.
There are entire videos on TH-cam theorizing, investigating, and describing that opening chord. The diversity of instruments playing the specific individual notes gives this opening its unique striking character.
Hi Amy! Even though you didn’t play any of the recording of the song, this video is really great to watch! I followed up by heading to my music library to give the song a quick listen, keeping in mind all your comments. So thanks for posting this. Secondly, to reiterate what a bunch of your other viewers have recommended, I also heartily recommend watching the film “A Hard Day’s Night” by director Richard Lester (who is a great director in his own right). I think it’s safe to say that it is the blueprint that all subsequent a music-videos followed. At the very least, it was a first giant leap into what could be done. Also, the other Beatles film “Help” (also directed by Lester) is even more filmically creative, and another joy to watch. I would sincerely LOVE to see you step out of your comfort zone a wee bit, and do a “first reaction” watch of this film so we could all enjoy it together! What do you think? 😊
A big part of the sound is George Harrison's Rickenbacker 360 twelve string guitar. The thin two first E stings are tuned the same in unison as are the two second B strings. The third G strings are tuned an octave apart as are the D strings, A strings and thick E strings. I was lucky enough to play in a Beatles cover band in the 90s as George with guitars, suits and right down to the Beatle boots and mop top hairstyle. I had a Rickenbacker 330 twelve string it looked slightly different than the 360 but still looked the part and his Gretsch country gentleman semi acoustic. I look back on those days as the best days of my life it was a lot of fun.
I've seen a few of those Beatles tribute type bands you're talking about, some were OK, some not so OK. The very best one was called Beatlemania, and they traveled around the country. When I saw them they played at the Iowa State Fair, which I believe is the biggest annual event in the state. Every single member had every note and drum beat 99.99% perfect. Their John and George also played synths, so I was pretty stunned when they did Strawberry Fields note for note, for example. These guys were so incredible I went back to see them 3 times. This was around 2002 I suppose. So was that you?
Once you've finished with the Hard Day's Night LP and moved on I think you would very much enjoy watching the Film. This would give you some insight into the band at this point in their career as a band. I think you'd enjoy it.
I still absolutely would love a movie reaction to A Hard Days Night! This video I think is my favorite of the Beatle videos I’ve watched it several times glad to see it on TH-cam ❤
I really don't know how to evaluate the TH-cam restrictions that effect many of your videos, as well as the videos of others. Of course, it's regrettable. You ought to have the latitude to analyze and enlighten us without these restrictions, but our restrictions often free us, and add to the experience of life. It's an old story. Shakespeare played with the most restrictive form of verse to bring forth meaning and enrichment. In analyzing the Beatles music without playing their music you perform the same task. Anyhow, baby boomers like me already know the music. What we often lack is your knowledge of form and structure, and history. Thanks for sharing.
Great song and album. You really really really should see the Movie. It inspired me and a million other kids to start bands. Great commentary and insights. They used a lot of “Ringoisms” in their lyrics and titles. Thanks
I agree, Amy should definitely check it out once she has covered all the songs in it. It has been decades since I have watched it so I don't remember how far she has to go in the album before it is safe for her to watch the movie spoiler free. I'm sure this movie helped inspire the Monkees TV show, which used similar music backed comedic skits. Amy will have to check out the Monkees soon so she can hear a band that started as a TV show, but soon became a legitimate and successful 60s rock band with some great songs.
@@Hartlor_Tayley Yeah, I need to check it out again since my memories of it are very vague. I just checked YT and the full movie is available to buy or rent. There is also a free version titled, "A Hard Day's Night - All Music Scenes. FULL HD. 1080p" that has all the song parts of the movie, with links to the individual songs in the description. So Amy could watch these scenes now for free by just clicking on the songs she has already heard.
@@topazthecat8704 According to Wikipedia, "The Beatles' films A Hard Day's Night and Help! inspired Rafelson and Schneider to revive Rafelson's idea for The Monkees." It is very hard for me to imagine that they were not influence by the Beatles movies. Even as a young kid in the 60s I made the association. Just look at the opening credit comedic scenes which you can find on YT. They are very Beatles like comedic visuals. Also, don't forget that the Beatles didn't write a lot of their original songs, since they did a lot of covers on the first few albums. I'm not trying to put the Monkees on the same level as the Beatles, but they did have some good songs.
The notes in the first chord were G-B-D-F-A-C. According to music historians, the elements were George: Fadd9 in 1st position on Rickenbacker 360/12 12-string electric guitar, John: Fadd9 in 1st position on a Gibson J-160E 6-string acoustic guitar, Paul: high D3 played on the D-string, 12th fret on Hofner 500/1 electric bass, George Martin: D2-G2-D3 played on a Steinway Grand Piano
I didn't fully appreciate their music 'til I was older, but that was the first album I ever owned. My mom saw me perusing the record rack while we were shopping at a department store in the 60's. She said she would let me choose one to take home, and my eyes locked onto their familiar faces on the cover. I knew they were a big deal, after seeing them on TV. The first album I ever bought with my own money, (lemonade stand), was Hawaii Five-O by The Ventures. That would make a FUN video Amy. If you reacted to all of the old famous TV show theme songs from the 60's. Beverly Hillbillies, Rawhide, Addams Family, Green Acres, Gilligan's Island, Mission Impossible, Star Trek, Batman, and The Green Hornet. That was the BEST decade for TV theme songs. Also maybe The Jetsons and The Flintstones too.😂
Thank you for detailing how the famous opening chord actually corresponds with the slightly "mysterious" (my interpretation) ending figure! Never quite made the connection myself.
I wouldn't argue against A Hard Days Night as marking the beginning of a new phase for The Beatles, although I tend to move that marker to the Help album, which for me represents a leap not only musically but - just as importantly - lyrically. You definitely get hints of it on this album, but IMO it's all prelude for the real deal that was to come a couple albums later.
I disagree about this being the beginning of their middle period. I see it as the highlight or peak of their early period. Which didn't change musically until Rubber Soul. Even though their songwriting had matured, their musicianship hadn't. Which in my opinion defines their early, middle and late period.
12 minutes in you asked about the ticking sound. I don't know if anyone on the patreon pages told you but it is called a cow bell. It is not a real cow bell but a percussion instrument that is similar in both shape and sound to a cow bell. The Rolling Stones have an isolated cow bell as the opening to Honkey Tonk Women and the Official Lyric Video has an animation of a cow bell being struck in time to the sound of it.
9:13 Very interesting. Never knew that was a thing: nail a harp instead of strumming one. And it changes the dynamic? Changes the way it sounds significantly as the strummed opening chord vs the nailed one was nearly light and day different in sound.
There are a number of Beatles song titles that come from the weird and wonderful things Ringo said, Tomorrow Never Knows is another. Though, i think Peter Sellers does the best version of A Hard Days Night!...worth a listen if you've never heard it.
Regarding the distance between the notes during the guitar solo- on a 12 string guitar like George is playing, the strings are set up in pairs, so there are 2 for each of the 6 strings on a regular 6 string. In some of those pairs, the strings are an octave apart which gives the guitar that sound. If you look at a picture so a 12 string, it might make more sense if I just confused you.
A suggestion? React to those songs that you both choose from the Parlophone album, note and comment on the United Artist soundtrack album also. Then, another suggestion, for your channels, perhaps do an actual movie reaction to the movie! Bear in mind, though there were previous Rock and Roll movies, this is The Beatles and beginning of The British Invasion and more groups would follow suit with their own movies. Later, when they didn't perform live on television shows like Ed Sullivan, they made and debuted song film performances instead, a form that would be later known as music videos and would be used extensively on MTV. In that way, A Hard Day's Night as a project is that important and significant and a Watershed in the history of popular music!!! :)
I have beeen paying guitar for 55 years and have heard that that stark opening chord is two chords played simultaneously. George on 12 string and John on a 6 string Rickenbaker. Some books have devoted several pages ( 69) on just that one chord. I haven't worked it out. I think it's a touch of genius by George.
I heard an interview with George Harrison not long before he died. He said that it was like this: he and Lennon played the chord at the same moment, with Lennon on acoustic guitar. It was an Fadd9, with an A above the F added. At the same moment, McCartney hit a D on bass, and George Martin did something, I don't know what, on piano.
...just one more thing...a friend of mine, about 5 years ago, said "you have to learn Beethoven's Seventh, second movement, first 3 minutes!" and I eventually faced my fears of chordal cruelty and learned the progression on guitar and omg...I know of a dozen songs (heard?) that utilize the same progression including Hotel California. NOW, why do I type? I just now changed the minors to relative majors and vice-versa on the entire progression and yes, I wrote it down with sharpie in big block letters and it's blowing my mind. 5 years ago I wrote a song to the progression called "I Intend" and it's quite good and now that I play the relative-major-minor trick it's a completely new song. Frikken Beethoven. I'm sure that a Beatles song uses the B. progression, 99% sure. Songwriting is never dull. I always have a sharpie.
Love the discussion about the opening chord, which has spurned debate among many over what it is. Randy Bachman has a vid about going to Abbey Rd studios and finding out just how they put it together, with George Martin's son playing the tapes to Randy. I think the vid has been taken down though
If you dedicate your life to music education and don't know where to start (other than stick on log) the Beatles are always a great jumping off point. You can go to their influences back in time or play their world-changing songs forward on the culture. Being British you can refer to rather complex chord combos to keep grooving expansively (not my fave part of Harmony) and even John asked Yoko to play Beethoven backwards to compose Because. Every time I think I'm clever I listen to Strawberry Fields (you get the idea). You played the intro chord. That song is eternal due to that chord. I have been saving for a Rickenbacker 12-string since 1969. I'll get there one day.
As a guitarist you play the opening chord as a G 11th with no 9th-which sounds especially 'different' on a 12-string. The score you're working with has put the song in A major, but the original recording is in G major.
The outro starts of with their trademark powering-down triple-repeat of the last half-phrase of the final verse, but it ends off enigmatically on virtually the same chord with which the song began. This parallelism by itself provides some unity to the song overall, but still, the use of a non-I chord ending is unusual, and at the time, was virtually unprecedented in a rock song; indeed, non-I openings, while by no means nearly as rare, were themselves still unusual. Next note Although the chordal outlines played gently into the fade-out by the lead guitar have none of the commanding impact of the opening chord, the effect at the end is, in its own way, just as suspenseful as the opening. In the film it effectively bridges the gap between opening credits and first scene.
Its a great opening , matched by `I feel fine` i think. When i was a teenager every one had a compulsive /obsessive Beatles phase. Sadly i don`t think that`s the case. anymore .They are the greatest band there ever was ,or will be probably. Bach would have wished he had written `Lucy in the Sky` , sad he never got to hear it.
That opening chord is two guitars. One is playing a Dsus4 and the other is playing a G/F. Not sure what chord you’d call it but it’s an open F shape bit with the top G and the bottom G notes.
The album should *not* be considered the start of their middle period. It's only their third British album! The American releases were still different and hadn't yet become coordinated so that the same albums were being released everywhere. They were still doing live tours. Most of all, their fourth album *still* had a bunch of cover songs. Everything was still under 3 minutes in length. They hadn't yet gone to India. It was still their first year of American success. This was a step forward, but by no means should be considered their middle period. There is a motivation by certain fans to count this as "middle" in order to exempt it from those who criticize the early Beatles. But their albums still had too much weaker and older stuff written by others. Their middle period should at least date from the "Help!" Album or possibly Rubber Soul, when every song was written by them, and their late period would start with the two-disc "White" Album.
I agree this isn't a "middle period" album. As you say, the dividing line is not easy to draw, as Help! could be viewed as either the end of the early or the beginning of the middle. I just call it the bridge album between the two. And I have decided "Lady Madonna" was the bridge between the middle and the late period. It doesn't have the adventurous spirit of REVOLVER, PEPPER and MMT, but points the way to how they are going to wind up their career.
Good arguments. The album does signify the point of departure from "one of the many guitar bands playing rock 'n roll" to serious craftsmen with a unique edge (as you mentioned, a step forward), so it can be described as a start to the second half of their first period, I guess. Anyway, I completely agree.
I would call that first chord a D7sus4. I know a suspension has a particular definition in classical music, but in modern music a 1-4-5-7 chord is a 7sus4. That chord is EVERYWHERE in jazz (though used as a dominant chord usually rather than a standalone chord like here.)
I definitely agree that the opening chord here & the final chord of “A Day In The Life,” are like book ends. But “A Day In The Life” doesn’t end that period. “I Am The Walrus” ends that period. Plus that period or phase, the Psychedelic Phase, is distinct from the period one might say that is launched by “A Hard Day’s Night.” Most of us call this the Middle Period. I suppose it’s the “early” middle and the Psychedelic is the “late” middle as 1968-1970 is the Late Period. Amy, give us more of these edited videos and just be sure to talk only when you pause the music in the original reaction then give us all of your reaction in the edited. We want your reaction. We don’t need to hear the music- we fans hear it in our memory & can listen to it in a Beatles official video or on Spotify or by our own LP/Cassette/CD/MP3.
George Harrison told an interviewer that the opening chord was 6 chords overdubbed. Was he exaggerating? George is quite the kidder but you have to lean in. Listen to Wah-Wah for a George epic. I met George (1977) and did a perfect spit-take. He smiled and my boss ushered him out of the restaurant. I met Ringo and Barbara, his spouse, in 1990. I did a subtle pantomime of a guy walking by, looking up and shaking his head in a "no, couldn't be" gesture. Two Beatles and I was speechless. They got the jokes.
I wouldn't say their middle period starts here, although there are significant developments. I'd say the middle part starts with the next more folky album Beatles For Sale, although I prefer to order them in four periods. Early, folky, psychedelic and late period.
Interestingly, onstage, the band would resolve the ending, crashing on the G chord. Check out a live recording or video with that song. BTW, listening to your playing that section on the harp with the D bass in repetition sounds very minimalist and calms me. Yeah, I'm one of those people. Someone make a loop of it.
The intro chord was made up with Paul McCartney playing a D note on bass, George Harrison playing and Fmaj add G or 9th, John Lennon playing a Dsus4 and George Martin on the piano playing a G7 sus4/D.
The opening chord is one the most famous and mysterious chords 'cos it was never written down. AFAIK what it actually is an Fadd9 played on the guitars plus what George Martin added on a piano which is believed to be some D's and a few other notes but nobody really knows exactly what. The Fadd9 guitar chord is played on the top four strings as (bottom to top) F,A,C,G, Martin is believed to have played a D octave on the piano plus some additional notes some suggest was an A between the D's and a higher G on top but quite possibly more notes than that, McCartney is believed to have played a D note on the bass and the whole shooting match was drenched in reverb. So it could be argued to be basically an Fadd9 chord on the guitars over a Dsus4 on the piano. When they played it live Harrison and Lennon played the Fadd9 shape and McCartney played a D on bass.
I respect the difficulty trying to give that opening chord a name. As practice for sight reading, I've been going through one of my dad's books of Bucky Pizzarelli guitar scores and writing chord names above the chords on the treble clef. A lot of the chords are intentionally ornamental for jazz. Here, using the D for the root doesn't work well at all. You have D, a flat 3rd with F (minor), a 4th with G, and a flat or dominant 7th with C. The least complicated name I can give it is G7sus4, but no matter which note you choose for the root, you never play the natural 3rd in the chord. Anyway, the chord really sounds like the V chord going to the I chord G, so it really seems like it should have a D root. Dm7sus4 is kind of a weird name. Csus2sus4 is weirder. F6sus2? Hours of fun figuring these things out. But anyway, that 4 note chord on a guitar is easy to play xx3533. Alternate finger picking that with xx356x (F, really F5) for the end of the song.
Just to state the obvious, one of the main differences between keyboard and guitar is that with a guitar the spacing of notes within a chord is greater. It's almost like leaving notes out on a keyboard, using giant hands ...
Regarding the opening chord: I have remembered a reference to this in David Bennet's you tube video "How much music theory did the Beatles know?", th-cam.com/video/HmjRM3AziTY/w-d-xo.html, which can be seen from 6:55. David identifies the chord as Dm11, but I don't watch these videos to understand the musical technicalities, but rather the process by which the Beatles developed from a group of itinerant musicians, to a worldwide phenomenon. It is clear from these videos that they were very focused, very demanding of each other and everyone was expected to keep up or they would be ditched as Pete Best was. I know Ringo on several occasions did not feel his place was secure. Once they had achieved initial success in the UK, they must have felt they were on a treadmill on which they had to go faster and faster having to push boundaries further and further. I think they did remarkably well to keep going as long as they did, never seeming to have put a foot wrong : 7 years and over 300 songs. A phenomenon that burned brightly and still does today.
Having performed on Hollywood Boulevard a lot since 2009 I am witness to what people will and will not sing along with. Guess what songs get people singing? (yes, Comfortably Numb as well). The answer is...the Beatles. No Quarter gets no sing-alongs but people love it, as well.
Sugestion to you: CONSTRUÇÃO - CHICO BUARQUE, 1971, arrengement by Rogério Duprat, tropicalist, post-modern maestro. Poetry as well is calculeted: in the firt half has the first silable accent, the other half has the last as well (IN PORTUGUESE)
Amy you might be amused by a recording done by the actor Peter Sellers where he performs A Hard Days Night in the style of Laurence Olivier and Shakespeare. 😂
is there a copyright rule about playing the score backwards? maybe do the entire video content, with music, but backwards and we play it in reverse and we can hear it correctly.
A Hard Day's Night was definitely a step up, but far from being the start of their middle period. That would be Rubber Soul. AHDN is still early Beatles, they were just improving with every album
D D F C G - Wouldn't that be related to Dmin ... my brother was always big into the odd sorts of chords and once upon a time I tried to learn a bunch off a chart he made but I was never good at it - but that looks like a Dmin 11 something - I get confused by the augmented and diminished and such.... Oh, that is a real question - not rhetorical - I'm actually curious about it.
@ristovirtanen6396 I realize that but a standard Dmin is D F A, this is D F C G, now the C added would make it, an 11 chord I think, and changing the A to G would make it a either a Diminished or Suspended or Augmented chord but I can't remember which. It was the D F that I noticed right away, and then the G nudged my memory, but I wasn't certain
Now that there is no music to know which part Amy is talking about, we can only rely on the score. But since that has the size of a stamp, it's very jhard to read! So, show us bigger scores! Why not temporarily fill the whole screen with the score when Amy is pointing out something there? It would make the videos a lot more educational!
One day in 2015 a guy from across the street was carrying boxes into my building and he looked so pitiful I offered my help. He said no thanks and I laughed. I spent the next 5 years edumacating the dude about music as he was addicted to mediocre machine music with no melodies, I was horrified. We started with Beatles. I couldn't believe he was taking my advice. It took me a year to talk him into a turntable, amp, speakers and the notion of vinyl and it took one Tom Waits album to school him about mixes. Five years, from Coltrane to XTC, from Django to Cream, from Mingus to Eno, his collection of about 300 albums is one of the best collections (next to my cassettes) that I know. Why do I do this? for the accolades? Do the skies open up while Songs For the Deaf plays on? It was worth it to listen to (rather not horribly expensive) the albums as I remembered them. I love to rippout a nice Clapton riff from the Beano album now and then (blues guitar played with absurd strength). I think the harp was born to educate. When you played the first chord I tasted heaven. I'll stop typing now.
Since you always listen to the track in full while while reacting, why not leave that part in but just mute the audio. Give us a count in and we can listen to the song on our side at the same time.
Is there any way you could avoid playing the song in it's entirety and play little snippets as you go along? Would that get you around the YT enforcers?
John in his Playboy interview made clear 'A Hard Day's Night' was 100% by him stating Paul only sang the middle-eight because John had trouble hitting the high notes. Paul's claim to be 'in on that middle-eight' was BS made many years after when John was conveniently dead. Maybe a result of his embarrassment at being so little involved in the songwriting for that album. In other interviews Paul has cited 'Hard Day's Night' as an example of a Lennon written song.
I think the analysis of what chords signals what can only be done in hindsight. There's no way they could've planned this. So this type of analysis is moot
Well, THE BEATLES are pretty good. But... they pale in comparison to the band they were patterned after: THE RUTLES. "They are a living legend. A living legend that will live on long after other living legends have died..." - Monty Python's Eric Idle
check em Japanese Paledusk / RUMBLE feat. Masato from coldrain many transitions, like its got over 10 songs in 1 basist wrote a song for the rapper Lil Uzi Vert happy chaotic nu-metalcore Broken By The Scream - 陽炎 feat. Isam (from MAKE MY DAY)＆アイガーゴイル (from アイリフドーパ) deathcore progmetal J-POP girl group PassCode - Flavor Of Blue Electonicore metalcore J-POP girl group Maximum the Hormone - Alien System of a Down, Red hot chilli peppers, Pantera influence The Mad Capsule Markets - All the time in Sunny Beach digital hardcore rock, have tourned with Slipknot
WHY??????...WAY WAY OVERRATED ALBUM... Their later stuff was much better...this elevated status is uncalled for.............. .Do Neil Young Down By The River much much better
Only very stupid people believe that Amy already knows the songs she reacts to ...... ...this is the entire raison d'etre of the channel....if you believe that it's fake ...then you posess a depressing lack of faith in people.....and and you're worryingly naive and foolish .....!!!
No human has ever believed that women does not know all these songs she talks about. Unless that one delusional and inarticulate human might happen to be you, Tang?
Great reaction to a great Beatles song. I still have the original album, which unfortunately is in terrible unplayable condition. It is a hand-me-down from my sister, since I was only 4 when this came out. I am so glad you were able to sneak the opening chord past the AI copyright police. All this rock music you have been listening to has turned you into a rebel.😉 The harp illustrations were great.
That opening chord... Rick Wakeman once described that chord as being THE chord of the 1960's.
Besides being an amazing keyboardist, Rick is a smart man, because he is right. 🎶 🎵 🎸
11:52 That's a cowbell. Ever since, cowbells have been used a lot in Rock. So much so, that there's even a running joke, "Needs more cowbell".
There are entire videos on TH-cam theorizing, investigating, and describing that opening chord. The diversity of instruments playing the specific individual notes gives this opening its unique striking character.
You freakin did it. You did the opening chord. This is when the galaxies align.
Hi Amy! Even though you didn’t play any of the recording of the song, this video is really great to watch! I followed up by heading to my music library to give the song a quick listen, keeping in mind all your comments. So thanks for posting this.
Secondly, to reiterate what a bunch of your other viewers have recommended, I also heartily recommend watching the film “A Hard Day’s Night” by director Richard Lester (who is a great director in his own right). I think it’s safe to say that it is the blueprint that all subsequent a music-videos followed. At the very least, it was a first giant leap into what could be done. Also, the other Beatles film “Help” (also directed by Lester) is even more filmically creative, and another joy to watch.
I would sincerely LOVE to see you step out of your comfort zone a wee bit, and do a “first reaction” watch of this film so we could all enjoy it together! What do you think? 😊
A big part of the sound is George Harrison's Rickenbacker 360 twelve string guitar. The thin two first E stings are tuned the same in unison as are the two second B strings. The third G strings are tuned an octave apart as are the D strings, A strings and thick E strings. I was lucky enough to play in a Beatles cover band in the 90s as George with guitars, suits and right down to the Beatle boots and mop top hairstyle. I had a Rickenbacker 330 twelve string it looked slightly different than the 360 but still looked the part and his Gretsch country gentleman semi acoustic. I look back on those days as the best days of my life it was a lot of fun.
I've seen a few of those Beatles tribute type bands you're talking about, some were OK, some not so OK. The very best one was called Beatlemania, and they traveled around the country. When I saw them they played at the Iowa State Fair, which I believe is the biggest annual event in the state. Every single member had every note and drum beat 99.99% perfect. Their John and George also played synths, so I was pretty stunned when they did Strawberry Fields note for note, for example. These guys were so incredible I went back to see them 3 times. This was around 2002 I suppose. So was that you?
Once you've finished with the Hard Day's Night LP and moved on I think you would very much enjoy watching the Film. This would give you some insight into the band at this point in their career as a band. I think you'd enjoy it.
I still absolutely would love a movie reaction to A Hard Days Night! This video I think is my favorite of the Beatle videos I’ve watched it several times glad to see it on TH-cam ❤
I really don't know how to evaluate the TH-cam restrictions that effect many of your videos, as well as the videos of others. Of course, it's regrettable. You ought to have the latitude to analyze and enlighten us without these restrictions, but our restrictions often free us, and add to the experience of life. It's an old story. Shakespeare played with the most restrictive form of verse to bring forth meaning and enrichment. In analyzing the Beatles music without playing their music you perform the same task. Anyhow, baby boomers like me already know the music. What we often lack is your knowledge of form and structure, and history. Thanks for sharing.
Great song and album. You really really really should see the Movie. It inspired me and a million other kids to start bands. Great commentary and insights. They used a lot of “Ringoisms” in their lyrics and titles. Thanks
They did use "Ringoisms" but I don't believe he got any writing credit.
I agree, Amy should definitely check it out once she has covered all the songs in it. It has been decades since I have watched it so I don't remember how far she has to go in the album before it is safe for her to watch the movie spoiler free. I'm sure this movie helped inspire the Monkees TV show, which used similar music backed comedic skits. Amy will have to check out the Monkees soon so she can hear a band that started as a TV show, but soon became a legitimate and successful 60s rock band with some great songs.
@@LeeKennison I love that movie. Best rock movie by a country mile imho. It’s a good movie even if the viewer doesn’t like the Beatles.
@@Hartlor_Tayley Yeah, I need to check it out again since my memories of it are very vague. I just checked YT and the full movie is available to buy or rent. There is also a free version titled, "A Hard Day's Night - All Music Scenes. FULL HD. 1080p" that has all the song parts of the movie, with links to the individual songs in the description. So Amy could watch these scenes now for free by just clicking on the songs she has already heard.
@@topazthecat8704 According to Wikipedia, "The Beatles' films A Hard Day's Night and Help! inspired Rafelson and Schneider to revive Rafelson's idea for The Monkees." It is very hard for me to imagine that they were not influence by the Beatles movies. Even as a young kid in the 60s I made the association. Just look at the opening credit comedic scenes which you can find on YT. They are very Beatles like comedic visuals. Also, don't forget that the Beatles didn't write a lot of their original songs, since they did a lot of covers on the first few albums. I'm not trying to put the Monkees on the same level as the Beatles, but they did have some good songs.
Wow, a contribution about A Hard Day's Night 😀👍 I can't wait to watch this video ... I'll watch as soon as I am free today 🤞😊
The notes in the first chord were G-B-D-F-A-C. According to music historians, the elements were George: Fadd9 in 1st position on Rickenbacker 360/12 12-string electric guitar, John: Fadd9 in 1st position on a Gibson J-160E 6-string acoustic guitar, Paul: high D3 played on the D-string, 12th fret on Hofner 500/1 electric bass, George Martin: D2-G2-D3 played on a Steinway Grand Piano
I think of that opening chord in the same light as the scream before the guitar solo. Chaotic and overwhelmed.
The ending played on the harp is so marvelous. Perfect. The Beatles were good!
This is the first time when the snippets actually worked. Due to your harp playing and because the song is so famous.
Peter Sellers had a very funny interpretation of the song's lyrics, in the style of Richard III / Laurence Olivier (it can be found in YT)
I didn't fully appreciate their music 'til I was older, but that was the first album I ever owned. My mom saw me perusing the record rack while we were shopping at a department store in the 60's. She said she would let me choose one to take home, and my eyes locked onto their familiar faces on the cover. I knew they were a big deal, after seeing them on TV. The first album I ever bought with my own money, (lemonade stand), was Hawaii Five-O by The Ventures. That would make a FUN video Amy. If you reacted to all of the old famous TV show theme songs from the 60's. Beverly Hillbillies, Rawhide, Addams Family, Green Acres, Gilligan's Island, Mission Impossible, Star Trek, Batman, and The Green Hornet. That was the BEST decade for TV theme songs. Also maybe The Jetsons and The Flintstones too.😂
See the movie. It's fabulous. You'll never regret it.
Thank you for detailing how the famous opening chord actually corresponds with the slightly "mysterious" (my interpretation) ending figure! Never quite made the connection myself.
You make me want to pick up my guitar & play along and its pretty early here in Chicago with my wife still asleep!
I still have this LP.
How I miss those times! There will never be music like this the Beatles were geniuses!!
Great hearing that opening chord on the harp! The ending notes sound like someone drifting off to sleep - at least to me.
Good point. Very definitely drifting off to sleep following a very Hard Day's Night.
You did well Amy. Not easy without the original track to refer to.
There are a couple of videos on TH-cam that dissect that opening chord quite successfully.
I wouldn't argue against A Hard Days Night as marking the beginning of a new phase for The Beatles, although I tend to move that marker to the Help album, which for me represents a leap not only musically but - just as importantly - lyrically. You definitely get hints of it on this album, but IMO it's all prelude for the real deal that was to come a couple albums later.
I disagree about this being the beginning of their middle period. I see it as the highlight or peak of their early period. Which didn't change musically until Rubber Soul. Even though their songwriting had matured, their musicianship hadn't. Which in my opinion defines their early, middle and late period.
12 minutes in you asked about the ticking sound. I don't know if anyone on the patreon pages told you but it is called a cow bell. It is not a real cow bell but a percussion instrument that is similar in both shape and sound to a cow bell. The Rolling Stones have an isolated cow bell as the opening to Honkey Tonk Women and the Official Lyric Video has an animation of a cow bell being struck in time to the sound of it.
And there is of course the sketch, more cowbells
Remember that George was playing a 12 string guitar. The bottom (pitch wise) have an additional octave higher string with it.
A Day In The Life was mentioned and I thought "Oh, I'm gonna have to subscribe on Patreon for that one!"
9:13 Very interesting. Never knew that was a thing: nail a harp instead of strumming one. And it changes the dynamic? Changes the way it sounds significantly as the strummed opening chord vs the nailed one was nearly light and day different in sound.
I always relate the ending to the train leaving the station in the movie. The Beatles said the same when they played it at the BBC.
There are a number of Beatles song titles that come from the weird and wonderful things Ringo said, Tomorrow Never Knows is another.
Though, i think Peter Sellers does the best version of A Hard Days Night!...worth a listen if you've never heard it.
Regarding the distance between the notes during the guitar solo- on a 12 string guitar like George is playing, the strings are set up in pairs, so there are 2 for each of the 6 strings on a regular 6 string. In some of those pairs, the strings are an octave apart which gives the guitar that sound. If you look at a picture so a 12 string, it might make more sense if I just confused you.
This was the one series that held the most interest for me. if I pay the lowest monthly fee on Patreon, do I get full access to this series?
A suggestion? React to those songs that you both choose from the Parlophone album, note and comment on the United Artist soundtrack album also. Then, another suggestion, for your channels, perhaps do an actual movie reaction to the movie! Bear in mind, though there were previous Rock and Roll movies, this is The Beatles and beginning of The British Invasion and more groups would follow suit with their own movies. Later, when they didn't perform live on television shows like Ed Sullivan, they made and debuted song film performances instead, a form that would be later known as music videos and would be used extensively on MTV. In that way, A Hard Day's Night as a project is that important and significant and a Watershed in the history of popular music!!! :)
It’s always been a favorite Beatle tune for me.
I have beeen paying guitar for 55 years and have heard that that stark opening chord is two chords played simultaneously. George on 12 string and John on a 6 string Rickenbaker. Some books have devoted several pages ( 69) on just that one chord. I haven't worked it out. I think it's a touch of genius by George.
I heard an interview with George Harrison not long before he died. He said that it was like this: he and Lennon played the chord at the same moment, with Lennon on acoustic guitar. It was an Fadd9, with an A above the F added. At the same moment, McCartney hit a D on bass, and George Martin did something, I don't know what, on piano.
@@bobtaylor170 George Martin contributed to the chord.
That part with the pause and tge qyick part that is the guitar and the piano playing the sane notes
John said of the song Help! that it was one of his faves due to its simplicity of feeling and expression (not his words).
...just one more thing...a friend of mine, about 5 years ago, said "you have to learn Beethoven's Seventh, second movement, first 3 minutes!" and I eventually faced my fears of chordal cruelty and learned the progression on guitar and omg...I know of a dozen songs (heard?) that utilize the same progression including Hotel California. NOW, why do I type? I just now changed the minors to relative majors and vice-versa on the entire progression and yes, I wrote it down with sharpie in big block letters and it's blowing my mind. 5 years ago I wrote a song to the progression called "I Intend" and it's quite good and now that I play the relative-major-minor trick it's a completely new song. Frikken Beethoven. I'm sure that a Beatles song uses the B. progression, 99% sure. Songwriting is never dull. I always have a sharpie.
Love the discussion about the opening chord, which has spurned debate among many over what it is. Randy Bachman has a vid about going to Abbey Rd studios and finding out just how they put it together, with George Martin's son playing the tapes to Randy. I think the vid has been taken down though
th-cam.com/video/5b-awuNzko4/w-d-xo.html
If you dedicate your life to music education and don't know where to start (other than stick on log) the Beatles are always a great jumping off point. You can go to their influences back in time or play their world-changing songs forward on the culture. Being British you can refer to rather complex chord combos to keep grooving expansively (not my fave part of Harmony) and even John asked Yoko to play Beethoven backwards to compose Because. Every time I think I'm clever I listen to Strawberry Fields (you get the idea). You played the intro chord. That song is eternal due to that chord. I have been saving for a Rickenbacker 12-string since 1969. I'll get there one day.
As a guitarist you play the opening chord as a G 11th with no 9th-which sounds especially 'different' on a 12-string. The score you're working with has put the song in A major, but the original recording is in G major.
Looking forward to your next installment of The Wall.
First chord has an impact amd significance similar to the start of Beethoven's third. Sym
The outro starts of with their trademark powering-down triple-repeat of the last half-phrase of the final verse, but it ends off enigmatically on virtually the same chord with which the song began. This parallelism by itself provides some unity to the song overall, but still, the use of a non-I chord ending is unusual, and at the time, was virtually unprecedented in a rock song; indeed, non-I openings, while by no means nearly as rare, were themselves still unusual.
Next note Although the chordal outlines played gently into the fade-out by the lead guitar have none of the commanding impact of the opening chord, the effect at the end is, in its own way, just as suspenseful as the opening. In the film it effectively bridges the gap between opening credits and first scene.
He's very clean.
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
Its a great opening , matched by `I feel fine` i think. When i was a teenager every one had a compulsive /obsessive Beatles phase. Sadly i don`t think that`s the case. anymore .They are the greatest band there ever was ,or will be probably. Bach would have wished he had written `Lucy in the Sky` , sad he never got to hear it.
Nine minutes in Amy works out "the Chord" - this is an epic moment in YT and yes my predictions are right 99% of the time.
My simplified "campfire" version of that opening guitar chord is 353533!
That opening chord is two guitars. One is playing a Dsus4 and the other is playing a G/F. Not sure what chord you’d call it but it’s an open F shape bit with the top G and the bottom G notes.
George himself said it was an F chord with a high G. I've seen it written as Fadd9/D or Dm7 add11.
The album should *not* be considered the start of their middle period. It's only their third British album! The American releases were still different and hadn't yet become coordinated so that the same albums were being released everywhere. They were still doing live tours. Most of all, their fourth album *still* had a bunch of cover songs. Everything was still under 3 minutes in length. They hadn't yet gone to India. It was still their first year of American success. This was a step forward, but by no means should be considered their middle period. There is a motivation by certain fans to count this as "middle" in order to exempt it from those who criticize the early Beatles. But their albums still had too much weaker and older stuff written by others. Their middle period should at least date from the "Help!" Album or possibly Rubber Soul, when every song was written by them, and their late period would start with the two-disc "White" Album.
I agree this isn't a "middle period" album. As you say, the dividing line is not easy to draw, as Help! could be viewed as either the end of the early or the beginning of the middle. I just call it the bridge album between the two.
And I have decided "Lady Madonna" was the bridge between the middle and the late period. It doesn't have the adventurous spirit of REVOLVER, PEPPER and MMT, but points the way to how they are going to wind up their career.
Agree! Good observations.
Good arguments. The album does signify the point of departure from "one of the many guitar bands playing rock 'n roll" to serious craftsmen with a unique edge (as you mentioned, a step forward), so it can be described as a start to the second half of their first period, I guess. Anyway, I completely agree.
I would call that first chord a D7sus4. I know a suspension has a particular definition in classical music, but in modern music a 1-4-5-7 chord is a 7sus4. That chord is EVERYWHERE in jazz (though used as a dominant chord usually rather than a standalone chord like here.)
I definitely agree that the opening chord here & the final chord of “A Day In The Life,” are like book ends.
But “A Day In The Life” doesn’t end that period. “I Am The Walrus” ends that period.
Plus that period or phase, the Psychedelic Phase, is distinct from the period one might say that is launched by “A Hard Day’s Night.” Most of us call this the Middle Period. I suppose it’s the “early” middle and the Psychedelic is the “late” middle as 1968-1970 is the Late Period.
Amy, give us more of these edited videos and just be sure to talk only when you pause the music in the original reaction then give us all of your reaction in the edited. We want your reaction. We don’t need to hear the music- we fans hear it in our memory & can listen to it in a Beatles official video or on Spotify or by our own LP/Cassette/CD/MP3.
Artists should have "Official Reactors" where they link from their home page to the reactors' channels. They promote their music to young people!
George Harrison told an interviewer that the opening chord was 6 chords overdubbed. Was he exaggerating? George is quite the kidder but you have to lean in. Listen to Wah-Wah for a George epic. I met George (1977) and did a perfect spit-take. He smiled and my boss ushered him out of the restaurant. I met Ringo and Barbara, his spouse, in 1990. I did a subtle pantomime of a guy walking by, looking up and shaking his head in a "no, couldn't be" gesture. Two Beatles and I was speechless. They got the jokes.
I wouldn't say their middle period starts here, although there are significant developments. I'd say the middle part starts with the next more folky album Beatles For Sale, although I prefer to order them in four periods. Early, folky, psychedelic and late period.
Interestingly, onstage, the band would resolve the ending, crashing on the G chord. Check out a live recording or video with that song. BTW, listening to your playing that section on the harp with the D bass in repetition sounds very minimalist and calms me. Yeah, I'm one of those people. Someone make a loop of it.
¿Han probado usar una "tribute band" para la audiencia, mientras Amy escucha la versión original?
The intro chord was made up with Paul McCartney playing a D note on bass, George Harrison playing and Fmaj add G or 9th, John Lennon playing a Dsus4 and George Martin on the piano playing a G7 sus4/D.
The opening chord is one the most famous and mysterious chords 'cos it was never written down. AFAIK what it actually is an Fadd9 played on the guitars plus what George Martin added on a piano which is believed to be some D's and a few other notes but nobody really knows exactly what. The Fadd9 guitar chord is played on the top four strings as (bottom to top) F,A,C,G, Martin is believed to have played a D octave on the piano plus some additional notes some suggest was an A between the D's and a higher G on top but quite possibly more notes than that, McCartney is believed to have played a D note on the bass and the whole shooting match was drenched in reverb. So it could be argued to be basically an Fadd9 chord on the guitars over a Dsus4 on the piano. When they played it live Harrison and Lennon played the Fadd9 shape and McCartney played a D on bass.
Awesome video. In my opinion, any chronology of the Beatles that puts A Hard Day's Night and A Day in the Life in the same "period" is dubious.
I respect the difficulty trying to give that opening chord a name. As practice for sight reading, I've been going through one of my dad's books of Bucky Pizzarelli guitar scores and writing chord names above the chords on the treble clef. A lot of the chords are intentionally ornamental for jazz.
Here, using the D for the root doesn't work well at all. You have D, a flat 3rd with F (minor), a 4th with G, and a flat or dominant 7th with C. The least complicated name I can give it is G7sus4, but no matter which note you choose for the root, you never play the natural 3rd in the chord. Anyway, the chord really sounds like the V chord going to the I chord G, so it really seems like it should have a D root. Dm7sus4 is kind of a weird name. Csus2sus4 is weirder. F6sus2? Hours of fun figuring these things out.
But anyway, that 4 note chord on a guitar is easy to play xx3533. Alternate finger picking that with xx356x (F, really F5) for the end of the song.
Just to state the obvious, one of the main differences between keyboard and guitar is that with a guitar the spacing of notes within a chord is greater. It's almost like leaving notes out on a keyboard, using giant hands ...
Regarding the opening chord: I have remembered a reference to this in David Bennet's you tube video "How much music theory did the Beatles know?", th-cam.com/video/HmjRM3AziTY/w-d-xo.html, which can be seen from 6:55. David identifies the chord as Dm11, but I don't watch these videos to understand the musical technicalities, but rather the process by which the Beatles developed from a group of itinerant musicians, to a worldwide phenomenon.
It is clear from these videos that they were very focused, very demanding of each other and everyone was expected to keep up or they would be ditched as Pete Best was. I know Ringo on several occasions did not feel his place was secure. Once they had achieved initial success in the UK, they must have felt they were on a treadmill on which they had to go faster and faster having to push boundaries further and further. I think they did remarkably well to keep going as long as they did, never seeming to have put a foot wrong : 7 years and over 300 songs. A phenomenon that burned brightly and still does today.
Having performed on Hollywood Boulevard a lot since 2009 I am witness to what people will and will not sing along with. Guess what songs get people singing? (yes, Comfortably Numb as well). The answer is...the Beatles. No Quarter gets no sing-alongs but people love it, as well.
Sugestion to you: CONSTRUÇÃO - CHICO BUARQUE, 1971, arrengement by Rogério Duprat, tropicalist, post-modern maestro. Poetry as well is calculeted: in the firt half has the first silable accent, the other half has the last as well (IN PORTUGUESE)
Amy you might be amused by a recording done by the actor Peter Sellers where he performs A Hard Days Night in the style of Laurence Olivier and Shakespeare. 😂
is there a copyright rule about playing the score backwards? maybe do the entire video content, with music, but backwards and we play it in reverse and we can hear it correctly.
I hope by this point you have watched the movie which opens with that chord.
This episode is an epic lesson in how to circle the YT copywrite elegantly. From now on all bands will include a harp. Dulcimer for po' folk.
in concerts, Beatle Tribute groups resolve to a "G" chord.
A Hard Day's Night was definitely a step up, but far from being the start of their middle period. That would be Rubber Soul. AHDN is still early Beatles, they were just improving with every album
D D F C G - Wouldn't that be related to Dmin ... my brother was always big into the odd sorts of chords and once upon a time I tried to learn a bunch off a chart he made but I was never good at it - but that looks like a Dmin 11 something - I get confused by the augmented and diminished and such.... Oh, that is a real question - not rhetorical - I'm actually curious about it.
Naming the chord doesn’t necessarily have to be based on the lowest note.🤔👍
Paul played D on his bass just to confuse puritan theorists!🥴
@ristovirtanen6396 I realize that but a standard Dmin is D F A, this is D F C G, now the C added would make it, an 11 chord I think, and changing the A to G would make it a either a Diminished or Suspended or Augmented chord but I can't remember which. It was the D F that I noticed right away, and then the G nudged my memory, but I wasn't certain
That percussion sound is a Cowbell
The famous opening chord has never quite been replicated. It is believed by some that one of the guitars used for enhancement was not quite in tune.
Very good film was hard days night.story was.a bit thin.but the music great.scenes good too
I meant the bottom 4 strings.
👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼
Ask 10 guitarists what that opening chord is, you'll probably get 10 different answers.
Fadd9, with an A above the F and a D bass note. George Harrison said this in an interview not long before his death.
@@johnbyrnes7912 oh yeah, I know. There's a lot going on in that moment, isn't there?
Now that there is no music to know which part Amy is talking about, we can only rely on the score. But since that has the size of a stamp, it's very jhard to read! So, show us bigger scores! Why not temporarily fill the whole screen with the score when Amy is pointing out something there? It would make the videos a lot more educational!
One day in 2015 a guy from across the street was carrying boxes into my building and he looked so pitiful I offered my help. He said no thanks and I laughed. I spent the next 5 years edumacating the dude about music as he was addicted to mediocre machine music with no melodies, I was horrified. We started with Beatles. I couldn't believe he was taking my advice. It took me a year to talk him into a turntable, amp, speakers and the notion of vinyl and it took one Tom Waits album to school him about mixes. Five years, from Coltrane to XTC, from Django to Cream, from Mingus to Eno, his collection of about 300 albums is one of the best collections (next to my cassettes) that I know. Why do I do this? for the accolades? Do the skies open up while Songs For the Deaf plays on? It was worth it to listen to (rather not horribly expensive) the albums as I remembered them. I love to rippout a nice Clapton riff from the Beano album now and then (blues guitar played with absurd strength). I think the harp was born to educate. When you played the first chord I tasted heaven. I'll stop typing now.
Without the music I can’t follow you 😢
Since you always listen to the track in full while while reacting, why not leave that part in but just mute the audio. Give us a count in and we can listen to the song on our side at the same time.
More cowbell!😊
Is there any way you could avoid playing the song in it's entirety and play little snippets as you go along? Would that get you around the YT enforcers?
only here for what our lass has to say about the first chord
"Colored"! That is not the preferred nomenclature. Not in the parlance of the day.
John in his Playboy interview made clear 'A Hard Day's Night' was 100% by him stating Paul only sang the middle-eight because John had trouble hitting the high notes. Paul's claim to be 'in on that middle-eight' was BS made many years after when John was conveniently dead. Maybe a result of his embarrassment at being so little involved in the songwriting for that album.
In other interviews Paul has cited 'Hard Day's Night' as an example of a Lennon written song.
I think the analysis of what chords signals what can only be done in hindsight. There's no way they could've planned this. So this type of analysis is moot
Well, THE BEATLES are pretty good. But... they pale in comparison to the band they were patterned after: THE RUTLES. "They are a living legend. A living legend that will live on long after other living legends have died..." - Monty Python's Eric Idle
check em Japanese Paledusk / RUMBLE feat. Masato from coldrain
many transitions, like its got over 10 songs in 1
basist wrote a song for the rapper Lil Uzi Vert
happy chaotic nu-metalcore
Broken By The Scream - 陽炎 feat. Isam (from MAKE MY DAY)＆アイガーゴイル (from アイリフドーパ)
deathcore progmetal J-POP girl group
PassCode - Flavor Of Blue
Electonicore metalcore J-POP girl group
Maximum the Hormone - Alien
System of a Down, Red hot chilli peppers, Pantera influence
The Mad Capsule Markets - All the time in Sunny Beach
digital hardcore rock, have tourned with Slipknot
To me the first chord is a G/D sus.
Without hearing the song with your explanations is not the same 😒
Incorrect... there is a George Harrison composition on this album... "I'm Happy Just To Dance With You" 😊
That's a Lennon-McCartney song, George only sang it.
WHY??????...WAY WAY OVERRATED ALBUM...
Their later stuff was much better...this elevated status is uncalled for..............
.Do Neil Young Down By The River much much better
Who still believes that this women does not know all these songs she talks about ?
Only very stupid people believe that Amy already knows the songs she reacts to ......
...this is the entire raison d'etre of the channel....if you believe that it's fake ...then you posess a depressing lack of faith in people.....and and you're worryingly naive and foolish .....!!!
What's that supposed to mean?
@@llaeeZ i ve corrected my sentence. Is it OK now ?
No human has ever believed that women does not know all these songs she talks about. Unless that one delusional and inarticulate human might happen to be you, Tang?
@@jabberbone1 OK so why is she pretending ?