From Carl Savich:
I was on Ringo Starr's web site and noticed he has a still from the 1965 lip-synch promo video The Beatles did for TICKET TO RIDE and some of the 45 releases from that period. This screen comes up when you click on THE BEATLES ANTHOLOGY. This photo is important because it reveals something that is usually not known about George Harrison.
These promos show George Harrison playing a Gibson ES 345 electric guitar. Harrison played a 345 on the DAY TRIPPER single that gave it that distinctive sound. This is something usually missed by the so-called experts.
The usual take on Harrison and the Beatles is that they played poor-quality, low-end guitars. The impression is that Harrison did not know anything about guitars and played real crappy ones at that. The "experts" assume that Harrison just played the same old "cheap" guitar throughhout the decade.
But this not the case.
George Harrison played the greatest guitars ever produced. Harrison's first major guitar was the black Gretsch Duo Jet.
( Bo Diddley, Eddie Cochran, Cliff Gallup with Gene Vincent's Blue Caps, and Chet Atkins became famous in the 1950s for their Gretsch guitar sound.)
Harrison then retired the Duo Jet and switched to a Gretsch Country Gentleman and Tennessean. These were the guitars everyone saw him play on TV and in concerts.
In 1964, the head of the Rickenbacker company personally presented Harrison with a then brand new Rickenbacker 12 string electric, the 360 model which Harrison played in A Hard Day's Night. This guitar was revolutionary and was very influential on the 1960s guitar sound. Jim McGuinn and David Crosby of The Byrds decided to go into rock and roll after they heard George Harrison playing that famous Ricky 360/12.
They had earlier been folkies but thanks to George Harrison decided to go rock and roll. McGuinn even bought a Rickenbacker 360 12 string himself and duplicated the Harrison sound for The Byrds sound. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
In 1965, Harrison began using the Gibson ES 345 on Beatles records. The most famous recording is DAY TRIPPER. Not many people know that he played a 345.
During this same period, Harrison bought a 1961 Sonic Blue Fender Stratocaster that he used on NOWHERE MAN and other songs. Harrison also used the sitar on the first pop record, NORWEGIAN WOOD, influenced by watching Indian musicians on the set of the movie HELP! Needless to say, the sitar became identified with 1960s psychedelia and was immediately copied by The Rolling Stones for PAINT IT BLACK.
Harrison's sitar sound was one of the most influential of the 1960s.
But Harrison did not stop there. He kept experimenting and trying different guitar sounds.
In early 1966, he began playing an Epiphone Casino and a Gibson SG Standard. Harrison played the Fender Strat, "Rocky", painted in psychedelic colors, in the MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR MOVIE in 1967. Fender regards Rocky as one of the Top Ten most famous Strats.
In 1968, Harrison added a red Gibson Les Paul which Eric Clapton had given him, which he played on the REVOLUTION promo video. He also used it on SOMETHING. On the HEY JUDE TV broadcast, he played a Fender VI Bass.
The Fender company subsequently presented Harrison with a specially made rosewood Fender Telecaster which he used on GET BACK for that distinctive rhythm sound.
George Harrison played the greatest electric guitars of his era. He was constantly innovating and expanding his musical vocabulary.
Usually the "experts" tend to dismiss Harrison as a guitarist, but he was one of the most influential and innovative guitarists of the 1960s.
(Thanks to abbeyrd.best.
vwh.net/ for the post).
News RSS