Beatle Nowhere Man - Anyone Hear a 9th

[NazRat]

After the opening acapella, Harrison's first E run leading into the verse is different from the rest. It's a chord rather than a single note to start and a full measure later. Is it a 9th? I hear a F# in there, but a buddy says no way. There's a very chimey E9 in the second position. Anywho . . . I'm still hearing things I never noticed before in the Beatles stuff.

[Kurt Cowling]

You are right on all counts to my ear. I hear an F# and a D, making it an E9 chord. And yes, it's a bar later than where it appears elsewhere.

--Kurt

p.s. Do you use Transcribe! by Seventh String Software for transcribing? If not, you should check it out. http://www.seventhstring.com/

[Frodo]

Keep in mind that by the time the Beatles were into this phase of their studio progress, it wasn't always about two guitars, bass, and drums. There were overdubs.

There's definitely an E9 right before "doesn't have a point of view". That would include an F# and a D in the chord. The question is who's really playing it. I suspect that it's Lennon playing the chord and Harrison doing the single line.

FWIW-- there are some live vids of them on youtube in which the E9, with the D and F#, are conspicuously absent. Be warned-- the vocals are not what you'd call "always happy".

Lennon flips the lyrics-- kinda cool in its own way. Who said life was perfect?

I gotta tell ya, though, those Epiphone Casino's have had my vote since 1966.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FxX5JHvAiM" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Kurt Cowling]

Yes, the melody note (B) in that line is much louder than the chord. Almost certainly two guitars.

--Kurt

[NazRat]

FWIW-- there are some live vids of them on youtube in which the E9, with the D and F#, are conspicuously absent. Be warned-- the vocals are not what you'd call "always happy".

Yeah . . . they seem to dumb down a lot of their stuff live. But that's OK - wish I could do the same.

[HCMarkus]

Smart music can sound pretty great dumbed down.

[Frodo]

A lot of the so-called "dumbing down" had to do with the fact that there were no foldback monitors in those days. Live-- they couldn't hear themselves. They also had to figure how to play their own signature guitar parts even if 3-4 overdubs characterized the spirit of the recording.

As their tunes got more complex in the studio, it became harder to produce them 'live' back then. If you've ever seen a live performance of "Paperback Writer" you would understand how unthinkable things were. We sort of take it for granted now. "Oh, just call Meyer Sound to do the tour and to set up the side fills."

Side fills? Right. Unheard of back then. They were basically yodeling into a veritable canyon even as we fuss about ADC and latency!! For the Beatles-- it was a hockey rink, a baseball stadium, or a dinky house PA most of the time.

Still-- I've never been able to let go of the fact that their tunes remain near the top of the best music the 20th century had to offer. Forget guitar parts for just a sec. The melodies and lyrics and harmonies are among the most original and most imitated (but never duplicated) of all.

[daniel.sneed]

[...]Forget guitar parts for just a sec. The melodies and lyrics and harmonies are among the most original and most imitated (but never duplicated) of all.

Thanks for laying this down, Frodo. Yeah! They still just get me stumped!

[Movies]

A little off-topic, but not terribly so:

The day I read this, was the day I thought, "Okay. I can die now."

[Dr.Hash]

Sorry guys I might be wrong and you guys may know more theory than me, Im more a technologist but I looked up my complete beatle score book (I hope you all know the book, it's pretty accurate) and no e9. its e/b/a/e/F#m/am and back to e. What you might be hearing is the weird e movable chord shape which is a d chord on the forth fret with the little finger playing an g sharp on the d string. Of course I am not much of theorist so if those 4 notes make up a ninth let me know. Okay just worked the chord out def not a ninth.

Also the beatles used rickenbacker 12 strings a lot on this album, I am not sure about this track. I think lennon was using his casino by this stage and george was on the rickenbacker. This coupled with the vox amp and the neumann microphones they were using and of course the custom built EMI mixing desks really altered the guitar tone they were getting. It gave the beatles a harmonically rich tone that could easily account for the ninth that you are hearing.

Ben MMusTech(Master of Music Technology) University of Newcastle
http://www.aaudiomystiks.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[NazRat]

What you might be hearing is the weird e movable chord shape which is a d chord on the forth fret with the little finger playing an g sharp on the d string.

I got a chance to double track this with the band and I found that a Bsus4 worked best - kinda where the Dr. was headed (D formation), except in the second position with a F# in the top. I realize that the chord is not listed in the score book, but this is a solo part. So one guitar Bsus4 (let it ring), the other guitar, the B to B run - rhythm guitars on E. I played the acoustic also which is capoed at the second fret which helps that formation make sense.

[Movies]

Have you found "The Complete Scores" to be super accurate? This might be a discussion for another thread, but I've owned that dealie for a number of years and, while I've found it to be an INCREDIBLE resource and an amazingly ambitious project, I'm often coming across things that are transcribed incorrectly.

Granted, I'm not saying that this is one of those instances -- I just never think of that book as a dispute-settler.

I'd be interested to hear other peoples' thoughts on it, for sure!

[Dr.Hash]

Have you found "The Complete Scores" to be super accurate? This might be a discussion for another thread, but I've owned that dealie for a number of years and, while I've found it to be an INCREDIBLE resource and an amazingly ambitious project, I'm often coming across things that are transcribed incorrectly.

Granted, I'm not saying that this is one of those instances -- I just never think of that book as a dispute-settler.

I'd be interested to hear other peoples' thoughts on it, for sure!

I agree as I say it's fairly accurate and I can say this with some authority. I recently punched in/recorded and played Stawberry Fields and Because. They both turned out to be very accurate. The only thing that was missing was a tempo, fingering for the chords and on Stawberry Fields no percussion. I love this book though anyone know of a similar Pink Floyd book?

Ben

[zed]

Have you found "The Complete Scores" to be super accurate?

I have this book, and have not studied it very carefully but have found some mistakes in songs I was looking at.

I really can't stand the look of the book. I sure wish there was a version of it without the ugly handwritten font, and with some nice looking fretboard diagrams.

My favorite Beatles Songbook, at the moment is The Beatles Complete Chord Songbook (arranged by Rikky Rooksby in the original keys) which is beautifully laid out if all you are looking for is guitar chord (with fingerings) and lyrics. It doesn't include 9th chord in Nowhere Man, if anyone is wondering.

[Frodo]

Have you found "The Complete Scores" to be super accurate? This might be a discussion for another thread, but I've owned that dealie for a number of years and, while I've found it to be an INCREDIBLE resource and an amazingly ambitious project, I'm often coming across things that are transcribed incorrectly.

Granted, I'm not saying that this is one of those instances -- I just never think of that book as a dispute-settler.

I'd be interested to hear other peoples' thoughts on it, for sure!

You have a point, Movies. That book is not to be taken for granted being one of the very few of its kind in terms of depth of info, but it's not 100% accurate. That said, it's likely the book is 90-95% accurate. It's just that last 5-10% of geekitude we're getting into at the moment that would be of little consequence for most people... but we're not "most people"!!

Still, imho what's on the track is more important and valid than what's in any book of transcriptions.