If I Fell- The Beatles (Guitar Cover)

Here's the earliest Beatles cover I've done so far! It's one that almost everyone has covered- go check out Mattiboo's, Ably House, Michael Sokil's versions, they're all amazing. But I wanted to dissect the isolated tracks and really get into the details of this deceivingly simple song

If I Fell was mostly written by John Lennon, and was released in the UK on A Hard Day's Night in 1964. It was featured in their 1964 film A Hard Day's Night. You can see them playing the exact same instruments that they used on the recording

Obviously Paul was on Hofner Bass, and Ringo on his Ludwig drums. George Harrison used his 1963 Rickenbacker 360/12 12-string electric into a Vox AC-50. And John played his 1962 Gibson J-160e acoustic

Here's what I learned listening to the isolated tracks:

0:00 John starts the song by playing an Ebm down low XX4342. He is seen playing it this way in the film, but I confirmed it was done this way listening to the isolated tracks because you hear that lower F sharp note. X68876 inversion doesn’t include that same F sharp
0:05 he plays a C sharp chord XX6664 without barring it, as seen in the film. I confirmed this because you can't hear the lower notes of a C sharp that you would get if you played it like this 446664
0:07 he plays B flat minor as a wrap around, not barred. As seen in the film
0:21 he is using his thumb to wrap around instead of doing a bar chord for F sharp minor. He does this in the film, but listening to the isolated you also can’t hear the A note on the g-string during the first verse. This led me to believe he was doing a wrap around and emphasizing the low and high notes 2X4X22
0:47 John plays an A7 with a sus 4 X02233 back to a normal A7 X02223
0:58 when John plays a D9 chord for the middle eight, he does a lot of down strumming
1:07 John alternates a G minor chord 3X5333 with a Gsus 4 chord 3X5533
1:31 John does not play a D9, instead just a normal D7 X5453X
You start to hear John doing more and more down strumming as the song goes on
2:11 The penultimate chord he plays (G minor)- he only down strums

Harrison's parts are more straightfoward, but there are some interesting moments:
0:00 He opens the song with an Ebm by mostly playing the A and D strings X688XX
0:03 the next chord D- he plays a low A underneath 55777X
0:05 same for the C sharp- he plays a low G sharp 44666X
0:07 his B flat minor is barred 686666. A lot of covers have him playing it like this 686696, but in the isolated track you hear the F note on the B string. By playing it 686666 you still have a minor 7 with the Ab note on the D string 6th fret
0:09 the Ebm has the low Bb underneath 66887X
0:24 he plays an E5 chord with the Low B 779XXX
0:38 overdubbed Rickenbacker plays a little D note on the G string 7th fret in the middle of this riff
1:22 George plays 557XXX instead of 254XXX
1:42 George does the 254XXX shape but plays X542XX as well
1:56 George plays 557XXX instead of 254XXX but makes an error
2:04 again he plays 557XXX instead of 254XXX
2:14 overdubbed Rick plays harmonic chord XX777X while the main Rick does the same, but kept the open A string in there X0777X

I'm using the Rickenbacker on the middle position. This is how George has his set in the film and it sounded right to me for both electric parts. I'm plugged into the top boost channel of my Vox AC-30. Here are my settings:
Vol- 10 o clock
Treb- Noon
Bass- 9-10 o clock
Master Vol- 10 o clock
Tone Cut- 2 o clock

My Gear:
1956 Gibson J-45 (Martin Monel MM12 Steel Strings)
1999 Rickenbacker 360/12v64 (w/Scatterwound pickups)
Pyramid flatwound strings on the Rickenbacker (.010-.0465)
Vox AC30CX2
Neumann TLM-103

Thanks for watching!

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