George’s number from The Beatles Help! Movie! The basic track of this song had George on rhythm guitar, Paul on bass, John on drums, and Ringo tapping the back of a Gibson J-160E acoustic guitar. George’s rhythm guitar was played on his José Ramirez classical guitar. This guitar had nylon strings and produced a soft strumming sound. Since I do not have a classical guitar, I used the Gibson J-160E, which is the same guitar George mimed “I Need You” with in Help! To get a similar sound to the José Ramirez, I played nearer to the neck with a lighter strumming motion.
George then overdubbed an electric guitar part with his 1963 Rickenbacker 360/12 played through a Vox volume pedal. This was the first song that George recorded with the volume pedal, an effect that he would use throughout the Help! and Rubber Soul albums. The tone knobs on my Rickenbacker were set at the same location (about ⅔) as George’s, as shown by many photos. George also typically had his volume knobs set at ½, most likely due to playing through loud Vox AC50 and AC100 amplifiers at this time. Since I recorded through a quieter Vox AC15, I set the volume knobs to full.
The acoustic part begins with a single strum on an A chord, then a few strums on an Asus2. At (0:02), George strums the beats on an A chord, probably to give Paul a sense of timing as he walks up the bass to introduce the rhythm section. In the first part of the verse, George switches between A and D chords. The A to D transition in the second halves of the first, second, and fourth verses actually occurs on the “and of four” instead of on the downbeat (0:11, 0:35, 1:59). Notice how George misses the A to A7 at (0:14), playing a muted G string instead of an open G. A similar mistake is made at (0:32) when he mutes the B string instead of playing the Asus4 chord. In true Beatles style, George slips in an Faug chord as a transition from A to D at (0:51, 0:59, 1:33, 1:40).
The strumming pattern for the acoustic is mainly “down-up-down-up” eighth notes. This changes to Spanish sounding accents during the bridges at (0:56, 1:05, 1:38, 1:47). Likewise, George slightly falters in his strumming of the D chord at (1:41). The pattern also changes slightly for the final D chord at (2:19).
The Ric 12’s volume swells give a pedal steel country sound to “I Need You”, accenting the repeating chord riff while also providing rhythmic volume variations at key locations. An important part to recreating this sound with a 12 string guitar is to ensure that enough pressure is applied to the second fret G string (A note) during the main riffs. This is done to bring out the octave A note. No capo was used during this song, as is confirmed by many of the electric guitar’s chord positions, especially the open E major at (1:07) and (1:48). Notice the varying chord positions used by George in the F#m, C#m, F#m, Bm sequences throughout the song.
George’s sometime’s roughly executed volume swells along with the large amount of plate reverb on the Ric give this song a charming sound. George would get much more precise at timing the strums with the swells, as heard in later recorded songs such as “Yes It Is”. In “I Need You”, George periodically lets his strum come through without the volume change, as at (0:19). Listen to the beautiful descending line played high on the neck at (1:03) and (1:44)! George expertly concludes this line with a low open E chord, swelled in slow.
In the outro, George’s rhythm guitar changes to F#m and D on the “and of four” (2:15, 2:18). The Ric plays a higher inversion F#m chord in rhythmic pulses (2:15) and then changes to a slightly dissonant sounding Dmaj7 (2:18). Notice that the acoustic rhythm and electric lead are slightly out of time at (2:22). George lightly strums the Asus2 chord on the Ric at (2:23). Both guitars strum the Asus4 to A for the last time to conclude “I Need You” (2:25).
Instruments Used:
George Harrison Rhythm Guitar: Gibson J-160E Standard
George Harrison Lead Guitar: Rickenbacker 360/12C63
Amp: Vox AC15C1
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