BeatlesFest : "8 Days a Week"

[Gritter]

fine mandolin'n Dave. Sunny feel to it.

[Geir]

Love it Dave!! This song has followed me a long time. And you did it justice and then some. Sweeeeeet Berry mandolicious cover !!!!!

Piepod

[fenderbender]

hahahahahahaaa love it Dave -
it sounds class -so different
well covered Dave

[Flash Harry]

If there was ever going to be a Beatles Classic that would become a Bluesberry Classic, this is the one!

It's a brilliant version!

[Satchwood]

Mighty fine cover Dave ~ luv that mandolin!!  Gotta get me one for sure!  I like how you double up your vocals too, octave apart ~ great job!

[Gnasty]

This is a hard one vocally and you did it with feeling.

The mandolin is awesome as ever with you. You know how to play that thing.

Great work BB!! You rocked it!!

[Bluesberry]

Thanks all.  Bloody hard song to sing.  Thats the thing with the Beatles songs, we have all heard them all our lives, they seem so simple but just try to cover one.  That bass line took me a while to work out, complex and continually moving, not just roots and 5ths for sure, bloody genious really when you look at it up close, and for the year that this was recorded, miles ahead of almost anybody else (except for mayby that Motown dude James Jamerson).  Its astounding really when you think about it.  And that vocal.  I never realized that John Lennon sang at such a high pitch and yet such clarity, it strained my limited vocal ability here, I was almost ready to throw in the towel.  So I had a few red ales and just went for it, warts and all.  This seemingly simple song has a lot of depth.  This is really a great fest so far, re-imagining these old classics is so much fun.  I can't wait to finish up my next one and get it posted.

[Greeny]

Thats the thing with the Beatles songs, we have all heard them all our lives, they seem so simple but just try to cover one. 

I agree, familiarity hasn't made it any easier! Nothing seems to be straightforward with any of their songs. Even the ones that seem to be simple usually aren't anything of the sort. I think it's because they are all quite unorthodox in their playing and singing. McCartney is a guitarist playing bass, George is doing his own unique thing on guitar, and Lennon is just Lennon, lol. Even Ringo has a certain style all of his own. It all adds up to genius, but makes it hard for mere mortals to copy.

I did the Abbey Road medley from chord charts and memory, because I knew it would be foolish and impossible to listen to the actual recording and try to follow / copy it (and because I arrogantly thought I knew it note-for-note, line-by-line from hundreds of listens over the years...). Now I listen to the real medley, it's weird how different my interpretation of it is. Still, it's all about doing your best. I've even learned a few new chords along the way. Bonus!

I agree that John is hard to sing, but strangely, I struggle more with the Macca songs because his voice is in a totally different register to mine. Oops... I'm singing 'She came in through the bathroom window' at the weekend!

There's no 'easy' Beatles song, so hats off to everyone for doing a whole bunch of remarkable covers and original interpretations! I wasn't sure about a Beatles fest as I thought we'd done it all already. How wrong I was! It's my favourite one so far... !

You did a mighty fine job with this. What one are you doing next?!

[Bluesberry]

What one are you doing next?!

I am working on a re-imagining of "Back in the USSR", I am trying to re-do it as an old style slow Chicago Blues, like Otish Rush would do.  Lets see how it comes out.  Another monster bass line in that seemingly simple song.  Great fun for sure, I am stressed about the vocal, need some red ale courage I guess.

[Greeny]

What one are you doing next?!

I am working on a re-imagining of "Back in the USSR", I am trying to re-do it as an old style slow Chicago Blues, like Otish Rush would do.  Lets see how it comes out.  Another monster bass line in that seemingly simple song.  Great fun for sure, I am stressed about the vocal, need some red ale courage I guess.

This should be good! The Bluesy style sounds like a great fit.

Having sung this one a few times, the verses and chorus are relatively easy because they pretty much stay on one level without any tricky highs or changes. But then you get to the Beach Boys bit and all hell breaks loose, lol. John's backing vox on that part are really really high. You'll pull it off somehow though... !

I've always read that Macca hated Ringo's drumming on this one, so he went back to the studio one night and re-did them himself. Poor old Ringo, lol.