The Beatles Drive My Car Guitar Cover

>> YOUR LINK HERE: ___ http://youtube.com/watch?v=XAdddqtVyV0

The first song of the 1965 Rubber Soul album! “Drive My Car” features George playing a Motown style guitar line which doubles the bass, along with slide enhanced lead guitar by Paul. Written by primarily Paul, with help from John, the song’s repeating riff was composed by George, who was inspired by Otis Redding’s version of “Respect”. Due to confusion surrounding a George quote in which he stated he played the bassline on “Drive My Car”, there has been misconceptions that this meant he actually played the bass guitar on the track. Another George quote clarifies what he meant: “I played that line on the guitar and Paul laid that with me on bass.” In fact, he goes so far as to tell us what guitar he played: “I used a Stratocaster around Rubber Soul time, on ‘Drive My Car’ and those kind of things.” • It sounds to me as if George used the neck pickup on the Stratocaster due to the slight mushiness in the tone. The bridge pickup is far too brittle and cutting. It makes sense that George would choose the neck pickup, as he probably wanted to blend his guitar with the bass. Paul’s overdubbed lead tone, on the other hand, is quite trebly with hints of distortion when he plays multiple notes. • While a simple guitar part at first glance, George’s part has slight variations throughout the song, as is common in many Beatles’ recordings. In the first verse, George only plays a single note to start the riff (0:03). Throughout the rest of the song, he either plays 2 or 3 notes. In the 2 note variation, he plays the notes on the beat, as at 0:35. In the 3 note variation, he plays what I have termed a ‘bounce’ pattern with an extra pickup note into the next beat, as at 0:43. • In the A chords before the choruses, George always palm mutes at first, then later lets the notes ring out more to build tension into the Bm of the chorus (0:15). The same 2 or 3 note variations described earlier apply to the chorus, where the chords alternate between Bm and G, with an A note passing tone. In the first chorus, the pattern is bounce on the first Bm and G, then single notes on the remaining chords (0:19). At 0:32, George plays a muted open E note before the A note. The C# and A 0:34 are played individually, as opposed to the sliding variation played all other times. • The second verse becomes slightly more complicated, with George playing the 2 note variation the first two D and G chords, then the bounce variation on the remaining D chords only (0:35). In the second chorus, he plays the bounce variation on the first G chord, second Bm, and the last Bm (0:50). In the solo, George mixes it up further by playing an extra riff on all the G chords while including a combination of the 2 and 3 note variations (1:05). The third chorus features the bounce riff on every Bm and G (1:20). The final verse begins with D note being played once (1:37), then a mix of the variations again. The last chorus includes the bounce variation for all chords, including an extra note on the final Bm (1:52). • In the outro, George again plays variations on the riff (2:07). The final riff heard before the fade out places the notes in a different order, with a jarring bent G note to end the song (2:23). It was common for George to mess around a little at the end of songs when he knew there was to be a fade out, as in “Please Mister Postman”, for example. • Paul’s lead playing is tight and punchy. He begins the song with a bluesy riff, letting the C and E notes ring out while he plays the A note at 0:01. The last notes of the riff ring out into the beginning of the vocals. To begin the solo, Paul plays a fast triplet figure (1:05). It sounds to me as if Paul uses the slide on the high C to D notes due to the smoothness of the transition and slide fret noise on the recording. The solo overall features a lot of bends and microtones, an example of the influence blues guitarists were having over Paul at the time. The “Drive My Car” solo is likewise indicative of the energetic playing style that Paul would later display on many Beatles recordings, notably the solo on “Taxman”. • On the vocal channel of the original recording, extra lead guitar bits can be heard in the last verse. Due to the faintness of the guitar there, it seems like this part was omitted from the final mix, but leaked onto another channel and therefore made it on inadvertently. These riffs were recreated here in this video to get an idea of what the song would have sounded like if they were left in (1:40). The song concludes with Paul sliding between C and D notes (2:17). • Instruments Used: • George Harrison Rhythm Guitar: 1989 Fender Stratocaster MIJ • Paul McCartney Lead Guitar: Epiphone Casino Elitist • Amp: Vox AC15C1

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