The Beatles - You Can’t Do That - Guitar Cover

This one is a true double Rickenbacker rocker! Playing their newly acquired Rickenbacker guitars (the 1964 325 and the 360/12), John and George deliver a stellar performance filled with small nuances. I attempt to recreate and describe them in my performance and this description. Support the channel: Patreon: Paypal: George starts off the song playing the bluesy riff that will persist throughout much of the rest of the song. Interestingly, the first G note contains traces of a Bb note, meaning George was fingering the Gm chord before playing the B note of the riff. Likewise, he plays the G and Bb notes together at 0:02. Note that throughout the song George varies on which beat/offbeat he he starts the riff with the G note, sometimes holding it longer and sometimes adding an extra G note. At 0:09 and 0:12 he play a staccato B note. For the C7 chord in the first verse (0:15), he slides up and plays the riff in the C position, strumming a full C major chord at 0:17. He finishes the riff at 0:20 by playing an F to G note sequence. The conclusion of the blue pattern (D7-C7) has George playing an interesting 9th chord inversion with a low 5th, with many cover artists mistaking it for a major chord or 7th chord 0:22. George can be seen playing this inversion in all the live performance videos, contributing to the bluesy sound of the song. In the second verse, George starts playing a more strummy version of the riff at 0:33. For this C7 chord section (and all subsequent ones), he plays a variation of the C9th chord, alternating with a C7 in a groovy pattern (0:37). In the bridge section (0:50), he plays a B power chord then slides up to G and B notes for the Em chord. I believe he plays the G and B notes in the G chord position because a slight slide can be heard in the second bridge between the F# and G notes (1:53). At 0:55, he plays the Am as an Am7, firstly emphasizing the E note at the 7th fret. He then slides up for the Bm for a similar pattern. This chord choice provides a richness to the sound on top of John’s standard chord voicings that is not captured by simply playing a higher inversion Am-Bm. A similar B-Em style progression is played in the second half of the bridge, but now George plays a normal Am-Bm for the conclusion. However, he makes a mistake for the D chord, playing a sole G note (1:05). The third verse features a similar pattern to the second verse, with a slight rhythmic variation on the C9-C7 chord (1:14). At 1:19 George plays a slightly different version of the riff. The walkup into John’s solo is slightly delayed (1:26). George’s backing to John’s solo is similar to the verses, however there are no band hits for the D7-C7 section, so he plays a similar rhythmic pattern to the normal verse C9 chords (1:43). The second bridge is similar in character to the first, with slight variations on the B, Em, and G chord patterns. I tried to replicate these variations in my cover. He ends the bridge by playing two D notes (2:05). Once again, the fourth verse is similar, this time with a variation of George going to the high C riff at 2:14, playing a double Eb-E melody. He ends the song by playing the riff solo, then hammering on from the F-F#-G. I believe he hammers on as sliding creates a distinct sound unlike the clarity heard on the record. John comes in on guitar at 0:03, sliding from a F#7 to G7 chord. A lot of room sound is present for his guitar part, as evidenced by the strong room reverb and some acoustic 325 sound. He used the neck pickup on his 325 for most of the song, switching to the bridge pickup at 1:22 for the solo, then switching back to the neck pickup for the remainder of the song. His rhythm part is punctuated by strong accents either 2 and 4 beats of a bar or the ‘and’ of 3 and ‘and’ of 4. I tried to replicate the accent variations throughout the song to the best of my ability. Note that John never slides between the D7 and C7 chords like George does. At 0:12 and 0:35 John doesn’t play accented G7 chords, instead building up on the low notes for the transition to the C7 chord. During the C7 chord sections John plays the second half of each bar with accents on the low G note before switching back to the C root. John enters the bridge with an early B7 chord every time, then lets the B string ring strongly on the Em chord at 0:53. John does NOT end the bridge with a D7 chord as commonly played, but instead with a D chord (1:05). This follows the voicing of the melody (“laugh at my FACE”), going higher from the Bm chord instead of lower with a D7. For the second bridge he ends the D with a quick triple flourish (2:05). Description continued in the pinned comment below! Instruments Used: John Lennon Guitar: Rickenbacker 325C64 George Harrison Guitar: Rickenbacker 360/12C64 Amp: Vox AC15C1