My Very First Album

Chances are this album was recorded in one take and then the musicians jammed for the rest of the day just to burn up their studio time.  I actually used to listen to this record before I knew who the Beatles were.  I remember reading the liner notes from George Harrison; I didn't know what it meant when they wrote of his "ripe young age."  I couldn't pronounce "ripe" because I didn't know what it meant away from a fruit and I was too young for metaphors.

If you ever think those Nashville session pickers can't play, you've got another thing coming with this album.  I actually like some of these songs better than the original, which is an impossibility on the order of travel at 186,000 mps.  Chet's interpretation of I Feel Fine makes my hair stand on end in giddy delight.  Just listen to that trash can at 0:48!  But wait!  There's more!  Check it out right at 1:16!  If you ever hear the term "trash can," you now know it means.  Tightest drumming this side of Frank Beard—so tight it sounds sloppy, with a loose sound like a back alley trash can, with lots of echo and logs for sticks.  Loud and proud!  (Wait 'til the bitter end and you'll hear some beer bottles thrown; studio noises are like Easter eggs for musicians.)

Yesterday's namesake is as tender as the original, with beautiful solos where Paul's buttery voice is so familiar.  If I Fell has some of the tastiest vibrato you'll find, likely the chorus from Chet's amp, with the perfect speed and depth.  Starting exactly at the 2:00 mark, you'll hear the most excellent example of "overtones" there is on 2" tape.  Roy Buchanan "invented" the harmonic pinch, and while he called them "overtones," his pinch harmonics were really just that—harmonics.  These are pure overtones, or the harmonic sounding simultaneously on top of the actual note, on the same string.  Mercifully, also missing from this version of the harmony powerhouse is the high note McCartney slaughtered in the original (A rare moment of underperformance from one of the Kings of harmonies).

Listen to Chet turn on the Honky Tonk on Can't Buy Me Love.  Makes you wanna bounce up and down in your chair to the beat!  This tune swings like Bill Clinton on a chandelier.

You can hear the rhythm of the maracas, like the brush sticks in Skating, on I'll Follow the Sun.  The rest of the songs on this album are superbly done.

I moved out of home and lost track of the LP when I left it behind where I assumed it would be safe.  Many years passed until finally I ran across it a few years ago in a used record store and bought it for the exorbitant price of about five bucks.  There was a turntable here at the time, so it was a joyous reunion indeed!  The album got lost in the shuffle somewhere but I've since bought it from iTunes and it's now a staple in my car's lean selection of music.

Just for the hell of it, here's a bonus track for ya'll that wasn't on the original.  I get a kick out of Chet playing every single note just like the orchestra has to do.  It never occurred to me that one might consider playing this song on the guitar.  Here's another, very sweet version of Here, There and Everywhere.  There's a tasty orchestral accompaniment to complement Chet's echoey, jazzy feel in this vamp on a simply beautiful love song.  The Country Gentleman put the pudding in the nylon on this one.

As a small bit of trivia, this album cover is also the reason I associated hollow body guitars and f holes with Gretsch guitars for my first 20 or so years, at which point I began to really appreciate Freddy King and his hollow body Gibson ES-345.

Finally, this one you gotta see just to check out the harmonica player's hilariously tight jeans.

Enjoy!


P.S. The music critic cited in the Wikipedia entry doesn't have a clue what he's talking about.  Absolutely clueless.