I stand corrected, the riff is played on the 6th to 9th fret in the studio as well. With my gear I couldn’t get that piercing sound this high on the fret, it sounded better when played lower on the neck.

However, the riff as presented by Christian is not correct. Slowed down by 50% in Protools, this is what Brian plays in the intro:

|------------------------------------
|------------------------------------
|---------7-----9---------7---------
|---7s9--------9-------0-7------6--
|-----------------------------0-7---
|------------------------------------

The last three segments are tremelo-picked, meaning it’s a very fast pick, alsmost like a hammer on. But, with a hammer-on you only pick the first note, with a tremelo-pick you actually pick all notes. The last part (0 – 7/7 and 0 – 7/6) are then basically the root chords tremelo picked, with only the open D and A string played instead of the D and A tone picked on the A and E string, fifth fret.

There’s various variations during the song. The first is:

|------------------------------------
|------------------------------------
|-----------7--9---------7---------
|---7s9-------0-------0-7------6--
|---------------------------0-7---
|------------------------------------

Second variation is the exclusion of the picked open D and A strings.

|------------------------------------
|------------------------------------
|---------7----9---------7---------
|---7s9-------9-------- 7--------6--
|------------------------------ 7---
|------------------------------------

Another variation is the little slide:

|------------------------------------
|------------------------------------
|-----------7----9---------6s7-------
|---7 s 9-------9-------0-7------5s6-
|-----------------------------0-7---
|------------------------------------

This last variation sounds a bit awkward to me, it almost sounds like a mistake, like he couldn’t keep up with the pace of the song.

If anybody knows how to bounce a protools track in half speed, then I can post the intro at half-speed.

Mathijs



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2007-05-27 12:57 by Mathijs.

error



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2007-05-27 12:58 by Mathijs.

OK Mick and Keith ripped the refrain. But great riff by Brian. Unique.

Variations aside, he definitely plays the notes Christian posted, that is the main refrain.

I slowed the track down and looped each chords lead phrase and indeed it goes from 0 to 9 on the 4th string for the D chord and 0 to 7(on the 5th string) to 6(on 3rd string) for the A chord.

I also watched their live performance on the Ed Sullivan Show from May 1965 and his fingering matches what Christian posted including hammer ons. He doesn't play the 7th fret/4th string for the D chord line.

Here's the riff slowed down: [www.esnips.com]

Here's the 0 to 9 repeated 4 times: [www.esnips.com]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2007-05-27 14:54 by His Majesty.

His Majesty Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I also watched their live performance on the Ed
> Sullivan Show from May 1965 and his fingering
> matches what Christian posted including hammer
> ons. He doesn't play the 7th fret/4th string for
> the D chord line.


Yes, watch he does. There is a lot of video footage of Brian playing the riff, the best probably being from the NME Pollwinners concert of May, 1965. The camera work is great and there is a lot of footage of him playing the riff. I think it's on youtube. Anyway, it's great to see you musicians analyzing the Last Time riff. Please carry on . . .

neptune Wrote:
There is a lot of video
> footage of Brian playing the riff, the best
> probably being from the NME Pollwinners concert of
> May, 1965. The camera work is great and there is
> a lot of footage of him playing the riff. I think
> it's on youtube. Anyway, it's great to see you
> musicians analyzing the Last Time riff. Please
> carry on . . .

Ah forgot about that one, I have it on DVD, great performance!

The Last Time Chorus obviously comes from the Staple Singers version and Mick and Keith have added the verses and so it's a Jagger/Richards song so to speak with a (ahem) borrowed chorus and added verses.

The riff is played by Brian up the neck, as has been pointed out.

The riff would be Brians IMO.

The credits should really be Jagger/Richards/Jones.

Jagger/Richards for the verses as the chorus is borrowed from the Staples and Jones for the riff but it depends on how someone wants to look at it because the song can exist without the riff and therefore it's a Jagger/Richards song which is probably easier for copyright with Oldham having already set all that up.

Last Time without the riff would be a lot blander.

It's a great riff even though it's only simple.

Interesting thing about the Last Time riff and the Satisfaction riff is that Brian is playing the riff with Keith on Acoustic for the Last Time and Satisfaction is the exact opposite with Keith playing the riff and Brian on Acoustic.

I've seen Keith playing the Satisfaction riff up the neck.

Both the Last Time riff and the Satisfaction riff have this novelty mistake thing in them where on some of the riff repeats it sounds like there is a mistake in them and this actually ends up adding something to the riff and song.



Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 2011-11-30 05:33 by howled.

Quote
howled
The Last Time Chorus obviously comes from the Staple Singers version and Mick and Keith have added the verses and so it's a Jagger/Richards song so to speak with a (ahem) borrowed chorus and added verses.

The riff is played by Brian up the neck, as has been pointed out.

The riff would be Brians IMO.

The credits should really be Jagger/Richards/Jones.

Jagger/Richards for the verses as the chorus is borrowed from the Staples and Jones for the riff but it depends on how someone wants to look at it because the song can exist without the riff and therefore it's a Jagger/Richards song which is probably easier for copyright with Oldham having already set all that up.

Last Time without the riff would be a lot blander.

It's a great riff even though it's only simple.

Interesting thing about the Last Time riff and the Satisfaction riff is that Brian is playing the riff with Keith on Acoustic for the Last Time and Satisfaction is the exact opposite with Keith playing the riff and Brian on Acoustic.

I've seen Keith playing the Satisfaction riff up the neck.

Both the Last Time riff and the Satisfaction riff have this novelty mistake thing in them where on some of the riff repeats it sounds like there is a mistake in them and this actually ends up adding something to the riff and song.

And the Last time is the or one of the first rock songs with a riff repeated throughout the whole song.

Yes, it was quite unusual at that time and then Satisfaction has it's riff going on in a similar way for everything except the first part of the verses.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2011-11-30 12:05 by howled.

This must be the traditional version:





Recorded - God knows when, but Bessie Jones was born in 1902, and learned her spirituals in the Sea Island area of Georgia and Carolina: long and interesting article about her here:

[www.culturalequity.org]

(and look for her on YouTube, she's worth hearing!)