Great tutorial. James Honeyman-Scott was indeed quite underrated. His solo in "Kid" was downright brilliant. You bring up a great point about how the changing bassline affects the moods of the chords. It basically changes an A---Asus2---Asus4---A sequence into an implied F#min7---Asus2/F#---Asus4/F#---F#min7 sound. Love the textures in this one...they remind me of the Police and Andy Summers in general. Great job!
come to think of it, there are some similar musical ideas in pretenders and police songs. both anglo-american bands, exactly the same time period, sting and chrissie hynde are such dissimilar singers though, I guess that's why I never noticed the similarities
Sir, it is the quiet talents like yourself that make RU-vid such a goddamn joy. I am playing this in my 80s cover band on Thursday night. I can now safely say - in the words of you young folk: "I got this!" Thank you so much.
Brilliant lesson, you made it really easy to get a good sound and a fine tribute to JHS. Love the Pretenders and really dig your style of teaching - a distinct lack of ego and showing off always appreciated. Thank you Adrian!
I woke up with this song in my head, and thanks to your excellent lesson, could play it before I finished my second cup of coffee. And I went on to wikipedia and learned way more about all the members of The Pretenders than I had any idea of. What an entanglement of Rock and Roll history! Thanks Adrian! Long live The Honey Man!
Superb playing and teaching Adrian. This is absolutely my "Go To" vid when I need to brush up on this to cover it. I play it with quite a crunch rather than the jangle to rock it up a bit and it works just as well in a heavy mode. As you say, this is by no means a simple structure. You explain it very well and just want to say thanks for taking the time (and patience) to produce this excellent video lesson. Cheers. Mike.
James Honeyman Scott will always be a legend and it will always be a question of where he would be if he hadn't died so young and tragically but he had his own style
The best tutorial of this song on the internet. The changing bass notes are what add the texture to the guitar chords- Great job explaining the intricate subtleties on the chord inversions.
Do you have any idea how good you are at playing the guitar? You are a credit to all guitarist. You are the best at Brass in pocket I have ever heard. All I can say is: I wish I could play like you. Thank you!!!
Just 2 more Pretenders songs ? Don't know if these were Jimmy's but Don't Get Me Wrong and Middle Of The Road are certainly deserving of your great tutorials !Thanks You
Thank you for taking your time and playing/teaching this wonderful song! The Pretenders what a fantastic group! Majorly overlooked by the main stream of Music snops!
Can't begin to tell you how much I enjoyed your tutorial. Absolute delight. Perfect tone, phrasing, delivery and presentation. LOVE your accent mate! Should you ever find yourself in the states you are welcome to come sit in with my band here in KCMO. Well done sir. Well done indeed. (Jolly Good!)
Wow, great tutorial on this song. I just clicked on this because I love the song and have never checked any vids on it. Very nice playing, sound, and explanation. Just started watching your vids and liking them a lot. There ARE a lot of guitar parts to cover, you're right. I am a guitar teacher myself and one of my female students wants to play and sing this tune, bless her young heart. I'm sending her the link to your vid, which will really help. Seems to me you've nailed it here. I played this song in bands 30 years ago, always loved Chrissie and The Pretenders, especially her early work. Nicely done!
larry geetar Thanks Larry, really pleased you enjoyed it. Before I did this video I assumed this would be quite an easy song to play, but I discovered there's a lot more going on than I expected. And young female guitarists could have few better role models than Chrissie Hynde and the Pretenders I reckon!
@@acpg Exactly ! This song seems to be easy but it is not that easy to get all the duble stops just by ear ! Reason for me thanking you Adrian ! This was a Masterclass from you to all of us ! Please don't ever ever ever take this video down from youtube ! Request for Back on the Chain Gang tutorial ...please ps. (I have not checked all your videos and maybe you already did the BOTCG song tutorial).
Thank you Adrian, Got a gig soon and never knew the intricacies of the lovely song. You've saved me so much time! I saw them LIVE in The Capitol Theater in Sydney in The 80/90's. Bit vague on the date. They nailed it! Thanks, mate. James.
FYI: TOTALLY FEELIN' YOU man! Love your performance, love your style/picking, love your lesson, love your technical and personal comments, love your personality, love your guitar, love this song! Lots of love and thanks from a 40 year picker in GA! Did I mention loved ya?!?!? :)
Superb lesson Adrian, the best one on this song I've found. It's so easy to sound naff playing this one if you don't do it right. many thanks for your contribution, John.
Exceptional tutorial for this song. And I completely agree with you about James Honey-man Scott. Would like to see more tutorials for his songs. I was lucky enough to see The Pretenders open for The Who in '79. Looking back on it now, they were an amazingly tight band for as young as they were. What a thrill to have been there.
what a NICE job - very clear tutorial, well produced video. I've been using YT tutorials for years and this is one of the best. And even better - great song from a great band, THANKS!
Absolutely lovely lesson. I've been a devotee of JHS ever since I first heard Pretenders I, but remarkably never tried to work this one out. That "bubbly part" is really really interesting and something I didn't even notice until well into loving the band, and the way they put a bit of phasing on it really makes it blend in nicely. If you end up coming back to JHS and are taking requests, I'd definitely love a lesson on "Private Life" or some of the better stuff off of II which I think gets ignored, like "Talk of the Town" or "I Go To Sleep". Cheers!
Great lesson! I bought the first two Pretenders albums recently and love the original lineup, the bass playing is really punchy as well as the guitar...Mystery Achievement and Talk of the Town are my other two favourites :)
Thanks - love the construction. Totally agree about James. Saw the original line up live and they just kicked. James was clever and powerful - mesmerised me. What a loss. Reminds me of Pete Townshend in that regard. More please.
Brilliant as always! I agree with ya! James H Scott was probably thee best in my opinion. Wish he was still with us, who knows how many other great songs he would have made!
Hello Adrian, Seems like Everyone liked this song, Your Tutorial was an Eye Opener, Never Imagined It was Played like it is, Which makes it easier to learn. Thanks for Starting me off. Good One
glad I found this channel. Nice job Adrian. Your teaching style is just as proficient as your musicianship and killer tone. Thanks for the inspiration for learning this cool song. Cheers!
What a tremendous job blending the guitar tracks, and great tone! I was actually trying to find tone tips on the character of the chorus for this song, but wound up listening and learning on this tutorial all the way through. Great work and feel for the groove, and kudos for the sub track tips at the end to show us those parts as well if we wanted to try to incorporate them. This is the way guitar tutorials should be demonstrated - abbreviated run through, clear articulated lesson, tips. Wraps it up advising the gear played on (Clone theory, thank you). The best. Cheers!
great job adrian! i was bummed when i heard the first video someone else had done - so crude and wrong. you have a gentle and rich approach - i love it. thanks for the lesson!
This is more of a love of the pretenders post than a guitar post. I played their first album continuously on the way to play Frisbee golf and didn't miss a day for 8 months. Song track of my life back then. Yeah yeah...
At approximately 21:38, where you mention the other response lick that appears at the pre-chorus, the phrase can be played without moving to the 4th fret. You can remain at the 9th and 11th frets on the third and fourth strings, meaning that you can play the pre-chorus riff and the response lick without moving your fingers. The same is true with the opening riff and response lick. With very little practice, those can be played simultaneously, which is a fun back-and-forth exercise of left hand muting and right hand muting.
What about more Pretenders songs ? He was a great guitar player, that's for sure, and there is plenty to learn from his playing.Thank you for this one .
Great demo ..always wondered how this was played. There are some keepers in there also .. The 1 and 3rd of A moving to the 1st and fourth with the bottom two string open which provide the 2nd and 5th of A is great ... and the Bm (Am shape)turning into a G7 the G in the base .. I guess the Bm -> G7 is movable also.. great stuff
I used to play this when it first came out and am impressed with your very accurate interpretation with a few bits I didn't do too. Also your instructions were very clear and precise. You said you will maybe put more James Honeyman Scott pieces on - how about The Chain Gang some tasteful licks in that?
Glad I found this. I'm a huge Pretenders fan, and am 100% in agreement about Honeyman-Scott. Shame that both the Pretenders or Honeyman-Scott himself aren't more well known here in the States. I do have a question, though. How are you getting all of that chime? Pedal? Amp settings? I play a Telecaster myself (thanks to Chrissie, Strummer, and Keith Richards), specifically a '72 Custom re-issue. Any pointers on that tone would be much appreciated. Please, keep it up!
The Pretenders are well known in the U.S by any objective measure. I don’t know how anyone can suggest otherwise considering how often MTV showed their videos. That and record sales provide a more objective picture. Perhaps someone younger than 35 or so would understandably see this legacy from an entirely different perspective having little actual living memory of the 1980’s.
Has anyone told you that you look like Greg Hawkes from The Cars when he was much younger? I'm sure I can't be the first one. :D Thanks for the quick lesson on playing this as a single guitar player!
The chorus effect on the original recording was probably an electro harmonix clone theory. There's an old audio interview with honeyman-Scott on RU-vid by jas obrecht where talks extensively about the gear used on that album.
