Can You Play This Riff Ep. 29 JOHN LENNON 

I love jamming John Lennon style, Come Together, Dizzy Miss Lizzy, Money, his piano playing I can imitate just a bit, so I do Immagine, Watching the Wheels, etc. The most brilliant thing about John Lennon was, he knew his limits, so used Eric Clapton, George Harrison and others. But he was an excellent lead guitar player.

“ 🎶Well, Well, _WELL_ !!! 🎶 Oh, that’s me limit…”

Nimble? He played stanky. He was never very nimble, as really Paul was the most complete guitarists, and musician in general, from the start to the end. He also could play simpler solos/riffs, with stank, but he also played very cleanly. When Lennon began playing live shows again, in the 70’s, he seemed to haven’t been playing nearly as much. Watch his guitar work on the rooftop performances, then one of he and Yoko’s get togethers. He plays sloppy, if at all, because he hadn’t been playing in a studio for hour after hour. He just wasn’t playing as much, after The Beatles. Though, I think he wanted anything he did solo, to sound very different from Beatles stuff, until he got with Spector, and started having arrangements on songs, and began to sound more Beatles-esque, than he had on the first few solo albums.

You are very correct, this is not a John vs. Paul contest post, this is a post of some unique playing ability of Johns. He was not sloppy as somebody points the Live Peace in Toronto displayed his style to a tee. One must remember, he was a singer, a lead singer who performed riffs while singing. I watched many cover bands do his tunes, even his cover tunes, and John has all the licks to carry him, even without Eric. He knows how to use the first five frets like a master. Also slamming his rooftop performance, they were playing just a few degrees above freezing that day, very cold for fancy guitar work, also there was a wind providing a wind chill. Nah,..to complain, and exaggerate John's ability compared to Paul is worthless and irrelevant. It depends on what level you are in your mind. John was way more Rock & Roll than Paul. Paul, can't come close to John. When Paul attempts those cover Rock tunes he sounds out of place, and John smokes them. Both were brilliant in their own way, to compare them is worthless rhetoric. Paul was a better piano player, but it doesn't matter. Even Ringo jammed the piano, so did George. What made the Beatles great was these four monsters together, I watched a video, Paul was singing, screwed up bad, and quit, Ringo caught it "laughed, did a roll" and brought him right back in. Everybody has a sloppy moment, the Rolling Stones are sloppy. I watched "Chicago" live in L.A the horn section took off on a completely different song, they all laughed and started over. This is what makes upcoming artists comfortable because we are all human, and make mistakes, and get sloppy. I never even attempted to pit John against Paul, Paul against John, what an immature effort. This is a great post presenting a badass riff that made a simple song badass, and this brilliant teacher/instructor "Guitar Pilgrim", grabbed this song to teach us something new. Perhaps not new, because we have all went through these sorts of riffs, but he pointed out a very special way to make a simple song, a powerful John Lennon song another notch in his great song writing abilities.

I love almost all the 265 songs The Beatles recorded. But when I start listing my most favorite ones John easily comes out on top. Obviously that's just is my opinion but what's great about The Beatles is that all four of them were bad asses so there's one for everybody.

It’s really six minutes of what Thom played, with John singing Well, Well, Well a few times. It’s like a demo, that never had lyrics written for it, and really doesn’t feel like a finished song. Lennon did this purposely for some tracks, starting with his first solo foray.

Clapton played on Cold Turkey I think

The whole album is.

Working Class Hero is in my busking line up. It is very easy to play so that you can concentrate on the singing. The singing melody range isn’t too wide so that you can concentrate on your expression.