Paul McCartney tells Steven Colbert a story about Jimi Hendrix when he played "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" to open a show, then asked Eric Clapton to tune his guitar.
Good call, plus Jimi was a lefty and tuned his guitar uniquely - there was no way Clapton would be able to tune it so Hendrix could play it. Maybe Hendrix was teasing Clapton. :)
@@JoshMaxPower Why would Jimi strings be tuned any differently than EAGDBE? Clapton could have turned it to that. Or half step lower. Or whatever Jimi wanted.
If it really happened, Jimi would have been teasing Eric Clapton. At this time, they all knew Jimi was now the Guitar God, and they acknowledged it. Jimi loved to joke around as you see in all his documentaries.
On several live recordings Mr. Hendrix can be heard tuning his guitar completely by ear (and doing it perfectly), he didn't need any help tuning a guitar, that's for sure.
I saw him a couple of times, and he'd just hit all the strings, open, a huge chord super loud, and then tune each string as it sustained. I've never seen anyone else able to do that. Amazing!
It’s sad that Hendrix never had a proper road crew that could keep guitars in tune for him, or hand him a new one after each song. The Stones started doing that in the 70’s and found that in the time it saved they could add 3 more songs to their set list
@helenespaulding7562 Nah not really, for jimi yeah 1000% he probably was crapping in his tight pants so excited to be in front of the Beatles who had no idea who he was.
@@KeizerHedorah nah, I was merely pointing out that he played in front of only ONE Beatle, Paul McCartney….not in front of all four Beatles. The names mentioned were Paul, Eric Clapton, and Pete Townsend. Only one was a Beatle. But you know that, right?
@@KeizerHedorah wow, sorry. Didn’t mean to ruffle your feathers. Im sure he played in front of all the Beatles at some point. I was solely addressing this particular performance and who was said to be there ; McCartney, Clapton and Townsend. Surely you understand that? Are you just trying to be contrary? Or dense? Sorry, I hate being rude, but come on. If Ringo or George or John was at that same performance, then I stand corrected. Were they?
I was there also. They put on some great gigs at the Saville theatre usually on a Sunday evening. I saw The Who, Cream and Jimi Hendrix later David Bowie and Roxy Music. It was an excellent venue.
that would only work if it's a half or whole step out of tune which is unlikely or if you're playing a fretless, which he didn't. more likely to be just some random amount out of tune which means none of the frets would line up with anything which means you're just out of tune no matter what you do and need to retune or have the rest of the bad match you which would be weird and a lot of work.
@@robmurrah3224 Yep. If you have good pitch hearing, you can bend any out of tune string right to the exact point where it makes the correct note for what you're playing. If you're good, you're good. Jimi was good.
When I seen Paul a couple years ago he told the story that he had the pleasure of meeting him in the 60s and that he asked him to come up and tune his guitar. So it was definitely Paul that did
Jimi was MASTER of his instrument. If he heard it out of tune, he would tune "on the fly", without missing a beat. This can be seen on several videos...
I believe Keith had the Marlboro occasionally and the odd glass or two but he's really kicked the rest into touch, including the Opiates - many years ago. He turns eighty years old this coming December.
This story really needed to be informed with the previous chapter, in which an unknown at the time Jimi Hendrix asks to go on stage and play with Cream and proceeds to leave Eric Clapton absolutely gobsmacked with the rendition of Howlin' Wolf's Killing Floor, a song which Clapton happened to be working on, but felt he hadn't mastered yet. That story is all over RU-vid now and there's Jimi's brass knockers for ya. Eric left the stage halfway through and said to Chas Chandler, the manager who got Jimi in there to play, "You didn't tell me he was that f**king good." But that just adds a whole lot more bite to Jimi specifically asking for Eric to tune his guitar. Ouch!
This story has been around for jurassic years, it’ came right out of the horse’s mouth in the Jimi hendrix 1973 documentary by warner bros made after his death.
Eric and jimi became inseparable friends after that. I’m sure jimi didn’t say that to belittle him, it was more than likely an inside joke between them. The only guy jimi was really a dick to was Keith Richards
Jimi was constantly retuning his guitar in live performances after whammy abuse but on a guitar that’s set up well tuning slips rarely affect all strings and are easily corrected. He was quite proficient at this so any request to the audience to tune his guitar would have been interactive banter. He could tune a twelve string whilst having a conversation, smoking a joint, drinking coffee and listening to the radio. He didn’t need help from Paul McCartney or Eric Clapton.
Paul is a big composer of the two last centuries!! Jummy is a great instrument player! So , nothing to compare!! Even jummy was a good guitarist, he was limited in one styles: rock- blues which is just one of the styles that composed and played the beatles ! So nothing to compare !!!!!!!
@@fouadeljabri2330 Ah foei!! Jimi was a great composer as well as he wrote some pretty unique songs, Electric ladyland is an ambient album avant la lettre and a lot of it sounds pretty modern still today, and he would use his guitar as an orchestra overdubbing little pieces and riffs which could easily be flutes or string sections.
Jimi was so good, he knew how much error in tuning would still allow him to comfortably play on. He tuned the strings after each song, knowing the slack and stretch limits. But his setup ensured that the strings stayed in tune after heavy whammy bar use. His guitar was a little untuned for the most parts of his songs, but he knew exactly how to handle that situation. Genius
He always downtuned a half step to E flat. So the string was super easy to keep in tune while using the trem. And as long as you are pre stretching your strings when they first go on you will be fine. The machine heads were the biggest issue with keeping tuned while diving and as long as you have them routed on the post properly. You're good to go
Let's be real. Strats won't stay in tune today, 50 years later. no matter what you do, a non floyd rose is not going to stay in tune after heavy vibrato use no matter what voodoo you do to it
Clapton also got the nickname 'slowhand' early in his career for getting the slowhand clap from British audiences to show their frustration at him often taking a long time in between songs to tune his guitar. Could be that that was what Jimi was referring to as well. Maybe he knew the story and thought it would be a funny little jab being doubly appropriate for Clapton being such a renowned player and also having that very action, mid-set tuning, be something that he was known for doing a lot. Mix in that it's all meant to be happening at a British venue (I think) it makes too much sense. It's probably rock star apocrypha, but pretty cool story nonetheless.
I do believe that‘s not possible not to love Jimi Hendrix. And I like it very much, how Paul McCartney tells stories. Sorry for my English, I‘m from Jupiter.
Jimi Hendrix, like all great guitarists, could tune and detune on the run. Break,a string?, don't stop, just re finger the chords. Such musical virtuosity goes beyond mastery of technique. He , being left handed on a right handed guitar, could also switch it around to right handed mode without missing a beat. Truly a genius.
Jimi could tune the guitar himself. He even could tune it to different keys for different songs. He also would tune it after using the bar to bring the strings back in tune which is why you see Jimi constantly reaching for the machine heads during the Star Spangled Banner. All the the wrenching he did on the bar kept pulling the strings out of tune.
Jimi was a known jokester. He and EC had a friendly rivalry. Id read a story where jimi had gotten out of tune and Eric called from the side of the stage joking " well whats he gonna do now?!", jimi grinned and bent the stings as he played until they were the correct notes.
The other bit of trivia is that at the time, the Saville Theater in London was owned by Brian Epstein, it was also where the Beatles filmed the “Hello Goodbye” video
Epstein passed away 2 months after the Sgt. Pepper. So it’s highly possible that he heard of Jimi’s rendition too. God, I want to know how he reacted to Hendrix’s improvisation.
The fact that the three, Paul McCartney, Jimi Hendrix, and Eric Clapton were alive and performing at the same time is truly astounding. Best musicians of the 20th century!
Love it that Paul shares these stories with us, he's an international treasure and we're lucky he's still with us! Jimi knew they were there that night, the Beatles manager Brian Epstein owned the Saville theater. Jimi was having some fun banter between songs and giving the nod to his good friend Eric Clapton's intonation skills.
DAAAMN! Paul knows his sh-t that sounds damn near exact to Jimi's whammy bar signature's he did vocally LOL... I know a lot of us wish we could have witnessed these Phenoms Live!!!
@@PeteWizzle He was hearing the album for the first time and all these "good players" have the power of Internet to learn it. It took him seconds to learn what it was and improvise a solo for it. He listened to the album for twenty minutes with his band. He had bought the record only a few minutes before the performance. So next time, know more about the topic you're discussing than just randomly spewing out unnecessary bs. It took him seconds to learn it, even though it was his first time hearing it. "Good players" have heard that album several times and are able to learn it in three minutes after checking the chords or watching a video.
I read somewhere that he was on holiday back in the sixties at one point and got a telegram inviting him to come and jam… from Jimi Hendrix and Miles Davis… but he didn't go.
@@Kowasi Paul would have gone, but nobody forwarded him the memo. They told Jimi “Paul is out of the office” and then never contacted Paul. Such a shame, it would have been freaking amazing.
Paul’s not considered one of the guitar greats, but it’s ironic that nobody-NOBODY-plays the riff from “Let me Roll it” as pretty or as perfectly clean as he does. Even in the live videos I’ve seen it’s always perfect! His acoustic guitar picking is also great (and his unique finger waggle, lol)
There's a trick to bringing a strat back in tune after you do a dive bomb. Give the bar a firm yank and it will come back into tune. EVH used to do that before he started using Floyd Rose trems. I've tried it and it works.
An absolute god jimi hendrix will be missed throughout the generations im only 20 but im making sure my kids are fully educated in hendrix thts for damn sure
That's correct. He was simultaneously making a joke, but also hoping to meet Eric, and maybe even see his guitar in Eric's hands. Jimi looked up to him, even as Eric felt crushed beneath.
Saying “whammy bar” is hardly “Strat knowledge”. I don’t skateboard. I think I’ve held a skateboard like once in my life. But I can say “bearings”, “deck”, “griptape”. If I’m feeling fancy I’ll say “trucks.” I still can’t tell one skateboard from another.
Jimi and Eric became friends almost overnight. Eric really concidered Jimi as a close friend and used to by him presents - including a left hand strat he found while on tour. He was really looking forward to handle Jimi that guitar when he came back from tour - only to hear that Jimi had passed away the night before. “And there I was, stuck with that damn guitar I never got to give to him”
@@wellesradio I think the point is that Paul called Jimi's tremolo a "Bigsby" which isn't correct and Stephen subtly corrected him. With the exception of a some weird partscasters and Parallel Universe models the Strat wasn't equipped with a Bigsby. The lack of a Bigsby in favor of the synchronized tremolo system is one of the many things that set the Strat apart from other instruments at the time and contributed to its iconic status.
After Eric came out of his "shellshocked" state, He and Jimi became pretty close friends, and hung out a little bit. Everyone loved Jimi, because he really didn't have a huge ego, like most Rock stars have. If anyone could have bragged, it was Jimi, the kid from Seattle Washington.
I’m so glad you got to see him! I just want to see him once before he retires… this 2022 tour has no shows within 400 miles of me and I can’t afford plane tickets and a hotel room 😭
Clapton knew Jimi tuned his guitar 1/2 step down from standard, a trick he learned from the old bluesmen he ran into on the road. I have no freaking clue as to why or if it’s even true, but I’ve heard it a few times. Clapton didn’t want to get anywhere near that stage with Jimi Hendrix calling him out.
what that must be like for clapton, you think you are the guitar god then you find out there is a guy not only is he better than you but as long as you live you will never be as good as him. i'd start drinking too.
Jimi played a festival on the isle of wight , Before he was due on he asked a roadie for the british national anthem (melody) and promptly went on to play it on stage .
As a musician I appreciate the likes of Colbert correcting Sir Paul Himself on the nomenclature of the whammy bar, as Jimi wasn’t known to use instruments with Bigsby branded tremolo systems. It just goes to show that Paul is no technical elitist.
Eric Clapton said he was so blown away the first time he saw Jimi play that he needed help lighting his cigarette. His hands were shaking too much. There was a new "God" in town.
I guess, this was Jimi's way of telling the Lennon & McCartney posse about "With a Little Help from My Friends" - this song starts with "What would you think if I sang out of tune?" The "Sgt. Pepper..." Beatles' album was released 26 May 1967 and Hendrix had London as his base at least through June that year. At the time, Clapton headed a band called "Cream" which dissolved in 1968 (likely influenced by Eric listening to a team of musicians called "The Band" and their album "Music from Big Pink". The Band had been Bob Dylan's support musicians until his accident and started their own thing.)
Little does McCartney know he's talking about a guy that was tuning his guitar by ear while playing the national anthem at woodstock. Without stopping.
@@LaZarusXtnct ... lol ... because his guitar was out of tune with all the noises he was making and he's trying to fix it a bit, trying to tune some strings along the hurly-burly.
Don't remember Jimi using a Bigsby but Jimi was always tuning his guitar on the fly, he most likely had perfect pitch. Fender Strats did not have Bigsbys, but hey we were not there Paul was!
I've seen Jimi with many different guitars, although he is mainly known for his Strats. I've even seen a pic of him with an upside down Les Paul! How the heck did he reach the high notes like that? Amazing! He could pretty much pick up anything, even if it is strung right handed, flip it over and play it.
Paul himself has admitted he doesn't really know much about gear. He just uses it to play, and he doesn't really care about specs or whatever, so it's not unusual for him to mix up all the terms. Apparently at some point someone asked him what bass strings he used and he answered 'long shiny ones'.
I'm thinking Paul might be using the word 'Bigsby' because he's a bit older than us, and the Bigsby vibrato is an earlier vibrato system than the one on the Strat, so he may be using it a bit like how some people say 'Coke' as a generic name to refer any kind of liquid carbonated sugary corporate poison, or 'Tylenol' to refer to liver destroying acetaminophen/paracetamol.
Hmm... If this happened...and as a lifelong Jimi fan it is the first time I have heard this story, I can literally see Jimi peering out into the audience with his hand shielding his eyes from the lights and asking "Is Eric here?". It is a joke. Much the same as he always asked audiences to give the band a minute to tune up because they "really cared for your ears"
@@genemars5158 hmmm that didn't sound logic, the longer you play, the more often you hear the single strings on a guitar, you know how they need to sound and you realize immediately when you are out of tune. How long did hendrix play the guitar? 15 years? For sure for 10 hours + per day? So you want to say someone who wrotes little wing or bold as love, didn't know how to tune a guitar? I don't buy it. I play for 4-5years now and im able to tune it by ear. And im not even in the same galaxy as Hendrix was.
Jimi could tune by ear, listen to Hear my train a coming at Berkeley or Hey joe at “ a happening for lulu “ ….he knew, he knew good and well . RIP JMH 🌷
@@ewest14 What "proof" do you want? There are a number of accounts of this show that Hendrix played at by other stars that were there..not one has mentioned this story except Paul. And the show is rather legendary.I refer to his biographer Phillip Norman who once said (paraphrase), "Ringo doesn't remember and Paul lies"...:)
0:28 No one is gonna joke that Paul actually says he had this VIBRATOR on,,,instead of the actual term vibrato. But hell it might be the secret to the Hendrix sound playing the guitar with a vibrator.
The part Paul isn't mentioning is where Hendrix was actually being a prick to Clapton in asking him to tune his guitar because of what happened earlier.... Hendrix upstaged Clapton at his own gig. Make no mistake Jimi was rubbing it in. He didn't need anyone to tune his guitar
@@thenorthernsoul nope ginger baker tells the story of the cream inviting Hendrix on the stage and Hendrix blowing him away so much that he just walked backstage. Jimi liked clappers more than clappers liked him back then. Facts, mate!
@@thenorthernsoul it might have been about Eric's reputation with how long it took him to change strings and tune, he was notoriously slow, which is actually where he got the name "slowhand", most people think he got that from his playing but in those days he could rip, especially in Cream.
