Lead/Rythym Guitar

[silentseason]

This is a question for Johnny only.

Actually a couple of questions and they involve lead/rythym guitar for the three albums and extras.

First, the album credits only put generic descriptions as to who played what on them. For the albums, did you play strictly lead guitar and Bryan rythym or did you all trade off sometimes?

That leads to my second question: since the interplay between the guitars was very essential to Love's sound, how did you and Bryan work together in the studio i.e. sometimes did you each have an idea and compromise, or maybe one of you had the main riff and built the song around that? For example, the guitar work on "Your Mind" is so tightly wound together it's like you guys were of one mind. And since I have neglected to mention it previously, thank you for your time in answering these queries. It is a priveledge to "converse" with you.

[Johnny Echols]

This is a question for Johnny only.

Actually a couple of questions and they involve lead/rythym guitar for the three albums and extras.

First, the album credits only put generic descriptions as to who played what on them. For the albums, did you play strictly lead guitar and Bryan rythym or did you all trade off sometimes?

That leads to my second question: since the interplay between the guitars was very essential to Love's sound, how did you and Bryan work together in the studio i.e. sometimes did you each have an idea and compromise, or maybe one of you had the main riff and built the song around that? For example, the guitar work on "Your Mind" is so tightly wound together it's like you guys were of one mind. And since I have neglected to mention it previously, thank you for your time in answering these queries. It is a priveledge to "converse" with you.

It's my pleasure to answer questions on this board, they are all serious and well thought out.

I played all of the lead guitar parts, and flourishes, and Bryan did the finger picking. We would begin with us both playing acoustic guitar on the basic tracks. Afterwards, the two of us would work out a natural rhythmic counterpoint. We would play off each other, in effect, orchestrating cello, and viola parts on the guitars. He had a way of weaving in and around the song, giving it a more intricate feel. Bryan had an innate ability to hear harmonic balance, and was a supremely gifted musician, who was integral to the sound of the group.

[silentseason]

This is a question for Johnny only.

Actually a couple of questions and they involve lead/rythym guitar for the three albums and extras.

First, the album credits only put generic descriptions as to who played what on them. For the albums, did you play strictly lead guitar and Bryan rythym or did you all trade off sometimes?

That leads to my second question: since the interplay between the guitars was very essential to Love's sound, how did you and Bryan work together in the studio i.e. sometimes did you each have an idea and compromise, or maybe one of you had the main riff and built the song around that? For example, the guitar work on "Your Mind" is so tightly wound together it's like you guys were of one mind. And since I have neglected to mention it previously, thank you for your time in answering these queries. It is a priveledge to "converse" with you.

It's my pleasure to answer questions on this board, they are all serious and well thought out.

I played all of the lead guitar parts, and flourishes, and Bryan did the finger picking. We would begin with us both playing acoustic guitar on the basic tracks. Afterwards, the two of us would work out a natural rhythmic counterpoint. We would play off each other, in effect, orchestrating cello, and viola parts on the guitars. He had a way of weaving in and around the song, giving it a more intricate feel. Bryan had an innate ability to hear harmonic balance, and was a supremely gifted musician, who was integral to the sound of the group.

I find it interesting (but not surprising) that you all would use acoustic prior to commencing with electric (I have no musical talent/inclination) given that Love built its early reputation on electric. One of the pleasureable mysteries I get when listening to the music is 1) Trying to figure out what the lyrics are saying (some of my initial interpretations were way off) and 2) Listening to the give and take of the guitar parts. Some songs ("Your Mind" and "Que Vida") they are distinct yet blend together so well while some ("The Castle") I have a hard time distinguishing the two guitars , which leads to a follow up question. Were there some songs on which there was only one guitar part? Like I mentioned my musical training is nil, and on a song like The Castle it would seem to be only one guitar and the deep resonant bass.

[Johnny Echols]

There were always at least two guitars on all of our songs. Sometimes the interplay is not obvious, it depends on the mix!

[jamestkirk]

There were always at least two guitars on all of our songs. Sometimes the interplay is not obvious, it depends on the mix!

It is interesting the process of recording with its many tracks and over dubbing. In Keith Richards' LIFE, he talks of over dubbing sometimes up to eight guitar parts himself....Brian Jones was basically out of the band by 1966...so Keef was forced tp play all the guitar parts. He said it helped him to understand the recording process immensely.

The STONES recorded AFTERMATH in LA and heard LoVE perform on the Strip in the process, and influenced that great album immeasurably!

[Johnny Echols]

Sometimes I play several different guitar parts on one song. The difficulty is in not making it appear obvious. There is nothing worse than a song that sounds cluttered, with too many instruments. In essence you lose the beauty of the forest when there are too many disparate trees vying to be seen. what you end up with is an overgrown mess!

[jamestkirk]

Sometimes I play several different guitar parts on one song. The difficulty is in not making it appear obvious. There is nothing worse than a song that sounds cluttered, with too many instruments. In essence you lose the beauty of the forest when there are too many disparate trees vying to be seen. what you end up with is an overgrown mess!

Right...it was about taking one guitar part or riff up and lowering another at one point or another when mixing the number...all about the unified whole for just the right sound you are after.

Did you ever explore Keff's 5 string tuning that he started to use on Beggar's Banquet onward after learning it from Phil Everly--the Chicago blue's artists way.... using the old blues style of open tuning? Getting rid of one string entirely? He eventually had his guitars custom-made with 5 strings.