Beatle songs with banjo

[iarwain]

I've recently become interested in the banjo. I know John Lennon
started out by playing the banjo but I wasn't aware that any Beatle
songs featured the banjo. Apparently I was wrong, however, because I
found some reference to there being banjo in All together Now and All
You Need is Love. I'm not sure if these are accurate because I haven't
listened to try to verify it. But I was wondering which Beatle songs
have banjo in them.

[DavisK]

Post by iarwain
I've recently become interested in the banjo. I know John Lennon
started out by playing the banjo but I wasn't aware that any Beatle
songs featured the banjo. Apparently I was wrong, however, because I
found some reference to there being banjo in All together Now and All
You Need is Love. I'm not sure if these are accurate because I haven't
listened to try to verify it. But I was wondering which Beatle songs
have banjo in them.

NO he didn't start oout playing Banjo. His mother had played a UKe and
showed John some UKE Banjo chords on a regular guitar.

[paramucho]

Post by DavisK

Post by iarwain
I've recently become interested in the banjo. I know John Lennon
started out by playing the banjo but I wasn't aware that any Beatle
songs featured the banjo. Apparently I was wrong, however, because I
found some reference to there being banjo in All together Now and All
You Need is Love. I'm not sure if these are accurate because I haven't
listened to try to verify it. But I was wondering which Beatle songs
have banjo in them.

NO he didn't start oout playing Banjo. His mother had played a UKe and
showed John some UKE Banjo chords on a regular guitar.

Discussing John’s early musical interests, Stan recalled, “He was
always musically included. Our grandfather George Stanley had taught
his mother Judy the ukulele and banjo and our grandmother taught her
to play piano. Judy taught John all the basic chords on the banjo.
“My mother also had a baby grand piano at our home in Rock Ferry,
which also ended up in our Edinburgh home. John would always sit at it
for hours tinkering away on the keys.
“I had a half-size piano accordion at Fleetwood which I could not
master playing a keyboard sideways, so I gave it to John and he
mastered it straight away. He took it back to Liverpool with him. He
also had a cheap little mouth organ that he played about with a lot.
Stanley Parkes,
<http://www.triumphpc.com/mersey-beat/beatles/johnlennon-menloveavenue5.shtml>


Our scout leader was Bill Whiteside whose brother, Charlie actually
lived off Penny Lane, in Limedale Road - or their mother did. I think
Bill still lives there. We sometimes had scout patrol meetings at his
home. ...
Charlie could play chords on a banjo and we scouts who met on Friday
nights for our Meeting and again on Saturdays for 'hut repairs' as it
was called, often had a camp fire sing-song in the Camp Fire Circle at
the back of the scout hut next to the quarry wall with its 200 foot
drop to the bottom.
I remember making nettle soup and bread twists on sticks one
Saturday for dinner while Charlie taught John the chords of 'Way Down
Upon the Swanee River' and 'John Brown's Body Lies a Mouldering in the
Grave'.
Sadly they did not like my nettle soup and spat it out over the
quarry wall! It was at such campfire sing-songs that we learned the
song 'The Happy Wanderer' which had become so well-known because of
the success of the children's choir from Germany - the Oberkirchen
Children's Choir - who had come to the International Music and Song
Eisteddford at Llangollen in North Wales in the early 1950s and won
the competition with it.
Everyone learned to sing it. John Lennon mastered it first on his
mouth organ and when he wanted a bigger 'mouthy' I bought his old one
for two shillings and paid another sixpence for the tutor book 'How to
Play the Mouth Organ'.
David Ashton <www.iol.ie/~beatlesireland/Lennon/woolton/woolton7.htm>


========
There's seems to be banjo in "All You Need Is Love".

I hear one in "Your Mother Should Know", sometimes doubling the piano
chords -- the strumming action pokes out here and there -- however it
couid just be an e-guitar.

[DavisK]

Post by DavisK

Post by iarwain
I've recently become interested in the banjo. I know John Lennon
started out by playing the banjo but I wasn't aware that any Beatle
songs featured the banjo. Apparently I was wrong, however, because I
found some reference to there being banjo in All together Now and All
You Need is Love. I'm not sure if these are accurate because I haven't
listened to try to verify it. But I was wondering which Beatle songs
have banjo in them.

NO he didn't start oout playing Banjo. His mother had played a UKe and
showed John some UKE Banjo chords on a regular guitar.

Discussing John’s early musical interests, Stan recalled, “He was
always musically included. Our grandfather George Stanley had taught
his mother Judy the ukulele and banjo and our grandmother taught her
to play piano. Judy taught John all the basic chords on the banjo.
“My mother also had a baby grand piano at our home in Rock Ferry,
which also ended up in our Edinburgh home. John would always sit at it
for hours tinkering away on the keys.
“I had a half-size piano accordion at Fleetwood which I could not
master playing a keyboard sideways, so I gave it to John and he
mastered it straight away. He took it back to Liverpool with him. He
also had a cheap little mouth organ that he played about with a lot.
Stanley Parkes,
<http://www.triumphpc.com/mersey-beat/beatles/johnlennon-menloveavenue5.shtml>
Our scout leader was Bill Whiteside whose brother, Charlie actually
lived off Penny Lane, in Limedale Road - or their mother did. I think
Bill still lives there. We sometimes had scout patrol meetings at his
home. ...
Charlie could play chords on a banjo and we scouts who met on Friday
nights for our Meeting and again on Saturdays for 'hut repairs' as it
was called, often had a camp fire sing-song in the Camp Fire Circle at
the back of the scout hut next to the quarry wall with its 200 foot
drop to the bottom.
I remember making nettle soup and bread twists on sticks one
Saturday for dinner while Charlie taught John the chords of 'Way Down
Upon the Swanee River' and 'John Brown's Body Lies a Mouldering in the
Grave'.
Sadly they did not like my nettle soup and spat it out over the
quarry wall! It was at such campfire sing-songs that we learned the
song 'The Happy Wanderer' which had become so well-known because of
the success of the children's choir from Germany - the Oberkirchen
Children's Choir - who had come to the International Music and Song
Eisteddford at Llangollen in North Wales in the early 1950s and won
the competition with it.
Everyone learned to sing it. John Lennon mastered it first on his
mouth organ and when he wanted a bigger 'mouthy' I bought his old one
for two shillings and paid another sixpence for the tutor book 'How to
Play the Mouth Organ'.
David Ashton <www.iol.ie/~beatlesireland/Lennon/woolton/woolton7.htm>
========
There's seems to be banjo in "All You Need Is Love".
I hear one in "Your Mother Should Know", sometimes doubling the piano
chords -- the strumming action pokes out here and there -- however it
couid just be an e-guitar.

Julia was to influence John greatly in his interest and ability in
music. A keen banjo player she taught John to play 'That'll Be The Day'
on banjo. Her musical abilities were to impress the young Paul McCartney
too.
Julia died on 15 July 1958 when she was in collision with a car. She had
just been to visit John at Mimi's and it was as she crossed a dual
carriageway after the visit that she was struck by a car and killed
instantly. The driver of the car, an off-duty policeman, was taken to
court and acquitted.
This was an event that was to effect John greatly in later life and he
penned several songs in tribute to his mother: 'Julia', 'Mother' and 'My
Mummy's Dead'.

from Bill Harry's 'The Beatles Encyclopedia', published by Virgin
Publications.

[abe slaney]

Post by DavisK
Julia was to influence John greatly in his interest and ability in
music. A keen banjo player she taught John to play 'That'll Be The Day'
on banjo. Her musical abilities were to impress the young Paul McCartney
too.
from Bill Harry's 'The Beatles Encyclopedia', published by Virgin
Publications.

I still think there's some confusion about the instrument. My impression
was that what Julia played was a banjo-uke (the original trade name was
the Banjolele), like the kind George Formby played. It would have been
the more popular instrument in Britain at that time, and the fingerings
would correlate directly to the guitar. If it was actually a banjo that
she played, it would most likely have been the 4-string tenor banjo
commonly used in traditional Irish music; but the fingerings in that
case would not have translated so easily to guitar.

[paramucho]

Post by abe slaney

Post by DavisK
Julia was to influence John greatly in his interest and ability in
music. A keen banjo player she taught John to play 'That'll Be The Day'
on banjo. Her musical abilities were to impress the young Paul McCartney
too.
from Bill Harry's 'The Beatles Encyclopedia', published by Virgin
Publications.

I still think there's some confusion about the instrument. My impression
was that what Julia played was a banjo-uke (the original trade name was
the Banjolele), like the kind George Formby played. It would have been
the more popular instrument in Britain at that time, and the fingerings
would correlate directly to the guitar. If it was actually a banjo that
she played, it would most likely have been the 4-string tenor banjo
commonly used in traditional Irish music; but the fingerings in that
case would not have translated so easily to guitar.

Which is why it is said that Lennon had to relearn guitar from
McCartney and Harrison.

[abe slaney]

Post by abe slaney

Post by DavisK
Julia was to influence John greatly in his interest and ability in
music. A keen banjo player she taught John to play 'That'll Be The Day'
on banjo. Her musical abilities were to impress the young Paul McCartney
too.
from Bill Harry's 'The Beatles Encyclopedia', published by Virgin
Publications.

I still think there's some confusion about the instrument. My impression
was that what Julia played was a banjo-uke (the original trade name was
the Banjolele), like the kind George Formby played. It would have been
the more popular instrument in Britain at that time, and the fingerings
would correlate directly to the guitar. If it was actually a banjo that
she played, it would most likely have been the 4-string tenor banjo
commonly used in traditional Irish music; but the fingerings in that
case would not have translated so easily to guitar.

Which is why it is said that Lennon had to releaDrn guitar from
McCartney and Harrison.

A little while earlier I posted a quote of McCartney's wherein he
specifically mentions Julia playing ukelele, and having to teach John
the guitar chords, as all he knew were uke chords. So, maybe it was just
a question of showing him fingerings that involved the extra two bottom
strings, rather than a completely new fretboard layout? (i.e., maybe
Lennon was playing a 1-finger G chord)

Another possibility that I've mentioned here before, involved John's
favorite chord, warmly known in these parts as the "F with a G on top"
that pops up in such tunes as "Cry for a Shadow", "Hard Day's Night",
"I'm a Loser", "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away", etc. This fingering
(3213) is the same as is used to play a straight major chord on a
5-string banjo in standard tuning (DGBD), also a fairly common tuning
for the 4-string tenor banjo. I guess it's possible if it was, in fact,
the banjo that he learned on, that he was used to that shape and just
kept playing it on the guitar.

But one has to wonder what prompted the selection of the George Formby
snippet at the end of "Free as a Bird." Aside from the fact that
Harrison was a fan, is it possible that the banjo-uke also had some
personal meaning to the other Beatles as a special symbol of their
oldest memories of their friend?)

[Ron]

I don't HEAR banjo on Honey Pie, All You Need is Love, All Together
Now, or Real Love, but I'm not saying it's not in the mix somewhere. Now
if you had said Buffalo Springfield (Bluebird), Lovin' Spoonful (Money),
Monkees (You Told Me).....as for the uke, that was George's favorite
instrument.

[Chris Hoelscher]

does this count?

Please dont bring your banjo back
I know where its been .....


chris hoelscher

[Captain Kundalini]

I wasn't hardly gone a day
When it became the Scene!.

LOL!

Post by Chris Hoelscher
does this count?
Please dont bring your banjo back
I know where its been .....
chris hoelscher

[Daave]

Post by iarwain
I've recently become interested in the banjo. I know John Lennon
started out by playing the banjo but I wasn't aware that any Beatle
songs featured the banjo. Apparently I was wrong, however, because I
found some reference to there being banjo in All together Now and All
You Need is Love. I'm not sure if these are accurate because I
haven't listened to try to verify it. But I was wondering which
Beatle songs have banjo in them.

I hear a banjo in Honey Pie.

[Mr.Fire]

' All You Need is Love' is the only recording of theirs that
according to Lewisohns' book features a banjo( played by John) , I
don't really hear it but it's supposedly there.

[MikeLawyr2]

Real Love has a banjo near the end, I think.

[abe slaney]

Post by MikeLawyr2
Real Love has a banjo near the end, I think.

That's the banjo-uke.

[Barbara & Wim Meijnen & Kombrink]

Post by MikeLawyr2
Real Love has a banjo near the end, I think.

It's a ukelele, I don't really think there are banjo's involved in
Beatles music...the sounds in Honey Pie sound like some old
hollow-bodied electric guitar. I gather the ukelele was a more popular
(and cheaper) instruments in the '40s en '50 in the Mersey-regions than
the banjo.

[BlackMonk]

Post by Mr.Fire
' All You Need is Love' is the only recording of theirs that
according to Lewisohns' book features a banjo( played by John) , I
don't really hear it but it's supposedly there.

Doesn't John play banjo on All Together Now?

[iarwain]

It's interesting to me to hear several people maintaining that Julia
taught John to play a banjolele (banjo-uke), and not a banjo. Almost
all the quotes pertaining to this have Julia teaching John banjo. It
seems odd to me that people would call a banjolele a banjo. George
Formby played a banjolele, and he usually referred to it as a ukulele
(which it is arguably closer to). But I've never heard a banjolele
called a banjo.

I will admit the stories about John playing guitar using banjo chord
fingerings has always puzzled me. If Julia actually taught John
banjo-uke that would explain a lot (since the fingerings would
translate easily), but if that's the case it seems like a complete
reversal of a long accepted part of Beatle lore. Another consideration
is maybe John tuned his guitar like a banjo? This also can get sticky,
since different types of banjos are tuned different ways.

[abe slaney]

Post by iarwain
It's interesting to me to hear several people maintaining that Julia
taught John to play a banjolele (banjo-uke), and not a banjo. Almost
all the quotes pertaining to this have Julia teaching John banjo. It
seems odd to me that people would call a banjolele a banjo. George
Formby played a banjolele, and he usually referred to it as a ukulele
(which it is arguably closer to). But I've never heard a banjolele
called a banjo.
I will admit the stories about John playing guitar using banjo chord
fingerings has always puzzled me. If Julia actually taught John
banjo-uke that would explain a lot (since the fingerings would
translate easily), but if that's the case it seems like a complete
reversal of a long accepted part of Beatle lore. Another consideration
is maybe John tuned his guitar like a banjo? This also can get sticky,
since different types of banjos are tuned different ways.

According to the following interview with John's cousin Stanley Parkes,
it was both the banjo AND the uke that Julia played, and taught John.

"The musical side of the family goes way back really, because our
great-grandfather, although his main occupation was a lawyer/solicitor's
clerk, was a part time musician so he must have passed on some musical
talent to his daughter who was Annie Jane Milward - Annie Jane Stanley -
because she played the piano and her father John Ernest Stanley, he
played the banjo and the ukulele. In the old days as you know, in
Victorian times, the home entertainment was to stand around the piano,
sing songs and do your own entertaining which they did with their five
daughters. So it was passed on to John through Julia, his mother,
because she taught John the basic cords of the banjo and the ukulele and
a bit of the piano too, and that is how his musical talent erupted."

http://www.lennon.net/reflections/s_parkes.shtml

Paul McCartney, in his letter to John for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
induction, wrote:

"I remember the visits to your mum's house.
Julia was a very handsome woman, very beautiful woman.
She had long red hair and she played a ukulele.
I'd never seen a woman that could do that.
And I remember having to tell you the guitar chords
because you used to play the ukulele chords."

So make of all that what you will.

[iarwain]

It's a little maddening to me to read all these quotes that contradict
each other, although it's probably not surprising given the nature of
people's memories. But it does surprise me that no one has managed to
pin the facts down on this, since to me at least, this has always been
a major component of Beatle lore: that John started out using banjo
chord fingerings on the guitar because Julia had taught him banjo.

My impression of the Formby-type clip at the end of Free As a Bird was
that it was George Harrison's idea since he was heavily into ukulele at
the time. But I also thought that it was a common element from all
four of their childhoods - George Formby was popular in the UK when
they were growing up so I imagine they all were familiar with him.

Abe, your comments about John possibly using banjo (in DGBD) or uke
fingerings were spot on, I thought. I had always imagined John (in the
early days) playing basically the top four strings on the guitar. The
only question is, was he using banjo or uke fingerings? I could see
either one.

Here's the weird part (most people can just stop reading here):
Did he know chords by name (at the time of the Quarrymen)? Much has
been said about the Beatles' musical ignorance, but musicians have to
communicate.
If he played uke chords (tuned GCEA) and someone called for an F, he
would play 2010, which is Am7 on guitar. More likely, he played 3211,
an F on guitar but A# on ukulele.
Or he could have played a baritone uke, tuned DGBE, just like the top
four strings on a guitar, so someone could call for an F, and he could
play 3211 and still be correct.
Or if he played a banjo tuned DGBD and someone called for an F he would
play 3213, which is actually an Fadd9 on guitar. Which, musically,
could still fit.

Anyway, I'm just amazed that none of these contradictions have been
finalized down into facts, given the voracity of Beatle fans for
knowledge.

[Rerics]

Post by iarwain
I've recently become interested in the banjo. I know John Lennon
started out by playing the banjo but I wasn't aware that any Beatle
songs featured the banjo. Apparently I was wrong, however, because I
found some reference to there being banjo in All together Now and All
You Need is Love. I'm not sure if these are accurate because I haven't
listened to try to verify it. But I was wondering which Beatle songs
have banjo in them.

Not exactly the same thing, but....

http://www.emusic.com/album/10875/10875900.html

Rerics

[u***@mscomm.com]

John said on the Mike Douglas show in 1971, "My mother taught me the
banjo." I just checked the DVD of it to make sure of the quote. So John
himself said Julia taught him the banjo.

[MikeLawyr2]

How about an ocarina? I don't think The Beatles ever used an ocarina,
even though there were two -- count 'em, two! -- hit songs in the
sixties with OCARINA SOLOS!!!! (extra credit: name them)

[Chris Jepson]

Post by MikeLawyr2
How about an ocarina? I don't think The Beatles ever used an ocarina,
even though there were two -- count 'em, two! -- hit songs in the
sixties with OCARINA SOLOS!!!! (extra credit: name them)

Well, one was "Wild Thing", right?

Chris Jepson

[MikeLawyr2]

That's one. The other was Califonia Dreamin'.

[Chris Jepson]

Post by MikeLawyr2
That's one. The other was Califonia Dreamin'.

Are you sure about that? The range, and the chromatic notes, seem
beyond the capabilities of the ocarina.

(Here's another tidbit: What primitive instrument is the flute solo in
Canned Heat's "Goin' Up the Country" intended to sound like?)

Chris Jepson

[BlackMonk]

Post by MikeLawyr2
That's one. The other was Califonia Dreamin'.

Are you sure about that? The range, and the chromatic notes, seem beyond
the capabilities of the ocarina.

It's a bass flute.

(Here's another tidbit: What primitive instrument is the flute solo in
Canned Heat's "Goin' Up the Country" intended to sound like?)

Quill.

[Chris Jepson]

Post by BlackMonk

Post by Chris Jepson
(Here's another tidbit: What primitive instrument is the flute solo in
Canned Heat's "Goin' Up the Country" intended to sound like?)

Quill.

You get a gold star! (Although I think it's "quills")

Chris Jepson

[MikeLawyr2]

I did some research, and I think you are right.

Here's a link that concludes ocarina: http://www.clayz.com/define.html

but this one seems more informed and names names:

http://mixonline.com/mag/audio_mamas_papas_california/

Thanks:)

[Chris Jepson]

Post by MikeLawyr2
That's one. The other was Califonia Dreamin'.

Are you sure? The range, and the chromatic notes, seem beyond the
capabilities of the ocarina.

(Here's another tidbit: What primitive instrument is the flute solo in
Canned Heat's "Goin' Up the Country" intended to sound like?)

Chris Jepson

PS. I tried to send this message once and it just froze up, so I'm
re-sending -- I hope it doesn't show up multiple times.

[Danny Caccavo]

Post by Rerics

Post by iarwain
I've recently become interested in the banjo. I know John Lennon
started out by playing the banjo but I wasn't aware that any Beatle
songs featured the banjo. Apparently I was wrong, however, because I
found some reference to there being banjo in All together Now and All
You Need is Love. I'm not sure if these are accurate because I haven't
listened to try to verify it. But I was wondering which Beatle songs
have banjo in them.

Not exactly the same thing, but....
http://www.emusic.com/album/10875/10875900.html
Rerics

I always thought there was banjo in "Your Mother Should Know".....

dc

[Ron]

banjo's, banjo's everywhere, i can't forget that tune, and if i ever
hear another banjo, i'm going up in big balloon!

[paramucho]

On Tue, 04 Apr 2006 03:53:47 GMT, Danny Caccavo

Post by Danny Caccavo

Post by Rerics

Post by iarwain
I've recently become interested in the banjo. I know John Lennon
started out by playing the banjo but I wasn't aware that any Beatle
songs featured the banjo. Apparently I was wrong, however, because I
found some reference to there being banjo in All together Now and All
You Need is Love. I'm not sure if these are accurate because I haven't
listened to try to verify it. But I was wondering which Beatle songs
have banjo in them.

Not exactly the same thing, but....
http://www.emusic.com/album/10875/10875900.html
Rerics

I always thought there was banjo in "Your Mother Should Know".....

Me too.