Via his prolific work as a musician, songwriter, and producer, Chet Atkins turned probably the most well-known guitarists of the pre-pop music period. Atkins was a significant participant in revolutionising the sound of up to date nation music, however his skills made him a cross-genre expertise, working with everybody from Elvis Presley to The Everly Brothers. His affect even reached so far as England, the place a younger George Harrison was taking notes.
“I’ve appreciated Chet Atkins as a musician since lengthy earlier than the tracks on this album had been written; in truth, since I used to be the ripe younger age of seventeen,” Harrison wrote within the liner notes for Atkins’ cowl album Chet Atkins Picks on The Beatles. “Since then I’ve misplaced rely of the variety of Chet’s albums I’ve acquired, however I’ve not been dissatisfied with any of them. For me, the beauty of Mr. Atkins will not be the truth that he’s able to enjoying virtually each kind of music however the conviction in the way in which he does it.”
Harrison cited Atkins because the “best instrumentalist” on this planet in 1963, and his fandom was confirmed when Harrison acquired a Gretsch Nation Gentleman guitar, considered one of Atkin’s signature fashions, that very same yr. It didn’t take lengthy for Harrison to start integrating the nation kinds of Atkins’ enjoying into the music of The Beatles.
Essentially the most distinguished instance of Atkins’ affect on Harrison is heard within the solo for ‘All My Loving’. That includes the identical walk-ups, multi-string concord traces, and double-stop choosing patterns that Atkins was well-known for, Harrison gave Atkins an apparent nod throughout that specific solo. However Harrison didn’t hold his appreciation to only a single solo.
As The Beatles continued to work diligently all through the mid-Nineteen Sixties, Harrison’s nation and western influences had been a part of the band’s evolving sound. The fast triplets throughout the solo of ‘A Arduous Day’s Evening’, the melodic opening riff to ‘Each Little Factor’, and the chromatic runs on ‘I’m A Loser’ all have Atkins’ fingerprints throughout them.
Even Harrison’s later solo work, together with a few of his iconic slide guitar work, carry the affect of Atkins’ personal melodic contact. Harrison himself wasn’t actually a rustic participant, so it is sensible that considered one of his favorite nation guitarists wasn’t only a nation participant both. Atkins and Harrison shared a mutual devotion to songcraft, one thing that brought about each gamers to affect generations of six-string gamers over the next a long time.
Watch Harrison’s Atkins-flavoured solo for ‘All My Loving’ down under.
