Guitar noise intro to "I Feel Fine"

[ElectroVibe]

Does anyone know what the little noise thing is at the beginning of this song?

I first read somewhere that it was "feedback".
But I thought it sounded like picking the open string, then holding the pick gently against the string.

 

[Ostie]

I heard that it was feedback, and George Martin decided to leave it in. Perhaps it was the string hitting a pole piece?

 

[Alkali Ike]

Here’s Wikipedia’s explanation.

I Feel Fine - Wikipedia

“I Feel Fine" starts with a single, percussive feedback note produced by McCartney plucking the A string on his bass, and Lennon's guitar, which was leaning against McCartney's bass amp, picking up feedback. This was the first use of feedback on a rock record. According to McCartney, "John had a semi-acoustic Gibson guitar. It had a pickup on it so it could be amplified ... We were just about to walk away to listen to a take when John leaned his guitar against the amp. I can still see him doing it … it went, 'Nnnnnnwahhhhh!' And we went, 'What's that? Voodoo!' 'No, it's feedback.' 'Wow, it's a great sound!' George Martin was there so we said, 'Can we have that on the record?' 'Well, I suppose we could, we could edit it on the front.' It was a found object, an accident caused by leaning the guitar against the amp."[4] Although it sounded very much like an electric guitar, Lennon actually played the riff on an acoustic-electric guitar (a Gibson model J-160E),[9] employing the guitar's onboard pickup.

Later, Lennon was very proud of this sonic experimentation. In one of his last interviews, he said: "I defy anybody to find a record – unless it's some old blues record in 1922 – that uses feedback that way."[10]

 

[ElectroVibe]

Now that makes sense. I swear I thought I had checked Wikipedia on this recently and found nothing.

 

[Alkali Ike]

I was around at that time and there was a lot of discussion among musician wannabes over how they did that. Nobody had heard that before.

 

[ElectroVibe]

I was around at that time and there was a lot of discussion among musician wannabes over how they did that. Nobody had heard that before.

Listening now I can definitely hear the feedback. I think when I was a kid all I knew about feedback was listening to Jimi Hendrix on the Monterrey Pop film clips.

 

[Alkali Ike]

Some other producer or engineer might have said “No, that’s just random unwanted noise, no way we can use that”.

 

[ElectroVibe]

Some other producer or engineer might have said “No, that’s just random unwanted noise, no way we can use that”.

George Martin was excellent. The way it fits so smoothly into the song, it almost sounded like it was something that John Lennon did on his guitar before starting with his guitar riff.

 

[Michedelic]

Listening now I can definitely hear the feedback. I think when I was a kid all I knew about feedback was listening to Jimi Hendrix on the Monterrey Pop film clips.

Jeff Beck picked up on it, and utilized it during his ‘65/‘66 tenure in the Yardbirds, most famously on this hit...

as well as these....



I’m sure Hendrix was listening.

 

[Alkali Ike]

George Martin was excellent. The way it fits so smoothly into the song, it almost sounded like it was something that John Lennon did on his guitar before starting with his guitar riff.

It’s been said many times and it’s worth saying again. If The Beatles had had different members or a different producer or different engineers or been on a different record label, well things might have turned out substantially different.

 

[ElectroVibe]

It’s been said many times and it’s worth saying again. If The Beatles had had different members or a different producer or different engineers or been on a different record label, well things might have turned out substantially different.

It makes me think that it was something meant to be.

 

[b/o 402]

John using the J-160E at the 1965 NME show. I believe this was their first song in the set and there were a few glitches.

 

[Killing Floor]

I think The Beatles are onto something. They'll go places.

 

[Slater]

I think The Beatles are onto something. They'll go places.

They’ll never last.

 

[cdef]

It makes me think that it was something meant to be.

It's kind of eerie when you realize The Beatles' entire recording career spanned all of 7 years, It almost seems like years were longer in the '60s.

 

[Killing Floor]

They’ll never last.

Really, what lasts forever? We are free to enjoy while we can. They haven't been the same since Paul died anyway.

 

[G-Dog]

Here’s Wikipedia’s explanation.

I Feel Fine - Wikipedia

“I Feel Fine" starts with a single, percussive feedback note produced by McCartney plucking the A string on his bass, and Lennon's guitar, which was leaning against McCartney's bass amp, picking up feedback. This was the first use of feedback on a rock record. According to McCartney, "John had a semi-acoustic Gibson guitar. It had a pickup on it so it could be amplified ... We were just about to walk away to listen to a take when John leaned his guitar against the amp. I can still see him doing it … it went, 'Nnnnnnwahhhhh!' And we went, 'What's that? Voodoo!' 'No, it's feedback.' 'Wow, it's a great sound!' George Martin was there so we said, 'Can we have that on the record?' 'Well, I suppose we could, we could edit it on the front.' It was a found object, an accident caused by leaning the guitar against the amp."[4] Although it sounded very much like an electric guitar, Lennon actually played the riff on an acoustic-electric guitar (a Gibson model J-160E),[9] employing the guitar's onboard pickup.

Later, Lennon was very proud of this sonic experimentation. In one of his last interviews, he said: "I defy anybody to find a record – unless it's some old blues record in 1922 – that uses feedback that way."[10]

I have an Epiphone EJ-160E guitar with a very similar, if not identical, pickup and can vouch that it does, indeed, make that same signature feedback sound!
.

 

[StatesideRambler]

Writing from the POV of an engineer, I assert that what you hear in that recording is not feedback, it’s sympathetic vibration with a soupçon of resonance.

[Editorial aside: take with a big grain of salt most of what you read on wikipedia. Nearly anybody can put nearly anything in there. A professor of literature illustrated my opinion of it nicely in an interview saying that he read a wikipedia article cited by a student and found three easily verifiable errors of fact. The subject of the article was specific to his field of expertise so he logged in, corrected the errors, adding appropriate citations, and ignited a two or three week firestorm of tribal lore, mis-statement and misunderstanding. When it quieted down there were not three errors, there were nine. He accepts NO wikipedia citations in any work he assigns.]

 

[Michedelic]

It’s been said many times and it’s worth saying again. If The Beatles had had different members or a different producer or different engineers or been on a different record label, well things might have turned out substantially different.

But we never would have known any different.

 

[G-Dog]

.
I agree that Wikipedia is really not "the ultimate authority" on much but, in this case, it seems to confirm what I've read from many sources over the decades on this subject. YouTube may not be much better for authoritative information but, I believe this video to be quite believable on the famous feedback.

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