by JimN » 21 Dec 2012, 17:59
I'll be honest with you: it doesn't really sound like the sort of material The Shadows recorded. But it's bang on the money for the sort of material that rival instro groups of the early 60s were wont to issue. Think The Fentones, The Cougars, perhaps even the Wildkats.
I'd love to hear another try at it with a less busy approach. One of the main differences is the sheer number of notes in the theme, with the lead guitar spelling out the rhythm of the song as well as staying within the harmonic structure. Stripped of excessive iterations, the first few bars of the melody are actually quite like My Resistance Is Low, though it soon departs from that.
You could get that melody closer to the standards of Jerry Lordan, John Barry, etc, by re-visiting it and cutting out almost any note which just there as a repeat of the previous one. As an example of what I mean, the first four bars could easily be reduced to ten notes (instead of fourteen), which is more in keeping with Shads material - and even with Duane Eddy material. Spell out the chord changes, but keep it very lyrical rather than rhythmic. On the other hand, your middle eight is excellent and I wouldn't ask for any change there at all.
Go on... you can do it!
JN
Last edited by
JimN on 21 Dec 2012, 22:00, edited 1 time in total.