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I have a number of recordings of All Day that all sit uncomfortably somewhere between Ab (A flat) and A natural! I have a TAB (from a GuitarPro tab site)in A (nat) and a backing track in Ab!

So was it actually in Ab or just mastered slightly off key?

Hard to say without any guitar chords behind. You usually get a good idea by the sound of the chord.

I've just played a digital copy against a perfectly-tuned piano, and the key is definitely Ab (though I'd call it G#).

The standard tuning of a bouzouki is (low to high): C F A D, which is like the top four strings of a guitar but a tone lower, meaning that fingering of melody and chords are the same as on guitar (except for the key transposition).

In order to play All Day in G# concert, the player of a properly tuned bouzouki would need to be playing in what would be Bb on a guitar.

That is unlikely, I would think, to be what Hank and Bruce did. It is more likely that they played in (what on guitar would be) A (actually G on the bouzouki) with the tuning up a semitone, producing the key which is heard. The obvious alternative would be that it was played as though it were in (guitar) A with a capo on the first fret, but I don't recall capos being used on the couple of live TV appearances the Shadows did on TV around 1962 (playing Never On Sunday).

PS: The bass guitar never reaches down for the low Eb (the bottom string down a semitone), and that's what you might expect if this were a simple mastering speed error. I don't believe this was a studio error. A recording played so off-speed that it transposes by a semitone is usually very obvious to the ear. I think it was played in G# (however arrived at) in the studio.

PPS: The Shadows' live TV recording of Never On A Sunday is bang on D major (which would feel like playing in E on a guitar).

Thanks Jim,

I've just found my (reproduction) copy of the Shads "7th Album of Guitar Favourites" where I find it's written in 4 flats - so Ab it is then!

Roger

I have Tony Clout's TAB for the Ian McCutcheon Shadows Workout BT and its also got the 4 flats, so Ab then for sure

Actually, Tony's tab merely tells you that Ian recorded it in Ab/G#, not what the Shadows did!

Intriguing.

I have played the bass for All Day in Ab and it's less straightforward than it would be in A. Simplicity would have been more likely in those days, as would the key of A.

You'll remember from the Abbey Road offcuts CD that when the earlier version of All Day was recorded, Bruce said he was going to slow it down. We then hear it played in (roughly) A. Here is a comparison between that version and the later, rearranged, polished version in (roughly) Ab. Note that the speeds are similar


Here is the same comparison, but this time with the later version speeded up to (roughly ) A. Now the keys match but the tempo of the later version becomes faster.


My theory is that they polished up the arrangement and recorded it in A. It then appeared faster than they wanted so they ran the tape a little slower.

Only a theory