Bob's recently posted excellent version of this tune inspired me to revisit it. "Across the Universe" used to be a regular part of my solo repertoire when I played a Grand in Matched Reciprocal. When I started playing Classic with the high bass 4th, I couldn't use the simple triads on the high bass strings I had been using, and I just stopped playing the tune for several years.

So last night, I dusted it off and figured out how to make it work.

My take on it is simpler than Bob's, with his masterful harmonics, strumming with the capo, his is extremely creative and very musical.

The Beatles hit the Ed Sullivan show for the first time 50 years ago this week. What a mark they made on music! Such great tunes

Yesterday was also the 23rd anniversary of my Dad's passing, and while the song says "nothing's gonna change my world", that certainly changed mine. His love of music rubbed off on me in a huge way, as I hope mine is rubbing off on my kids as they set off on their own instrumental and lyrical paths.

So here's to John and Paul and George and Ringo, and Bob, and Dad, and the next generation.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCfZkzdUm6w[/youtube]

That was a beautiful bit of music. Love the piece and the way you did it. Very listenable with lots of emotion.

quote: "no cover of this song has done it justice until now. thank you Bob." (me) o.k. make that two. thank you Per for getting Greg off his ass to revisit it. i listened to them back-to-back. totally different, totally beautiful. then i listened to the original. Greg, i love the ascending cello line at the end. one of my favorite Beatles songs. now i have to get off my ass and work on it. let's see what happens in DBR...

I really appreciated seeing and listening to both interpretations of this tune. Each player had a different feel and take on the tune…. Really inspiring...

That's two videos of the same song I've watched back-to-back and had to pick my jaw up off the keyboard each time.
This arrangement was truly elegant Greg, a brilliant interpretation.
Bravo Maestro!

Cheers,
Eric.

Beautiful, and very moving.

Lovely delightfully dancing delay taps in the background! Nice to hear playful licks popping out here and there, makes the piece come alive. Yes, the Beatles rocked a bunch. For almost a year I had very little music to listen to except for their white album and I spent an hour or two every afternoon after school listening to it (late sixties, the band was a beacon helping me through the dreadful teenage years).

I very rarely comment on the showcase and people's playing but .....
And usually I start the playback and listen as I peruse other pages but .........
I sat spellbound through the whole piece - or should that be peace.
Bravo Greg.

Of course it's really well played and this ambiance in the background with this long delay gives us an impression of good souvenirs and nostalgia.

Thanks everyone for the kind comments.

The delay is the Waves H-Delay, a separate one on each side of the Stick with a touch of modulation, a pretty dark low-pass filter on the melody side delay, and a pretty crispy high-pass on the bass stings.

It's fun to play around with effects after the track is down. The melody side was neck pickup with a dark PASV-4 filter setting and the bass side was both in-phase, not so dark, so it envelopes the melody. The instrument was recorded direct through my TL-audio stereo tube compressor, and only minimal eq, the tone is provided by the PASV-4 filtering.

I wanted to ask if you thought the volume of the audio was too low comparatively. I always feel like I'm walking that fine line between too much mastering compression and not enough, especially when there are lots of bass frequencies (as on the PASV-4).

As always, any feedback is greatly appreciated.