Go All the Way by The Raspberries | rhythm
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An electric guitar lesson on how to play "Go All the Way" by The Raspberries released on their 1972 debut album.
This is an absolute power-pop classic! It was written by Eric Carmen and is heavily influenced by The Beatles, Stones, and Beach Boys. The guitar player in the band was a guy called Wally Bryson. He's a great guitarist and came up with what I consider to be the best parts of this tune which are the intro and the ending. It starts out like a Stones or Small Faces kind of a song with that classic "Brown Sugar" type intro and then sort of drifts away into an almost bubblegum type verse and chorus. I'm probably like a lot of other people where I pretty well "endure" those poppy bits just waiting for the intro to re-appear, and of course the ending, which is very Beatles, Badfinger sounding. That descending guitar arpeggio is just great and takes it back to the awesome intro lick again which is how it ends. The verse and chorus despite being so sugary sweet are definitely worth learning as it's a real education in chord changes and also key changes. There is a lot to learn there.
The intro lick is in the key of A, and ends on a G chord, which takes it into the key of C. To get out of the verse which is only four bars long, he uses a Bm7b5 chord followed by an E7 which brings it back into the key of A for the chorus. Many people miss that minor seven flat5 chord, but if you get it right it makes all the difference. It changes key a lot! That's one of the things that makes it interesting to learn. But for me, it will always be the intro and the ending that make this song so great. And although it sounds easy, Wally Bryson is playing a very different and tricky voicing of the opening A chord. I go over that in depth in the video. You can play it easier ways, but it won't sound right until you get the proper voicing. I had a blast making the demo for this so I hope you enjoy the videos. Cheers Andy |
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