Comments on: Any Time At All

By: MikeP

MikeP — Sat, 19 Jan 2019 15:33:25 +0000

Definitely piano. There is a slight percussive attack you wouldn’t have with a cello.
The piano sounds like the signal went through a compressor, which would lengthen the sustain of the note and reduces the high-end sound – which is what you hear in this case.
It does sound like a guitar may have duplicated the line with the piano, but I can’t tell for sure.

By: MikeP

MikeP — Sat, 19 Jan 2019 15:17:10 +0000

Paul sings the second line, just as Paul sang the “when I’m home” bridge in A Hard Day’s Night” and high notes of “No Reply” (and others). It wasn’t infrequent for John to write a song and find there were certain notes or phrases he couldn’t hit well in performance (recording or live).

By: Dan

Dan — Fri, 02 Feb 2018 13:10:23 +0000

Exactly, or played with a capo on and simply discussing relative chords. I imagine they beatles would only know relative chords for a small number of keys, most likely C and E

By: Donny

Donny — Fri, 11 Aug 2017 19:08:42 +0000

John sings the first and third ones solo (double-tracked), John and Paul sing the second one in unison together (since John had sung the song throughout on the basic track)

By: Jeff Carlson

Jeff Carlson — Sat, 01 Jul 2017 20:42:33 +0000

I imagine John had vocal parts worked out that he performed, well within his range. The vocal Paul does is a harmony, but bumped up high in the mix because it was done so well, and does much to make the song.JMO

By: Dan L

Dan L — Thu, 19 Jan 2017 13:00:50 +0000

The opening whap of the snare — priceless!

By: Frank

Frank — Thu, 17 Nov 2016 18:51:25 +0000

Descending bass line, similar to “For No One”

By: Only a nowhere girl

Only a nowhere girl — Tue, 22 Mar 2016 16:11:12 +0000

Ringo also plays a cowbell.

By: Sergioq

Sergioq — Sun, 28 Feb 2016 14:46:21 +0000

I know the part you mean. End of the bridge, around 1:37 it becomes more prominent. I assume that one of the pedals allows the piano strings to go on vibrating on its own? To me it sounds more like very low notes on the piano with that pedal.

By: Lex Lewis

Lex Lewis — Wed, 06 May 2015 23:30:41 +0000

John may have written both songs in C, later changing the keys to E and D for It won’t be long and Anytime at all respectively. This was possibly to suit his vocal range. and/or to sound more vibrant.

By: eric Harris

eric Harris — Thu, 19 Mar 2015 07:59:37 +0000

That cello sound is really the highly compressed lower bass strings of the piano. They had those wonderful tube compressors that could increase the comp ratio and stabilize the levels and give you a long sustain.

By: ForgetScowl

ForgetScowl — Mon, 19 Jan 2015 05:12:42 +0000

Agreed & that’s a well known fact. The immense pressures of suddenly being at the top of the world are unbeknownst to the 99.9% of us but these 4 guys were destined & prepared for the greatness they bestowed. Overall, they turned out to be respectful English gentlemen and I’m proud of them just for that to be their legacy. They never let me down.

By: ForgetScowl

ForgetScowl — Mon, 19 Jan 2015 04:53:18 +0000

From the first time I heard it on the radio I remember thinking… I know John but that’s Paul’s voice. I remember thinking…Maybe that was out of John’s range. That was way back in the days of Beatlemania and we were all sorting through the great music they gave us.

By: Rand Kelly

Rand Kelly — Fri, 03 Oct 2014 11:00:07 +0000

D bass over a D chord. C# bass over an F#m, B bass over a Bm and a Bb bass over a Gm. The interlude chords are: Em F#m G,Em F#m G….G….A….G….A…..G,F# E D F#….

By: Rand Kelly

Rand Kelly — Fri, 03 Oct 2014 10:53:58 +0000

Actually,it starts with the Bm and then goes to the D. The “Cello” is just a Piano’s bass note playing D,C#,B,Bb over a Gm chord. The piano interlude that Paul wrote has piano and George’s Rickenbacker 360-12 string guitar on the climbing chords. And yes,Paul is singing the second Any Time At All.

By: joetin

joetin — Tue, 22 Jul 2014 05:05:20 +0000

they did it with drugs, uppers, downers, pills… it’s how they managed the inhuman.

By: Lennon fan

Lennon fan — Tue, 08 Apr 2014 08:22:38 +0000

Yeah, the descending bass line IS rather clever (McCartney, or George Martin—?) and so are the chords in that part of the song (“the verse”) especially the fresh-sounding change from Bm to Gm (underneath “I really sympathize”) which sounds very Beatle-esque.

The chorus does have have little bit of the tonic-to-relative-minor chord change which John mentioned, though it is actually D to Bm and not C to Am… it might have suited John’s vocal range better in C actually, because I agree that it is Paul having to come in to sing the second “Anytime at All” line which goes up to a high A… funny because I think John probably could nail that high A when he was in good voice.

I saw one video of a live concert where for some reason the Beatles opened their set with “Twist and Shout” which basically blew out John’s voice to the point where he could barely sing the rest of the set. I suspect that something like that could have easily happened to his voice just prior to the time of recording this song.

God knows how they managed a punishing schedule of performing, writing and recorded that probably most mere mortals could not have done…

By: Sam

Sam — Wed, 02 Apr 2014 00:27:11 +0000

Is this the first Beatles song with their trademark descending bass line (in the verse)?

By: Joe

Joe — Mon, 17 Feb 2014 12:44:24 +0000

I think he was just talking about a chord change to the relative minor (not necessarily C to Am), which does feature in both those songs.

By: Aaron Krerowicz

Aaron Krerowicz — Sat, 15 Feb 2014 13:58:52 +0000

I’m trying to figure out what Lennon meant when he said “Any Time At All” and “It Won’t Be Long” are in the “same ilk: C to A minor”, because while the former does use six C chords (twice per verse over three verses), neither uses an A minor. Anybody out there have any ideas what Lennon meant???