TWO OF US - THE BEATLES (Cover)

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Make sure to listen to the end for a surprise!
I'm happy to have a garage to record in once again! I wanted this to have the "live" sound of the original, so I decided to have fun with it and kept the harmonies loose, opting to leave in the rough bits. The highest note in this song is on the word "road" during the bridges, and you can probably hear me straining to hit it. :) I also decided to single-track these vocals to give them more of a raw sound. When the double tracking comes in for the outro, you can clearly hear the difference in sound!
To my knowledge there is NO bass in the original song, as Paul is on acoustic guitar with John. I opted to add a very simple bass line, buried in the mix, to add just a tiny bit more low end that I felt was missing from the recording. The focus is still on the Telecaster riff, which is really the main "bass" sound of the track.
Paul's guitar playing is much more rhythmic, John's fills in the spaces with a standard strumming pattern. The only time John actually does anything more complicated than Paul is during the bridges, where he does two quick 5-beat strums that align with Ringo's hi-hat and ride accents.
Another fun note while studying the original - this track features one of the rare instances where John and Paul momentarily switch harmony roles. As many of you know, John nearly always takes the low harmony when singing with Paul on Beatles tracks. Listen to the record, though, and you'll hear that John and Paul actually switch places on "We're going home...." at the end of each chorus! John takes the high harmony here for whatever reason. Obviously this makes no difference in my recording, though :)
Oh, and the outro was just a fun experiment! I noticed the melody whistled at the end is strikingly similar to the "heyla" parts, and all it took was a key adjustment to make them flow into each other.
Some fun notes about my recording - I realized when doing vocals (and even some guitar bits) that I was having trouble hearing myself, and I think it's because of the closed-back headphones I use for tracking these days (LyxPro HAS-10). I guess I forgot what it was like to sing in a larger space, as you really need to hear the "room" to find pitch. Funnily enough, looking back at my gear from the old garage days, I was actually using a cheap pair of open-back headphones (Koss UR40) without even realizing they were actually helping me sing better! Starting on the next track, I'm going to likely use semi-open back AKG K240 or even my Sennheiser HD58X. I don't care much about bleed!
SONGWRITER CREDITS: John Lennon, Paul McCartney
GEAR
Recording Unit: Tascam DP-03SD
Microphone: Audio-Technica AT2035 Condenser
Acoustic Rhythm Guitars: Epiphone EJ-160E
Electric Lead Guitar: Homemade "52 Tele"
Electric Lead Guitar 2: Gretsch Tennessee Rose
Bass Guitar: Rogue Violin Bass
Drums: Toontrack EZdrummer
Organ: Spitfire LABS Pipe Organ
Strings: Spitfire LABS Strings
Percussion: Sweetwater Egg Shaker
Additional Plugins: Toontrack EZmix
Software: Reaper
DISCLAIMER: This video is for educational purposes ONLY under fair use. No copyright infringement is intended. My videos are provided as INSTRUCTION to help you learn how to play and sing these songs yourself. For this reason, many of my videos feature footage of a song's construction (both instrumentally and vocally) to aid you in this learning process. All audio tracks are intentionally mixed with louder instrument levels and further channel separation than the original recordings to help isolate sections when learning. They should NOT be sold, duplicated, or distributed without the original copyright holder's permission. Absolutely no audio from the original recording has been used in this video. If you enjoy this music, support the original artists and BUY the officially released versions.

[@peppercub]

Fantastic tribute to the era. Great job.

[@LightSnowOvernight]

Nick, you're the best thing on KZbin. Love everything you do

[@belowthespectrum]

Nice job, guys! 👍

[@charlesswift3173]

Man, you just burn it up on everything you do. Thank you. Very enjoyable listening and a pleasure to know you exist and are putting out such excellent content. I hope all your dreams come true. I wish you all the success you desire. You just knock the cover off the ball, every time you step to the plate. Just superlative performances. My sincere thanks to you and yours.

[@theripper791]

Haven’t seen your videos for over 5 years. Good job and thanks! Started watching about 10 years ago when you had a couple of years worth of Beatle covers that are still amazing.

[@williamtynertyner1425]

Yea Nick!!!

[@rodrigomelo5456]

Missed watching your Beatles songs videos!

[@Sam-tj4ci]

adding hello goodbye at the end was genius

[@RandyR]

Great job. Sound fantastic. Keep up the good work. From a lifetime Beatles fan.

[@johnbasos]

gotta like that Hello Goodbye mixed in at the end😎

[@morpher44]

excellent

[@bigbear450]

great

[@IgorZinken]

Fantastic production, mostly of the singing. Nice to see you again, solid work as usual.

[@1970Dobby]

And the Instrumentation... Is Beyond Excellent!

[@danielbeller972]

Great version . Great shirt.

[@manfredomarsili2263]

I love All of your cover. Well done Nick

[@Wittcassidy]

Your garage somehow manages to make these covers even better. Well done, Nick!

[@NickMartellaro]

Thanks Cassidy! You're quite a musician yourself. Hit me up so we can do a collab!

[@Wittcassidy]

@@NickMartellaro haha thanks, Nick! A collab would be great. Will do!

[@errolscheckle247]

Nice stuff,Nick!!

[@TchaikovskyFDR]

!!!!

[@ringodingo]

Dang it, Nick ! If you're trying to make us cry why not just post a video of you chopping onions ? : ) I was not disappointed. Just the opposite, so I guess I was appointed ?

[@yrulooknatme]

great as always...ooooh bonus ending ...nice!

[@joestarr05]

Nice that you choose to use the bass guitar for this. I think it sounds really nice.

[@profarrington]

Really nice, Nick! Welcome back to the garage. Loved the Hello Goodbye finish.

[@allandavelinojf]

PLEASE MORE STONES

[@FAPMTCProductions]

nice this is wonderful

[@xp50player]

You sound the most like Julian Lennon.