Piano Intro Of Elvis Presley's Version Of "Bridge Over Troubled Water"?

[Tony Trout]

If you probably already can tell by my avatar, I'm a big Elvis Presley fan and I'm also a fan of his live/road band, "The TCB Band" consisting of James Burton, John Wilkinson, Ronnie Tutt, Jerry Scheff & Glen D. Hardin.

I've also always loved Elvis's interpretation of Simon & Garfunkel's "Bridge Over Troubled Water" but - I can't seem to get that piano intro that Glen D. always did at the first (the last six notes in the upper register of the piano).

Does anybody here know what notes Glen was playing?

Here's a HD video of the song from his April 14, 1972 concert in Greensboro, NC of the song. It shows Glen playing those last notes that I'm referring to - but, from that side angle, I can't tell what notes he's playing and would appreciate some help. I've wanted to learn that intro for years. Any help is appreciated!!

 

[CowboyNQ]

Are you talking about the run from 0:12 to 0:14? I think it's G, E, C, G, E, D, C. Basically a descending Cmajor triad played over two octaves with a ninth thrown in at the end.

The intro chords sound like a C moving into a F/C at the end of that run.

Hope that helps.

 

[Tony Trout]

I'm referring to the run where we can see Glen playing those ending notes of the intro. I've never been very good at all using my left hand to play the piano as one normally would so I just play the bass notes with my left thumb and pinky finger. LOL!! I never took formal lessons (I play everything by ear) so.....I play piano a bit different than someone like Glen D. (who, as you can tell, is/was a very good piano player/arranger. He arranged this particular version (and all other versions) of this song for Elvis.

Thanks for your help!!

 

[CowboyNQ]

I'm referring to the run where we can see Glen playing those ending notes of the intro.

Timestamp?

 

[Tony Trout]

Timestamp?

From 1:22 - 1:40

 

[CowboyNQ]

OK so I believe that's pretty much identical to the part I outlined above for the intro.

The only differences to my ear being that the the bass comes up to a G before heading back down to C when he gets to the F chord, and the second time he does the C9 arpeggio he hits the bottom C about four times then comes back up to the C one octave above to give it a nice resolution before Elvis starts singing again.

Good luck with it.

 

[Tony Trout]

Thanks, CowboyNQ. I'm gonna do my best to learn it. I appreciate the help.