tabulature | d a v e m a d d e n

“No Sky” ? Guided by Voices

I was a late fan to GBV, and after years and years of Bee Thousand supremacy in my fandom,^[*] their Under the Bushes Under the Stars has usurped all their records as my favorite. I was surprised that this song’s tabs weren’t posted online anywhere, and then surprised that I was able to figure it out. Lots of open chording.

Tune down a half step (EbAbDbGbBbEb), which everyone should always be doing anyway.

Play all chords with open, ringing B and e strings, sliding the E/powerchord shape up and down the neck.

INTRO RIFF:

  E     A           B
e-0--s--0-0-0-0--s--0-0-
B-0--s--0-0-0-0--s--0-0-
G-1--s--6-6-6-6--s--8-8-
D-2--s--7-7-7-7--s--9-9-
A-2--s--7-7-7-7--s--9-9-
E-0--s--0-0-0-0--s--0-0-

INTRO/BRIDGE: same open E-A-B chords

VERSE:
A                                  E
Seen you around, yeah. I wanted to call you around (x2)

BRIDGE:
E                                A              B
     Could you, could you keep a secret from me, yeah? (x2)

VERSE

CHORUS:
A                            G       Bb
When I'm alone, I can see no sky. (x2)

BRIDGE (repeat to fade)

Footnotes (↵ returns to text)

While I was supposed to’ve been writing the taxidermy book I instead spent some months in the spring of 2009 recording, track by track, this record, titling it, stupidly, Me Thousand. It’s been heard only by close friends who don’t judge.↵

“Pneumonia” ? Fog

This is my song of 2015. I heard it during an Adult Swim bump that was chiefly about nipples. Not one of their best. It was too short to Shazam, or nothing came up, so I took to Adult Swim Bump Forums (yes they exist, and yes there is more than one) and posed the question to the group and within a day they got back to me. All I heard on the bump was the first 8 bars or so, and then a bit from the outro. I was very pleased to find the rest of the song even better:

I found chords for the song online but they’re mostly wrong. Here’s the song in full:

Chords used:

        E A D G B e                 E A D G B E
Gmaj7:  3 2 0 0 0 2         Cmaj7:  x 3 2 0 0 3
Dsus4:  5 5 7 7 7 7         D1:     5 5 7 7 7 5

A:      x 0 2 2 2 0         F#m:    2 4 4 2 2 2
D2:     x x 0 2 3 2         F#dim:  x x 0 2 2 2

Intro:
[Gmaj7 Cmaj7 Dsus4/D1 Cmaj7] x2

Verse:

Gmaj7                  Cmaj7
Is it depression or disease?
                  Dsus4    D1           Cmaj7
Tell it to the millipedes.

Gmaj7              Cmaj7
The casserole was good,
                        Dsus4
and the drives were so nice.
D1                   Cmaj7
Welcome to the worst part of your life.

Chorus:

A  F#m  D2/F#dim  Cmaj7

A                   F#m
I'm hard to fix because
                 D2
it took me so goddamn long
   F#dim            Cmaj7
to figure out that I broke down.

(Verse chords over weird synth solo.)

Verse:
Mold spores fill my lungs.
The silverfish hide in the venetian blinds
in the wintertime.
In the bathroom,
With the shower running and my clothes on
I figured out that I hate you all.

Chorus:
I'm hard to fix because it took me so goddamn long
to figure out that I broke down.

Hold Cmaj7 for many bars, then back to Verse chords until out.

“The Snowdon Song” ? Tony, Caro & John

Old British folk song. Apparently Beach House covered this song and called it “Lovelier Girl” because of the U.S. being what it is among young folks in the post-millennium, and when I found chords for that cover online I was excited and then played them and they’re wrong. Not just different-key wrong but like, there are from what I can tell no minor-seventh chords anywhere in the song. But who knows what else Beach House did with this unassailable great.

So the recording I have is off on the tuning, and there’s all kinds of melodic lines being plucked that are beyond my capabilities, but here’s the basis for the song in the hopes a better player than I am can build off it.

Forgive misheard lyrics, though I stand by that weird line in the chorus.
Continue reading “The Snowdon Song” ? Tony, Caro & John

“I Wish I Meant More to You” – The Field Mice

No clue which record this is off of. My mixtape pal put it on a mixtape for me. You could get away with playing this whole thing on just the b string, but there’s chords behind those droning notes, too.

Capo on 2

INTRO: B 

VERSE:
B
I find myself hoping 
For love from which you endure
           E
That seems real 
         A
Does mean more
             Am       E
And I'm almost sure it does

B
I want us to be more than
More than the friends we are
              E
Could we ever be
          A
More than friends?
      Am            E
I don't think so, I don't

CHORUS:
A                      Am
I wish I meant more to you
               E         
I wish I meant more to you
That we were more than friends 
A                     Am
I wish I meant more to you
               E
I wish I meant more to you
To you

F# E F# 

VERSE:
If I were to say something
This friendship wouldn't change 
For the better
Once you knew
It wouldn't be "I love you too"
I just know it wouldn't

It is more than unlikely
The way that you feel for me
Is as I for you
I for you
As I for you
For you

CHORUS:
I wish I meant more to you
I wish I meant more to you
That we were more than friends 

I wish I meant more to you
I wish I meant more to you
To you

F# E F# E (repeat)

End on B

“Jet Plane in a Rocking Chair” — Richard and Linda Thompson

Incredible. I don’t have much else to say about this song except how good it is. Also, capo on 3.

INTRO:
G

VERSE:
NC             G
Jet plane in a rocking chair
               C
Roller coaster roll nowhere
Em       D        C
Deaf and dumb old dancing bear
     G
I'll change this heart of mine
     C          D
This time, this time

(repeat)
Sea cruise in a diving bell
Run a mile in a wishing well
Soft soap and none to sell
I'll change this heart of mine
This time, this time

CHORUS:
C
Here comes the real thing
          F  C     F   C  G 
I've been waiting, for so long
F   C  G
For so long
          C                    D
I've been looking for a love like you.

VERSE:
Crossed-line on the telephone
Crossed eyes and a canny moan
Cross fingers and head for home
I'll change this heart of mine
This time, this time

Play sick in a feather bed
Act cool when you're stone dead
I'm a fool with a size one head
I'll change this heart of mine
This time, this time

CHORUS:
Here comes the real thing
I've been waiting, for so long
For so long
I’ve been looking for a love like you

VERSE/OUTRO:
G
Jet plane in a rocking chair
               C
Roller coaster roll nowhere
Em       D        C
Deaf and dumb old dancing bear
     G                  
I’ll change this heart of mine
     C          D
This time, this time
C               D     
This time, this time
c               D
This time, this time

End on D, awesomely.

“Brothers” ? Emmet Otter’s Jugband

The song that everyone’s been waiting for, just in time for the end of January when the Xmas season is so far away not a soul wants to think of it. “Brothers” isn’t in any way a holiday song, but those unfamiliar with the movie you’ll find it in should head over here and start reading. I’ll take anyone in a battle royale to the cold, grueling death over whether there’s a better Emmet Otter song. (“Riverbottom Nightmare Band” fans I’m looking in your directions.)

I’m not the sort of guitar player who does well with riffs and ditties, particularly in folksy/bluegrass/jugband genres. But lemme try to get the opener down to give you an idea:

e-----------5-3-|------------|
B-------5-------|-3-3-3-5---:|
G-5-7-5---5-----|---------5--|

F
How much alike we are! Perhaps we're long-lost brothers?
                        G7
We even think the same! You know, there may be others.
Am                                   C/G  C/A  C/Bb   C/B
                 We can always use a friend.
Am                                                         G  G7  Gadd6  Gadd5
This family just keep growing! This family doesn't have to end!
C
Brothers!
C
Brothers!


Verse 2:
So many things to learn! But we'll enjoy each lesson.
Problems don't worry us when half the fun is guessin'.
                 Live a lifetime of surprise.
We'll all become musicians, and leave the wonder in their eyes.
Brothers!
Brothers!

Then there’s a fancier ditty than the one that opens the song and a kind of G7-C ending. Note the ways the notes walk up and then down in the chorus.

“Drown in the Tears of Your 20s” — Charles Latham

This is the bleakest song I’ve heard since “Tom Traubert’s Blues” maybe. From what little I know, Charles Latham is from DC and now lives in Philly (via London). If I had the book with me, I’d quote in advance of the song I’m about to tab from Lorrie Moore’s A Gate at the Stairs, which in addition to being all-over incredible has a bit about tragedy as a luxury for the happy, healthy, and generally well-off. Much of my love for this song comes from its role as a kind of check or reminder, and needing such a thing’s a pretty nice position to be in. But at any rate that book’s in my campus office and I’m on my couch for the time being. Continue reading “Drown in the Tears of Your 20s” — Charles Latham

“New Dawn” – Withered Hand

Not even the lyrics for this one is anywhere online. A new-ish band. Another track from the inimitable Steve May, whose 8track.com mixes should be part of your daily music regimen.

The song’s in irritating Bb major, so do what I do and capo up a fret. All chords below are relative to the capo. If you’re not playing along with the music then just play whatever. Of course you know this. I’m not trying to tell you how to play your instrument. And once again, there are lyrics below that I’ve assuredly misheard. Mr. Withered Hand: the last time I did this, Vic Godard himself came onto my blog and posted the correct lyrics to his song (though he missed a verse…). I welcome you to rise to the challenge.
Continue reading “New Dawn” – Withered Hand

“The Bathing Suit She Wore” – Emmet Otter’s Jugband Christmas

UPDATE: Fixed, thanks to commenter Jamie.

This is maybe my favorite song from this staple of my and my family’s holiday season. Well, there’s “Brothers”. Here: lemme talk a bit about one of the things that makes this movie so great. If you haven’t seen it, for shame. One of Henson’s best. The story?based on a book by Russell Hoban that I haven’t read but which would make (hint, hint) an incredible Christmas present?follows Emmet and his mother, who both destroy or sell each other’s money-making items in order to enter and hopefully win a talent contest. Their talents are both singing (though Emmet can also play the washtub bass), and they learn in the end that they’re only so-so unless they sing and play together.

Or maybe they learn that certain men who write a lot of bluegrass and roots music get mad that audiences fall so easily for effects-laden rock ‘n’ roll.
Continue reading “The Bathing Suit She Wore” – Emmet Otter’s Jugband Christmas

“Stool Pigeon” – Vic Godard & the Subway Sect

I have a lot of work to do. I’ve been out of town for two weeks and work has piled up. But I don’t teach tomorrow, and there’s this song I can’t get out of my head and it’s by Vic Godard and so I needed to figure out the tab. Which I’ll share with you. Those Vic Godard fans out there who find this blog by searching for tabs can correct at will. Also, feel free to use these chords as a beginning to tabbing out the little guitar riffs during the verses. I don’t have quite the time for that.

But I got you the intro and interlude ones. That’s worth something?

Again, lyrics assuredly misheard:

INTRO:

e-------------------|-2------2-3-2-5-----|
B---------------2-3-|--------------------|
G---------0-2-4-----|------------------0-|
D-0--0--4-----------|----------------4---|

e-------------------|-2------2-3-2-5-----|----------------------------|
B---------------2-3-|--------------------|---2----2---------2----2--0-|
G-2-------0-2-4-----|------------------0-|-2----2----2----2----2------|
D-------4-----------|----------------4---|----------------------------|

VERSE:

D
Made a right track when the nude was bleeding.
E
Your new suit set me in motion.
G
I told everyone in my life.
A
Always betray when she's not my wife, and

D
all around town is a new decision.
E
The black fireworks are not as annoyed at me.
G
I'm told when the rockets fly
A
without wit or a reason to cry, like a

CHORUS:
D
Stool pigeon
E
Stool pigeon
G
Won't you take two and three?
A
Knock me around all over the place and then leave.

INTRO

VERSE:
Black and white lies appear the same to me.
Chant of voices on a wind so free.
Things are tough we can still picnic.
A nice bunny that became trees.

I and my money wrapped in dishonesty.
Feeling part of a page in a book.
Now rummage among the debris.
Me and my shadow in our eats, like a

CHORUS:
D
Stool pigeon
E
Stool pigeon
G
Won't you take two or three?
A                                           Bb
Knock me around all over the place and then leave


BRIDGE:
                          D
I once found a place in a sea.
Bb                                D
Roses, no one bothering me, and a view.
Bb                              D
sad expecting what was coming to me.
Bb                                A
Nothing right from anyone least of you

VERSE:
I and my money wrapped....

CHORUS TWICE

“Mega Secrets” – Family Portrait

Gone are the days that I discover new bands on my own. Here’s yet another new love found on a mix made by my good friend Steve. I don’t know anything about them. This track is from a split 7″, which indie rock bands, which still apparently exist, still do together, which makes me happy.

Tune down half a step, which all good guitar players do as a matter of course, right? I mean how else are you going to play a simple Eb chord…barred on the sixth fret?

BASS INTRO:
A-------------|---------2-----:||
E-0---0-0---0-|-0---0-4---4-2-:||

(This is often doubled an octave up on the guitar.)

LEAD INTRO:
G---9-----9-----9-|---8-----8-----8-|
D-----6-----6-----|-----6-----6-----|
A-7-----7-----7---|-7-----7-----7---|

B---6-----6-----6-|---8-----8-----8-|
G-----6-----6-----|-----6-----6-----|
D-7-----7-----7---|-7-----7-----7---|

(This, too, gets run up an octave later in the song;
mini-barre e, B, and G on fret 9 for ease in playing.)

CHORDS:
E
I can't do anything right, uh-uh-oh
E
When she says that we're going under.
E
It takes over, over and over,
E
Again, again, again, uh-ah-oh-uh-oh
C#m                                E
And then, she really wants to give in
                                   C#m
And then, she really wants to give in

And then, uh-oh, uh-oh.
E
Thenthenthenthenthen....

Repeat three times. The song is so elementary! And so worthy of repeat listenings!

“Putty (In Your Hands)” – The Detroit Cobras

This is a Shirelles cover, who I think play it in E or A. The Detroit Cobras play it in C, and it’s faster and maybe better. If you know your twelve-bar blues, this song pretty much tabs itself.
Continue reading “Putty (In Your Hands)” – The Detroit Cobras

“Give Me Children” – Palace (tab)

This is I think the one song of the stellar and (for me, at least) seminal Arise, Therefore record that hasn’t been tabbed online. I’m not sure whether it’s 100% on (the song is piano heavy, which always makes transcription difficult), but it’s a start. Please revise/edit as needed.

Note: This is for a guitar tuned down a half step (EbAbDbGbBbEb). The D/G# chord is a D chord with a G# bass. You can play it with a regular D shape by just sliding your index finger up the G string to hit the G# on the first fret. If this pulls your ring finger off the E string, it’s not much of a problem.
Continue reading “Give Me Children” – Palace (tab)

“All Her Favorite Fruit” – Camper Van Beethoven (tab)

Here’s what may be my favorite all-time song, based not so much on what I revere the most right now but more on what song I’ve listened to more than any other. The chords for this have been online longer than you have, probably, thanks to Pittsburgh-based BBS geek John Fail, a kid I knew only through the Camper Van Beethoven listserv, whom I then I had the pleasure of meeting a few times while living in Pgh doing separate DIY projects.

Now, A new time-wasting DIY project has forced me to figure out Greg Lisher’s lead-guitar part for the song, which I’ve posted here. It’s not perfect, but it’ll pass muster if your audience consists mostly of those friends of yours shocked that you can even tune a guitar much less play one.
Continue reading “All Her Favorite Fruit” – Camper Van Beethoven (tab)

“World of Pauline Lewis” – Television Personalities (tab)

This is a song from a mix my pal Steve made me. Everyone should want such a friend—I’d never even heard of Television Personalities (’80s-era British post-punk) and now they may be one of my favorites. On looking them up on the Internet, turns out this song’s lyrics are a pretty trite “Eleanor-Rigby” retread. All the same: great. This song sounds best with barre chords.
Continue reading “World of Pauline Lewis” – Television Personalities (tab)

“Cato as a Pun” – Of Montreal (tab)

UPDATE: Yer probably better off headed here

This one wasn’t online for some reason. A capo helped me out. Feel free to play braggingly without one. Oh, and while I can’t hear anything wrong with the first D chord in the intro/chorus, it feels as though the song’s doing something other than alternating between two chords. I’m open to suggestions.

Continue reading “Cato as a Pun” – Of Montreal (tab)

“Empty Shell” – Vic Godard & the Subway Sect (tab)

I have a lot of work to do. I’m throwing an end-of-the-semester / end-of-my-comps party for English dept. friends, and they’re due to arrive in t-minus eleven hours. I’m expecting ten, maybe twelve people. I have low expectations.

So: rather than clean and go food shopping, why not try to figure out the guitar chords for an obscure song by a band I’d up until 2009 never heard of?

tabs after the jump