GUGUG Week: Are Friends Electric?

GUGUG/Gary Numan – Are Friends Electric? (Chords)(PDF)

I think I’ll have to do a Beirut on GUGUG at some point and write up all the songs they’ve done. All their songs are fun and easy to play and would work great as ukulele club songs.

I worked out the GUGUG version of Are Friends Electric? from their Are Friends Acoustic? version. But the uke parts for the two are pretty much identical.

Strumming Pattern

For the verses: you can go down, down, down on the C chord (with the last down being very short) and up, up, up, down, up, down on the Gm.

Without the chords and played slowly, it sounds like this:


MP3

With the chords, like this:


MP3

For the ‘uh-uh’ section: the easiest thing to do is two down strums like Fin does.

For the spoken word section: down, down, down, up, down, up should see you through.

View Comments

18 Comments

  1. zym November 25th, 2008 6:21 pm

    Brilliant, cheers Al

    Finding out the chords to ‘are friends’ was on my to do list after seeing that vid the other day

  2. Woodshed November 25th, 2008 8:54 pm

    You’re welcome, Andy.

  3. John Birsner November 26th, 2008 2:15 pm

    Start that songbook with “Night Train To Cairo”, one of the first of GUGUG’s efforts I discovered and certainly a favorite. Always thought it should be worked up with “Istanbul, Not Constantinople” as a Mid East medley.
    Keep up the good work. This site is becoming a real favorite to wake up to on my computer in the morning.

  4. Dave Barnes November 26th, 2008 3:02 pm

    Great post, and I’ve high hopes for the rest of the week.

    Nadine is a favourite. But with all Gugug songs, the chords are easy enough to spot — it’s the extra cool bits and ‘approach’ that makes the sound distinctive.

    Any tips on bringing the Gugug ‘style’ to any song you play?

    Hitting the uke hard and treating it more like a percussive than harmony instrument seems to help.

    By the way, here’s their California Sun: http://ukulazy.tumblr.com/post/40800508/california-sun-chord-and-tabs

  5. Woodshed November 26th, 2008 5:17 pm

    John: Thanks, glad you like it.

    Dave: I’ve got California Sun coming up tomorrow. Great minds and all that.

  6. Josh November 26th, 2008 5:32 pm

    Awesome post Al. Good fun. Looking forward to more stuff from Gus and Fin!

  7. Wez November 28th, 2008 9:35 pm

    sorry for being a doofus, but i can’t find the link to what uke chords are actually being played here!

  8. David Barnes November 29th, 2008 8:56 pm

    Hi Wez

    It’s the link immediately below the video (the song title in big red letters). This will download a nicely formatted PDF with the chords.

    Cheers

    Dave

  9. Woodshed November 30th, 2008 10:13 am

    Josh: You’re welcome. Hope you’re enjoying the week.

    Wez: The big red letters at the start of the post.

    Thanks, Dave.

  10. Gary Gore- The Funny Bastard March 14th, 2010 5:12 pm

    F*ING BRILLIANT!

  11. Woodshed March 14th, 2010 5:24 pm

    Gary Gore: That sums them up nicely, I think.

  12. Belinda Maybe September 3rd, 2010 6:57 pm

    Thanks guys this is exactly what I was looking for and enjoyed the vid!

  13. Lynda March 8th, 2011 10:17 am

    freakin awesome….such a happy version of one of my fave songs…thanks

  14. Spirou June 9th, 2011 10:29 pm

    Vous êtes super !

  15. Sophie March 23rd, 2012 6:16 pm

    hey its the IT crowd theme tune isn’t it?? they must have used the gary numan song. But very good thanks

  16. Woodshed March 24th, 2012 11:02 am

    Sophie: It’s definitely very similar.

  17. shelfy October 12th, 2012 3:22 pm

    hahaha, came across this just by chance, but haven’t stopped playing it… brilliant… a greata version and loads of fun… well done lads, brightened up my day.

  18. Woodshed October 13th, 2012 11:26 am

    shelfy: Glad you’re enjoying it!

Sorry, Comments Are Broken Right Now

You must be logged in to post a comment.