Feb/16/10
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The Blockheads – A Little Knowledge (Tabs and Chords)

The Blockheads – A Little Knowledge (Chords)

I went to see the Ian Dury biopic Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll last week. Enjoyable film – mostly for Andy Serkis’s performance. And he was a hell of a guy: probably the only person with balls big enough to take the piss out of Mick Jones to his face and one of the few people to ever write a great protest song.

Ian Dury is, obviously, irreplaceable. Which hasn’t stopped the Blockheads replacing him. With the best will in the world, Derek ‘The Draw’ Hussey isn’t up to the job. The vocals and lyrics might not be much cop, but there are plenty of nice musical moves going on. The tasty ukulele intro in this version is played on a low-G uke, but it works pretty well in standard tuning too:

A Little Knowldge (Intro Tab)

The ukulele intro doesn’t feature on the recorded version, but there is a uke on it playing the chords. The chord progression is quite a neat chromatically descending figure topped off with a classic turnaround.

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9 Comments

  1. Sunny Jim February 16th, 2010 7:56 pm

    Thanks for reminding me about the late, great Ian Dury and the present and not as good as they used to be Blockheads. I’ve seen the Blockheads twice in recent years; once with Phill Jupitus on vocals (cringeworthy sub-karaoke) and t’other with Derek (lacked the atmosphere of even the videos I’ve seen of ID). BTW there’s uke friendly chords for Sweet Gene VIncent (the song featured in the Mick Jones link) here http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/tabs/i/ian_dury_and_the_blockheads/sweet_gene_vincent_crd.htm
    If anyone knows where I can find the chords to ‘I Want To Be Straight’ please let me know.
    Cheers, Sunny Jim

  2. zym February 16th, 2010 9:06 pm

    NIce one Al, although i was actually hoping for this today – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRTBNmG1xjY

    Still, theres always next year…. ;)

  3. Woodshed February 16th, 2010 9:06 pm

    Sunny Jim: Thanks for the link.

  4. Woodshed February 16th, 2010 9:08 pm

    zym: Believe it or not, I didn’t even know it was Pancake Day today. (And I’m trying to stick to the uke-specific only policy for a while).

  5. andy February 17th, 2010 6:58 am

    Great video. – thanks for sharing Al. The GUGUG version of Sweet Gene Vincent is one of their best IMHO (hmm maybe not as good as Outdoor Miner, or I am the Fly, or Blank Expression, or…).

    I’d just like to take this opportunity to point out that I was horrified to learn that Pancake Tuesday is called “Fat Tuesday” in the US. Clearly the Marketing Dept. haven’t got to it yet (otherwise it would be “Jif Lemon Day”, like it was in the UK). And now a few words from our sponsors…

  6. mictoboy February 17th, 2010 10:37 am

    fat tuesday is a literal translation of the french ‘mardi gras’ so blame the french :)

  7. Dan Gereaux February 17th, 2010 2:44 pm

    I thought the lyrics were excellent.

  8. Woodshed February 17th, 2010 9:30 pm

    andy: I have trouble choosing a favourite GUGUG video as well. It’s usually the last one I saw.

    mictoboy: Always a good policy (let’s hope Armelle isn’t reading these comments).

    Dan: As you are entitled to.

  9. henry leef March 16th, 2010 10:40 am

    Have you ever heard Dan Kelly’s version of Nothing Compares to You?

    It’s a beautiful song, and i can get a few chords here and there, but i’m not good enough to work out the whole song.

    If you have any spare time amongst all your current arrangements could you try and have a stab at it?
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wVHarz6Sxs

    thanks Al :)

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