Tom Waits – Johnsburg, Illinois (Tab)
A song from one of my favourite albums of all time: Swordfishtrombones. And I’ve gone for the grand weeper side of the grim reapers/the grand weepers split in his songs with Johnsburg, Illinois.
My favourite aspect of this song is the dichotomy between the beautiful piano playing and Waits’s raspy voice. He continues that split in the outro where pretty chords knock-up against dissonant notes. I’ve reworked the outro but kept that same idea. I’d definitely recommend coming up with your own outro. When you’re using dissonance, there are no wrong notes.
If ukulele versions of Tom Waits are your thing, you have to check out Pascal Fricke’s Waits covers particularly his outstanding version of Hoist that Rag.
