The arrangement is dead simple so you can focus on playing it with feeling.
Don’t pay any attention to my fingering. I jacked up the tip of my index finger doing the lazy man’s load. So I’m fingering some things in a weird way.
I wasn’t familiar with XTC’s Love on a Farmboy’s Wages until it requested on Patreon. I immediately loved the acoustic riffs. They are challenging to play on uke, though. So I’ve split it into a duet with one uke covering the melody (tab above) and one covering the backing (below). The melody part is much easier to play.
Both parts are played with a capo on the 4th fret. Which puts them in the same key as the XTC version. But there’s nothing stopping you playing capo-less if you’re not playing along with the original.
Even by itself, I was having a hard time playing the riff consistently. So I have simplified it slightly. In each bar of the original there are two lots of three open E-string notes. But I’ve chopped the second lot and replaced them with a single note.
I love the mix of sounds on this “Hawaiian noir” album. Ukuleles and steal guitars are masterfully blended with dark electronica, moody vocals and lush orchestration from the Brno Philharmonic. It’s a real treat for the ears. And be sure to check out the covers they’ve been posting on Bandcamp recently.
Zoe’s weekly live streams on her YouTube channel have been an oasis of loveliness in the grimness of lockdown. And her cover of Massive Attack’s Teardrop is a regular favourite.
With the very generous support of the Uke Hunt Patreons, I’ve been able to more than double the amount of tabs I’ve been putting out. And this one was a Patreon request. Which made me wonder why I hadn’t done it earlier becsause it’s undoubtedly one of the greatest songs of all time.
My favourite aspect of War is Over is the usual way it uses key changes. Most commonly, you find key changes near the end of the song e.g. in Penny Lane. But here there’s a key change before the first chorus (in this arrangement change from F in the first verse to Bb in the second). But this wasn’t the first time Lennon pulled off an early key change. If I Fell starts in Db before switching to D for the first verse.
I think this is the first time I’ve transferred a song from dulcimer to ukulele. And it works nicely. I just transposed the original down half a step and it fitted perfectly.
What didn’t transfer so easily were the vocal lines. The vocals tumble out of her unpredictably. Which matches the meaning of the song perfectly, but is a pain in the arse to play. So I’ve taken a few liberties and played the song as it felt right to me. I recommend you do the same rather than sticking rigidly to the original or the tab.
In the repeat of bars 35 and 36, I did a little run up the neck. Rather than write the whole thing out again, I’ve included tab for just those bars at the end.
I was inspired to knock this one up after hearing Phoebe Bridgers’ recent cover. Which partly explains why it’s in the same key as that version (i.e. F).
It’s a very simple arrangement. It’s all played in the first position. The picking is one-finger-per-string everywhere but the solo section (which is strummed). The one weirdness is the change in the time signature from 4/4 in the intro and solo to 6/8 in the rest of the song.
The only tricky bit is the fast picking in the intro. If you don’t want to tackle that, you can just strum it so it’s the same as the solo.
