The Bobby McGee’s - Forever and a Day
July 2, 2009
Bobby McGee’s - When Father Died Ferrets Licked Away the Tears (Tab)
Another Bobby McGee’s song with two titles. The longer, less obvious one comes from a headline in The Brighton Argus. What the story was about, I have no idea.
Jimmy’s take on the more obvious title and the song itself: “FOREVER & A DAY: was a phrase whose first “recorded” utterance was in the Shakespere play “As You Like It” (or possibly “Taming Of The Shrew”)…..queue many bad Shakespere jokes during the live performance….The solo…well, you really have to see it performed live to appreciate it…I used to ALWAYS get a cheer when I managed to get to the end without screwing it up!….El said it was more to do with the look on my face than the technical virtuosity of the piece.”
The song got picked up by Film 4 for an ad. Resulting in enough royalties to keep them in face paint and retro dresses for a long time to come.
If this is your first visit here, you can find the chords/tab in those posts by clicking on the song title in red.
The Bobby McGee’s - Goodbye Blue Monday
July 2, 2009
Bobby McGee’s - Goodbye Blue Monday
Probably my favourite bit of uke playing on the album. You can see most of what’s going on in the video with Eleanor’s fingerpicking and Jimmy’s much loved triplet strums. I tabbed up the bit Eleanor plays in the video as it’s a bit fancier than the part on the album.
Buy The Bobby McGee’s’s latest album on Cherryade Records.
The Bobby McGee’s - Uh Oh (Certum Est Quia Possible)
July 1, 2009
A quick tab of the intro riff to this one:
The chords are B - A - C - B in the verse. And you have G, D and C in the chorus in typical lightning fast Bobby McGee’s style. You can get the full explanation in this video.
Buy it on Cherryade Records.
The Bobby McGee’s - Go, Tiger, Go (We Never Sleep)
June 30, 2009
The best ukulele bit of this song is impossible to hear on the album version, but Jimmy fills us on it in this video. So here’s the tab:
If you can’t handle the fancy stuff, you can play C and G in the chorus.
You can find this one on L’Appropriation Bourgoisie de la Bobby McGee’s (and you get a free sweetie when you buy it).
The Bobby McGee’s - Billy & Tracey (Kill Yourself)
June 30, 2009
The Bobby McGee’s - Billy & Tracey (Tab and Chords)
A fairly good representation of The Bobby McGee’s ukulele style with Jimmy dishing out some rapid strumming and Eleanor with the single note runs.
One interesting thing is that the two parts seem to be in conflict with each other. In the A chord Jimmy’s playing a major third (C#) and Eleanor is playing the minor third (C). When I asked Jimmy about it he said, “The major over a minor third was something I first heard in the work of Shostakovich…or was it Buddy Holly????” And he also notes that the A chord is played with a rock and roll hammer-on from A7 to A.
The Billy and Tracey of the title are Billy Childish & Tracey Emin.
Buy The Bobby McGee’s’s latest album on Cherryade Records.
John King - Larry O’Gaff (Tab)
June 28, 2009
John King - Larry O’Gaff (Tab)
I’ve spent hours and hours examining John King’s arrangements (particularly his Classical Ukulele book) and working out he decided to play things a certain way. I’ll always regret not emailing him and asking him a for an interview (although I’ve recently discovered that emailing your heroes can be a bit disappointing).
I had lengthy discussions with Ken Middleton about the opening run of this tune. I couldn’t believe that John King would play two consective notes on the same string. The only other time he does it in this piece is on the lower reaches of the C string where he doesn’t have a choice. But it is very difficult to get the phrase fluent any other way (and it’s still tricky the way it’s played).
And it’s not the only tricky passage. One part I had big trouble with is bar 28/29. So I play it like this in my version of the tune:
Buy John King’s The Classical Ukulele (And you really should - it’s the best ukulele tab book around)
Elliott Brood - The Valley Town (Tab)
June 25, 2009
Elliott Brood - The Valley Town (Tab)
Elliott Brood’s Tin Type EP has to be one of my favourite EPs of all time. So it’s very gratifying to see them picking up ukuleles for this song. Not that using ukuleles has changed their style. It’s all footstomping, drones and field hollers.
First things first, they’re tuned down a semitone to F#BD#G#.
Although it’s mostly chords, I’ve chosen to tab it rather than write up the chord sheet. The chord changes come in fast in some parts and they have names like Fsus4add9. Making fitting it with the lyrics very tricky. But I have included chord diagrams with the tab, so you should be able to work it out if you’re not tab-literate.
Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain - Ode to Joy (Tab)
June 18, 2009
The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain are taking part in this year’s Proms and they’re having a play along for everyone attending. To that end, they’ve put up tabs and tutorials of the parts. But there’s no tab for the counter-melody - only standard notation. Nightmare! So I did my ‘Every good boy deserves football’ and here’s what I reckon.
Ode to Joy Counter-Melody (Tab)
I can’t be sure it’s spot on. I can’t hear them playing it at any point to check.
Here it is along with the main melody and the chords:
And I’ve put together a solo version based on this arrangement for those of us who are far too white trash to visit the proms.
Visit UkuleleOrchestra.com
Iron & Wine - Naked As We Came (Tab)
June 16, 2009
Iron & Wine - Naked As We Came (Tab)
Man alive this one is a toughy. I’ve had a few failed attempts at getting this to work on the ukulele. But I persisted because it’s a beautiful song. And I’ve finally got a version I’m pleased with.
The difficulty with playing this on the ukulele is that the bass part is so important. To get that and the ringing notes I’ve had to transpose them into the same octave. Which adds another layer of difficulty because you have to give these notes an extra little umph to emphasize them.
Here’s my attempt at playing it.
Anyone who can play this and sing at the same time has my unending respect.
Requested by MC Safety.
UPDATE: For anyone looking for an easier version to play while singing, check out Seeso’s version.
The Fall - Theme From Sparta FC (Tab)
June 14, 2009
It’s one of the greatest songs of all time Theme from Sparta FC is most famous for its use as the backing music for the BBC’s Final Score. Which lead to Mark E Smith reading out the football results. “Tottenham Hostpur postponed. West Ham United one h.”
The original riff is played on the E and B strings of the guitar. So I’ve had to tune the C string down one fret to B to fit it on the uke. But other than that it works pretty well. Here’s the intro followed by the riff.
Here’s me playing it on the uke:
UPDATE: A massive thanks to Dylan for alerting me to the existence of this recording of The Fall doing Who Makes the Nazis? for a Peel Session. ON A FREAKIN’ UKULELE! A very out of tune ukulele.
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