Lou Reed – Perfect Day (Chords)
Usually I’ll use a capo to avoid including an E chord in a song. But this one has a capo (on the first fret) which creates the need for a E chord. But Perfect Day takes a few unusual chord turns and this turned out to be the best way to handle it (check out the alternative ways of playing E if you’re struggling). My favourite part of the progression is the dissonant C(b5) relaxing into the clean C chord. It’s the perfect musical representation of relaxing from worldly stresses by loafing around the park or sinking into a heroin stupor depending on your interpretation of the song.
Suggested Strumming
For the main strum I use:
d – d u d –
Intro: Twice per chord.
Verse: Twice per chord except once each on C(b5) – C and four times on the last E.
Chorus: Twice per chord except:
– Once on the D’ then one down-strum each on the descending run. You can also play a simple D twice if you want to skip the descending line.
– Once each on the F#m – E.
Solo: Once each for F#m and E then twice on D.
Outro: Twice per chord except the D’ run which is the same as the chorus.
Twiddly Bits
The piano intro (provided by David Bowie) works well on uke. I’m using thumb and two finger picking.
The solo is trickier. For this version I’m playing campanella style with one finger per string picking. If that’s not your jam, you can play it in a more standard fashion by replacing the g-string, 4th fret with E-string, 7th fret and g-string, 2nd fret with E-string, 5th fret.
Links
Buy it on iTunes
Satellite of Love (Chords)
I’ll Be Your Mirror (Chords)
More David Bowie
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