The Clash’s Should I Stay or Should I Go like all good punk songs, it’s just four chords. And the melody and chords alternate so you’re only doing one of them at any given time. Just make sure you’re bashing it out.
The only slightly unusual element is the song shifting to double time in the chorus. So you’re strumming twice as fast with this pattern:
d – d – – u d u
d – d – – u d u
d – d – (then a picking section)
Intro: Well worth learning the opening even if you don’t bother with the rest of it. It’s the easiest part of the song.
Verse: Here’s where things get tricky. A lot of quick alternate picking to deal with. Make sure you’re fretting the E-string with you pinky for the G minor chord in bar 11. That’ll mean you’re in position for the quick hammer-on and pull-off between bars 12 and 13.
Chorus: The trickiest part of the song comes in the transition between the Ab and the Eb. You can make it easier by releasing the Ab chord rather than letting it ring. That’ll give you time to prepare your index finger on the A-string, 1st fret.
Break: Just the second half of the intro played a few times. Build up the volume here to increase the pull back to the chorus.
Outro: A key change right at the end. Which does make it trickier to play. The upside is you can just slow it down and call it ritardando and people will think you’re fancy.
I Fought the Law was originally recorded by The Crickets after the death of Buddy Holly. The Bobby Fuller Four had a big hit with it later in the 60s. Then The Clash recorded the definitive version. And it’s The Clash version I based this arrangement on.
Most of this arrangement is very easy. It’s just strumming out basic chords. For the single open-C strings notes the first crop up in bar 11 (where they lyrics say “and the”), I’m strumming all the strings while muting the g-string with my thumb and the E and A-strings with my fingers. If you prefer, you can just play these with fingerpicking the C-string alone. But that does lose a bit of the energy of the song.
Things only get tricky in the solo section. But even then, it’s not exactly a finger-twister.
I was very sad to hear of the death of Steve Albini recently. I’ve covered a bunch of songs he worked on in the past including Where Is My Mind?, All Apologies and Heart Shaped Box.
For this tribute, I went with Jawbreaker’s response to sell-out accusations: Boxcar.
The arrangement is just blasting out chords with a few picked notes here and there. The only thing that makes it tricky is the speed. I found the G-Am change in the chorus particularly tricky to get the hang of.
Iggy Pop’s The Passenger is a straight-forward basher. There’s the same chord sequence the whole way through:
Am – F – C – G
Am – F – C – E7
The E7 chord is a bit of an oddity. In my arrangement I’m avoiding playing the g-string (by muting with my thumb) to keep the chord ambiguous as the whether it’s major or minor.
Later in the song (starting on bar 48) the melody hits a G note which clashes with the Ab in the E7 chord. So in those cases, I’ve substituted in a G chord to make it sound more natural on the uke. And I’ve stuck with that G chord in the final chorus as well.
The one slightly fancy touch comes in the second half of the intro (bars 5-8). This riff based on the lead guitar part which I thought it deserved showcasing.
I first heard Joan Jett & the Blackhearts’ Bad Reputation as the Freaks and Geeks theme.It’s a very straightforward punk song that’s ideal for just bashing out.
I’m using strumming the whole way through this. Including using strum blocking to strum the individual notes. You can pick these notes if you prefer, but you lose some of the energy and aggression of the strums.
I’m still to entirely sure this one works but it is fun to play. There’s very little melody in the song. So this arrangement is heavily chord-based. But you can style it out, especially if the listener knows the song and is singing along in their head.
The verses and choruses are talk-sung. So there I play the chords in the rhythm of the vocals. The bridge has just two notes: F (A-string, 8th fret) and E (A-string, 7th fret). They’re both in the chords they’re sung over, so there’s little to do here either. The outro has a long descending melody. All but one are the root notes of the chords they’re sung over. So the only addition to the chords is an A note (g-string, 2nd fret) over the B minor chord.
The only tricky bit is the solo. But if you hurl yourself into it and make sure the bends are out of tune it’ll work out fine.