Samer uke started a challenge to play this song and spread some aloha and a bunch of people have jumped on. So here’s a very simple arrangement if you want to do likewise.
The song is all played with the thumb on the picking hand and the chords are just C, Am, F and G. And I have added fingering suggestions in a couple of places that make for smoother transitions. There’s plenty of room in the arrangement for you to add your own flair to it.
Don’t Let Us Get Sick is one of the most beautiful songs ever written. It’s incredibly raw and emotionally direct. And given extra poignancy by the fact that Zevon would be diagnosed with cancer two years after writing. I can barely make it through without breaking down in tears.
I’ve kept the arrangement very simple to match the original. The picking is thumb and two finger but I don’t use the g-string at any point so the thumb is always on the C-string.
I do hope you and your loved-ones are keeping happy and healthy.
Since immigrants invented the ukulele, it’s only right to have a song celebrating immigrants on here. And what a celebration it is. Idles turned in a barnstorming performance of it in their already legendary Glastonbury set. And, along with Fontaines D.C., have convinced me that punk isn’t dead yet.
Idles are masters of playing with tension and release. The opener on their latest album, Colossus builds tension for four minutes then releases it for a riotous two minutes. Danny Nedelko is more traditional in its structure. The verse, pre-chorus and bridge are just a C chord all the way through with some 7th notes to increase the tension. Then they break into a bright, singalong chorus with the cheesiest chord progression going.
As I mentioned, there’s no getting away from the I’m Yours chords these days. It’s even in the punk songs. But at least Idles mix it up a little. Rather than I V vi IV (C-G-Am-F), it’s I vi V I IV V (C Am G C F G).
The arrangement is shortened by a verse and a chorus (you can just repeat the previous verse and chorus if you want those). I originally included the weird solo but realised it was the worst part of an already pretty bad song and took it out.
I owe all y’all an apology. And not just for using the term, “all y’all.” I thought I had posted this tab months ago until someone let me know I hadn’t.
The Zombies’ Odessey & Oracle (which this song comes from) seems to be criminally overlooked. If you’re into psychedelic 60s pop you absolutely have to check it out.
My favourite aspect of this song is the descending chromic line that runs through the chord progression. It starts with the G on the E-string. Then moves down through Gmaj7 and G7 to the open E-string in C6. Then it moves down to the C-string, third fret before dropping to the C-string, second fret for a D7 chord. Then it skips a fret for the open C note on the final C6.
Thunder has many elements that make it great for a uke adaption: a strong melody, Simple chords in the key of C and some fun solo parts. But it also has that damn squeaky-voice section. That section was the hardest to get right and I’m still not sure it entirely works. There’s a note at the 15th fret in that part. If your uke doesn’t go that high you can replace it with the A-string, 10th fret to get a similar effect.
The piece starts out using thumb and two finger picking for the verse and pre-chorus. Then in switches to mostly strumming to blast out the chorus and then uses a combination of strums, picking and flicks (flicking the index finger upwards to hit the A, E and sometimes C strings).
Technically, I shouldn’t be posting this on White Album week. But it was recorded during the White Album sessions and it is one of the best (possibly the best) Beatles song. If you’re dying for a White Album song have a go at the Blackbird tab.
I’ve kept the arrangement as simple as possible. It has such a strong (and well known) melody it doesn’t need much to back it up. I’m not following any strict pattern for the fingerpicking. For the most part the thumb plays the lowest string in the bar then letting the fingers fall on a string each from there.
In the repeat of the chorus I play a slight variation on the, “And don’t you knowwwwww…” in bars 15 and 16.
After all that I switch to strumming and the occasional finger flick for the boisterous sh-outro. I bash out a couple of adornments in this section. You don’t need to do anything complicated with these so long as you use the appropriate amount of gusto. Both mine are just based on the C7 chord.
I first tried to do a uke arrangement of The Woodpile back when it came out in 2013. But it quickly joined the massive pile of tabs I’ve started but wasn’t satisfied with. But with the death of Scott Hutchison I had to dig it out and get it finished. Particularly since Midnight Organ Fight is up there with Pet Sounds as one of the great albums that has a tiny bit of ukulele on (in the later part of Good Arms vs Bad Arms).
There are a couple of things that make this tune tricky. First is the artificial harmonics played in the riff (the ones with A.H. above them). There’s a guide to playing artificial harmonics here. But if you don’t want to tackle them you can just play the tab as written without them and it’ll sound perfectly fine.
Secondly, the shifting time signature. The riff and verses alternate between bars of 5/4 and 4/4. The change isn’t jarring but it messed me up a few times when I was learning it. So it’s worth counting the bars in your head while you’re getting it under your fingers.