Bobcageon Lyrics and Chords

Watched The Hip’s August 20th, 2016 Kingston concert, rear-projected, live on a beach in Ontario Cottage Country

Worked on this great, upbeat song by Gord Downie. I have been as faithful as I can to the placement of chords over where they should be played in order to duplicate this iconic piece. Red indicates mostly words that were multitonal or timing alerts for the performer. The body of the song can be played to this YouTube version.

I put it together like this to teach it to a large group of folk musicians in a short time.

The intro is simplified. The first four bars of the intro riff are actually the following riff repeated twice:

Am              G                                       Am

[   /  /  /  /    /  /  /  /    /  /  /  /    /  /  /  /        /  /  /  /   /  /  /  /   /  /  /  /   /  /  /  /  ] X2

You change from Am to G on the seventh beat (blue) of the first bar. Hope the colour helps.

In the strum pattern at the top of the lead sheet, U is up, D is downward, and the dash indicates a beat that is not sounded (a rest). It is a strum pattern that can be used to cover fast calypso or soca pieces.

The Hip is part of my children’s generation, not mine. But, like so many other Canadians last summer, I found myself at a summer cottage with my friend, his daughter and son-in-law on a beach near Perth (not too far from Kingston) on August 20th watching, live, the wonderful concert of The Tragically Hip.

 

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Brenda Lee – My Favorites

Brenda Lee – the “top charting female vocalist of the 1960’s. ” Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.

I was reminded this month of one of my favourite singers from the 1960’s and decided to learn my favorite songs of hers. I remember those slow, romantic dances to songs like I’m Sorry at the “sock hops” when I was in high school in Lachine. The dances were held in the school gymn and everyone had to take off their shoes so as not to ruin the wood floor. I also remember playing basketball, for the school team on that same floor before realizing that I should stick to football. Basketball required a more varied and fast focus that I couldn’t seem to master.

Back to Brenda Lee. My favorite five of her songs are: I’m Sorry, Break It To Me Gently, Fool #1, All Alone Am I, and The End of the World.

All ballads. All romantic. All sweet and schmaltzy. All arranged in a sophisticated style. All sung with magnificent intonation, feeling and timing. Such a big, wonderful voice from a petite, 4′ 9″ of unbelievable vocal power and depth. Brenda was born December 11, 1944. Her father died when she was about 9 and by the time she was 10 she was her family’s primary breadwinner – a successful child performer whose domination of the late fifties – early sixties charts was surpassed only by Madonna – in 1986.

Anyway, I bought the above 5 songs on iTunes and the sheets you will see here were lifted from her songs. I got the lyrics from azlyrics, a site which I consider to be the best lyric site out there. In going through them I was impressed by the deceptively simple, but brilliant, arrangements. I’ve tried to be faithful to the feeling and the chord progressions used in these songs. These arrangements work for me.

I’ll not apologize for the crowded sheets; two songs on one page and three on another. I do this to keep an already thick and heavy binder from overwhelming the support of my collapsible music stand. Hope you find them useful. I am adding the links to these songs so you can play along.

I’m Sorry This is in Bb, so capo 3 to play along. G suits my voice better.

Break It To Me Gently This is in Eb and the sheet is in C, so capo 3 again to play along.

I’m Sorry, Break It To Me Gently

Fool #1 This is in C; no capo needed.

Mack The Knife – Lyrics and Chords

Mack the Knife is one of my favorite songs of all time. I’ve been a fan of Bobby Darin since well before his 1959 version was a #1 hit in the US. I found Darin’s  lyrics quite faithfully recorded at sing365.com, making only slight changes in spelling or caps for my chart below. The song was originally in a German operetta – music by Kurt Weill and lyrics by Bertholt Brecht – that premiered in Berlin in 1928. The history of this song is a musical education in itself- fascinating! I was motivated to learn to play this one in response to a request by one of the complex care patients I entertain on Mondays at the local hospital. The reason I’d passed over it before is because it rises chromatically five times from concert Bb to Eb. It was beyond my guitar chops in 1959 to put this together, but if you can play bar chords it’s not that tough to follow what I’ve done here. If you plunk your capo on fret 1 you can start off in a comfy A and play along with this great YouTube video shared by Armadilloman.

Mack The Knife – Bobby Darin version

Using a capo for this piece isn’t all that necessary.  I just like the way it ends with me playing in a comfy key of D which, because of the capo, sounds like Eb, a key I still shy away from if I can.

About that last, very cool, chord:

Young At Heart – Lyrics and Chords

For this song by Johnny Richards and Carolyn Leigh, a million-seller in 1953-54 for Frank Sinatra, I went first to ultimate-guitar.com to get the words and chords. The words were fine, and the chords helped, but didn’t all fit with what my ear wanted to hear. So I went to work. Once again I’ve posted the result because I see it as an improvement over what’s currently out there. It is rated on the ultimate-guitar site as intermediate for difficulty, and I agree, but I’ve used simplified chords that still sound great and included the chord diagrams for any of the less common chords used. You can play along with this YouTube Gmajor version of Sinatra’s marvelous performance of a wonderful ballad. It’s close enough.

Young At Heart – Lyrics and Chords

Three comments:

Voicing of the diminished chords: The two diminished chords, to my ear, sound better where I’ve shown them in the tablature. The Ddim chord is played with strings 2 and 4 open and the Gbdim on the fourth fret. I have named them arbitrarily by the lowest note (on string 4). As you may know, as one moves up the fret board the diminished chords repeat themselves every third fret. The Ddim chord can thus be played in the open position or at fret 3 or at fret 6, 9. etc. The open position just sounds better.

The Gadd9 chord: The tab looks awkward because, even though it is barred, I place an x over string 4 showing that it is not to be plucked. Actually it sounds great when only strings 6, 3, 2 and 1 are plucked. String 5 is fine, and string 4 adds the flat seventh, making the chord a G7add9 if all six strings were strummed. It just sounds cleaner with strings 6, 3, 2 and 1. Using the Gadd9 as the final chord is not necessary; a regular G major chord works. The Gadd9, brighter than G major,  just adds a bit of class to the finale.

The D7+5 chord: My circle above string 4 got filled in by accident. Play string 4 open.

Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu – Lyrics and Chords

Singing for palliative and complex care patients at the local hospital, I know that people usually really enjoy hearing a song in their own mother tongue. That is why I purposely did this song as Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu in the original Domenico Modugno Italian version from 1958 instead of Volare, which Dean Martin and the MacGuire Sisters also recorded in the same year. I’ve just finished it and thought I would pass it on.

I used my ear, Domenico Modugno’s YouTube performance from 1958 and this guitaretab website to figure it out. Playing the song in the key of G and using a capo on fret 3 enabled me to play along with the video, since the orchestra played it in concert Bb. I noticed in listening to Modugno’s version that many diminished chords were used, so I sprinkled in those liberally because they really enhance the song.  The guitaretab website revealed to me the crazy Bb – D piece I was having trouble identifying, but it doesn’t contain the important diminished chords. Also I emphasized the syllables that coincide with the beat to help me with the word timing, since romance languages tend to blend vowel syllables together. That, for an English speaker, helps smooth out the piece. If you would like help with the diminished chords or anything else, comment on my site and I’ll do a post on diminished and augmented chords, which are easy to learn.

Nel Blu Lyrics & Chords

Lady – Lyrics and Chords

For this song, another great one by Lionel Ritchie that was requested by a patient at the hospital where I volunteer, I owe the excellent chording to this great link on the ultimate-guitar.com website. All I did was do a little editing on the lead sheet (minor changes and placing the chords as close as possible over the syllables that match the changes – plus changing the font to Times New Roman – the genius here is in the work shown on ultimate-guitar.com. It saved me a lot of work on a beautifully arranged piece made famous by this masterful interpretation by Kenny Rogers.  You can play along with Kenny if you capo up one fret:

Here’s another great performance of the song by Lionel and Kenny – there’s a wonderful, hilarious prelude on how the song was written told by Kenny, who appeared to be roasting Richie on MGM’s Red Carpet.

Say You Say Me Lyrics and Chords

I volunteer at a local hospital twice a week singing for wonderful patients in the palliative and complex care wards who are too ill to leave their ward or their room. When I get requests for songs I don’t already know I put a lead sheet together. This is a recent addition to my repertoire:

If you capo up 1 fret you can play along with Lionel Ritchie’s official video of Say You Say Me.

Some of my adaptations are meant for my own interpretation of the song, and the chords ending the last chorus in particular don’t follow the video. For the most part this lead sheet is faithful to Lionel Ritchie’s version. If you find this helpful, please let me know with a comment or a like on this page.

 

 

Drums – Lyrics and Chords

The following simple lead sheets in the key of A major are chosen to play along with Floyd (Red Crow) Westerman‘s YouTube performance of the song, Drums, written by the American folksinger, Peter La Farge.

In view of the increased awareness of the abysmal history of mistreatment of Canada’s first nations in our Residential School system, our dismal treaty record and the current interest in the Idle No More Movement, this song is particularly timely and appropriate.

I’m not 100% certain of a few of the words; if you can recommend any changes, please comment.

Drums – page 1

Drums – page 2

Thanks to Anishanabe elder, Lloyd Fournier, who set me straight on the legendary chiefs’ names at the top of page 2.

Johnny Jump Up – Lyrics and Chords

My lyrics and chords for the hymn Abide With Me have generated some interest, so I’ve decided to post this somewhat less dignified (perhaps even ribald) song as well. Whenever I work a while on a song and I’m happy with the result, I’ll be posting the results for others to use or comment on.

Above is a jpeg of the words and chords (“lead sheet”) to the song, Johnny Jump Up sung by Gaelic Storm in this great YouTube version. The chords are in the same key as the video, so it will be simple to play along if you want to learn it yourself.

The chord progression is the same throughout the song (verses and chorus) and I have put the timing at the bottom of page two.

The tempo is lively at about 142 beats per minute in 4:4 time, so the chord changes come fast in the last bar, but the chords are very simple and it’s a great, fun piece to play, though admittedly not quite as sacred as Abide With Me.

There are more songs to come. Hopefully you will find something to like. Please let me know by liking the page or, better yet, making comments and suggestions 🙂

Abide With Me – Lyrics and Chords

Below is a jpeg of the words and chords (“lead sheet”) to the hymn Abide With Me. I have been putting together a number of songs lately because I have started singing at the local hospital. I really want to work with people who are in long term or palliative care, who can’t leave their area to go to an auditorium. The guitar can go anywhere – even to someone’s bedside.