Sing a Simple Song Sly & The Family Stone
Intro (can't hear it that well so it might be a little off):
e|------12h14-12-14b-14-12-------------------------------------------------| B|-------------------------14b-14-12-14b-14-14-14-14b-14-14-14-14b==-------| G|--14---------------------------------------------------------------14-11-| D|14--14-------------------------------------------------------------------| A|-------------------------------------------------------------------------| E|-------------------------------------------------------------------------| e|------------------12/14--------------------------------------------------| B|-------------------------------------------------------------------------| G|-------14bb-11-----------------------------------------------------------| D|12--14---------12--------------------------------------------------------| A|-------------------------------------------------------------------------| E|-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
Verses:
e|---------------------7-7--6-7-7--6-7-7------------------------7-7--6-7-7-| B|---------------------7-7--6-7-7--6-7-7------------------------7-7--6-7-7-| G|---------------------7-7--6-7-7--6-7-7------------------------7-7--6-7-7-| D|--------5------------6-6--5-6-6--5-6-6-----------5------------6-6--5-6-6-| A|7-7-5-7---5-7-7-7----7-7--6-7-7--6-7-7---7-7-5-7---5-7-7-7----7-7--6-7-7-| E|-----------------3-5--------------------------------------3-5------------| e|6-7-7--12\---------------------------------------------------------------| B|6-7-7--12\---------------------------------------------------------------| G|6-7-7--12\---------------------------------------------------------------| D|5-6-6--------------------------------------------------------------------| A|6-7-7--------------------------------------------------------------------| E|-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
Repeat this same thing for most of the song. You can use open strings for the first riff
(before the chords)to make it a little easier, but I think it gives you more tone if
just do it this way. By the way those chords are E9 and Eb9.
Chorus:
He does the little verse riff, then goes into a short chord progression:
[D9] [E9] [G9]
After G9, he basically does a mini-solo until the next verse, but you can't really hear
over the singing and drums, so sorry but I can't tab it.
Then after a few more verses, there's a drum/horn break, and then the guitar doubles the
line for a while:
e|----5bb==----------------------------------------------------------------| B|5-8------5-8-8-5-5-------------------------------------------------------| G|-------------------------------------------------------------------------| D|-------------------------------------------------------------------------| A|-------------------------------------------------------------------------| E|-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
Again, a few more verses, then towards the end (beginning at about 3:10), he plays a
riff, which he repeats a few times with variations:
e|------------------7\-----------------------------------------------------| B|------------------7\-----------------------------------------------------| G|------------------7\-----------------------------------------------------| D|------------------6\-----------------------------------------------------| A|-77--77--77-5-----7\-----------------------------------------------------| E|--------------7-5--------------------------------------------------------|
The variations on this pretty much just consist of E,D,B,and A (5th and 7th fret on the
and E strings) being used in different sequences before playing the E9 chord.
Lastly, he plays a pretty basic E9 thing until the end of the song:
e|-------7\----------------------------------------------------------------| B|-------7\----------------------------------------------------------------| G|-------7\----------------------------------------------------------------| D|-------6\----------------------------------------------------------------| A|-77-77-7\----------------------------------------------------------------| E|-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
Repeat this as needed.
Congratulations, you can now play one of the best funk songs ever with a relative degree
accuracy. Have fun, and keep in mind that this is my first tab, but I'm 99% sure that
tab is completely correct, though I might be missing a few parts that you can't really hear.
Hilliss
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