Highway Blues Roy Harper
(Song: Roy Harper "Highway Blues")
(Transcription by Dave Coniam (B096770@vax.csc.cuhk.hk))
I dunno which open tuning Roy uses but you'll a lot of stuff is
in some open tuning or other - as Gordon's naming of chords like
G1 and Bm1 suggests.
I play a lot of stuff in open E tuning - just crank the 3rd, 4th
and 5th strings up so that when you hit them you get the E chord
without holding down any strings. I find it's a great tuning for
a lot of old Joni and Beatles songs.
Here's an attempt at Highways Blues, which, like a lot of Harper
songs, requires very few chords.
In the "main" verses you hammer a sort of E and a vague D6;
following Gordon's line, I've called these E1 and A1.
The chorus then shifts to a good old E - A - B run.
I've only included a few of the words. Mebbe some kinder soul cd
stick the whole song on the list: the last verse I cant
remember/work it all out.
Fret
:0... _ _ _ _ _ ... _ _ _ _ _ ... _ _ _ _ _ ... _ _ _ _ _
1 |_|_|_|_|_| |_|_|_|_|_| |_|_|_|_|_| |_|_|_|_|_|
2 |_|_|_|_|_| |_|_|_|_|_| |_|_|_|_|_| |_|_|_|_|_|
3 |_|_|_|_|_| |_1_|_|_|_| |_|_|_|_|_| |_|_|_|_|_|
4 |_|_|_|_|_| |_|_|_|_|_| |_|_|_|_|_| |_|_|_|_|_|
5 |_1_|_|_|_| |_|_4_|_|_| 1_1_1_1_1_1 |_|_|_|_|_|
6 |_|_|_|_|_| |_|_|_|_|_| |_|_|_|_|_| |_|_|_|_|_|
7 |_|_4_|_|_| |_|_|_|_|_| |_|_|_|_|_| 1_1_1_1_1_1
[E1] [D1] [A] [B]
Intro : E1 - D1 - E1 - D1 - E1 - D1 - E1
[E1]Take a walk down your h[D1]ighway, tell me what you s[E1]ee
[E1] [-] [D1] [-] [E1] [-] [D1] [-]
[E1]If you're down [D1]my way, well it could well be [E1]me
(.....)
[A] Please give me a l[E1]ift man,[A] you know it won't be for f[E1]ar
[A]The way that you sh[E1]ift man,[A] in your empty c[B]ar
(.....)
[E1]I got the Highways Bl[D1]ues in m[E1]y holey sh[D1]oes
[E1]and I cannot ch[D1]oose what I loo[E1]k like
(.....)
Like anything in an open tuning, this is pretty approximate, but
hammer away at it after a beer or two and it shdnt sound too bad!
"Once" goes pretty OK in open E as well- you basically fiddle
around on the top and second strings, picking out the melody, and
plonking a few chords (A, G# and B) in here and there. I'll bung
that up on the list as well if anybody's intrested.
Bash away
Dave Coniam
Hong Kong
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