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On the Derek and the Dominos (Clapton) "Layla" album there are some great slow, three chord blues tunes to play along with. "Key to the Highway" and "Have You Ever Loved a Woman" come to mind. Both I think, have slide played by the late great Duane Allman who played slide almost too well. You sometimes couldn't tell if he was sliding or using his fingers he was that accurate! Both of those songs were/are pretty popular and you can easily find one or both on many different Clapton compilations, but I think you'd really appreciate the Layla album!
Hey! By the way, I'm a punker too, so your in good company!
While I'm not a technically accomplished guitarist (technically I can't even play guitar!) I took my first steps by playiing along with Creedence (most of the songs are two to three chords) and Eric Clapton; get the Crossroads collection, you might still be able to get the three tablature books that covered every song in the set! Clapton I found played slower and it would give me time to figure things out. The tablature books (three books for the three CD set) were excellent. I would not try to play the entire song just learn some of the licks until I built up a repitoire and then string them together. I play by ear so taking the technical approach would have been aggravating to me, I can't read. Some of Clapton's songs like "Have you ever loved a Woman" and "Key to the Highway" were nice and slow and gave me a chance to "feel" the rhythm while I strummed along. The books were excellent and gave me a chance to learn a small section of a lead or best of all the cool fills that Clapton would use. I would memorize small sections until I could recall (fingers willing!) an entire lead. Of course I could never play the lead EXACTLY like Clapton, you shouldn't worry about that either, but I could get my hands around the whole "Blues" thing using my own style.
I've been playing music now for the last 30 years, released three records of which I wrote 50% of the songs, and I'm having a blast! Mind you, if someone asked me to play the pentatonic scale in the key of G I'd say "I'm not into that witchcraft, pentagram, ouija board thing man!" I have absolutely NO idea what I just played, I just know I like the way it sounds!
This will probably sound crazy to most of you but here goes: A Fender Jag style body, Gun Metal Blue or any other color that nobody else has or at least really rare, with only an Atomic Humbucker bridge pickup and just an On/Off switch, no tone or volume just On/Off. Rosewood fretboard (personal preference there) and those cool split pin machine heads (the ones where you stick the string down through the center of the pin not through a hole in the side). It would need a tremelo or "Whammy" for good effect even though I don't really use mine right I just dive bomb at the end of sets and stuff. A small to medium sized Class-A to create the full effect. Between 20 to 40 watts I think is the sweet spot for the size clubs most of us probably play at. Most of the clubs have been anywhere between 500 to 1,500 square feet! (punk). I like my Fender Deluxe Reverb but any well built Class-A will do (Orange, Vox, any many many others...). In my opinion the idea is to be able to set the amp anywhere between 7 and 10. You want the tubes to scream for thier lives and the lower wattage won't give anybody brain damage!
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