Music & Tab
I’ve written out the riffs for this song below. Tab for the solo can be found on my Patreon page.
Feel The Pain by Dinosaur Jr
Single Note Riffs
Human Fly by The Cramps
Another great Cramps song (if you’ve not seen my Goo Goo Muck video check it out here). Interesting Human Fly fact: the track was recorded at Ardent Studios in Memphis, produced by Alex Chilton of Big Star.
Backing Track
The backing I play along to at the start of the video is my own and is available to anyone who signs up to my Patreon page.
Music/Tab
I’ve written out the Poison Ivy part in full below. The fuzz guitar part and PDFs of both parts can be found on my Patreon page.
More Cramps?
Goo Goo Muck by The Cramps
A Cramps classic (in fact a cover version of a song originally played by Ronnie Cook and the Gaylads).
Here’s my video:
Music/Tab
I’ve written the parts out below. The Kid Congo part in open E and the Poison Ivy part in standard tuning, including some details that I skipped over in the video.
Backing Track
Here’s a backing track I made of the complete song to play along to:
An mp3 of the backing track and PDFs/Guitar Pro files of my tabs are available to members of my Patreon page. Check it out here groovers!
Lonesome Train (On a Lonesome Track) by the Rock n Roll Trio
An all-time rockabilly classic, this one. The solo – played by Nashville session ace Grady Martin – is particularly stunning. If you’ve not heard the original song, check it out here (the video below seems to be a mimed performance, with Paul Burlison on guitar.) Also, the entire Rock n Roll Trio album is essential listening and a very influential record – Clapton, Page and Beck were all fans.
Here’s my video:
Music/tab
I’ve written out the intro lick and the complete solo below. For a PDF of the tab which also includes the verse/ending parts as well as an MP3 file of my backing track please sign up to my Patreon page.
Fancy learning more rockabilly songs about trains?
Then check out this lesson I did a while back on Elvis’ Mystery Train.
Other rockabilly lessons you might enjoy:
Gene Vincent’s Race With The Devil.
Diminished Scale Rockabilly Lick
Clean Up Woman by Betty Wright
Here we have a 70s soul-funk classic. I love the soul rhythm guitar style: it’s all about perfectly formed, groovy parts rather than anything too technical. And this song is a great example of just that. According to my research, guitar on this song was performed by a certain Willie ‘Little Beaver’ Hale – not name I’d come across the name before, but what a player! He’s made a lot of great records as a session player, and I’ve just been checking out a couple of his solo albums from the 70s which are fantastic. (A nice Little Beaver interview here too.)
The original recording sounds like this:
And check out this TV performance with Little Beaver on guitar. Shame he has his back to the camera for the entire video, but you can see the position where he’s playing those chords for the main riff.
I’ve written the music out below. We have the three main riffs which are played simultaneously on the record (Little Beaver on all guitar parts? Not sure) and then we have the chords for the B-section. Download the tab here.
Get The Sound
I’m not sure what gear Little Beaver would have used on the original. And what guitar is he playing on the video above – any ideas? My first thoughts were to use my Tele for this kind of song, but that didn’t sound quite right as the tone on the original is quite warm and full sounding. So in the end I went for my Vox Virage guitar which has flat wound strings on it. Also, a Wampler Tumulus overdrive pedal with the gain all the way off. And my 80s Fender Super Champ amp. My looper pedal is a basic TC Electronic Ditto.
Other Lessons You Might Like
Soul Man – a very similar triad-based main riff in this Sam & Dave masterpiece.
Get Lucky – a modern day funky classic.
Plastic Factory by Captain Beefheart
In this video I’m showing you how to play a Beefheart classic from his debut album Safe as Milk.
The original recording sounds like this:
I’ve written it out below. The intro is made up of E string root barre chords followed by a main riff based around a simple E, D and A chords. Then for the the bridge section we switch to a 3/4 time signature. Listening to the original and feeling the shift rather than counting it out is probably the best way to go here. As I say in the video, there are lots of little fills and variations throughout the track, so get the gist of it from the tab but feel free to do it your own way.
