The King forbade me to edit tonight
Apr. 8th, 2008 11:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
annathepiper... because this guitar of mine, apparently all uppity with his shiny new black and silver strings and silver tuning pegs, was bound and determined that I was going to play Elvis songs.
So I whipped out all three of my Elvis songbooks--with three Elvis songbooks, you'd think I'd know more Elvis songs on the guitar by now, but no, I really need to get on that--and started playing around tonight.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
solarbird jumped in with me some, which was extremely nifty. We played around with three songs, more or less, with occasional glances at other things I wanted to play but at which I immediately cringed because the chords were written out in OH GOD NO keys.
"Home is Where the Heart Is" is one of Elvis' more obscure little love songs; it's a song he does in one of his earlier movies, the ones that sucked less, and it's a simple, sweet song he sings to the girl du jour in the film. Key of C. I like it. I can more or less play it straight through.
"Suspicious Minds" is well known to anyone with at least a passing acquaintance with Elvis' various big hits; for those of you who are perhaps too young, it was one of his bigger hits in the late 60's and a concert staple in the 70's. I grew up adoring the concert version of this in Aloha Via Satellite. I can mostly play this except for the bridge, because there it hits a B7sus4 immediately followed by a B7 and um, NO. Not happening. Not yet. ;)
"Starting Today", another early 60's obscure ballad. Tried to go at it with one of the songbooks, found it mostly simple and with a couple of unusual chord progressions I hadn't played with before, A to A6 to A7 in an odd rhythm. However, I was immediately shot down in flames when I tried to fire up this one on the iPod to try to play along. The problem? The songbook has the song written out in D. The damn song is half a step down. AIGH. Capos do not work in reverse.
I tried looking at "Can't Help Falling in Love", for generally obvious reasons. I worked my way through this at one point but damned if I can remember how to play it now. The songbook though has this thing written out in F, to wit, BUH? I'm pretty sure Elvis did it in D, but I'll have to doublecheck the recording. I am confused about the time signature, too. I could have sworn the damn thing was in 3/4, but the book's got it written out in 4.
"Don't" is a 50's-era ballad, off the second gold records collection 50,000,000 Elvis Fans Can't Be Wrong. This is another one written out in the correct key for once in the songbook, but it's got a few funky chord progressions I'll have to learn properly. So I could barely get into this one.
Then I swung around to "Fame and Fortune", which I do more or less know, well enough that I wanted to practice singing the lyrics. I have the same issue with this one as I do with Great Big Sea's "Goin' Up"--to wit, the lyrics are delivered in this syncopated sort of rhythm that sprawls all over the strum pattern, and I don't know the song well enough yet to sing without thinking while I'm playing.
And last but not least, I tried glancing at "Love Me" again. If you don't know this Elvis song, go find it. Preferably the version he did in the '68 Comeback Special, in the acoustic circle where he's in that black leather outfit and he and his posse are jamming for a small audience. Most excellent. Especially played dirty.
So, yeah. No editing. But a hell of a lot of guitar practice. This failed to suck. <3
So I whipped out all three of my Elvis songbooks--with three Elvis songbooks, you'd think I'd know more Elvis songs on the guitar by now, but no, I really need to get on that--and started playing around tonight.
solarbird jumped in with me some, which was extremely nifty. We played around with three songs, more or less, with occasional glances at other things I wanted to play but at which I immediately cringed because the chords were written out in OH GOD NO keys."Home is Where the Heart Is" is one of Elvis' more obscure little love songs; it's a song he does in one of his earlier movies, the ones that sucked less, and it's a simple, sweet song he sings to the girl du jour in the film. Key of C. I like it. I can more or less play it straight through.
"Suspicious Minds" is well known to anyone with at least a passing acquaintance with Elvis' various big hits; for those of you who are perhaps too young, it was one of his bigger hits in the late 60's and a concert staple in the 70's. I grew up adoring the concert version of this in Aloha Via Satellite. I can mostly play this except for the bridge, because there it hits a B7sus4 immediately followed by a B7 and um, NO. Not happening. Not yet. ;)
"Starting Today", another early 60's obscure ballad. Tried to go at it with one of the songbooks, found it mostly simple and with a couple of unusual chord progressions I hadn't played with before, A to A6 to A7 in an odd rhythm. However, I was immediately shot down in flames when I tried to fire up this one on the iPod to try to play along. The problem? The songbook has the song written out in D. The damn song is half a step down. AIGH. Capos do not work in reverse.
I tried looking at "Can't Help Falling in Love", for generally obvious reasons. I worked my way through this at one point but damned if I can remember how to play it now. The songbook though has this thing written out in F, to wit, BUH? I'm pretty sure Elvis did it in D, but I'll have to doublecheck the recording. I am confused about the time signature, too. I could have sworn the damn thing was in 3/4, but the book's got it written out in 4.
"Don't" is a 50's-era ballad, off the second gold records collection 50,000,000 Elvis Fans Can't Be Wrong. This is another one written out in the correct key for once in the songbook, but it's got a few funky chord progressions I'll have to learn properly. So I could barely get into this one.
Then I swung around to "Fame and Fortune", which I do more or less know, well enough that I wanted to practice singing the lyrics. I have the same issue with this one as I do with Great Big Sea's "Goin' Up"--to wit, the lyrics are delivered in this syncopated sort of rhythm that sprawls all over the strum pattern, and I don't know the song well enough yet to sing without thinking while I'm playing.
And last but not least, I tried glancing at "Love Me" again. If you don't know this Elvis song, go find it. Preferably the version he did in the '68 Comeback Special, in the acoustic circle where he's in that black leather outfit and he and his posse are jamming for a small audience. Most excellent. Especially played dirty.
So, yeah. No editing. But a hell of a lot of guitar practice. This failed to suck. <3