Bert Jansch Needle of Death

[vikingtone]

I am learning this Bert Jansch Classic. My goal is a faithfull version with the feel of the oh so special Bert Jansch lilting swung melody.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvR4UUaGLCU

The Lyric is given another dimension by the chord melody and swung feel. The lyric itself stands up as a beautiful lyric poem on its own but Janschs Arrangement of the Harmonies and melody make this for me one of the most powerful and evocative songs of tragic loss I have heard.

 

I have been learning from the www.anyonecanplayguitar.co.uk tab for the song after following Adrians lesson on the tune on his anyonecanplayguitar you tube channel. Here is the link,

 

I decided to play the whole song through on all of my acoustic guitars and put togethher the verses and choruses tostart getting my timing right. I am stll to slow heres the original Jansh recording.

 

 

For any information about any of the guitars just post a comment for the amplified Variax 900, Sanden supervised Martin00018 and Taylor T5 and 410 CE I am playing through my Marshall AS50 R acoustic amp, the eq on the MAp is the same for all parts with a little bit of reverb bass at 1 o'clock trebble at 11 o'clock . The T% has flat wound strings at the moment and the Acoustic voicing doesn't work at its best with those strrings, I fiitted them because it has a hollowbody arch top voicing and they are great for that.

 

I decided to sing and layer the lyric on 3 seperate tracks to get a feel for where the nd the lyrics fall, the transitions of the changes need some hard work from me as I think that is where I am losing pace with the original.

 

Watch out for a performance of this in a month or two once I have got it played into my bones, a little way to go yet.