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Cat Stevens' Guitar: Premiere Fan Guitar Tabs


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Since the forums got wiped and with it my old thread, I guess I'll have to start a new one.

 

New guitar tab:

 

I Wish, I Wish (1970)

 

With the advent of his second career and with it his new album MONA BONE JAKON (1970), Steve charted onto a new spiritual journey, and his growing sense of enlightenment is perfectly reflected in the lyrics of this song. Musically, this is a very catchy gigging song that keeps on rolling, one that guitarists can perhaps appreciate the most.

Edited by Leonard McCoy
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Good looking tab. Easy to follow. Thanks.

One question - why suggested chord fingering on the "F" is to use the thumb on the first fret of the 6th string?

 

Because that’s the proper way to play it !

 

Never liked that first finger barre chord version of the F

Means you can’t do at pull offs or hammer ons or lift the thumb off and on for a bit of craic on the bass string

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Because that's the proper way to play it !

 

Never liked that first finger barre chord version of the F

Means you can't do at pull offs or hammer ons or lift the thumb off and on for a bit of craic on the bass string

 

I can hammer all day like a Mexican Roofer after a hail storm using the barre on F, but I can see pull-offs would be impossible.

Maybe that's why I don't do those.

I only use my thumb for B7.

But, as I've said countless times before - I'm a hacker, not a player!

 

edit: OK, sometime D7 too !

Edited by fortyearspickn
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Yeah, very easy-to-follow tab. Good stuff. A lot of tabs are a messy conglomeration of symbols with uneven lines because they're in the wrong format. I use the thumb for the 6th and 5th strings most of the time. Lots of the legends did/do the same. I'll never be a legend, but I will use my thumb. [thumbup]

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  • 1 month later...

New guitar tab:

 

Rubylove (1971)

 

Had I known before how complicated the song structure would turn out to be, I would probably have let this one go. This marks Cat's second song in Open E (besides the sublime "If I Laugh"), and it's a tour de force no doubt. Be sure to get the time signature down first (see notes at bottom). With this one tabbed out, I have the complete Teaser & the Firecat album as guitar tabs on the site now. Yay!

 

Cat wanted to introduce his Greek influences into his music, and so some friends of his father, who ran a Greek restaurant, came down to the studio to play on the record with their bozoukis. Alun's daughter, then four years old, asked Cat to sing "the Rubylove song" and so the name stayed, but he song was originally called "Who'll Be My Love?" and did not contain the Greek verse until later. Together with "If I Laugh", this song is a tour de force through all kinds of Open E voicings. Even the advanced player will have to overcome the unusual time signature of the song first so be sure to read the bottom notes on rhythm first.

Edited by Leonard McCoy
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  • 8 months later...

New guitar tab:

 

Mona Bone Jakon (1970)

 

Short but sweet.

 

Another raw gem from that charming diamond-in-the-rough album. A short but strong musical motif that doesn’t overstay its welcome. Steve stated that he never figured out what the title actually meant (same with Tuesday’s Dead).

Edited by Leonard McCoy
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Thumbs are good! Norman Blake observed that one never sees a left thumb in classical guitar, but in hillbilly guitar, you don't see much else. We always called an F chord with a thumbed low E string a 'fingerpicker's F chord'. Then there's Richie Havens....

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New guitar tab:

 

Hummingbird (1967)

 

A hidden gem from Steve’s formative years as a singer/songwriter, “Hummingbird” has the same timeless quality, a combination of delicate lyrics and a catch melody, as Steve’s later, more famous work but, due to its over-arrangment, the original recording falls short despite being beautifully sung.

Edited by Leonard McCoy
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New guitar tab (major rework):

 

I’ve Got a Thing About Seeing My Grandson Grow Old

 

The song was written during Steve's transitional phase from big-band arrangements, the hall mark of his first career, to a softer, more reflective type in his second starting with the original album MONA BONE JAKON (1970) that came closer in sound to his own demos. Ultimately, the song ended up on the cutting floor for that album and remained in the archives of Olympic Studios, London, for almost thirty years, until in the early 2000s it got released, in various mixes, on two compilation albums. It features Steve's own, prominent licks, without relying on session men anymore, as was often the case during his first career. In the chorus, Steve does a rare Buddy Holly impression, singing "Grow old, oh, oh," and delivers his spiel on using power chords. The song eventually received a major rework and got published properly as "Grandsons" on Yusuf's latest album THE LAUGHING APPLE (2017). The version featured here is the initial release. The guitar tablature got significantly revised to account for the use of a capo at the second fret, which is how, I believe, it was initially conceived and played given the major lick of the song.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKna-n0saD8

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  • 8 months later...

In preparation of the re-release of Back to Earth (1978), here is a a new guitar tab: 

Never (1978)

Of almost all the work Steve had done over the period, Paul Samwell-Smith and Steve handpicked this piece at Le Studio, Morin Heights, Canada, as a closer for Steve's final album. The song would go on to serve as a farewell, with an optimistic lookout and dedicated to his fans, for almost 30 years until Steve's third comeback. In terms of composition, the song's bridge part stows away a suspensful chordal progression, dissonant in nature but one that ultimately gets resolved in a harmonical climax bringing closure to the song and album. The E7sus4-like riff is a clever spiel on open strings, a forebearer of the dissonant parts of the composition, and the rapid chord shifts in the bridge are a demanding workout.

 

Edited by Leonard McCoy
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Another new guitar tab from that album:

Just Another Night (1978)

Recorded in Copenhagen and Canada, and subsequently mixed in London, the song talks about the volatile nature of the show business public, i.e. not the diehard fans but "those who usually switch on to a person only because it's fashionable to do so." It also poses as another farewell to his fans saying that if they really needed him, he would be around (in his song presumably). The odd time signature lends the song a syncopated feel, yet nifty little riffs and speedy triplet strumming lighten things up. Needless to say, Steve on guitar played this one impeccably well on the record.

 

Edited by Leonard McCoy
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  • 3 weeks later...

The trend continues, new tab incoming:

Daytime (1978)

During their stay in France, Alun and Steve spent a lot of time on the lyrics of the song. In many ways “Daytime” continues the musical and lyrical theme that “Where Do the Children Play” started, and both songs were even played together as a medley during Steve’s last appearance at the YEAR OF THE CHILD CONCERT in November 1979. What makes the song so experimental from a production standpoint is that Paul Samwell-Smith and Steve sang one note at a time for this putting them on different loops so as to mimic the basic principle of a mellotron.

 

Edited by Leonard McCoy
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Another one:

Ruins (1972)

“Ruins” is Steve’s commentary on the Vietnam War. In an interview at the time, he said, “It’s as close as I’ll ever get to Vietnam — I won’t even say the word, I had to imagine London, and in my mind I saw Oxford Street and the whole of my childhood, ’cause I’m trying to imagine when everything I know has been torn down.” The fingerpicking pattern gets more and more violent the harsher the scenes of decay and destruction get. In a more recent performance Steve’s introduction of the song to the audience (“it’s more of a downer”) remains very much the same.

 

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