Crosby chords for "What's Happening?!?!"
Posted: Fri Nov 16, 2007 10:49 pm
"I don't have....the vaguest notion...
Another early forray into the realm of Psychedelia, and David's suppressed chuckle on the second line of the second verse is a sublte "Slap in the face" to convention.
This little bit of laughter to me always kind of symbolised the early beginnings of Don McClean's, "At half time there was sweet perfume, while Sgt.s' played a marching tune".
Kind of a hint at things to come, etc.
Not much in the way of Folk music here, this is a rock song.
This is also David's major debut (Along with "Hey Joe") as a solo vocalist, unless you count "The Airport song".
Featuring the very interesting chord progression of G major, B major, E major, & F major, the "Zinger" and "Weird" chord here is the B major, as normally, a B minor will follow a G major in every other Tom, Dick, & Harry's tune.
(I think Harry plays in a Leaves tribute band...Sorry.
What REALLY makes this tune "Strange & cool" is Chris hitting a low 3rd (F#) under David's B major; not a "Rare" thing to do, but a bit odd in this particular case, especially by playing it on the low E string.
In fact, David & Chris' Guitar and Bass interplay are somwhat similar in pattern to the figures of "Heartless" by Seattle's own Heart.
VERY 1966 SPACE AGE FOLKS.
Chris was about the only player in the band that added much in the way of any kind of 3rds to the Byrds early music. The appeal for me has always been the "Modal harmony" (Which The Beatles really rammed home on Buddy Holly's "Words of Love").
The Byrds vocals; always based around the root and the 5th, are akin to the sounds of motors, car horns, airplane engines, etc. The only time that 3rds in the vocals were really ever used were on the songs that temporarilly split into a full triad:
"Turn! Turn! Turn!", "Lay down your weary tune", the closing on "The bells of rhymney" are three that come to mind.
But The Byrds never used those "Stock" "Islands in the stream" type harmonies.
But Chris however, DID use alot of 3rds as "Passing notes"; "Chimes of freedom", "WH", and of course "The world turns all around her", where he closes the tune with a slide up to the 3rd.
Anyway, in "WH", it IS Chris' 3rd that MAKES the tune, and I believe this should be accentuated even further by having your Crosby play it on Guitar too. In fact, it sounds like to me that he is indeed doing just that.
In addition, I'm going to throw a cool voicing in for the E major; kind of a "Neo heavy metal" phrasing that will make the tune come alive. Here we go:
355XXX 2244XX 133XXX 0224XX
Then of course the resolve to a D with no 3rd: X0023X
What these are, are "Kinda" heavy metal "Power chords", and they suit the song perfectly. Again, the "Zinger" is chord #2; a B major with an F# root.
What I've done for the 4th chord (E major), is take away the 3rd completely, so there is NO major or minor distiction at all. This really adds to the psychedelia of the whole thing.
Another interesting point, this is one of the few songs that features "Dual lead guitar" from the Rickenbacker and Gretsche. Two others being "It won't be wrong", and "The world turns all around her".
However, on this song it's much more of a sign of things to come; the guitars are very "Random San Francisco" if you will; an early dabbling into the "Why we don't we just jam instead of playing "Hang on sloopy" kind of thing.
In some ways, the beginning of the end...
Jimi is only 15 months away at this point, folks.
I don't know if Roger plays the Gretsche lines or not, or if it's David?? This I will say, it IS very interesting, however, I do think that Roger's 12 string work here sounds best when he's down between the 5th and second fret, and NOT when he climbs up higher toward the end of the song.
High neck "Blues Bends" just sound "Kinda funky" on the Rickenbacker 12 string. However, Roger DID make it "Work" better than anybody...
Stay tuned, 'cause I'm going to throw some similar Crosby chords your way for "Beefing up" "Eight Miles High", but STILL keeping it AUTHENTIC sounding.
Christian
"The Walrus was Crosby"
"The Boxart Den"-World's largest display & collection of FULLY RESTORED rare & collectable model kit box art
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Another early forray into the realm of Psychedelia, and David's suppressed chuckle on the second line of the second verse is a sublte "Slap in the face" to convention.
This little bit of laughter to me always kind of symbolised the early beginnings of Don McClean's, "At half time there was sweet perfume, while Sgt.s' played a marching tune".
Kind of a hint at things to come, etc.
Not much in the way of Folk music here, this is a rock song.
This is also David's major debut (Along with "Hey Joe") as a solo vocalist, unless you count "The Airport song".
Featuring the very interesting chord progression of G major, B major, E major, & F major, the "Zinger" and "Weird" chord here is the B major, as normally, a B minor will follow a G major in every other Tom, Dick, & Harry's tune.
(I think Harry plays in a Leaves tribute band...Sorry.
What REALLY makes this tune "Strange & cool" is Chris hitting a low 3rd (F#) under David's B major; not a "Rare" thing to do, but a bit odd in this particular case, especially by playing it on the low E string.
In fact, David & Chris' Guitar and Bass interplay are somwhat similar in pattern to the figures of "Heartless" by Seattle's own Heart.
VERY 1966 SPACE AGE FOLKS.
Chris was about the only player in the band that added much in the way of any kind of 3rds to the Byrds early music. The appeal for me has always been the "Modal harmony" (Which The Beatles really rammed home on Buddy Holly's "Words of Love").
The Byrds vocals; always based around the root and the 5th, are akin to the sounds of motors, car horns, airplane engines, etc. The only time that 3rds in the vocals were really ever used were on the songs that temporarilly split into a full triad:
"Turn! Turn! Turn!", "Lay down your weary tune", the closing on "The bells of rhymney" are three that come to mind.
But The Byrds never used those "Stock" "Islands in the stream" type harmonies.
But Chris however, DID use alot of 3rds as "Passing notes"; "Chimes of freedom", "WH", and of course "The world turns all around her", where he closes the tune with a slide up to the 3rd.
Anyway, in "WH", it IS Chris' 3rd that MAKES the tune, and I believe this should be accentuated even further by having your Crosby play it on Guitar too. In fact, it sounds like to me that he is indeed doing just that.
In addition, I'm going to throw a cool voicing in for the E major; kind of a "Neo heavy metal" phrasing that will make the tune come alive. Here we go:
355XXX 2244XX 133XXX 0224XX
Then of course the resolve to a D with no 3rd: X0023X
What these are, are "Kinda" heavy metal "Power chords", and they suit the song perfectly. Again, the "Zinger" is chord #2; a B major with an F# root.
What I've done for the 4th chord (E major), is take away the 3rd completely, so there is NO major or minor distiction at all. This really adds to the psychedelia of the whole thing.
Another interesting point, this is one of the few songs that features "Dual lead guitar" from the Rickenbacker and Gretsche. Two others being "It won't be wrong", and "The world turns all around her".
However, on this song it's much more of a sign of things to come; the guitars are very "Random San Francisco" if you will; an early dabbling into the "Why we don't we just jam instead of playing "Hang on sloopy" kind of thing.
In some ways, the beginning of the end...
Jimi is only 15 months away at this point, folks.
I don't know if Roger plays the Gretsche lines or not, or if it's David?? This I will say, it IS very interesting, however, I do think that Roger's 12 string work here sounds best when he's down between the 5th and second fret, and NOT when he climbs up higher toward the end of the song.
High neck "Blues Bends" just sound "Kinda funky" on the Rickenbacker 12 string. However, Roger DID make it "Work" better than anybody...
Stay tuned, 'cause I'm going to throw some similar Crosby chords your way for "Beefing up" "Eight Miles High", but STILL keeping it AUTHENTIC sounding.
Christian
"The Walrus was Crosby"
"The Boxart Den"-World's largest display & collection of FULLY RESTORED rare & collectable model kit box art
http://theboxartden.com
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Box-Art
http://www.myspace.com/craviola990
http://www.youtube.com/craviola990
(Yes, it would! 
)