Is it possible to play Brown Sugar in a standard tuning? And what about other songs in open G?

If so, does anyone have he chords for standard tuning?

Thanks



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2005-07-03 14:09 by bartman.

You can play a sort of adaption of it i standard tuning. I guess if you play the middle three strings you kind of get the main riff. However, it sounds a bit weedy.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2005-07-01 14:00 by sjs12.

Play a barre with your normal open tuning finger on D, G and B strings, and put your little finger (don't know the english words) on the low e string three frets above. Works great but it's a bit tricky to silence the A and high E string. Sorry for the bad english, I'm in a hurry...

Hi thre,

yes it is possible but the open G sounded much better than the standard tuning i mean the riff is based on the open G tuning just like start me up and many more the chords are pretty much the same here they are:

intro: G-C- x2
Eb-C-Ab-Bb-C- x2

verse: C-F-C-Ab-Bb-C

Chorus: G-C

But its the embelishments that make it - those sort of sus 4th and sus 2nd bits.

to fake open g with just three strings: d,g & b. Let's think of 000 as a major chord. standard keef "trick" is emulated by playing that, then 201, and back to 000. For Brown Sugar that can be used in many places like the C and F-chords in the verses (for Bb I play 000-200-000). Sometimes C sus, 001. For Eb, Ab try 020 embellishment.
I won't try to explain the chorus here...
of course those chords I mentioned above use other than 000 (open strings) position.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2005-07-01 14:22 by Child Of Clay.

But you can do all those sus-anything chords with method i described. The point is that the low tone, that always stays the same during the sus-chords, and which is played with the barre finger in open G-tuning, is played with your little finger on the low E-string three frets above the barre finger (i.e. the index finger). At the same time it mutes the A-string which isn't part of the chord. Very simple and effective.

Brown Sugar has at least 2 guitars on the record anyway. One is tuned to open G and one in standard tuning. I think the acoustic is in open G as well.

Don't try to play the song without the open g tuning - it's never gonna sound right imho.

I've seen loads of bands play Brown Sugar without the open g tuning and it just doesn't sound right.

The good news is that when someone goes to see a band that plays BS in open G (like my band Stikkyfingers) they are gobsmacked by how like the recod it sounds!

Regards,

Ian.


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Hi Ian,

are you playing the Railway in Cottingham next saturday ?

I'm going to try and make it.
Yes the open tuning sound is really authentic - I'm not a musician,but fiddle with the guitar (in fustration !) quite a bit.

I think the Railway gig is off. They've got a new manager taking over shortly so all gigs are up in the air, plus they've been booking private parties instead of bands.

Regards,

Ian.

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I used to play it with boogie power chords. It doesn't sound that bad really. But you don't get the keef feel to it. It sounds more like some upcoming guitarist playing it in a violent version.

JumpingKentFlash

Yeah the boogie power thing from the demos right? I tried that too and it sounded like the spider in a Swedish TV-series for children. Bamse or some other horrofying shite for socialist Sweden (70s). Not Vilse though. Vilse was very good.

Vilse i pannkakan?

Hehe, yes, Vilse(Little Vilse/Lost) in the pancake. I like the record with songs by Thomas Wiehe, brother of Mikael (whom I dislike).

I was too young to have seen Vilse since I'm born 1975 but I've heard a lot about it. Did children in Sweden at that time actually make the connection between the Big Potato and capitalism, or were they only characters?

They were characters (I was born in '73 - didnt see it, I bought the record) - at least that was how I interpreted Westerberg. It wasnt really political more than in a general way. A little later in the 70s he made very political and embarrasing records like Med örat mot jorden which surely pleased the Green Movement. Storpotäten/The Big Potato is a capitalist (which in socialist-Sweden was the biggest no-no of all: Swedish police even dragged Ingmar Bergman out of his private toilet at the Royal Theatre of Dramtic Arts - on Olof Palmes orders. His lawyer may or may not have tried to hide something from the Taxman/Palme - I.B fled the country and Social Democracy after the humiliation). Vilse however was more of a fantasy land for children (and Bergman?) but without Michael Jackson. And with music by Thomas Wiehe. Very naive and a bit crazy but in a way children understand. I still listen to it and dig the guitars.

"a fantasy land for children (and Bergman?) but without Michael Jackson"

LOL


I must listen to the record sometime. I thought Vilse only was a tv-show for brainwashing kids but I must have missunderstood it slightly.

Kids are, though, not necessarily easy to brainwash. If you want them to understand at least something you must keep it at a very general level, and then the message becomes like a stereotype story with good/bad distinctions etc. Books with explicit social/political topics were hardly popular anyway. I mean, what normal kid likes to read books like "When grand daddy died" or "Mum and pa are getting divorced", "A day at the Workers Union office" etc...

Haha, exactly, the stuff you would find at "dagis" in the 70's. I remember some of them and we, the kids, always found them exciting because you wouldnt read that crap at home. "Pelle gets a diper", "Jimmy leaves home"... It was almost like porn - forbidden books in a pile next to you around naptime (vilostunden). Vilse is political, have to warn you after all, but its really about the good and the bad and the morbid. The ugly would be Staffan Westerberg. I think you will enjoy it!
I know some Finnish records from the 70s, mostly Tuomari Nurmio and M.A (of course) but also Hölmöläiset. Did you follow Swedish TV and books or mostly Finnish?

pardon for this attempt to drag this thread back to something sort of related to the original subject, but it's something i've been curious about for a while.

Keith played the whole Marquee 71 gig on that plexiglass Ampeg Dan Armstrong (which i believe he didn't often use for open G stuff - or anyway so i've read). in the raw footage from that show, before it was edited for broadcast, Brown Sugar comes between the two takes of Bitch. so what gives? he lost a string at the end of the first Bitch, and then ... what, decided that since he needed to change strings he might as well retune the thing to open G for Brown Sugar - and then back to standard for the retake of Bitch?? that seems kinda weird, so: what am i missing?


"What do you want - what?!"
- Keith

Some times he tunes his guitar, or at least used to in the 70s even in '75.

smile: thanks LAForum, i realize he tuned it. i'm just curious about why he'd choose to tune it to open G then back to standard for the re-take of Bitch, instead of doing the re-take first. there could have been a lot of different reasons, though, i suppose.


"What do you want - what?!"
- Keith

...Well, he's Keith, he can do what he likes, right?

Regards,

Ian.

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sure thing, Ian! i was just curious about whether there was any evident reason why retuning it twice was what Keith liked that historic night. if not, that's fine with me!

while i'm here, though: is it true that he seldom used that plexi Dan Armstrong for open G stuff?


"What do you want - what?!"
- Keith

with sssoul Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> sure thing, Ian! i was just curious about whether
> there was any evident reason why retuning it twice
> was what Keith liked that historic night. if not,
> that's fine with me!
>
> while i'm here, though: is it true that he seldom
> used that plexi Dan Armstrong for open G stuff?
>
>
> "Music, to me, is the joy, right?"
> - Keith
>
> - 2003, by Luis Sanchis


Good question. Sorry I don't know the answer! (I bet Mathijs does though!)

Regards,

Ian.

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have you heard Little Richard's version of Brown Sugar? There's more than one way to make this song rock, it's not all open-G magic. Just a great song.

Ha, "Pelle gets a diper" would at least be a hit among these fellas:

[www.big-baby.org]


As almost every other finland swede kid in Ostrobothnia I'm completely grown up with swedish tv and literature (Donald Duck probably destroyed my brain permanently) since both SVT state channels and later on fyran was and is visible there. I even had time to see Gunde Svan running around at Fort Boyard for three years before I moved southwards. Therefore I don't have any real knowledge or emotional connection to finnish music or literature from the 70s or 80s.

I don't mind political music etc. as long as it's also good music and done with a sense af humour. I really like the greatest hits record by Nationalteatern because it's more a question of a perspective than political preaching. It's almost a love/hate relationship between the drug users/drinkers and the police. When I hear The Song about Stalin by Knutna Nävar I get depressed though. That's a bit too "progressive" for me.

LA FORUM Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>Bamse or some other horrofying shite for socialist Sweden (70s).

Bamse is Danish. And he ain't no socialist. Bamse is cool. If it is the same bear we speak about. Yellow bear, red scarf, red wellingtons???



Anyway: NOTHING beats Fraggle Rock.




JumpingKentFlash

Bamse the bear should be banned because of this steriod honey he indulges in to be strong. He's bad example to young athletes.

Bamse is not Swedish you're right! He's a druggie though.
Bärs, I thought so - glad you had the chance to see Swedish TV! I used to think Finnish TV was the best because of the commercials. Can't believe I loved commercials. Too much PC childrens TV in Sweden got me hooked on Finnish meatballs and Silja or Viking Line.

All I know about the 1971 tour is that Keith played TWO Ampeg Dan Armstrongs: one equipped with the Modern Drive humbucker tuned to standard tuning, and one equipped with a prototype Treble Drive single coil PU for open G. By 1971, he already removed the low E string. If he broke a string during Bitch, he probably just restrung it.

Mathijs