===[ Ethiopians| February 23rd, 2008 ]
So I’m getting into this whole “listen to a song and figure out how to play it” thing. Here’s what I hear for one of my favorites, the Mountain Goats song Ethiopians (from the Daytrotter sessions).
Intro:
Start with C (the 4 fingered one with your ringfinger on the first string, 3rd fret).
Now pull your index finger off the 5th string. Call that Caug.
Then move the whole thing down a string to get F and Faug.
In tab it looks like this:
x4 x4
e----0--0--0----x--x--x----
B----1--1--0----1--1--0----
G----0--0--0----2--2--2----
D----2--2--2----3--3--3----
A----3--3--3----3--3--3----
E----3--3--3----x--x--x----
Verse:
C F
Window mounted air conditioning unit
Am G
Humming like a hive
C F
We want to send postcards to the friends we used to have
Am G F G
Rub their noses in the ugly fact that we are still alive
F
And we play
C Am
Lover's reggae
F G (barred at 3rd fret, not the open G)
On accordion and banjo
F G
When the moon is high
F
And we lie
C
On the floor
F G
Get suspicious of the people
F G C
Who just moved in next door
Chorus:
F
The bad taste in our mouths
C
The twinkle in your eye
F
Good things never last
G C intro thingie
Bad things never die
Verse:
Wind chime from Tahiti that we found down at the auction
Tolls its minor chord
And I can't think of one thing in this whole wide blessed world
That's more dangerous or frightening
Than you when you get bored
We go through
Scads of money
Don't know where it comes form
Don't know where it goes
And we stare
Out the window
See the poison flowers the neighbors grow
Sprouting up in nice neat rows
The swelling in our limbs
The twinkle in your eye
Good things never last
Bad things never die
So there ya go. Not a difficult song, but wow… so good.