Ballad Of El Goodo

A great Pop gem from a great Pop group. No wonder every cool band

(R.E.M., Replacements, Bangles, Nirvana, etc.) loved 'em. Notes:

1) Capo everything up six frets! And yet, even this won't get you in

the right key to play along with the recording. All the

instruments in this one are a touch flat. But the sixth fret will

get you the closest to the recorded key. Side note: I had

stupidly, stupidly thought that this was capoed at the first fret,

but then I discovered that a few things didn't sound right and

realized what was going on. Which means that I have to relearn

this song that I thought I knew, since all of the chords have

effectively changed. This *can* be faked with the capo at one,

though it won't sound perfect and, frankly, you should just learn

it at the 6th. I don't know why you'd bother confusing yourself.

But I'm just so pissed that I know it two different ways that I

thought I'd point it out.

2) Since we are capoed up 6 frets, I am treating the 6th fret as if

it's the nut. Therefore, all chord names are really just the

shapes and don't reflect the true concert pitch. Also, if the

number in the TAB says "1", then it's really played on the 7th

fret (since the seventh fret is the first non-capoed fret). This

is fairly standard, but I'm just restating it.

3) As with all Big Star songs, there are some beauty vocal harmonies

which I am abandoning for this feeble transcription. Sorry, folks.

4) I don't know what effects are on the main guitar (probably

Chilton, since it seems to be his song), but it sounds quite

nifty. Some sort of flanger, perhaps.

5) The rhythm for most of this song is dead-simple. 2 strums per bar

(which means, for those of us who know nothing about theory or

other real-music stuff, hit each chord twice and then move on).

The chord changes are faster in the chorus than in the verses, so

here's the deal: for the verses, hit each chord twice for each

time I've written it. For the chorus, hit each chord once for

every time I've written it. Thus, if it's the verse and I've

written "Eb Eb," then play Eb four times. I've put "G (G)" in the

chorus because you don't actually hit that second G, but you let

the first one continue ringing. For the bridge, I actually point

out how many times to play each chord. Make sense? I was

originally going to put the chords in TAB, but it took up way too

much space and you don't really need to know *exactly* what's

going on (like rests, chordals, etc.). You can figure that out on

your own if it bothers you.

6) A couple of places where I just list chords, there's something a

little more complex going on. I try to point out basically what's

happening, but I couldn't figure out exact TAB, so I decided

against putting in guesses. If you can pick it out, please do,

but I can't.

7) I came [] <--- *that* close to denoting 12-string TAB with `='

rather than `-' (like I always use) but then thought that that'd

probably tell more about me than I really want people to know.

"The Ballad of El Goodo" (Alex Chilton/Chris Bell)

Performed by Big Star