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Indexed

Somebody Else's Well

Key: E

Tempo: medium slow shuffle.
Guitar and sound: As noted, there are three guitar tracks. one is loud and distorted, one is quiet and in the background, and one is clear and jangly. Technically the intro could be played on any of these, switching sounds as needed. In fact, the "3rd guitar" could be done live by the "riff guitar" since they never play at the same time.

Intro: Solo guitar ending on a B note. Drums and bass layer in to setup the beat.

Intro/Turnaround/Ending riff:

    E chord, open, the pick B-D-E-D, then slide middle finger all the way up from the B note to the C# at the 16th fret and back to B at 14th. Repeat 3 times at intro and before 3rd verse, once before other verses and in ending, then arpeggiate B7 at the 14th fret.

Main verse: Verses 1,2,4 and 5:

    E: one guitar quietly plays E and B (at 7th and 9th frets) in syncopation with bass line.
    This is interrupted by a D chord on the loud guitar half way through the second measure.
    Back to the same for the third measure, and on the fourth, the 1-5 notes walk backwards down to A through the E major chords (D#, C#, B, A)
    A: Same as over the E, except play A and E notes.
    B-Bb-A: Basically more of the same 1-5 stuff on the quiet guitar.

    B-Bb-A: A third guitar, at medium volume and clear and jangly, gently plays B7 once, then two sixteenths (I think) before the Bb7 to A7, again, just once and clearly. These chords should be spaced to interfere as little as possible with the refrain "somebody else's well"

Third verse played with the distorted, loud riff guitar:

    E: Play tops with 7th fret E chord - one here
    E: Two stops on this measure
    E: Use E7 at the 5th fret, on the 1,2,3,4
    E: As in the other verses, this louder rhythm guitar walks back through the E major chords to get to A
    A: 5th fret, a nice strong driving boogie, absent from the other verses.

Ending:

    After last riff to B7, instead of arpeggiating that 14th fret B7 so talentedly, give it two beats, followed by two beats each of A7,Ab7,G7 to an Eb9-E9 slide and an F-E slide with the Eb/E close together, pause, F/E close together - and look at the drummer for directions.

Here is a tab diagram of the turnaround:


It is played three times, sometimes.

Entire structure, for "clarity":

E - E - E - B Turnaround
E - E - E - E - A - A - B - A Verse 1
E - B Turnaround
E - E - E - E - A - A - B - A Verse 2
E - E - E - B Turnaround
E - E - E - E/D/C#/C - A - A - B - A Verse 3/stops
E - B Turnaround
E - E - E - E - A - A - B - A Verse 4
E - B Turnaround
E - E - E - E - A - A - B - A Verse 5
E - Turnaround and...
B7 - A7 - Ab7 - G7 - Eb9 - E9 - F7 - E7 Ending



(back to words)

(Notes about the notes about the songs)

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© Huw Powell
humanthoughts.org

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