Long-time readers of this website know Patrick The Bass Player very well. He’s the cheerful, sane yin to my depressive, angst-ridden yang, dontcha know.
Anyway, Patrick owes me a favor because I provided him with some tech support this evening. How should I cash that favor in?
I think I’ll get Patrick to back me on some piece of music he’d normally refuse to play. Something very quiet-storm-R&B-grown-and-sexy. Or I could get him to play the part of the barefoot Richard Cousins to my Robert Cray. But which Cray song to perform? For a variety of reasons lately I’ve been thinking about the above track.
The problem is that, like many Robert Cray songs, it’s a stone-cold bitch consisting entirely of chords he made up. I might be able to watch the above video and figure it out — or I might not.
So. I’m taking requests. (“QUIT MAKING VIDEOS!” has already been requested.)
In the meantime, listen to Robert.
Those aren’t such tough chords. I will gladly chart it out for you as a Christmas present. It’s essentially a minor blues.
Isn’t that a rhumba?
I was gonna go with polka, but rhumba makes more sense.;-)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gQEDwjhaDE
All-time favorite Robert Cray tune: Smoking Gun. In college, was with a buddy in a record store (man, remember those? Was there any place cooler than the record store, except for maybe the music instrument store where you’d go to lust after an unobtanium instrument that’d take three years of shoveling sidewalks and mowing lawns to purchase?), and this song came on.
What? Who? How did I not know this? I’d had my head so far up SRV’s and Clapton’s asses that I’d completely overlooked the emergence of Robert Cray (we’re talking circa 1986 or so here). Strong Persuader didn’t leave my turntable for weeks. Then I went back and got Showdown and False Accusations.
Robert just played at a restored local theater in my hometown this summer. He stood by the merchandise table afterwards, posing with people wanting a picture, signing autographs on CD covers and a whole bunch of guitars — a skinny middle school kid with his Mexican Strat at the end of the line, so nervous he could hardly talk. The kids, some of ’em, they’re alright. My luthier buddy was smart enough to bring a couple Strat pick guards (the whole guitar needn’t make the trip). They’re now on a couple of his own Strat creations.
Awesome show, and a really cool guy, Robert Cray.
Anyway, here’s tab/chords for Will You Think of Me:
http://play.riffstation.com/?v=3kAr-PGdpy0
Not exact, but a good start.
With my brother’s help and careful watching of a performance video, I managed to figure it out last night. Soon as Patrick gets back…
I found out about Strong Persuader because some cool old (twenty-something) guy who was nailing one of my friends’ mothers had the cassette 🙂