Fret Filings - (Anne's Blog)

Thursday, August 18, 2011

LIGHTHOUSE - "SUNNY DAYS"
Topic: New Chords Postings

A mainstay of 1970's Top 40 radio (and later classic rock radio), the single "Sunny Days" has been referred to by one website (CanadianBands.com) as "Canada's summer anthem". The song went Top 40 on Billboard, and reached #4 on Canada's RPM Singles chart. The album the single came from was certified Gold, and the success of that album won Lighthouse a Juno Award for Best Group Of the Year.

The band has also gotten a lot of mileage out of the song for use as an album title. It was the title track of the album it first appeared on, 1972's Sunny Days. In 1989, the band released a greatest hits compilation entitled The Best Of Lighthouse: Sunny Days Again. And most recently, in 2009, the song was tapped once more for the title of the Lighthouse best-of CD/DVD set 40 Years Of Sunny Days. This serves as a testament to the ongoing popularity of this summer feel-good pop classic.

The chord chart:
https://www.angelfire.com/planet/zerofret/crd/lighthouse-sunnydays.txt

Audio:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxwNkY0-vUw

Posted by planet/zerofret at 3:43 AM EDT
Updated: Thursday, August 18, 2011 3:45 AM EDT
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Friday, August 12, 2011

THE TEA PARTY
Topic: Riff-In-A-Jiff

The tag line on the home page of The Tea Party's official website proclaims: "No politics...Just Rock and Roll." I guess that reflects the state of affairs for the long-established band (broken up, but currently reunited), who have in recent years found themselves sharing a name with a somewhat controversial U.S. political party. Perhaps a lot of ultra right wing political types have mistakenly surfed into their site expecting Sarah Palin, but getting sitars, tablas, and overdriven Les Pauls instead?

The song "The Bazaar" comes from the band's third album, The Edges Of Twilight (1995), and is also included on their greatest hits CD Tangents: The Tea Party Collection (2000). It contains both defining elements that the band is most noted for: their world music (particularly Indian and Eastern) influenced sound and their use of alternate tunings. "The Bazaar" is played in Open G5 tuning (all strings tuned to either G or D). Tabbed here is the guitar riff from the Intro. To play just the riff, you can simply tune the A string down to G (rather than doing a full retuning), since the whole riff is played on one string. Or you can even play it in Standard tuning, but it will be in a different key from the recording, of course.

THE TEA PARTY - "The Bazaar" (The Tea Party)

https://www.angelfire.com/planet/zerofret/annesblog/canriffs.txt

Posted by planet/zerofret at 4:13 AM EDT
Updated: Friday, August 12, 2011 4:14 AM EDT
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Wednesday, August 3, 2011

JULY 2011 REVIEW
Topic: Tab Views

Most-viewed tabs for the month of July 2011:

34 - Honeymoon Suite - Burning In Love
31 - The Kings - This Beat Goes On
28 - Doucette - Mama Let Him Play
25 - Honeymoon Suite - New Girl Now
23 - Max Webster - A Million Vacations
21 - April Wine - Cum Hear the Band
21 - Harlequin - Sweet Things In Life
20 - Harlequin - Thinking Of You
19 - Helix - Deep Cuts the Knife
17 - Harlequin - I Did It For Love

Total Tab Views for July: 1,015

By section: Canadian-767 Girlschool-90 Various-62 Chords-96

Most-viewed tabs overall (up to July 31/11):

931 - Honeymoon Suite - Burning In Love
919 - Doucette - Mama Let Him Play
739 - The Kings - This Beat Goes On
681 - Harlequin - Thinking Of You
559 - Honeymoon Suite - Stay In the Light
548 - The Kings - Switchin' To Glide
547 - A Foot In Coldwater - (Make Me Do) Anything You Want
512 - Honeymoon Suite - New Girl Now
497 - April Wine - Cum Hear the Band
491 - Kim Mitchell - Patio Lanterns

Tabs reaching 100 overall views this month:
I've Seen All Good People, Lookin' For Trouble, First Time For Everything, Screaming Blue Murder

Posted by planet/zerofret at 4:45 AM EDT
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Friday, July 29, 2011

SASS JORDAN - "SO HARD"
Topic: New Tab Postings

This tab started out as an entry in the riff section. The tab I was working on was giving me some trouble, so I figured I'd put it aside for a bit, and take a night to quickly work out an Intro or riff (since I haven't done one in awhile) so that I'd have something new to post. "So Hard" has a catchy acoustic Intro, so I thought it would be a good one to do. When I started working it out, it came along quickly, so I decided to add in a little more (the transition to the verse), then a bit more (the verse itself). Eventually, it just made sense to make a full tab of it.

"So Hard" was one of four successful singles from Sass Jordan's 1988 debut album Tell Somebody (the others being the title track, "Double Trouble", and "Stranger Than Paradise"). The song charted at #51 in Canada. The album was certified platinum, and it won Jordan the 1989 Juno award for Most Promising Female Vocalist.

The tab:
https://www.angelfire.com/planet/zerofret/cantab/jordan-sohard.txt

Posted by planet/zerofret at 4:02 AM EDT
Updated: Friday, July 29, 2011 4:04 AM EDT
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Sunday, July 10, 2011

THE TRAGICALLY HIP - "BOBCAYGEON"
Topic: New Chords Postings

In 1998, The Tragically Hip immortalized the Ontario town of Bobcaygeon in song on their album Phantom Power. The album had other successful singles, most notably "Poets" (as well as "Something On", and "Fireworks"), but the tune about the town in cottage country seemed to strike a particularly special chord with Canadians. (There are over 30 cover versions of this song posted on YouTube.) "Bobcaygeon" charted at #2 on Canada's RPM Alternative Chart, and hit #14 on the RPM Singles listing. It also won the Juno Award for Single Of the Year in 2000. In all likelihood, tourist interest in the town probably took a steep upturn, too, after the success of the single. Anyone unfamiliar with the town can see where it is here. If you zoom out on this map (about 5 clicks), you'll see where Bobcaygeon is in relation to places like Toronto (also mentioned in the song) and Kingston (where the Hip are from, of course).

A couple of weeks ago (June 25), the Hip headlined a music festival in the town for the first time. The show also featured The Sam Roberts Band, The Trews, and Miss Emily. Not surprisingly, a number of people have posted video on YouTube of the Hip performing "Bobcaygeon" in Bobcaygeon. You can see one of those videos here.

The chord chart:
https://www.angelfire.com/planet/zerofret/crd/tragicallyhip-bobcaygeon.txt

The official promo video for "Bobcaygeon":

Posted by planet/zerofret at 3:30 AM EDT
Updated: Sunday, July 10, 2011 4:56 AM EDT
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Friday, July 8, 2011

JUNE 2011 REVIEW
Topic: Tab Views

Most-viewed tabs for the month of June 2011:

38 - The Kings - This Beat Goes On
27 - Doucette - Mama Let Him Play
26 - April Wine - Just Between You and Me
25 - The Kings - Switchin' To Glide
22 - Harlequin - Sweet Things In Life
21 - Helix - Deep Cuts the Knife
19 - April Wine - Cum Hear the Band
19 - Kim Mitchell - Patio Lanterns
17 - A Foot In Coldwater - (Make Me Do) Anything You Want
17 - Girlschool - Race With the Devil (guitar)
17 - Harlequin - Thinking Of You
17 - Honeymoon Suite - Burning In Love
17 - Honeymoon Suite - New Girl Now

Total Tab Views: 978

By section: Canadian-683 Girlschool-128 Various-60 Chords-107

Most-viewed tabs overall (up to June 30/11):

897 - Honeymoon Suite - Burning In Love
891 - Doucette - Mama Let Him Play
708 - The Kings - This Beat Goes On
661 - Harlequin - Thinking Of You
544 - Honeymoon Suite - Stay In the Light
538 - The Kings - Switchin' To Glide
536 - A Foot In Coldwater - (Make Me Do) Anything You Want
487 - Honeymoon Suite - New Girl Now
477 - Kim Mitchell - Patio Lanterns
476 - April Wine - Cum Hear the Band

Tabs reaching 100 overall views this month: Only Human

Canadian Riffs page passed the 1,000 views mark this month.

*Only tab views made by people (excluding my own views) are counted here. Webcrawler/bot views are excluded.

Posted by planet/zerofret at 3:54 AM EDT
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Friday, July 1, 2011

CANADA DAY
Topic: General

HAPPY CANADA DAY!

Big Sugar - "O Canada"

Posted by planet/zerofret at 2:29 AM EDT
Updated: Friday, July 1, 2011 4:34 AM EDT
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Tuesday, June 21, 2011

KLAATU - "CALLING OCCUPANTS OF INTERPLANETARY CRAFT"
Topic: New Tab Postings

Needless to say, Klaatu are not The Beatles. So we don't need to get into that. But for anyone interested, here's a link to the exact 1977 newspaper article (written by Steve Smith for The Providence Journal) that launched the rumour heard 'round the world, which proved to be both a blessing and a curse for the band. http://www.klaatu.org/fanclub/mornsun7.html

The prog-rock classic "Calling Occupants", Klaatu's best-known song, is the opening track from their 1976 debut album 3:47 EST (pictured at right). That was the album's name in Canada; elsewhere it was titled simply Klaatu. Capitol Records brass in the US apparently felt the original title's reference was too obscure. (In the film The Day the Earth Stood Still, the extraterrestrial Klaatu landed his spacecraft on Earth at 3:47 EST.) The album was co-produced by the band and Terry Brown, who was starting to become well-known at the time for his production work for other Canadian bands such as Rush and Max Webster.

The full version of "Calling Occupants" (tabbed here) is over seven minutes long. The radio/single edit is about 3:30. One of the coolest things about the full length version of the song is the nature sound effects that open the track/album, setting the atmosphere before the music even begins (this can be heard in the audio of the song posted below). In a 1997 interview, band member John Woloschuk (on the left, above) described how this came together:

"...we knew that 'Calling Occupants' was going to open the album. We'd already decided that. So we wanted to have something that was really, you know, sort of ethereal, especially with the subject matter. And we were all into UFOs at the time, and things like that. And so, we just started building, and I think the first thing was we had some sound effects records with crickets, and animal noises, and birds, and things like that. And we layered that on, and then we had the idea of recording somebody walking – and these ideas sort of just came, you know, when you were working on the session. And we came up with the idea of having the sound of footsteps walking through the bush, and then he would come across this record player, and he'd lift – you know, he'd put the needle on the record and then 'Calling Occupants' would start. And we thought that was, you know, a neat idea. So we ended up doing all the cricket noises and stuff first, and then we did a remote recording out at Terry Brown's house in the back, in the ravine there. And we had a fellow walk through the pathway on – we put a bunch of twigs down, and we did a remote recording of him walking on these twigs, and then we just wild-bounced it into the track over the crickets and stuff. And then we got the idea of putting the scratch in the record so that people would realize that he'd put a record on the thing, because the sound of the needle touching the record was pretty subtle. So we figured, well, if we put a little scratch on the record … so we got a blank lacquer disc and scratched it, and then recorded the scratch (laughs)."
(http://www.klaatu.org/interviews/347est.html)

A year after the Klaatu release, the Carpenters had a successful single with their cover version of the song (in 1977).

The tab:
https://www.angelfire.com/planet/zerofret/cantab/klaatu-callingoccupants.txt

Audio:

Posted by planet/zerofret at 4:17 AM EDT
Updated: Tuesday, June 21, 2011 4:19 AM EDT
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Thursday, June 16, 2011

GOING OUT IN A BLAZE OF GLORY
Topic: General

I was hoping to be able to write something like 'Stanley Comes Home!' today. But once again Stanley didn't come home. He hasn't come home for 18 years now. During that 18 years, five times Canadian-based teams have made it to the Stanley Cup Final (Calgary, Edmonton, Ottawa, Vancouver twice), and five times Canada has come up empty. I was pulling for the Vancouver Canucks to break that drought and win their first ever Cup, but it was not to be. Instead, the Boston Bruins won their first Cup since 1972 (the Bobby Orr era) in a final series that went the full seven games. Now, as a Montreal Canadiens fan, I can just imagine how insufferable the Bruins will be for the next year!

But congrats to the Bruins and their fans; well done.

From my own point of view, regardless of which team won the Cup, there would be something in it to enjoy for me. I would have loved to see the Cup make its way back to Canada, but if the Bruins won, it would mean my favourite player, Mark Recchi, would win his third Stanley Cup. The latter is what happened, with the Kamloops, BC-born Recchi winning the Cup in his home province. Rex became my favourite player when he played for Montreal for five seasons from 1994-99. During the post-game on-ice celebration and interviews last night, he announced his retirement.

In his second full NHL season, Recchi won a Stanley Cup wearing black and gold with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1991. Last night, in his final season, he won a Stanley Cup wearing black and gold with the Boston Bruins in 2011. Nice (near) bookends to a career. In between, he won a Cup (albeit wearing red and black, not black and gold) with the Carolina Hurricanes in 2006.

In the NHL, there's a tradition that there's some significance in the team captain's choice of which teammate he will pass the Stanley Cup off to first, after he's accepted it. So it's always a guessing game as to who it's going to be. Tim Thomas, who played outstanding in goal for the B's and won the Conn Smythe trophy (for playoff MVP), would have seemed an obvious and worthy candidate. But captain Zdeno Chara chose to honour the retiring vet and handed the Cup off to the 'Wrecking Ball', whose 1,500+ career points make him a good Hall of Fame candidate.

So this is how Recchi went out:

And that's just my small tribute to a favourite player.

Posted by planet/zerofret at 7:59 AM EDT
Updated: Thursday, June 16, 2011 9:18 AM EDT
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Friday, June 10, 2011

MAY 2011 REVIEW
Topic: Tab Views

Most-viewed tabs for the month of May 2011:

34 - Doucette - Mama Let Him Play
31 - Honeymoon Suite - Burning In Love
29 - Helix - Deep Cuts the Knife
19 - Honeymoon Suite - New Girl Now
19 - The Kings - This Beat Goes On
19 - Trooper - Santa Maria
17 - Harlequin - Thinking Of You
16 - Kim Mitchell - Patio Lanterns
15 - Glass Tiger - Don't Forget Me (When I'm Gone)
15 - The Kings - Switchin' To Glide
15 - Max Webster - Battle Scar
15 - Max Webster - Hangover (live)
15 - Warlock - Für Immer

Total Tab Views: 999

By section: Canadian-721 Girlschool-102 Various-81 Chords-95

Most-viewed tabs overall (up to May 31/11):

880 - Honeymoon Suite - Burning In Love
864 - Doucette - Mama Let Him Play
670 - The Kings - This Beat Goes On
644 - Harlequin - Thinking Of You
529 - Honeymoon Suite - Stay In the Light
519 - A Foot In Coldwater - (Make Me Do) Anything You Want
513 - The Kings - Switchin' To Glide
470 - Honeymoon Suite - New Girl Now
462 - Harlequin - Innocence
458 - Kim Mitchell - Patio Lanterns

Tabs reaching 100 overall views this month: Blowing the Blues Away

*Only tab views made by people (excluding my own views) are counted here. Webcrawler/bot views are excluded.

Posted by planet/zerofret at 1:59 AM EDT
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