Since I’ve been so busy with CrippleBush lately, I’ve neglected the hell out of Divided Front. Today, I tried to remedy that. I planned on re-recording a handful of tunes but, now that the day is done, I managed three. It amazes me sometimes how I manage to piss my time away without accomplishing anything substantial.

As it is, I’m glad I managed the three tunes. I took a decent chunk of time to tab out “Down and Out in New York City” … it’s been bugging me for so long that no one else in the world has tabbed the song.

It isn’t laziness that kept me from doing myself, though. I can pick out a song, find the notes, figure out the riffs and fills, the chords and the melody … but it’s such an arduous, harrowing process. It doesn’t come easily for me. I don’t pick the correct notes right off and blaze through a tune in minutes. I have to painstakingly dissect it, find a sequence of notes and then use that to determine the key and, from there, I start to learn the song.

(more…)

This is a James Brown tune from the “Black Caesar” soundtrack. I have never been able to find a tab of it, so I did it myself.

There are a few fills missing. I didn’t feel like tabbing them out since they’re all based on the key, which I’ve provided. Just noodling in the minor / relative major scale will do the trick.

There are probably mistakes. I’m fairly sure the verses don’t ever go [ Ab Gb ], but I liked the variation so I transcribed it that way.

###

[ Bb minor / Db Major (Bb C Db Eb F Gb Ab) ]

Yeah, man, like you know…

[ Verse riff: ]

[ Verse 1: Ab Bb | Ab Bb | Ab Gb | Ab Bb ]

I was born in New York City, on a Monday
Seems I was out shinin’ shoes by Tuesday noon
All the fat cats in the bad hats doing me a really big favor
Got the fat cats in the bad hats laying it on real good

[Chorus: Bb Ab Gb ]

Here’s a dime, boy
Gimme a shine, boy

Horn and Flute riff:

(more…)