Response to Sad Songs And Waltzes by Dennis

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TGNeil
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Thu Mar 25, 2010 5:06 pm

Why I chose this song: I've been a huge fan of the '90s alt band Cake for many, many years, and I consider their "Fashion Nugget" CD to be one of my desert island albums. On that CD is a fascinating cover of the Willie Nelson song "Sad Songs & Waltzes."

Why I'd post a country music song when I don't like country music: Before you dismiss this as just a country music song, keep in mind that no Willie Nelson song is easily categorized. He is, after all, the guy who wrote what may prove to be one of the great crossover songs in music history: "Crazy," made gloriously famous by Patsy Cline. I'm not a country music fan at all, so I had the advantage of first hearing Cake's wonderful version of "Sad Songs." They were attracted to it because it puts a wry twist on the usual country music theme of a guy losing his gal. In this song, the guy gets pissed off and decides to do something about it: he writes a song about what a bitch she is, makes a record, then realizes that no one will buy his record because sad songs and waltzes aren't selling this year. That means, despite his best efforts, no one will learn how rotten this woman has been to him.

I've since listened to Willie's version of this song, and while I like it very much, I really enjoy Cake's unique arrangement, complete with staccato guitar and harmonizing trumpet.

I downloaded the tab to this song shortly after I joined TG in October, tried to play it, and was completely overmatched by it. So I set it aside until a couple of weeks ago. Maybe because I've been playing so much lately, I found the song much easier to learn this time around.

It's a song I always knew lent itself to being played on an electric guitar. Unfortunately, I'm still using my little acoustic amp.

The challenge: This was one of the more challenging songs to sing, given that the lyrics sometimes fit sideways inside the plucked notes.





dennisg
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Fri Mar 26, 2010 6:39 am

Thanks so much for the response, Neil. Perfect comments. Someone thought they were doing me a favor decades ago by insisting I anchor my pinky on on the guitar.


hasben
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Fri Mar 26, 2010 8:15 am

You got my spurs to janglin', hoss. You stepped outside the lessons and applied what you have learned-- if I am not mistaken, a major goal of this site. Just add a fiddle and I could do some dancin'. :)


smips65
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Sat Mar 27, 2010 4:17 pm

:laugh:

Very very nice Dennis.

You've got that Taylor Twanging.

Just out of curiousity, are you playing in in single coil mode, or humbucker mode?


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