Chords for Ex Lion Tamer by Wire | Post-Punk Guitar Lesson

_ [A] _ _ [C] _ _ [G] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [N] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ Wire, an arty, _ abrasive, _ uncompromising post-punk band.
If that's not your kind of thing then you're
probably going to be horrified by this video and you should probably stop watching right now.
I'm going to be doing some more tasteful blues licks very soon I promise.
But if you are into
Wire or if you're open to discovering them then you've come to the right place because
this is going to be the first in a series of Wire based lessons where I'm going to take you through
how to play some of my favourite Wire songs.
First up is X Lion Tamer from their debut album Pink
Flag and it goes a little something like this.
[D] _ _
_ [A] _ _ _ [E] _ _ _ _
[G] _ _ _ [D] _ _ _ [A] _ _
_ _ [E] _ _ _ _ [G] _ _
_ [B] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [A] _ _ [A] _ _ _
[B] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [A] _ [G] _ [A] _ _ [D] _ _
_ [A] _ _ _ _ [E] _ _ _
_ [G] _ _ _ [D] _ _ _ [A] _
_ _ _ [E] _ _ _ _ [G] _
_ _ [D] _ _ _ _ [N] Just briefly a little bit of background information
for those of you who aren't familiar with Wire.
They are a British band formed in the mid 70s,
usually referred to as a post-punk band if that label actually means anything.
I imagine
Wire themselves are probably one of those bands who hate being labelled as anything at all. _ _
One
of those bands that I first came across indirectly, they're a very influential band and a lot of other
bands that I liked would mention Wire in their interviews.
I think they've been a big influence
on people like Sonic Youth, Minute Men, Guided by Voices and I actually think the first Wire song
that I heard was REM's cover of Strange which was on their Document album and that led me to
actual music of Wire itself. _
They're still best known for their classic trio of 70s albums Pink
Flag, Chairs Missing and 154.
Those are the albums that I'm still the most familiar with and the
albums that I'm going to be focusing on in these videos.
Though Wire are still going and they're
still making great and interesting music which I really must check out myself soon.
I've been
told by a reliable source that good albums from the later period of Wire are Send and Red Barked
Tree so I'm going to be checking those out myself very soon but for now let's get down to business
and take a look at how Ex Lion Tamer is played.
This is a song from the poppier end of the Wire
spectrum.
I think it's a great song.
It's a fairly easy song to play.
It's not a total beginner's
song because we've got quite a lot of bar chords flying around and there's some interesting rhythmic
_ things going on and it's a great lyric as well.
It seems to all be about Batman and Robin, Lone
Ranger and Tonto and Fish Fingers so I'm not exactly sure what they're on about in this song.
I'm not really sure what they're on about in most Wire songs actually but it's great stuff
lyrically _ speaking.
Let me take you through the song section by section.
We've got two or three
sections to this song.
Let's start with the introduction which is also the chorus part
to the song that goes like this.
[D] _ _ _ [A] _ _ _ [E] _
_ _ _ [G] _ _ _ _ _
[D] It's the basic idea all played with bar chords.
We're starting
with a _ _ D bar chord fifth string root shape _ _ _ _ _ and then we [A] go to an A bar chord sixth string root
[E] down _ _ to an open E chord and [G] then we've got G major bar chord.
This is sixth string root at the third
fret.
If you're not sure of some of these bar chord shapes then I have done a couple of detailed bar
chord lessons which you might like to check out before attempting this song.
[D] So let's say we're
starting with this D bar chord shape.
What Colin Newman tends to do when he's playing bar chords
with a fifth string root is cover the sixth string as well.
_ So technically we've got a D with an A in
the bass.
You've got the fifth in the bass there and it just gives you a slightly heavier sound.
You've got the option to do that whenever you're playing fifth string root bar chords.
So we're
starting with the D. _ _ _ _
We've got a bar [A] or so on that _ but then we're pushing in to the A [Eb] major bar chord
and when I say push it's a term that I use to refer to that feeling when you're changing the chord
on an off beat and here we're changing on the and of four and it's just generating a bit of excitement
[D] and momentum in the song.
So we've got one two three and [A] four and two three four.
See how we're
changing to that second chord on the and of four.
Strumming wise I'm just going to keep my
strumming hand moving up and down in kind of an eighth note [D] feel.
One two three [A] and four and two
three four.
_ _ [Ab] Then we're coming [E] down to an open E chord _ _ _ _ and a little tip here if you're playing an
open E chord and you're going from that to E form bar chords is that you've got the option of fingering
_ your open E chord like this with _ third fourth finger _ and second finger and leaving your index
finger free.
Then it's just a bit easier to transition into those E form bar chord shapes.
So that's the way I'm fingering my E chord here.
We've got _ a bars worth of this and _ _ [G] _ _ _
again we're
pushing into the next chord.
So we're going [Ab] from E to G.
We're changing to the G on [E] the and of four.
So it's one two three and [G] four and one two three four.
[Ab] Then it goes round again it's just a four chord cycle
here.
So [D] _ then [A] _ _ _ _ [E] _
_ _ _ [G] _ _ _ _ [D] _
_ _ _ [A] _ _ _ _ [E] _
_ _ [G] _ _ _ _ _ _
we're on into the verse that goes like this.
[B] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [Am] _ [G] _ [A] _ _ [B] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [A] _ [G] _ [A] _ _ [B] So you can see it's all played using
this same E form bar chord shapes but this is a little bit more rhythmic.
So we're starting at the
seventh fret on a B major chord and we're playing in this kind of rhythm.
It's a quick down up down _
down down rest rest. _ _ _ _
_ _ _ Do that three times.
[A] Then we've got [G] _ [A] _ _ [G] [A] just going between A and G.
It's [G] A [A] G A [G] [A] G A.
_ Then we're back to the B.
[B] _ _ Down up down three _ times again _ _ [A] and then we're just going [G] A [A] G A
_ and letting it hang.
I think that all goes round another time and then we're back into the chorus. _ _
That's about it for this song.
You could just talk about the ending of the song [D] and that kind
of comes from the main chorus riff.
_ _ [A] _ _ _ _
[E] _ _ _ _ _ [F] _ [Gb] _ [G] _
_ Just [E] ending on an unusual chord.
We go down to the E and _ then [C] we've
got F [Gb] F [G] sharp _ G to end.
[E] _ _ _ _ _ [Gb] _ [G] _
_ _ _ _ [A] You can hear on the recording some lead guitar parts which come in
towards the end of the song and that seems to me to all be kind of eighth notes played quite high
up the neck probably on the B string.
So we've got things like this. _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [E] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [D] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [G] _ So the 10th fret on the B,
12th fret, _ 15th fret possibly letting the open high E string come through a little bit as well.
I'd suggest just listening to the record and playing around with some of those ideas.
_ That's it for today.
I hope you enjoy learning to play the song.
As I said I've got lots more
wire coming at you here very soon.
If this video hasn't quite persuaded you about wire and about
post-punk then I've got lots of other content on my channel.
Go and find yourself a nice blues lick
or a bit of folk fingerstyle.
I do try my best to keep everybody happy.
Thank you for watching and
I'll see you again very soon.
Bye bye. _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
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