Chords for Gary Davis - Death Don't Have No Mercy Guitar lesson
Tempo:
78 bpm
Chords used:
F
Em
G
B
E
Tuning:Standard Tuning (EADGBE)Capo:+0fret
Start Jamming...
[E]
[Em] [D]
[G] [B] [Em]
[Am] [C]
[Em] [B] [E]
[Em] [N] Death Don't Have No Mercy, a song commonly done by [F] lots of folks back in the 60s, 70s.
Grateful Dead did a version a little slower, more dirge-like than that.
And of course, that is more similar to Jorma Kaukinen and Hot Tuna's version.
But Reverend Gary Davis wrote a lot of just great, what we would call country blues finger-picking songs.
Now, [N] country blues differs from rural blues and urban blues and Chicago [C#] blues in [F] that
it's acoustic finger style, generally, and a little bit more ragtime, actually a lot
more ragtime-oriented.
And this is the kind of blues that I really have loved since I was a teenager and first
heard [G] Hot Tuna playing this stuff in the [F] early 70s.
This Death Don't Have No Mercy, though, is an interesting progression because it's not
a 12-bar blues progression.
It's more of a [Em] 16-bar thing.
Four measures right there.
Another four [G] measures of E [D] minor to D [G] and G.
And then [B] B7.
[Em] Four measures, two measures of E minor here.
[Am] Two measures of A minor.
[C] Maybe a C7 instead.
And then the last four measures start [Em] changing every two beats.
E [C] minor to C.
And there [Em] are a lot of ways of doing this.
Back to E minor to B7.
And then the last two measures, [E] a nice little run [B] heading back down to the E.
So, it [F] falls into a 16-bar form rather than a 12-bar form, [F] which again makes it more typical
of Scott Joplin-type stuff, ragtime things that were being done 30 and 40 years earlier.
This stuff really is more from the 20s and 30s than any other time.
So [G] it has more similarities to American Tin Pan Alley [D#] stuff than it does to [F] a lot of the
12-bar blues that became more popular with Robert Johnson and then [F] into the Electric
Guys and the [F#] Howlin' Wolves and Muddy Waters and everybody that electrified blues and made
it what [F] we now know of today as electric blues.
So acoustic blues is a really fun genre.
And if you'd like to see a complete lesson on this, because I really would like to break
this song down, [G] if enough people visit us at Totally Guitars [G#] and recommend a lesson,
[G] which is how we kind of decide on [F] what we're doing over there.
So if you'd like to see a full lesson on Death Don't Have No Mercy, come over to TotallyGuitars [A#].com,
hit the [N] Recommend a Lesson button, and put it in there, because that's a lot of how we
decide what we're going to be doing lessons on.
And I would love to [F#] get some more Gary Davis, Hot Tuna kind of stuff, because this is what
I really love to teach my students every [F] day and would like to have complete lessons up
at the site.
So, I hope you can come check us out, and let me know that you would like to see a lesson
on Death Don't Have
[Em] [D]
[G] [B] [Em]
[Am] [C]
[Em] [B] [E]
[Em] [N] Death Don't Have No Mercy, a song commonly done by [F] lots of folks back in the 60s, 70s.
Grateful Dead did a version a little slower, more dirge-like than that.
And of course, that is more similar to Jorma Kaukinen and Hot Tuna's version.
But Reverend Gary Davis wrote a lot of just great, what we would call country blues finger-picking songs.
Now, [N] country blues differs from rural blues and urban blues and Chicago [C#] blues in [F] that
it's acoustic finger style, generally, and a little bit more ragtime, actually a lot
more ragtime-oriented.
And this is the kind of blues that I really have loved since I was a teenager and first
heard [G] Hot Tuna playing this stuff in the [F] early 70s.
This Death Don't Have No Mercy, though, is an interesting progression because it's not
a 12-bar blues progression.
It's more of a [Em] 16-bar thing.
Four measures right there.
Another four [G] measures of E [D] minor to D [G] and G.
And then [B] B7.
[Em] Four measures, two measures of E minor here.
[Am] Two measures of A minor.
[C] Maybe a C7 instead.
And then the last four measures start [Em] changing every two beats.
E [C] minor to C.
And there [Em] are a lot of ways of doing this.
Back to E minor to B7.
And then the last two measures, [E] a nice little run [B] heading back down to the E.
So, it [F] falls into a 16-bar form rather than a 12-bar form, [F] which again makes it more typical
of Scott Joplin-type stuff, ragtime things that were being done 30 and 40 years earlier.
This stuff really is more from the 20s and 30s than any other time.
So [G] it has more similarities to American Tin Pan Alley [D#] stuff than it does to [F] a lot of the
12-bar blues that became more popular with Robert Johnson and then [F] into the Electric
Guys and the [F#] Howlin' Wolves and Muddy Waters and everybody that electrified blues and made
it what [F] we now know of today as electric blues.
So acoustic blues is a really fun genre.
And if you'd like to see a complete lesson on this, because I really would like to break
this song down, [G] if enough people visit us at Totally Guitars [G#] and recommend a lesson,
[G] which is how we kind of decide on [F] what we're doing over there.
So if you'd like to see a full lesson on Death Don't Have No Mercy, come over to TotallyGuitars [A#].com,
hit the [N] Recommend a Lesson button, and put it in there, because that's a lot of how we
decide what we're going to be doing lessons on.
And I would love to [F#] get some more Gary Davis, Hot Tuna kind of stuff, because this is what
I really love to teach my students every [F] day and would like to have complete lessons up
at the site.
So, I hope you can come check us out, and let me know that you would like to see a lesson
on Death Don't Have
Key:
F
Em
G
B
E
F
Em
G
_ _ _ [E] _ _ _ _ _
[Em] _ _ _ _ _ _ [D] _ _
[G] _ _ _ [B] _ _ [Em] _ _ _
_ _ _ [Am] _ _ [C] _ _ _
[Em] _ _ _ [B] _ _ _ [E] _ _
[Em] _ _ _ _ [N] Death Don't Have No Mercy, a song commonly done by [F] lots of folks back in the 60s, 70s.
Grateful Dead did a version a little slower, more dirge-like than that.
And of course, that is more similar to Jorma Kaukinen and Hot Tuna's version.
But Reverend Gary Davis wrote a lot of just great, what we would call country blues finger-picking songs.
Now, [N] country blues differs from rural blues and urban blues and Chicago [C#] blues in [F] that
it's acoustic finger style, generally, and a little bit more ragtime, actually a lot
more ragtime-oriented.
And this is the kind of blues that I really have loved since I was a teenager and first
heard [G] Hot Tuna playing this stuff in the [F] early 70s.
This Death Don't Have No Mercy, though, is an interesting progression because it's not
a 12-bar blues progression.
It's more of a [Em] 16-bar thing. _ _ _ _ _
Four measures right there.
Another four [G] measures of E [D] minor to D [G] and G.
And then [B] B7.
_ [Em] _ Four measures, two measures of E minor here.
[Am] Two measures of A minor.
[C] Maybe a C7 instead.
And then the last four measures start [Em] changing every two beats.
E [C] minor to C.
And there [Em] are a lot of ways of doing this.
Back to E minor to B7.
And then the last two measures, [E] a nice little run [B] heading back down to the E.
So, it [F] falls into a 16-bar form rather than a 12-bar form, [F] which again makes it more typical
of Scott Joplin-type stuff, ragtime things that were being done 30 and 40 years earlier.
This stuff really is more from the 20s and 30s than any other time.
So [G] it has more similarities to American Tin Pan Alley [D#] stuff than it does to [F] a lot of the
12-bar blues that became more popular with Robert Johnson and then [F] into the Electric
Guys and the [F#] Howlin' Wolves and Muddy Waters and everybody that electrified blues and made
it what [F] we now know of today as electric blues.
So acoustic blues is a really fun genre.
And if you'd like to see a complete lesson on this, because I really would like to break
this song down, [G] if enough people visit us at Totally Guitars [G#] and recommend a lesson,
[G] which is how we kind of decide on [F] what we're doing over there.
So if you'd like to see a full lesson on Death Don't Have No Mercy, come over to TotallyGuitars [A#].com,
hit the [N] Recommend a Lesson button, and put it in there, because that's a lot of how we
decide what we're going to be doing lessons on.
And I would love to [F#] get some more Gary Davis, Hot Tuna kind of stuff, because this is what
I really love to teach my students every [F] day and would like to have complete lessons up
at the site.
So, I hope you can come check us out, and let me know that you would like to see a lesson
on Death Don't Have
[Em] _ _ _ _ _ _ [D] _ _
[G] _ _ _ [B] _ _ [Em] _ _ _
_ _ _ [Am] _ _ [C] _ _ _
[Em] _ _ _ [B] _ _ _ [E] _ _
[Em] _ _ _ _ [N] Death Don't Have No Mercy, a song commonly done by [F] lots of folks back in the 60s, 70s.
Grateful Dead did a version a little slower, more dirge-like than that.
And of course, that is more similar to Jorma Kaukinen and Hot Tuna's version.
But Reverend Gary Davis wrote a lot of just great, what we would call country blues finger-picking songs.
Now, [N] country blues differs from rural blues and urban blues and Chicago [C#] blues in [F] that
it's acoustic finger style, generally, and a little bit more ragtime, actually a lot
more ragtime-oriented.
And this is the kind of blues that I really have loved since I was a teenager and first
heard [G] Hot Tuna playing this stuff in the [F] early 70s.
This Death Don't Have No Mercy, though, is an interesting progression because it's not
a 12-bar blues progression.
It's more of a [Em] 16-bar thing. _ _ _ _ _
Four measures right there.
Another four [G] measures of E [D] minor to D [G] and G.
And then [B] B7.
_ [Em] _ Four measures, two measures of E minor here.
[Am] Two measures of A minor.
[C] Maybe a C7 instead.
And then the last four measures start [Em] changing every two beats.
E [C] minor to C.
And there [Em] are a lot of ways of doing this.
Back to E minor to B7.
And then the last two measures, [E] a nice little run [B] heading back down to the E.
So, it [F] falls into a 16-bar form rather than a 12-bar form, [F] which again makes it more typical
of Scott Joplin-type stuff, ragtime things that were being done 30 and 40 years earlier.
This stuff really is more from the 20s and 30s than any other time.
So [G] it has more similarities to American Tin Pan Alley [D#] stuff than it does to [F] a lot of the
12-bar blues that became more popular with Robert Johnson and then [F] into the Electric
Guys and the [F#] Howlin' Wolves and Muddy Waters and everybody that electrified blues and made
it what [F] we now know of today as electric blues.
So acoustic blues is a really fun genre.
And if you'd like to see a complete lesson on this, because I really would like to break
this song down, [G] if enough people visit us at Totally Guitars [G#] and recommend a lesson,
[G] which is how we kind of decide on [F] what we're doing over there.
So if you'd like to see a full lesson on Death Don't Have No Mercy, come over to TotallyGuitars [A#].com,
hit the [N] Recommend a Lesson button, and put it in there, because that's a lot of how we
decide what we're going to be doing lessons on.
And I would love to [F#] get some more Gary Davis, Hot Tuna kind of stuff, because this is what
I really love to teach my students every [F] day and would like to have complete lessons up
at the site.
So, I hope you can come check us out, and let me know that you would like to see a lesson
on Death Don't Have