Chords for Hugh Cornwell interview (part 2)
Tempo:
73.85 bpm
Chords used:
Ab
E
Fm
G
D
Tuning:Standard Tuning (EADGBE)Capo:+0fret
Start Jamming...
[Ab] [N]
In Sweden you already had the band Johnny Sox.
That's right, yeah.
Was it good?
Yeah, Johnny Sox was great.
It was two Americans, two Swedes and me.
But before that I was in a band in school with quite a successful musician called Richard
Thompson who was in Fairport Convention.
So he taught me to play bass.
We had a band together and he taught me to play bass.
So I started as a bass player.
And when did you make the switch?
When he left school and went to become a professional musician and I continued studying.
And then I started to play six string guitar more, because I was not in a band.
And I could play in restaurants and just play for fun.
And how important has, I don't know if I pronounced his name right, Hans Wermeling?
Hans Wermeling.
Was he important?
Very, very important.
He demonstrated to me how to play electric guitar, because I had an acoustic guitar,
six string, but I'd never played electric guitar six string.
And he persuaded me that I should start playing electric guitar.
So he was very important for my guitar playing.
And he practiced every day and he played every day, even though he had another job.
He was a nurse in a hospital and he played three, four, five hours a day, every day,
seven days a week.
And he impressed upon me the importance of just playing and trying to improve and seeing
that you can always improve.
However good you think you are, you can always improve your style and your proficiency.
So he was very important.
And he was always writing songs without words.
He wanted me to put the words on the songs, like Strange Little Girl.
I did the words to his music.
And so I learned a lot about songwriting from him and putting chords together and things.
And well, obviously you've had a long career as a solo artist, but also with the Stranglers.
We don't have the time to go into that, every detail.
But if you look back on the Stranglers, what do you remember?
What are your fond memories?
What are the things you like about it?
I like the fact that we were never scared to take risks with music.
And you look around at music now and the people that are still going and still maintaining
a career, they very rarely take any risks musically.
And I think that's a shame.
I'm not admonishing them for it.
I understand why they do [E] it.
Because if you hit on something, you stick with something that is a success.
Because it's foolish to try to change.
But I like challenges.
So I'm never satisfied with if I find something that works, I go, ah, that works.
Then I'd say, well, maybe I can find something else that works as well.
So I think people tend to rest a little bit on their laurels.
They don't try to
[Fm] [N] influence people's taste in music.
It's the same in all arts.
When someone finds something, Damien Hirst finds the butterflies, and that's it.
That's it.
We have butterflies for 10 years.
It happens in all forms of art, expression.
Someone finds something that's successful, and they stick with it.
Because that's what provides the income.
And I'm a little foolhardy in the sense that I try to introduce new elements.
If you look at [G] the album, can you say there are certain phases in the Stranglers' [D] career?
The music that you recorded?
Yeah, I think that at the beginning we were taking risks.
We were trying to discover what style we were together as musicians.
Finding ourselves and what was the best thing for us to try to create.
And then we found that we could write short songs that were strong energy and attitude.
And they were successful.
And then we realised that the punk was something that was going.
And we had to try to progress beyond this.
So we tried to introduce some new elements into our music.
More risks to take.
What sort of elements?
Well, like time signature changes and things.
And strange topics for songs.
Just try to change the limits.
And our audience came with us.
And they said, yeah, we like [Ab] that.
And they came with us.
So we were emboldened to do it more and more.
And then we did The Raven.
And then towards the end I just felt that we weren't trying to make any new changes anymore to our music.
It was settling into a pattern and a style.
And I was getting a feeling a little bit restrained by this.
In Sweden you already had the band Johnny Sox.
That's right, yeah.
Was it good?
Yeah, Johnny Sox was great.
It was two Americans, two Swedes and me.
But before that I was in a band in school with quite a successful musician called Richard
Thompson who was in Fairport Convention.
So he taught me to play bass.
We had a band together and he taught me to play bass.
So I started as a bass player.
And when did you make the switch?
When he left school and went to become a professional musician and I continued studying.
And then I started to play six string guitar more, because I was not in a band.
And I could play in restaurants and just play for fun.
And how important has, I don't know if I pronounced his name right, Hans Wermeling?
Hans Wermeling.
Was he important?
Very, very important.
He demonstrated to me how to play electric guitar, because I had an acoustic guitar,
six string, but I'd never played electric guitar six string.
And he persuaded me that I should start playing electric guitar.
So he was very important for my guitar playing.
And he practiced every day and he played every day, even though he had another job.
He was a nurse in a hospital and he played three, four, five hours a day, every day,
seven days a week.
And he impressed upon me the importance of just playing and trying to improve and seeing
that you can always improve.
However good you think you are, you can always improve your style and your proficiency.
So he was very important.
And he was always writing songs without words.
He wanted me to put the words on the songs, like Strange Little Girl.
I did the words to his music.
And so I learned a lot about songwriting from him and putting chords together and things.
And well, obviously you've had a long career as a solo artist, but also with the Stranglers.
We don't have the time to go into that, every detail.
But if you look back on the Stranglers, what do you remember?
What are your fond memories?
What are the things you like about it?
I like the fact that we were never scared to take risks with music.
And you look around at music now and the people that are still going and still maintaining
a career, they very rarely take any risks musically.
And I think that's a shame.
I'm not admonishing them for it.
I understand why they do [E] it.
Because if you hit on something, you stick with something that is a success.
Because it's foolish to try to change.
But I like challenges.
So I'm never satisfied with if I find something that works, I go, ah, that works.
Then I'd say, well, maybe I can find something else that works as well.
So I think people tend to rest a little bit on their laurels.
They don't try to
[Fm] [N] influence people's taste in music.
It's the same in all arts.
When someone finds something, Damien Hirst finds the butterflies, and that's it.
That's it.
We have butterflies for 10 years.
It happens in all forms of art, expression.
Someone finds something that's successful, and they stick with it.
Because that's what provides the income.
And I'm a little foolhardy in the sense that I try to introduce new elements.
If you look at [G] the album, can you say there are certain phases in the Stranglers' [D] career?
The music that you recorded?
Yeah, I think that at the beginning we were taking risks.
We were trying to discover what style we were together as musicians.
Finding ourselves and what was the best thing for us to try to create.
And then we found that we could write short songs that were strong energy and attitude.
And they were successful.
And then we realised that the punk was something that was going.
And we had to try to progress beyond this.
So we tried to introduce some new elements into our music.
More risks to take.
What sort of elements?
Well, like time signature changes and things.
And strange topics for songs.
Just try to change the limits.
And our audience came with us.
And they said, yeah, we like [Ab] that.
And they came with us.
So we were emboldened to do it more and more.
And then we did The Raven.
And then towards the end I just felt that we weren't trying to make any new changes anymore to our music.
It was settling into a pattern and a style.
And I was getting a feeling a little bit restrained by this.
Key:
Ab
E
Fm
G
D
Ab
E
Fm
[Ab] _ _ [N] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ In Sweden you already had the band Johnny Sox.
That's right, yeah.
Was it good?
Yeah, Johnny Sox was great.
It was two Americans, two Swedes and me.
But before that I was in a band in school _ with quite a successful musician called Richard
Thompson who was in Fairport Convention.
So he taught me to play bass.
We had a band together and he taught me to play bass.
So I started as a bass player.
And when did you make the switch?
When he left school and went to become a professional musician and I continued studying.
And then I started to play six string guitar more, because I was not in a band.
And I could play in restaurants and just play for fun.
And how important has, I don't know if I pronounced his name right, Hans Wermeling?
Hans Wermeling.
Was he important?
Very, very important.
He demonstrated to me how to play electric guitar, because I had an acoustic guitar,
six string, but I'd never played electric guitar six string.
And he persuaded me that I should start playing electric guitar.
So he was very important for my guitar playing.
And he practiced every day and he played every day, even though he had another job.
He was a nurse in a hospital and he played three, four, five hours a day, every day,
seven days a week.
And he impressed upon me the importance of just playing and trying to improve and seeing
that you can always improve.
However good you think you are, you can always improve your style and your proficiency.
So he was very important.
And he was always writing songs without words.
He wanted me to put the words on the songs, like Strange Little Girl.
I did the words to his music.
And so I learned a lot about songwriting from him and putting chords together and things.
And well, obviously you've had a long career as a solo artist, but also with the Stranglers.
We _ don't have the time to go into that, every detail.
But if you look back on the Stranglers, what do you remember?
What are your fond memories?
What are the things you like about it?
I like the fact that we were never scared to take risks with music.
And you look around at _ music now and the people that are still going and still maintaining
a career, they very rarely take any risks musically.
And I think that's a shame.
I'm not admonishing them for it.
I understand why they do [E] it.
Because if you hit on something, you stick with something that is a success.
Because it's foolish to try to change.
But I like challenges.
So I'm never satisfied with if I find something that works, I go, ah, that works.
Then I'd say, well, maybe I can find something else that works as well.
So I think people tend to rest a little bit on their laurels.
They don't try to _
[Fm] _ [N] influence people's taste in music.
It's the same in all arts.
When someone finds something, Damien Hirst finds the butterflies, and that's it.
That's it.
We have butterflies for 10 years.
It happens in all forms of art, expression.
Someone finds something that's successful, and they stick with it.
Because that's what provides the income.
And I'm a little foolhardy in the sense that I try to introduce new elements.
If you look at [G] the album, can you say there are certain phases in the Stranglers' [D] career?
The music that you recorded?
Yeah, I think that at the beginning we were taking risks.
We were trying to discover what style we were together as musicians.
Finding ourselves and what was the best thing for us to try to create.
And then we found that we could write short songs that were strong energy and attitude.
And they were successful.
And then we realised that the punk was something that was going.
And we had to try to progress beyond this.
So we tried to introduce some new elements into our music.
More risks to take.
What sort of elements?
Well, like time signature changes and things.
And strange topics for songs.
Just try to change the limits.
And our audience came with us.
And they said, yeah, we like [Ab] that.
And they came with us.
So we were emboldened to do it more and more.
And then we did The Raven.
And then towards the end I just felt that we weren't trying to make any new changes anymore to our music.
It was settling into a pattern and a style.
And I was getting a feeling a little bit restrained by this. _ _ _
_ _ In Sweden you already had the band Johnny Sox.
That's right, yeah.
Was it good?
Yeah, Johnny Sox was great.
It was two Americans, two Swedes and me.
But before that I was in a band in school _ with quite a successful musician called Richard
Thompson who was in Fairport Convention.
So he taught me to play bass.
We had a band together and he taught me to play bass.
So I started as a bass player.
And when did you make the switch?
When he left school and went to become a professional musician and I continued studying.
And then I started to play six string guitar more, because I was not in a band.
And I could play in restaurants and just play for fun.
And how important has, I don't know if I pronounced his name right, Hans Wermeling?
Hans Wermeling.
Was he important?
Very, very important.
He demonstrated to me how to play electric guitar, because I had an acoustic guitar,
six string, but I'd never played electric guitar six string.
And he persuaded me that I should start playing electric guitar.
So he was very important for my guitar playing.
And he practiced every day and he played every day, even though he had another job.
He was a nurse in a hospital and he played three, four, five hours a day, every day,
seven days a week.
And he impressed upon me the importance of just playing and trying to improve and seeing
that you can always improve.
However good you think you are, you can always improve your style and your proficiency.
So he was very important.
And he was always writing songs without words.
He wanted me to put the words on the songs, like Strange Little Girl.
I did the words to his music.
And so I learned a lot about songwriting from him and putting chords together and things.
And well, obviously you've had a long career as a solo artist, but also with the Stranglers.
We _ don't have the time to go into that, every detail.
But if you look back on the Stranglers, what do you remember?
What are your fond memories?
What are the things you like about it?
I like the fact that we were never scared to take risks with music.
And you look around at _ music now and the people that are still going and still maintaining
a career, they very rarely take any risks musically.
And I think that's a shame.
I'm not admonishing them for it.
I understand why they do [E] it.
Because if you hit on something, you stick with something that is a success.
Because it's foolish to try to change.
But I like challenges.
So I'm never satisfied with if I find something that works, I go, ah, that works.
Then I'd say, well, maybe I can find something else that works as well.
So I think people tend to rest a little bit on their laurels.
They don't try to _
[Fm] _ [N] influence people's taste in music.
It's the same in all arts.
When someone finds something, Damien Hirst finds the butterflies, and that's it.
That's it.
We have butterflies for 10 years.
It happens in all forms of art, expression.
Someone finds something that's successful, and they stick with it.
Because that's what provides the income.
And I'm a little foolhardy in the sense that I try to introduce new elements.
If you look at [G] the album, can you say there are certain phases in the Stranglers' [D] career?
The music that you recorded?
Yeah, I think that at the beginning we were taking risks.
We were trying to discover what style we were together as musicians.
Finding ourselves and what was the best thing for us to try to create.
And then we found that we could write short songs that were strong energy and attitude.
And they were successful.
And then we realised that the punk was something that was going.
And we had to try to progress beyond this.
So we tried to introduce some new elements into our music.
More risks to take.
What sort of elements?
Well, like time signature changes and things.
And strange topics for songs.
Just try to change the limits.
And our audience came with us.
And they said, yeah, we like [Ab] that.
And they came with us.
So we were emboldened to do it more and more.
And then we did The Raven.
And then towards the end I just felt that we weren't trying to make any new changes anymore to our music.
It was settling into a pattern and a style.
And I was getting a feeling a little bit restrained by this. _ _ _