Chords for Smithereens - Blood and Roses - Lesson Part I

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ Welcome to Vanderbilt.com. This is in response to a request for lessons on songs by the Smithereens, a great 80s band from New Jersey.
Yeah, right.
_ Two of our contributors are going to cover Only a Memory and A Girl Like You, so I thought I'd do Blood and Roses, which I think was their first hit.
_ I have the guitar tuned down a half step below standard tuning, so that you have E flat down here.
And that's pretty much true for every Smithereens song.
For convenience, I'm going to refer to the chords as if it were in standard tuning, but the song is actually in E flat. _ _ _ _
I'm going to take a quick look at the opening bass riff, and I'm going to cover all the chords and solo.
_ I'm not going to be playing the drums, so I might be stomping my foot a little bit.
_ _ And just to add, this song has a fade-out ending.
It does not have anything in particular, just play _ the _ _ verse chords over and over and fade out.
So feel free to pick your own ending.
_ Let's get started. _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ Okay, I'm going to show you the opening bass riff, because it does open the song, and it's high enough that you can play it on the guitar.
But if you actually try to play this in your band, your [Eb] bass player will probably kill you, because this is their moment in the spotlight.
But it does set up the song, so you probably should learn it.
It's pretty easy.
It goes like this.
_ _ [Gb] _ _ _ [Eb] _
[Gb] _ _ _ _ _ _ [Eb] _ [Gb] _
_ [Db] _ _ [Gb] So it's [Eb] open 6th string.
_ _ _ _ 6th string, [Gb] 3rd fret. _
_ [Bb] 5th string, 2nd fret. _ _
6th string, [Gb] 3rd fret.
_ _ _ 5th string, 5th [Db] fret.
_ _ And 5th string, [Eb]
2nd fret.
_ _ _ That's the first part of it.
_ _ _ [Gb] _ _ And [Bb] _ _ _ the second part of the riff is basically, it's the same [Eb] beginning.
_ [Gb] _ _ _ _
[G] And then [F] it goes to _ the 4th string, 4th fret.
_ _ [Db] _ _ _ _
[Eb] _ [Gb] _ _ [Db] _ _ _ _ _
_ [Fm] _ _ So that's how people identify the song by that opening riff. _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ Okay, the chords in this are simple open chords, so it's more a question of the rhythm and how you play them.
I'm going to play the verse and the chorus through once, and then we'll [Eb] break it down.
_ [Ebm] _ _
_ _ Alright. _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [Gb] _ [Ebm] _
_ [Gb] _ [Db] _ [Ebm] _ [Gb] _ _ [Ebm] _ _
[Gb] _ [Ab] _ [B] _ _ _ [Db] _ [Ebm] _ _
_ [B] _ _ _ [Db] _ [Ebm] _ _ [B] _
_ _ [Ab] _ _ [Db] _ _ [Ebm] _ _
_ _ _ _ [Db] _ [Ebm] _ _ _
_ _ _ So the _ chords are just an E minor, _ which actually [G] is E flat minor.
_ A [Gb] G. _
[Db] And a D.
_ You can probably leave the top [Ab] _
[Db] off the D sometimes if you want. _ _
_ And think about that bass riff that we played before.
That is the feel of this.
Do [Eb] you remember that?
_ [Bb] _
That's the root of the G chord [Eb] right there.
[Gb] _ _
Alright.
So you set your guitar onto a clangy, with a little bit of overdrive, and you play these full chords.
So it's a [Abm] downstroke on [Ebm] the E minor. _
_ Mute [Bbm] chop downstroke.
_ [Eb]
And _ then an [Ebm] upstroke on the G. _ _
_ _ [Gb] _ _ _ [Ebm] _ [Gb] _ _
_ And then the other _ [N] ending is _ just [Ebm] E minor.
_ _ [F] G, D.
[Gb] _ [Db] _ _ _ [B] And you just alternate those two endings.
Now the opening chords in the _ _ chorus are _ a C major 7.
_ So it's the same thing as your open C without your first finger on there. _ _ _
_ _ _ [Ab] _ [Eb] _ And _ _ _ the [Db] D and an E [Ebm] minor.
_ _ _ _ _ [B] _ And you repeat that once.
_ _ [Db] _ _ [Ebm]
And [Ab] then the last [B] time you do C major 7.
_ [Ab] A.
_ [Db] And [Gb] back to the_
_ In [N] this section, you change your strumming _ style completely.
Before you're playing these kind of [Gb] _ _ chords. _
_ _ [N] _ But here, you're going to be _ _ doing some tighter strumming.
You're going to avoid the very top and the very bottom strings.
There's no particular pattern.
_ _ And the strum is just_
In terms of the strings, the strum is just an up-down.
So what you're going to do_
Let me just try and get the picking hand in here.
You're just going to be doing this kind of [B] thing.
_ [Ebm] _ _ [Db] _ _ [Ebm] _
_ _ _ [B] _ _ [Ebm] _ _ [Dbm] _
_ [Ebm] _ _ _ [B] _ _ _ _
[Db] _ _ _ [Ebm] _ _ Alright.
[Db] _
_ _ So again, the chorus section goes like this.
It's got two_
It goes like this twice.
[Em] _ _ [B] _
_ [Ebm] _ _ [Db] _ [Ebm] _ _ [B] _ _
_ [Db] _ _ [Ebm] _ _ _ _ _
[Ab] _ _ [Db] _ _ [Ebm] _ _ _ _
_ _ [Db] _ _ [G] So it's_
And that's pretty much the [Dbm] basics of the song.
In the next bit, we're going to take a look at the solo, which is kind of screaming. _ _ _ _ _ _