#----------------------------------PLEASE NOTE---------------------------------# #This file is the author's own work and represents their interpretation of the # #song. You may only use this file for private study, scholarship, or research. # #------------------------------------------------------------------------------## Date: Wed, 27 Sep 1995 13:49:16 -0500 From: verkuilen john v Subject: CRD: Richard Thompson's "Beat the Retreat" BEAT THE RETREAT by Richard Thompson from Pour Down Like Silver or Disk B of Watching the Dark Chorded by Jay Verkuilen ([email protected]). Comments, corrections, etc., welcome. Lyrics gotten from the OLGA file "pour_down_like_silver_album.crd" The song is in C mixolydian (C-D-D-F-G-A-Bb), but sometimes A B shows up. I haven't bothered to TAB it out since it really wouldn't help with the whole feel of the song, and is kind of against Richard's whole philosophy anyway-- he doesn't play anything the same way twice. It's better to improvise within the feel of the song, which is slow, solemn, and bluesy, than to learn exactly what he plays. He said exactly that on his Homespun Lesson Tape, so I don't feel this is a stretch of logic! _____________________________________________________________________________ Tuning: CGDGBE, low to high Chords are: C: o-o-2-o-1-0----| Cadd4: o-o-3-o-1--|o G5: x-o-o-o-3-3---| a: x-2-2-2-1------|o C Cadd4 G5 Beat my retreat, back home to you C Cadd4 G5 Beat my retreat, back home to you A C I'm burning all my bridges A C I'm burning all my bridges A C I'm burning all my bridges G5 C Cadd4 I'm running back home to you Trailing my colours, back home to you Trailing my colours, back home to you This world is filled with sadness This world is filled with sadness This world is filled with sadness I'm running back home to you [instrumental over same chords as verse] Follow the drum, back home to you Follow the drum, back home to you There was no sense in my leaving There was no sense in my leaving There was no sense in my leaving I'm running back home to you You can play the song quite adequately in standard, but you won't get the same bass feel. Also, Richard frequently plays octave bass runs like: E_______________________________ B_______________________________ G___0___2-sl-3-sl-2_____________ D_______________________________ G___0___2-sl-3-sl-2_____________ C_______________________________ These are _much_ easier when you have the octave G strings as open, since you can damp out the B string more easily. (Actually, I was led to using this tuning because I heard these, tried to play them in standard, and was disappointed. :) -- Jay Verkuilen [email protected] "A human society without conflict would be a society not of friends, but of ants." --Sir Karl Popper, _Unended Quest_
