Tune Req: 'You Better Get It While You Can'

Subject: Tune Req: 'You Better Get It While You Can'
From: saulgoldie
Date: 28 May 04 - 10:23 AM

I am (at best) a mediocre hacker on the guitar, and I am looking for some help with this Steve Goodman song. I would like to rend it (solo) on the guitar for a performance, and have it sound at least somewhat like it sounds in my mind as I hear his voice and instrumentation from my recording of it. If anyone is at all familiar with it and can give me some help. I have managed to figure out what I think are the main chords, but the bridges and fingerings and filler chords are beyond my ability to "ear figure" it. Thanks in advance.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: 'You Better Get It While You Can'
From: GUEST,Fieldvole
Date: 28 May 04 - 03:06 PM

Hi there, I got this song by searching for Janis Joplin lyrics, it
might have been from this site.


I would have passed over any references to tab for this one as I
havn't got around to learning it properly, if you do a search for
Janis I think you would come up with something.

Anyway here's the version I have. Great song by the way.



GET IT WHILE YOU CAN



                C                              Em

1. In this world, if you read the papers, Lord,

                                        F                               C

    you know everybody's fighting on with each other.

                  

    You got no one you can count on, baby,

                   Bb             F

    not even your own brother.

             C                         E

    So if someone comes along,

                        F                                     G#

    he's gonna give you some love and affection.



                  C                                       - Bb - F

    I'd say, get it while you can, yeah!

                  C                           - Bb - F

    Honey, get it while you can,

                     C                            - G

    hey, hey, get it while you can,

                                                 Am         G

    don't you turn your back on love, no, no!



                        C                        Em

2. Don't you know when you're loving anybody, baby,

F                                                       C

    you're taking a gamble on a little sorrow.

                           

    But then who cares, baby,

                                        Bb       F

    'cause we may not be here tomorrow, no.

               C                                  E

    And if anybody should come along,

                      F                                  G#

    he gonna give you any love and affection. + CHORUS



    C Em F C E F G#    + CHORUS      + CHORUS ....



    (Janis Joplin)


Cheers for now, hope this helps. (And get a listen to Janice singing
it if you can, it's superb)

Cheers

Fieldvole

Subject: RE: Tune Req: 'You Better Get It While You Can'
From: GUEST,Fieldvole
Date: 28 May 04 - 03:19 PM

Sorry, forgot to put the site address in the post above, here it is.

http://betty.hypermax.net.au/


It *is* from there, I've just been to check, this is a very good site
for things like this, (and if you go there it is in the Rock section).

Enjoy

Fieldvole

Subject: RE: Tune Req: 'You Better Get It While You Can'
From: GUEST,Augie
Date: 28 May 04 - 03:29 PM

Saul

If you find someone to provide the req. info could you please post it for the rest of us Goodmanophiles

Subject: RE: Tune Req: 'You Better Get It While You Can'
From: GUEST,saulgoldie
Date: 29 May 04 - 11:33 AM

Thanks, Vole. I like the Janis song, but that is not the one I am looking for. The song is "You Better Get It While You Can," by the late, great Steve Goodman. I don't have my transcription with me at the moment, but here is some of it:

I remember when I met Carl Martin, musta been a dozen years ago.
This wise old gent was gray and bent, but his eyes had a firey glow.
He was born April Fool's day, 1906 near Big Stone Gap, VA.
And he could play a little fiddle and some blused guitar that he picked up along the way.
But, Jethro, once he put his hands on the mandolin, he lit up just like a Christmas tree.
Along with Ted Bogan and Howard Armstrong, they were the best string band I ever did see.

I can manage the basic chord structure, but there are some licks that I would like to see up close and slowly (or in tablature) so I can try to replicate them for a more authentic sound. Maybe someone out there who knows of this song can hear it out?

I'll post the full lyrics when I am back at my "home" computer where I have that file.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: 'You Better Get It While You Can'
From: GUEST,Augie
Date: 29 May 04 - 02:46 PM

I first heard Goodman in 1975 when I found "Jesse's Jig & Other Favorites" and he just blew my socks off.Anybody out there now who can come close to his vibrancy as a picker and clarity as a writer?

Subject: RE: Tune Req: 'You Better Get It While You Can'
From: GUEST,Fieldvole
Date: 29 May 04 - 03:29 PM

Hi again,
sorry that wasn't the one you wanted, I did wonder as I hit the
submit button if it was correct or not.

Ah well ya can't win them all.

Hope you find what you're looking for.

Cheers

Fieldvole

Subject: RE: Tune Req: 'You Better Get It While You Can'
From: GUEST
Date: 30 May 04 - 04:23 AM

Fieldvole, the lyrics you quote were taken from the recording by the soul singer Howard Tate who had a hit with it in the middle'60's and that is where Janis got it from. Tate left the music biz and became addicted to drugs then was born again and became a preacher in LA, he has recently been "rediscovered" and has recorded a great CD. the profits from which he has pledged to use to fund a drug rehabilitation centre.He was recently here in England and I can tell you, he is one blindingly good singer.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: 'You Better Get It While You Can'
From: GUEST,Fieldvole
Date: 30 May 04 - 08:27 PM

Guest, thanks for the info on that, I have it on a Joplin album and
have always liked that track, it's a pity she died so young, what a
voice she had for that sort of thing.

thanks again

Fieldvole

Subject: RE: Tune Req: 'You Better Get It While You Can'
From: saulgoldie
Date: 31 May 04 - 09:27 AM

For anyone else interested, these are the lyrics I have transcribed. The chords--my guesstimates--probably don't line up, but if you have heard the song, you can probably figure out where the changes go. Maybe I'll just do it "the old-fashioned way" and bring what I have to a festival or group play session and toss it out for comments. Anyway, here are the words:

You Better Get it While You Can

G                                               C                                        G
I remember when I met Carl Martin, it musta been a dozen years ago.
            Em                CG                   C        G                D                      G
This wise old gent was grey and bent, but his eyes had a firey glow.

He was born April Fool's day of 1906 near Big Stone Gap, VA.

He could play a little fiddle and some blues guitar that he'd picked up along the way.

But, Jethro once he put his hands on the mandolin, he lit up just like a Christmas tree,

Along with Ted Bogan and Howard Armstrong they were the best string band I ever did see.
Now for fifty-odd years they played rent parties road housess, concerts and festivals, too.
At the drop of a hat, these three Black cats would play ya every song they knew.
It was "Lady Be Good" and "The Barnyard Dance" and "The Ice Cream Freezer Blues."
Now they'd trot the oldest chestnuts out and make every one sound brand-new.
And little white boys with their shiny guitars would follow right along at their heels.
They learned all the words and they learned all the chords, but they never did learn how it feels.
Now one night I asked Carl where he got the fire, and he said, "Steve you gotta understand:
You wanna be someone, you gotta have some fun, and you better get it while you can."

(cho.)        
                G/C                G                                                    D
He said, "You better get it while you can. You better get it while you can.
        Em                        D           C                        G                        C        
If you wait too long, it'll all be gone, and you'll be sorry then.
G        D            G
It doesn't matter if you're rich or poor, and it's the same for a woman or a man.
G        D            G
From the cradle to the crypt is a mighty short trip, so you better get it while you can."

Carl always had a way to make the good times roll, when the rest of us weren't so sure.
He'd just pick out the prettiest woman in the room, and sing every song to her.
Now one night back East when the gig was done, there was an all-night blow-out jam.
We played and we sang and we drank for hours, until the Sun came up again.
It was blues and ballads, ragtime, Dixieland, swing, some oldtime show tunes,
And then Carl Martin sang some songs nobody else knew, and some I haven't heard since then.
But right before dawn he did two more songs just to separate the strong from the faint.
It was a redhot rendition of "The Old Pine Tree," and a doubletime version of "The Saints..."
With the mandolin behind his head!
Whne he was done, those of us who could still breath, took off our hats to that man.
Carl had played everyobody under the table that night, and he said, you better get it while you can."

cho.

You know, Carl and his buddies never got very far, and when he died, Martin didn't have a dime.
He was a little behind in his payments, and a little bit ahead of his time.
Last week some so-called musicians stayed up real late and burned one down.
The liquor kept coming, so we kept strumming, til a minute or two before dawn.
Some of us stayed and some of us faded and soon I was left all alone.
Now I don't believe in ghosts, but I could swear I heard Carl Martin singing one more song.

It went..

cho.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: 'You Better Get It While You Can'
From: saulgoldie
Date: 04 Jun 04 - 11:24 AM

(refresh)