Playing Bourgeois Blues as Pete Seeger

Subject: Playing Bourgeois Blues as Pete Seeger
From: GUEST
Date: 24 Aug 18 - 09:32 AM

Does anybody know if it is possible to play this legendary tune on a 6-string,while still achieving that "rockabilly" bass melody he does?
Also any idea on how to play that melody he puts in? Thanks

Subject: RE: Playing Bourgeois Blues as Pete Seeger
From: gillymor
Date: 24 Aug 18 - 11:16 AM

I know Pete tabbed it out somewhere, I learned it on a 6 string long ago. Perhaps it was in "The Incompleat Folksinger" which you might be able to find in your public library.

Subject: RE: Playing Bourgeois Blues as Pete Seeger
From: GUEST
Date: 24 Aug 18 - 11:44 AM

In italy it will be near impossibile to find in a library,I'll check if i find it as a
pdf

Subject: RE: Playing Bourgeois Blues as Pete Seeger
From: Joe Offer
Date: 24 Aug 18 - 12:44 PM

I looked in Where Have All the Flowers Gone?, and had no luck. Seeger does have several pages in The Incompleat Folksinger about Lead Belly's guitar style, but no tab or notation for "Bourgeois Blues."


Here's Pete's recording from Gazette: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zxm_gIi3e10 (may not play outside the U.S.). Sounds like a 12-string guitar to me.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Playing Bourgeois Blues as Pete Seeger
From: GUEST
Date: 24 Aug 18 - 01:12 PM

Yep ,it is a 12-stringer. I have "Where Have all the flowers gone " as well,but yes,no luck here.
But a somewhat strange idea passed my mind ,some of the chords seem definetly similar to those of "Bells of Rhymney" to me, with its subtle variation on the same chords (D,Dsus4,A,Asus4).
Could that be? Still no idea on that bass line tho.

Subject: RE: Playing Bourgeois Blues as Pete Seeger
From: gillymor
Date: 24 Aug 18 - 02:22 PM

Here's a version by Mark Dvorak that's somewhat similar to Pete's. You can play it on a 6 you just won't have the octaves and unison strings in there.
Note that Dvorak seems to be playing a recreation of a Stella 12 like Leadbelly used to play, I don't think it's an original.

Subject: RE: Playing Bourgeois Blues as Pete Seeger
From: gillymor
Date: 24 Aug 18 - 02:43 PM

Dvorak is tuned down a 4th from standard tuning and playing in A.
Turns out he plays a Ralph Bown Stella.

Subject: RE: Playing Bourgeois Blues as Pete Seeger
From: GUEST
Date: 24 Aug 18 - 02:56 PM

This is the almost exact same version as Pete's.
Only trouble now will be figuring out the chords up the neck

Subject: RE: Playing Bourgeois Blues as Pete Seeger
From: gillymor
Date: 24 Aug 18 - 03:45 PM

I haven't played this in a long time but the first part of the solo ,if you're playing in D, is a 3rd position D chord w/ index finger on the 1st string 5th fret and the 3 notes in the shuffle are A,B, and C (the 7th). I play the D chord and collapse the L.H. ring finger to get the B note and then play the C with my pinky then walk back down and up again, repeat that and then move up to a G chord (the same form you used on the 5th fret) at the 10th fret and do the same shuffle you did on the D chord and then back to the D chord and do the shuffle just once this time. It's not that hard but the timing is a little tricky, it just takes listening and practice. That should get you started.

Subject: RE: Playing Bourgeois Blues as Pete Seeger
From: gillymor
Date: 24 Aug 18 - 03:58 PM

Another option for playing the A B and C notes is to hold that D chord at 5th fret as is and just use your pinky to play them, which is what Dvorak seems to be doing.

Subject: RE: Playing Bourgeois Blues as Pete Seeger
From: GUEST
Date: 24 Aug 18 - 04:36 PM

By playing in D you mean in a drop-D tuning? With A,B and C you mean i should press the single strings while having a D chord in the Fifth fret? Which frets do these (A B C) correapond to?
Anyway thanks for the help,sorry if I can't follow you very well but i started in playing only 7 months ago

Subject: RE: Playing Bourgeois Blues as Pete Seeger
From: Joe Offer
Date: 24 Aug 18 - 04:38 PM

It's a good song, very appropriate for the current state of affairs in Washington DC.

Subject: RE: Playing Bourgeois Blues as Pete Seeger
From: GUEST
Date: 24 Aug 18 - 05:05 PM

It is here in Italy as well,in a way,sadly

Subject: RE: Playing Bourgeois Blues as Pete Seeger
From: GUEST,Jerry
Date: 24 Aug 18 - 06:21 PM

This song appears in tab and standard notation in ‘The Twelve String Guitar of Leadbelly’, published by Oak, but authored by Pete Seeger. I’m not sure whether the arrangement is precisely what Leadbelly played, or Seeger’s own interpretation, but it’s in dropped D tuning, with the boogie bass line similar to that described above here.

Subject: RE: Playing Bourgeois Blues as Pete Seeger
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 24 Aug 18 - 07:04 PM

I always thought that book was by Julius Lester. Way back in history I used to have a copy.

Subject: RE: Playing Bourgeois Blues as Pete Seeger
From: Leadfingers
Date: 24 Aug 18 - 09:21 PM

Unless you think you are a 'Tribute Band' do the bloody song your own way !

Subject: RE: Playing Bourgeois Blues as Pete Seeger
From: GUEST,Jerry
Date: 25 Aug 18 - 04:24 AM

Just dug it out and yes, it was by written by Julius Lester and Pete Seeger, and the title was actually ‘ The Folksinger’s Guide to the 12-String Guitar as Played by Leadbelly’.
I have to say I tend to play it in Willie McTell style, since it has similarities to Statesboro Blues.

Subject: RE: Playing Bourgeois Blues as Pete Seeger
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 25 Aug 18 - 07:32 AM

I don't think of myself as a member of politically correct police. Nevertheless I would feel uncomfortable singing

White folks in Washington, they know how
To call a coloured man a nigger , just to see him bow

Great song! I always loved the mandoline intro on Ry Cooder's version on the Chicken Skin Music album.
Still that's the way I feel. Just don't like using the word. Perhaps this is how religious people felt about using the word fuck.

Subject: RE: Playing Bourgeois Blues as Pete Seeger
From: GUEST,Jerry
Date: 25 Aug 18 - 07:43 AM

I know that verse as:
White folks in Washington, they know how
To throw a coloured a man nickel just to see him bow...
...which is less offensive but still powerful as a condemnation of racial prejudice.