Chords Req: Beale Street Blues (W. C. Handy)

02 Aug 99 - 05:14 PM (#101671)
Subject: Beale Street
From: [e-mail]

I am looking for the cgords to Beale Strret Blues, Written by W C Handy. Any help would be gratefully received, and replied to. Thank you

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03 Aug 99 - 04:39 AM (#101835)
Subject: Chords Add: BEALE STREET BLUES (W. C. Handy)
From: [e-mail]

There is a book called "Blues, An Anthology" edited by W.C. Handy. The 1990 Da Capo press version of the book has chording for the guitar by Jerry Silverman.

I will give you the chording from that.

Beal Street Blues

Capo First Fret (chords given are chord shapes.

Chord changes are in square brackets right before the phrase in which they occurr

[A]I've seen the lights of gay Broadway[A7]
[D]Old Market Street down by the Frisco [A]Bay
I've strolled the Prado
[E7]I've Gambled on the [A]Bourse

The seven wonders of the world I've seen[A7]
[D]And many are the placies I have [A]been
Take my advice folks[E7]and see Beal Street [A]first[E7][A]
You'll see pretty Browns in beautiful gowns. You'll see [D]tai-[A]or[E7]mades[A]and [E]hand[B7]me[E]downs
{E+]You'll [A]meet honest men [A7]and [D]pick pockets skilled
[D#dim]You'll [F7]find that [A]business never closes till some body [E7]gets killed
I'd rather [D]be here [A7]than any place I [D]know
[D7]I'd rather [G]be here than any place I [D]know
[B7]It's toing to [A7]take the Sargent Fox to make me [D]go
Goin' to the river [A7]maybe bye and [D]bye
[E7]Goin' to the [G]river and here's a reason [D]why
be-[B7]cause the [A7]river's wet and Beale Street's done gone [D]dry

Silverman seems to have taken the chords from Handy's piano part. You can probably simplify them a bit.

Just to make sure, the Handy arrangement is in B-flat major. You are playing the chords for the key of A major and then letting the capo on the first fret transpose to B-flat. Of course if the key of A fits your voice, you can forget the capo.

The rythm is a little more complicated than a country blues or popular piece and if you can find a copy of the book, you should have a look at it. If you are a Handy fan, you might want to see/own it anyway. It has a lot of good music and historical material.

Murray

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