#35202  by old man down
 
------Three days in the saddle, you know my body hurt.---------------------It being summer,
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----I took off my shirt, and I tried to wash off some of that dusty dirt.
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----West Texas cowboys, they’s all around.-------------------With liquor and money, they's loaded down.
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--So soon after payday, ’know it seems a shame.----------------You know my uncle, he starts a friendly game.
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--------Yeah, and a high—low—jack and the winner take the hand!
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e|------------------------------------11b12----10-----------------------------------------------------------------------------|
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e|---------------------------------------------------------------7---------------------------------------------------------3---|
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D|--------------------------9\7----7----5-----------5h7/9----------------------------------------9-------9\8----5-----5---|
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Last edited by old man down on Thu Jan 13, 2011 2:17 pm, edited 6 times in total.

 #35301  by old man down
 
. . My uncle started winnin’,
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. . . . . . . .the cowboys got sore.
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. . One of them callin’, . . went in
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. . two more. . . . . . Accused him of cheating. “Whoa no,
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. it couldn't be!” But I know my
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. uncle, he's as honest as me. Yeah, and I'm as honest as a Denver man
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can be. (That’s me!)
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. . One of them cowboys, he starts to draw,
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And I shot him down, Lord, he never saw.
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. . . . . . . (open G chord)

. Shot me another, that man he wont grow old,
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. And in the confusion, . . . . my uncle grabbed the gold.
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. Hey, and we hightailed it down to Mexico.
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Now I left those cowboys—-out of their gold.
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. Loved my uncle, . . . . . .God rest his soul.
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Last edited by old man down on Thu Apr 09, 2009 9:48 am, edited 2 times in total.

 #35302  by old man down
 
Deleted duplicate post.
Last edited by old man down on Sun Jan 20, 2008 9:14 am, edited 1 time in total.

 #35303  by old man down
 
. Taught me good, Lord, taught me all I know.
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. Taught me so well, I grabbed that gold, . . . and I
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. left his dead ass there by the side of the road. Yeah!
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D|----------------------------------------9\8-7-5----4|
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OK, now I worked this all out over a year ago. Some of the parts I do a little bit different now, like some of the bass line runs on the first few stanzas I do open position instead of working up the E string.

But this should get your foot in the door.

This is for acoustic guitar. If you work at it you can eventually sing it and play these notes at the same time. It is very impressive to pull off.

Also, I picked up my nylon string guitar to see what someone for the first time would think of these notes if trying to learn this. It would be impossible. You have to sit by the CD and listen to it and work out each snippet.

Garcia's wrist is always going back and forth over the strings, even if he doesn't pick any notes at a given moment. You should be doing that too. You have to stay extremely nimble and have a glissading approach.

Start the song playing the Em chord playing Bobby's part and then launch into the intro riff on the upstroke of the wrist to set up those extremely tight notes.

Many of the riffs should be experimented at different locations on the neck, especially if playing this with an electric. The notes will roll off the strings right on top of the notes on the lower strings much more easily. The song is based off of a pentatonic skeleton with filler notes that add the Southwest western-shoot-'em-up colorings.

I have always thought of this recording as equivalent to Olympic figure eight compulsories. That is where Olympic ice skaters have to make perfect figure eights and are judged on their perfection. If you try to duplicate this song and then listen to their version, you will see how your version completely pales in comparison.

This song, or rather this recording of this song, is perfection. It is extremely fast paced with never a dull moment. (I've always been dissapointed when I hear other later versions from recordings by the boys that represent just going through the motions since the song had become stale for them to some extent.)

Every year I come back to this song and rework it since it is easy to wander off during the year. This is the only song by the Dead that I try to play note for note. Everything else I do much, much looser. This song is extremely humbling.

Good luck.
Last edited by old man down on Thu Apr 09, 2009 9:57 am, edited 3 times in total.

 #35314  by BuddhaG
 
Jerry steals my face with the solo for this song in the late 60's early 70's. I am really impressed with your transcription, old man down! I need to sit down with it and my guitar for an hour or two these days and just study what is going on. Which version are you basing this off of?

Also, you transcribed this sitting in an airport? Did you have a guitar with you on hand?

 #35333  by old man down
 
This is from Skull & Roses.

The first reply was in the hotel, then the next in the airport, and now back home in NJ.

I had done the TAB over a year ago, but it was in my laptop on a 8 1/2 x 11 page with 0.2 margins. That was why it took me so long to post it. I had to fool around to see what would fit on the pages here.

So, no, did not have a guitar in the airport.

I'll edit my posts from time to time in the future as I get my my fluidity even better, since I have modified my approach with every year. And I have to alter the words, which I'm going to do right now. (I want rukind to feel comfortable about this.)
 #91499  by old man down
 
Came across these lyrics, which are referred to as Japanese Liner Notes, I guess from, well, I don't know what from, but Japan I suppose:

Me and my uncle went ridin' down
stop around watch taxis bound
we stopped over in Sante Fe
about ten to four, just about a half way
then you know it was the hottest part of the day

and i took the halsey, look to the stars
went to the bar room, would have drink for hour
three days in the saddle, you know my body hurt
if being summer, like to go on a ship
and i try to watch all summer that dusty day

went taxi's cowboys, there's all around
we lived in money, have they loaded down
so soon at the payday, no exceeding has changed
you know ill go, please talked at lil a gain
then my heart go jack
and i wouldn't take him in

Mama, stop winning, a cowboy's got soul
a woman in calling, and empty more
gives in the cheating
oh no, it could be pleading
i know my uncle, kisses on its knee
baby, i was as deadly man as could be

One of them cowboy, he start to draw
and i shot him down low, he never saw
shot me another, i'm beginning a hop to wall!
you make confusion, mind if i grab to go?
and we had a tail right down to mexico

you know i love them cowboys, i love to go
love my uncle, god bless his soul
sort the good moon, drippin' all i know
drivin' so well, well i got to go
and i lived that day, that deal
with the side of the road.
 #91651  by Pete B.
 
Another take on MAMU for the time capsule:
 #91656  by tigerstrat
 
old man down wrote:Came across these lyrics, which are referred to as Japanese Liner Notes, I guess from, well, I don't know what from, but Japan I suppose:

Me and my uncle went ridin' down
stop around watch taxis bound
we stopped over in Sante Fe
about ten to four, just about a half way
then you know it was the hottest part of the day

and i took the halsey, look to the stars
went to the bar room, would have drink for hour
three days in the saddle, you know my body hurt
if being summer, like to go on a ship
and i try to watch all summer that dusty day

went taxi's cowboys, there's all around
we lived in money, have they loaded down
so soon at the payday, no exceeding has changed
you know ill go, please talked at lil a gain
then my heart go jack
and i wouldn't take him in

Mama, stop winning, a cowboy's got soul
a woman in calling, and empty more
gives in the cheating
oh no, it could be pleading
i know my uncle, kisses on its knee
baby, i was as deadly man as could be

One of them cowboy, he start to draw
and i shot him down low, he never saw
shot me another, i'm beginning a hop to wall!
you make confusion, mind if i grab to go?
and we had a tail right down to mexico

you know i love them cowboys, i love to go
love my uncle, god bless his soul
sort the good moon, drippin' all i know
drivin' so well, well i got to go
and i lived that day, that deal
with the side of the road.
awesome lyric fail!
 #91861  by old man down
 
Yeah, those lyrics are too funny. and I have seen that Joni version on you tube before. and so it goes...

Anyway, currently in the midst of re-editing my transcribes in this thread since they got so jumbled when rukind came up with the new format some time back.

First page is done, I'll get the 2nd page done some other time. Then I'll come back and reassess some of the nuances I've learned since I did this years ago, and may even add time stamps above key snippets.
 #91866  by brbadg
 
LOL!!!i THOUGHT it was ''And you know quittin was the hardest part of the day. Holy crap,that's 35 years and I never even noticed and no one called me on it either! You learn something everyday! LOL!!
 #150587  by old man down
 
Just listened to this a minute ago off of YouTube, after quite some time since last hearing it. The seminal Skull & Roses version.

Nothing else comes close to their raw power and energy from 1970, all tightly contained in such a short span of roughly three minutes.

You want to impress someone with what they could do, put this on, crank it up, and then turn it off. The ensuing silence will be deafening.

I'm going to have to dust this one off again for solo acoustic guitar, using my JamMan looper; smooth it out, make it flow a little better in terms of snippet-coherence, to see if I can get it to be more emotive, yet capture the fast pace and flurry of Jer's note sequences and exquisite precision.

Just an amazing, amazing rendition they laid down!
 #153383  by old man down
 
Skull and Roses Lyrics Review

I played a lot of poker in my teens. A hell of a lot. Derelict rainy days with my derelict friends. None of us had much money, and this was one way to make a little, even if at each other's expense.

I know all about poker hands, cheating, bluffing, disrupting a hand to force a re-deal, you name it.

Here are routinely "agreed to by many" lyrics for part of Me & my Uncle (got this off the YouTube video-lyrics for Me and My Uncle; Genesis P):

My uncle starts winnin'; cowboys got sore.
One of them called him, and then two more,
Accused him of cheatin'; oh no, it couldn't be.
I know my uncle, he's as honest as me,
And I'm as honest as a gamblin' man can be.


You can substitute Denver if you like for gamblin', I really don't care.

But here's what I'm hearing when I listen to the recording:

My uncle stopped winning; the cowboys got slow.
One of them callin', went in two more.
Accused him of cheatin'; "Whoa no, it couldn't be!"
But I know my uncle, he's as honest as me,
H'yeah, and I'm as honest as a Denver man can be! That's me!


So, why does what I'm hearing make more sense to me than the accepted lyrics?

It's a bunch of cowboys playing their hands, the uncle playing a hand, and the nephew probably isn't playing a hand, and therefore he's not even sitting at the table. (This is why he's faster on the draw than one of the cowboys, later on.)

From my experience, when someone stops winning the other players relax a little because they're suddenly up in chip count, especially when drinking, smoking, and ribbing are going on. "Slow" doesn't have anything to do with the pace of the game, it has to do with attention to detail. You get up a few bucks, and you let your guard down. Happens all the time.

On Skull and Roses you can clearly hear Weir's double-p in "stopped." "Slow" is a little slurred, but still reasonably discernible.

The hand continues...

"One of them callin', went in two more."

This can be clearly heard, too. And what's more, it flows the way a hand flows in the heat of the moment. The cowboy called, just in general, and to make the call he put in two chips.

There's no cowboy "raise of two chips" going on, no bluff by the cowboy. He's a hayseed, a mark for the experienced card-player/cheat uncle.

And since it was just a call, the cowboy and the uncle were most likely the last two players still in the hand.

The cards get revealed, cheating undoubtedly took place and the uncle is accused of it, but a quick, loud denial of cheating is exclaimed by the uncle to browbeat the hayseed into acceptance of his loss.

That's how I read it.