PW Song Book

[Kathy]

The news just keeps coming, got some cool info today for the musicians out there, a new PW/Mats song book:

www.musicdispatch.com/product/viewproduct.do?itemid=691036&menuid=7047&subsiteid=111&&viewtype=songlist

The Very Best of Paul Westerberg & The Replacements

Series: Guitar Recorded Version
TAB
HL #00691036

Song List:
•Alex Chilton
•As Far As I Know
•Bastards Of Young
•Can't Hardly Wait
•Color Me Impressed
•Dyslexic Heart
•Here Comes A Regular
•I Will Dare
•I'll Be You
•Johnny's Gonna Die
•Let The Bad Times Roll
•Merry Go Round
•Shiftless When Idle
•Skyway
•Unsatisfied

[brianlux]

That IS very cool! I just hope the music isn't too dummied down or altered like so, so many song books I've seen.

[hudson99]

Interesting song selections.

[wecantgetanybetter]

Nov 18, 2010 22:04:48 GMT -5 hudson99 said:

Interesting song selections.

I don't play but I can't fault that list.

Test on watered-downness might be to compare Let the Bad Times Roll tabs with whatever he seemed to be playing on televised version.

[FreeRider]

cool....it's about time. i thought we had a discussion here once about Paul putting out a song book or something. maybe Darren saw us talking about it and broached the subject with Paul?

But as stated by brianlux, I hope it isn't some watered down version or transcription. It has to be in the open tunings that Paul uses and fingerings for the chords. Otherwise, the guitar chords will be charted as some impossible-to-finger chords. Not that Paul doesn't do some hard to finger chords himself, though! I'm still curious as to how he's fingering the opening chords to Merry Go Round. I can do a bastardized version of it but I'm just now sure how he's doing it though.

I hope he does more with his publishing company and puts out one for Stereo/Mono!

[thepogo]

I love that Shiftless is in there. One of my all time favorite songs.

[thepogo]

Kind of a strange picture for the cover. I would expect a more rockin' action pic.

[GtrPlyr]

I know how to play quite a few of these, but it'll be fun to see how different my way is from the proper way. Hopefully these guys consulted with Paul to get help with tunings and chords.

I've seen other TAB books from this publisher and they've been pretty good so I've taken a chance and just ordered this. I'll report back on the quality if someone doesn't beat me to it.

[dee]

I wonder if there's more photos inside.
It's cool that there's two pretty cool collectable bits of merch happening with this book and the Mr.F single!With possibly more coming.Plus the archival video that's surfaced recently!

[MacGyver]

New picture of Paul? Would be nice to get a bigger version of it!

[Squaw]

Nov 19, 2010 14:09:58 GMT -5 MacGyver said:

New picture of Paul? Would be nice to get a bigger version of it!

Yes, I agree. Checked out your myspace link...you're very good. Consider me a fan!

[MacGyver]

Nov 19, 2010 17:14:12 GMT -5 Squaw said:

Nov 19, 2010 14:09:58 GMT -5 MacGyver said:

New picture of Paul? Would be nice to get a bigger version of it!

Yes, I agree. Checked out your myspace link...you're very good. Consider me a fan!

Heh... Thanks! *blush*

[brianlux]

I agree FreeRider and GtrPlyr, I hope the book shows the proper tunings and chords. I also have to admit to playing bastardized versions of several P.W. songs- partly from not having figured out the correct way to play them and partly due to arthritis and a long-time deep tissue injury to my left hand which makes extended use of barre chords etc. painful (I wonder if, like Jack White, Paul has had to alter his playing due to hand injury?)

In any case, it would be fun to at least attempt the correct versions, assuming they are published as such. Hope so!

[FreeRider]

indeed! i really hope they got the tunings for these and they don't do it all in standard tuning. have you ever noticed how when you try and play his songs in standard that it's so apparent there's still something missing in the chord? it just doesn't sound right, some passing tone or something is off.

well, i ordered a copy up as well today , so if GtrPlyr or someone else gets a copy first, I hope they have good things to report!

[brianlux]

Now this is interesting- as far as I can tell this song book is only available through Music Dispatch. I don't see it anywhere else (not even Amazon, but don't get me started). Anybody familiar with Music Dispatch and why this title would only be available through them?

Thanks in advance for the enlightenment.

[FreeRider]

Nov 20, 2010 0:00:40 GMT -5 brianlux said:

Now this is interesting- as far as I can tell this song book is only available through Music Dispatch. I don't see it anywhere else (not even Amazon, but don't get me started). Anybody familiar with Music Dispatch and why this title would only be available through them?

Thanks in advance for the enlightenment.

hmmm, it could be some arrangement that Bug Music has with the company?

i'm just very glad that Paul decided to do a song book. I figured, "hell, he just signed with a new publisher, Bug Music, this is the kind of thing he should be doing."

the next step is for Paul to do some instructional videos/DVDs. he could play thru the entire songs in his various open tunings and then he can break each song down section by section for the instructional part.

[GtrPlyr]

Nov 19, 2010 23:16:53 GMT -5 FreeRider said:

i really hope they got the tunings for these and they don't do it all in standard tuning. have you ever noticed how when you try and play his songs in standard that it's so apparent there's still something missing in the chord? it just doesn't sound right, some passing tone or something is off.

Yeah, if these TABs are all in standard tuning this book would be a big disappointment, especially considering a 1/3 of these tunes are in alternate tunings. And like you said freerider, things don't sound the same when you play an alternate tuned song in standard. The different tension in the strings, different open notes and overall chord shapes just can't be properly replicated in standard tuning.

I just glanced through some titles I have from this publisher (The Beatles Blue Album and Abbey Road.) The songs are acurately tabbed out, with all alternately tuned guitars listed (not that The Beatles have a lot of songs with alternate tunings, but the ones that do are listed correctly.) They also tab out all the guitar parts, not just the main ones, and often have tabs for other instrument parts thar are crucial to a song--such as keyboards--for guitar which is cool. So on hand of this I'm fairly optimistic about this Paul/Mats book. I just wish there were more songs in it. I guess if this sells enough copies a 2nd volume wouldn't be out of the question (I won't hold my breath on that though.)

I like freeriders suggestion about a guitar video, though this I suspect would be very unlikely coming from Paul. I think he likes keeping some mystery in the music which is why he doesn't include lyrics. So this tab book is probably the best we can hope for.

[FreeRider]

Nov 20, 2010 11:22:50 GMT -5 GtrPlyr said:

.... So on hand of this I'm fairly optimistic about this Paul/Mats book. I just wish there were more songs in it. I guess if this sells enough copies a 2nd volume wouldn't be out of the question (I won't hold my breath on that though.)

it'd be awesome if sales were good enough that Darren, Paul and Bug Music could push for second book. Who knows?

I like freeriders suggestion about a guitar video, though this I suspect would be very unlikely coming from Paul. I think he likes keeping some mystery in the music which is why he doesn't include lyrics. So this tab book is probably the best we can hope for.

Very true, GP; I think that's what makes Paul's music and style kind of unique, the fact that we don't always know how he does it. And Paul knows that what keeps him unique, allowing for some mystery and the answers not always being obvious. He's put us players on the path to self-discovery, our own musical journey, by all of us switching to open tunings and trying to decipher what he's done.

But I'd like to think that in the future, if he decides he never wants to perform again (I shiver at that thought!), he could still let his music live on with more song books and the instructional vids and dvds on how to play his tunes. That way, a bunch of us can learn them and perform them for him in open mic nites, as cover tunes, etc....

His songs are too good to be kept hidden away and heard only by the hardcore fan base. No knock against James Taylor, and I dig the song, but if I hear another "Fire and Rain" version at some acoustic open mic night, I'm going to attack the performer. But if we can play one of Paul's, and it gets a great reaction, what better way to turn someone on to Paul?

I've also been trying to work up my courage to get up there myself and belt out a few Paul songs just to show everyone else how good these songs are and for the love of gawd please stop covering "fire and rain" or some other worn out material. the last open mic nite i attended was really underwhelming, i hate to say. there were one or two good performers but everyone else received just polite but disinterested applause.

[cford]

Nov 18, 2010 21:40:47 GMT -5 brianlux said:

That IS very cool! I just hope the music isn't too dummied down or altered like so, so many song books I've seen.

15 songs is pretty slim pickins.. must be a small book. I have several songbooks from various artists with similar career spans as Westerberg...Typically they contain almost 100 songs..

CF

[anarkissed]

Nov 19, 2010 22:14:21 GMT -5 brianlux said:

I hope the book shows the proper tunings and chords.

That'd be the only way to do it...It was frustrating, though, after the first few years of struggling to simply be less than embarrasing in standard, to ask "Wait...You mean there are alternate tunings?"