tele on Chain Of Fools

I was too busy swapping pickups and trying to figure out if my body is made of one piece of ash or three to have time to learn to play a song!

 

Funny you should mention that old tune, soul-o........we did that song years ago....it was one of my favorites to play in that band.
Unfortunately, I never got to tune the E string down to C.........the lady who sang it, did it in A. So we just played it standard tuning.

You mention the major/minor aspect of the tune: I always heard the subtile major thing going on in the background. I used variations of A sevenths for much of the rythym work.
(with major 3rds)

And the guitar used on the original recording? I hope someone will enlighten me with the correct information, but somehow it sounds like it COULD have been a mustang/jaguar or other fender guitar. There's something about the tone that seems 'out of phase'

Of course, if I remember correctly,Joe South played with bare fingers.......sometimes playing that way creates a slightly out of phase tone.
But that last is just a guess........I hope someone has the right answers!

 

I read somewhere years ago that it was Duane Allman playing on Chain of Fools, and that he used a strat, not a tele.
I know he was a full time session musician at Muscle Shoals, and recorded a bunch of stuff with Aretha.

 

Duane Allman did record with Aretha Franklin, but I think it was Joe South who picked on Chain of Fools. Aretha has a boxed set with the original, longer version of CoF. To me it is no where nearly as good as the edited version. Check it out!

 

Hehe...

 

Soul-o, I always liked tunes that were sort of 'ambiguous' (I think that's the term) as to whether they're major or minor. I could switch back and forth from maj to minor on that tune and it gave me much more room to improvise chords and solos.

I found that if used pentonic 'blues' scales for everything, I would sort of....run out of licks........adding the major 3rds really opened up the harmony of the tune to the point I could improv on it for 5 minutes and never play the same lick twice.

Every once in a while, when I felt like using some really 'outside' tones, I would do a phrase or two with minor 3rds and 6ths........just minor 6ths........it fit right in if I used as a quick passing tone.

 

For What Its Worth...

I'm 99% sure that it was Joe South....on a Gretsch Country Gentleman!


Bill Hullett