The Twelve Year-Old Boy - Elmore James

[Mr Scallywag]

Three minutes of pure raw pain.

But what is that little opening salvo? I think I'm almost there.

I play it around the tenth fret.
After the Dm pentatonic run, there's three beats of each chord, which as I think are:

D-D-D
D7-D7-D7
G-G-G
Gm-Gm-Gm
Then some sort of D5

It's the last two chords which are only played once each I can't quite get.

They centre around the Bb and A note, probably on the b string (10th and 11th fret).

I can't figure if it's a Gm7 to F#m7 chords 10th fret, Straight Bb to A chords at the 15th fret (which is kind of the same thing but has a different tone), or something like a G7#9.

Any corrections or ideas welcome. Thanks.

 

[Sidney Vicious]

Wild song! Hadn't heard before - thanks for link.

 

[boneyguy]

Here's what I'm hearing on the last two chords....Bb7 to A7

I'm hearing a Bb on the top of the Bb7 and a G as the top note on the A7.....it sounds like maybe he meant to play the full A7 chord with the A on top just like the Bb7 but he sort of flubbed it....

So, I think he's simply playing a Bb7 at the 13th fret - (x, 13, 12, 13, 11, x) to A7 (x, 12, 11, 12, x, x)....with some amp distortion and inefficient speaker frap added for the right sound.

 

[Mr Scallywag]

Here's what I'm hearing on the last two chords....Bb7 to A7

I'm hearing a Bb on the top of the Bb7 and a G as the top note on the A7.....it sounds like maybe he meant to play the full A7 chord with the A on top just like the Bb7 but he sort of flubbed it....

So, I think he's simply playing a Bb7 at the 13th fret - (x, 13, 12, 13, 11, x) to A7 (x, 12, 11, 12, x, x)....with some amp distortion and inefficient speaker frap added for the right sound.

I think you've cracked it! Thanks. It was the one alternative I hadn't even thought about - kinda circling but not seeing it.

Now if you could just tab out the rest of the song for me...

 

[boneyguy]

No!