Nashville tabs

[ant_in_alaska]

the chords might be played differently than shown here this is just how I play i.  Any comments or corrections are welcome.

chords:
Bm11
x22232

Bm7
x24232

Bm9
x2o222

F#m
244222

Eadd9
022102

B7sus4
797977

E
07999x

B7
797877

A
577655

D
x5777x

F#
244322

C#
x4666x

C#sus4
x4777x

B
x2444x

A#
688766

G#
466533

intro: Bm11   Bm--Bm9------F#m------Bm7---Bm11----Bm----Bm9----Eadd9--------Bm11-----Bm--Bm9---Eadd9------F#m

B7sus4------------------E
They don't know what they like so much about it
B7sus4--B7-----A--------D-----------F#-------------------B----------C#---C#sus4
They just go for any shiny old bauble, and nobody sparkles like you
C#--F#---C#----B--------C#---B--F#-C#
--But I ---- can't imagine it in better terms
------F#-C#-B--------------------------------------------C#
Then naked, half-awake, about to shave and go to work
----------F#--A#-B------C#----------F#----------A#-----B-----------C#
And I'm start----ing to think it could happen to me like it did to you
--------F#m------A--B--------C#------F#-------B------------G#-------B-------------F#
And I'm ---start------ing to actually feel it seep through the slick divide now
--------G#--------B---------C#
I don't crack the door too far for anyone who's pushing too hard on me
B7sus4------------------------E
------They don't know what they like so much about it
B7sus4--B7-----------A------------------D
Maybe it goes on the other side of the hallway
F#-------------B--------------C#----C#sus4----------C#-----------C#sus4--------------C#
The writing's so small from here
F#---C#----B--------C#--B---F#-C#
But I can't imagine it in better terms
------F#-C#---B------------------------------------------C#
Then naked, half-awake, about to shave and go to work
---------F#---B--------C#
I won't decorate my love
--------F#----B--------C#
I won't decorate my love

anyway, that's about it.  again, questions, corrections, and comments are welcome

[TrampolineFrSpace]

There is a lively discussion about these tabs and the different ways that Liz plays them back over at LP Forum.

Here is that thread.

[ant_in_alaska]

Thanks Tramp!

[Aaron]

This was (and probably still is) my favorite song.  The first guitar part just gets me every time.  I learned to play it from the Hal Leonard book, but it still never seemed right.  I think (but I'm not sure) that the book says it's using a flanger effect?  Well, I used a flanger pedal and it sounded nothing alike   Does anyone know what effect it really is?

On, the Liz Phair Forum, folderol and mentions learning the song from a Guitar Pro file, which I'm pretty sure has to be the one I did.  I tabbed that completely from the Hal Leonard book (and added bass/drums).

If you have a nice stereo at home with good speakers, I suggest you play this with the bass turned up, lights dimmed, while laying in bed and staring at the ceiling (or any Liz Phair posters you may have on your wall).

Jeremy, if you happen to be reading this, your April 15th post over at LPF suggests that there is no bass note to start out with, but it sounds like there is some kind of low, constant drone that would be the bass note of that chord, possibly played on another guitar, faintly?--because it's too quiet for it to be played on the same guitar unless Liz can play certain strings harder than one another while playing one string softer??

Oh yeah, headphones!  A good set of headphones will let you hear what you can't hear through speakers alone!

If you still have that live performance of Nashville, Jeremy, I'd definitely like to take a listen!

[JeremyEngle]

from Mix magazine, January 1995 (courtesy of Ken Lee):

True to his band-is-the-sound aesthetic, Wood didn't employ much in the way of effects or processing on the album, and sometimes he and Rice did a lot of fooling around to get interesting sounds. For example, the cut "Nashville" has a chorusy guitar sound that, on an inspiration of Rice's, the pair achieved live. Phair played her guitar through a miked amp while Rice stood on a chair 20 feet away from the amp, swinging a lavalier mic on a 20-foot cord in circles overhead. At the outside arc, they placed a room mic that was out of phase with the mic on the amp. The effect is something like the world's biggest Leslie. When Phair made a mistake halfway through, they tried punching in, but everthing was off, so they realized they'd have to get one continuous take. Unfortunately, Wood says, "Liz messed up a number of times, so poor Casey's out there having to carefully swing this mic, because if he got too close, he'd smash into the other mic. We braced up his arm, but even so, by the time we got it right, his arm was totally numb. He gave his all."

http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Club/2471/00000148.html

Here's the live performance:

http://download.yousendit.com/9B33258E19182B29

I'm almost certain it's played in standard tuning (not sure about the album version) because she played the intro earlier in her set before abruptly switching to "Mesmerizing" (sorry, I don't have that file or the original CD-R handy) and the guitar she used on "Mesmerizing" was tuned up a full step (or capo II). There's a noticeable difference in tuning on the full performance of "Nashville"; check the chord at the start of the line "and nobody sparkles like you" -- it should be (0 2 2 1 0 0) in standard tuning if my hunch is correct.

I've always thought the best way to go about learning the song is to work off a bootleg.

The Hal Leonard transcription seems completely bizarre to me. One is expected to fret (or expected to believe that Liz fretted) the low E string at the 2nd fret immediately before jumping up to (XXXX75)... it just seems improbable.

Going back to the "nobody sparkles" section: If the good people at Hal Leonard got the notes right, and you do in fact hear an F# chord instead of the 1st position E like I think you hear in the live performance, then the album version is played with a capo II or tuned up one step. Then we can begin to transpose the melody and make all sorts of corrections. I'd want to start by assuming that the intro melody isn't coming from the 1st and 3rd strings but perhaps the 4th and 2nd strings, higher up on the fretboard.

Does that make sense?

[JeremyEngle]

I think I've finally made some headway on this. Here goes...

Standard Tuning (if you follow the live performance -- Recommended)
Tune Up 1 step (if you follow the album version)

Intro

|---X-----X----X----X----X---|
|---12-/-10-/--8----8----8---|
|---0-----0----0----7----7---|
|---12-/-10-/--7----0----0---|
|---0-----0----0----9----9---|
|---X-----X----X----X---10---|

[Note: I think this sequence is only possible if you start out using your 1st and 2nd fingers to fret the 4th and 2nd strings, respectively. It's not how I'm used to playing leads, but it's how Liz starts the intro to "Help Me Mary," at least, so it's not impossible to picture her doing it here. At any rate, that's the only way to get this combination of notes, as far as I can tell.]


That chord sequence is played three times and is then followed by this chord:

|---X---X---|
|---X-/-0---|
|---7-/-9---|
|---7-/-9---|
|---5-/-7---|
|---0-/-0---|



[Then, a bunch of other stuff happens, and although I can pick out the melody, I'm not sure what strings the notes are coming from, so I'm going to hold off on that section just now and skip to the first verse]:


"They don't know what they like so much about it"


|---X-----X----X----X----X---|
|---12-/-10-/--8----8----8---|
|---0-----0----0----7----7---|          [First five chords of the Intro]
|---12-/-10-/--7----0----0---|
|---0-----0----0----9----9---|
|---X-----X----X----X---10---|


"They just go..."

|---X-----X----X----|
|---12-/-10---10---|
|---0-----0----0----|
|---12-/-10---11---|
|---0-----0----0----|
|---X-----X----X----|

"for any shiny old bauble..."

|---X---X---|
|---X---5---|
|---4---5---|
|---5---5---|
|---5---3---|
|---3---3---|

"and nobody sparkles like you..."

|---X------X------X---5------------------|
|---0------X------X---5------------------|
|---1------6------4---4---------------4---|
|---2------7------4---4---4---4---4---4---|
|---2------7------2---2---X---X---X---2---|
|---0------5------2---2---4---5---4---2---|

[Note: The riff at the end of this sequence begins as an A-shape barre chord (the B/F#, in this case), which is first augmented with a 4th-finger barre across the 1st and 2nd strings at the 5th fret. THEN, with your 1st and 3rd fingers busy making the appropriate barres that form the chord, the bass riff is created with the free 2nd finger (on the 6th string, 4th fret) and 4th finger (6th string, 5th fret), so that when the riff ends, your 1st and 3rd fingers are still making the B/F# chord. This might be dead obvious to most of you; my apologies if I'm overdoing it.]

The rest of the song is pretty easy to get once you reach this point, but I'm going to hold off on tabbing further until someone with better ears than me joins in and figures out the missing section of the intro...

[ant_in_alaska]

JE rocks my socks, and helps me rock my guitar. 

[Aaron]

Wow, Jeremy.  I had begun to try to tab this out before I even saw this response of yours.  I tried the whole (Fig. 1) approach again, and tried to figure out how I would transpose it differently. 

[Fig. 1]
|--7----5----3----|
|-----------------|
|--7----5----4----|
|-----------------|
|-----------------|
|-----------------|

I got frustrated, and started going with the bass notes of the guitar, which are noticable with headphones.  And (Fig. 2) is what I got, which is the entire first part before the drums kick in.

[Fig. 2]
|--------------------|--------------------|--------------------|--------------------|
|--------------------|--------------------|--------------------|--------------------|
|--------------------|--------------------|--------------------|--------------------|
|--------------------|--------------------|--------------------|--------------------|
|--0--0-----0--0-----|--0--0-----0-----0--|--------------------|--0--0--0--0--0--0--|
|--------0--------0--|--------0-----0-----|--0--0--0--0--0--0--|--------------------|

So then I ultimately came up with what you have already tabbed out, and then I get here and see that and I spent 30 minutes thinking too hard about it when it was already here, haha.

However, that 9th fret doesn't sound like it sticks with the last chord.  Cause the higher bass part... er... I don't know the technical term... but the last two bars' higher-low parts go  x 9 x x x x and then the last bar goes x x 0 x x x (which is just the 10th fret on the E string transposed up 2 strings anyway).  So the whole thing, even using the low 'bass' parts, looks like this:

[Fig. 3]
E||-----------------------------|--------------------|----------------------|--------------------||
B||------12-\-(x)-----10-\-(x)--|-----8-----8-----8--|-----------8----8-8-8-|-----------8--------||
G||---0---0----0---0---0----0---|--0--0--0--0--0--0--|--------9--9--9-9-9-9-|--------9--9--------||
D||--12--12-\-(x)--x--10-\-(x)--|--x--9--x--9--x--9--|--------0--0--0-0-0-0-|--0--0--0--0--0--0--||
A||---0---0--------0---0--------|--0--0-----0-----0--|--9--9--9--9--9-9-9-9-|--0--0--0--0--0--0--||
E||------------0------------0---|--------0-----0-----|--0--0--0--0--0-0-0-0-|--------------------||

I know that it shows the G string being played continuously open for the first 2 bars (which is there if you listen closely), but the alternating A and E strings kind of throw me off.  I mean... for the B and D strings, after you slide, you rest the strings (x) and continue playing the opens, but I guess alternating between x 0 x 0 x x and 0 x x 0 x x is kind of weird... so maybe when the low E open is played, you still strike the open on the A along with it (0 0 x 0 x x)?  It's really weird, because I don't hear the A being played while the E is played.  It just sounds alternating to me! 

Thanks for posting the tab, Jeremy!

[cherryqueen]

Here's the live performance:

http://download.yousendit.com/9B33258E19182B29

"file expired"

please repost?   

[Aaron]

"file expired"

please repost?   

http://download.yousendit.com/190937634E309077

(link expires August 21, 2007, 8:25 P.M. EST)

[xaqary]

"file expired"

please repost?   

http://download.yousendit.com/190937634E309077

(link expires August 21, 2007, 8:25 P.M. EST)

Any chance this is still around?