The Red Rose And The Briar
John Wesley Harding
Continues after the ad
Key:
========================== from the album "Here Comes The Groom" INTRODUCTION ============ In the tablature for the introduction, the symbols "^" and "v" denote down-strums and up-strums. The C-chords are played using the {310230} fingering by Wes, but the {010230} fingering isn't very different. It doing only single downstrums (no upstrums) in most of the intro, or by playing with fingers, using the thumb to play the bass run and the index, middle and ring fingers to play the treble chords. Wes plays with a pick, and I've found my usual favourite (a 0.60 mm John Dunlop nylon type) too stiff to comfortably do the double strums at the right speed. My only thinner pick was a 0.38 mm Jim Dunlop nylon pick which makes the double strums easy but is a bit too pliable to let me emphasise the bass runs, so I got a 0.46 mm JD which is the best for my acoustic guitar but the optimum depends on you and your guitar. CHD: G C G Em ^ v ^ v ^ v ^ v ^ v ^ ^ v ^|------3-------3-------3------- |------0-------0-------1------- |------0-------0-------0------- |------------------------------ |----------0h2-----3-------2p0- |--3--------------------------- |3--|------3---------------0------- |1--|------0---------------0------- |0--|------0---------------0------- |---|------------------------------ |---|------------------------------ |---|--3-----------2-p-0----------- ---| ---| ---| ---| ---| 2--|1 . 2 . 3 . 4 . 1 . 2 . 3 . 4 . CHD: G C G ^ v ^ v ^ v ^ v ^ v ^ v ^ v ^|------3-------3-------3------- |------0-------0-------1------- |------0-------0-------0------- |------------------------------ |----------0h2-----3-------2p0- |--3--------------------------- |3--|------3---3---3---3--------------| |1--|------0---0---0---0--------------| |0--|------0---0---0---0--------------| |---|------0---0---0h2----------------| |---|---------------------------------| |---|--3------------------------------|1 . 2 . 3 . 4 . 1 . 2 . 3 . 4 . CHORDS AND LYRICS (Bass runs are shown in square brackets [C B A] and ================= instructions in curly backets {PLAY INTRODUCTION}.) {PLAY INTRODUCTION}G C G Midweek and we reached Scarlet townG C C/B Am I was almost dying of thirstG C G We parked the car in some old schoolyardG C D [C B A] The windscreen caked in dirtD D/C D/C There was no water in the engineD/B Am Am/B C D Left no tread upon the tyresG C The electrics were broke 'causeG G/F# Em you went madEm/F# G C G You ripped out all the wiresG C GG C G , Across the road, a small cafeG C C/B Am In the state of DisrepairG C G You went for papers and a shaveG C D [C B A] So I saved you a chairD D/C D/B Em I knew it wasn't the journey's endAm Am/B C D And that your dream was incompleteG C G G/F# Em But I just could not stand anymoreG C G I was dead upon my feetG C D [C B A] I was dead upon my feetD D/C D/C There's nothing there in theD/B market squareAm Am/B But the ghost of the ScarletC D town-crierG C G G/F# Em I was dead upon my feetAm C D I sing the red rose and the briar Am Am/B C D (G in intro) I sing the red rose and the bri-ar {REPEAT INTRODUCTION TWICE}G C G The waitress told me her life storyG C C/B Am She'd always meant to up and goG C G She wiped her cup on her red pinaforeG C D [C B A] As we waited for you to showD D/C D/C D/B And I told her just a little of youAm Am/B C D But left the picture incompleteG C G You still weren't there to paintG/F# Em it in personContinues after the adEm/F# G C G So I skipped out on the streetG C G I skipped out on the streetG C The newsagent grinned, he saidG that you'd been inG C You bought a local paper and someAm shavesG C And the washroom attendant saidG that you'd freshened upG C D That you'd left but you hadn't[C B A] payedD D/C D/C And I couldn't figure out whereD/B you wereAm Am/B C D So I went back to look near the carG C There's nothing there where itG G/F# Em should have beenEm/F# G C G Just oil on dirt and tarG G/B C D [C B A] Just oil on dirt and tarD D/C D/C There's nothing there in theD/B market squareAm Am/B But the ghost of the ScarletC D town-crierG C And there's nothing there where itG G/F# Em should have beenAm C D I sing the red rose and the briarAm C D I sing the red rose and the briar Am C D [E F#] (G in intro) {REPEAT INTRODUCTION}G C G I saw it parked way down the streetG G/B C C/B Am In a garage off on the rightG C G And a man said, "Get your hands off, sonG C I just traded that wreck for aD [C B A] motorbike"D D/C There was nothing left of mineD/C D/B insideAm Am/B C D Not even the broken radio-o-oG C And I couldn't figure out whereG G/F# Em that left meG C G So I went back to look for RoseG , C G The Cafe Rouge was a lunchtime rushG C C/B Am Of regulars yelling for foodG C And the service in there left a lotG to be desiredG G/B C C/B D All the regulars were getting[C B A] rudeD D/C D/C D/B I saw an apron thrown over a chairAm Am/B C A note said, "Hey John, we'reD gone, we're gone"G C G And I just smiled 'cause I lovedG/F# Em you bothG C G So I put the apron onG C D [C B A] I put the apron onD D/C D/C Still nothing there in the marketD/B squareAm Am/B But the ghost of the ScarletC D town-crierG C G G/F# Em Well I just put the apron onAm C D I sing the red rose and the briarAm C D I sing the red rose and the briarAm C D I sing the red rose and the briar Am C D [E F#] (G in intro) I sing the red rose and the briar {REPEAT INTRODUCTION TWICE}G In Scarlet town where I was bornC G There was a fair maid dwellin'G G/F# Em Oh, the colour of her hair wasEm7 brownAm And her name......C Am And her name was......C Am And her name was...... C D [E F#] (G in intro) {REPEAT INTRODUCTION} G =============== THE END ================ NOTES ===== 0. According to Stephen M. Webb , "her name was..." Barbara Allan as in the song "Barbara Allan" which takes place in `Scarlet Town where I was born,' ends up with a rose and briar. I don't have this song, so I didn't know this. I though it might have been Helen from "I went to visit Helen by St. Helen's Park" (which is in Hastings, where Wes used to live) from the song "Pound, Pound, Pound" on the live & unaccompanied album "It Happened One Night". 1. Many thanks to Patrick Barnett for his generosity and help in compiling this posting and Chris Inglesi for pointing out the fact that it's "fair maid dwellin'" rather than "family dwellin'" which I had at first. 2. All the chords are pretty much the basic fingerings but Wes uses a modified Em [0 2 2 0 0 3] and Em7 is [0 2 0 0 0 0]. For those of you unfamiliar with CRD notation, the chords with a slash such as C/B denote chords played with a different bass-note to usual. The part before the slash is the chord and the note after it is the bass note. So C/B is a basic C chord [0 3 2 0 1 0] but with the bass-note changed to B becoming [x 2 2 0 1 0]. In fact you needn't worry too much about the 2nd fretted D string. What is important to note is that the bass-note is played on the most convenient string, not always on the bass-E string. In this song, the bass-note doesn't actually have to be the lowest note played - I've used this notation to denote the bass notes in the bass-strum style. 3. Feel free to email me with any comments (see header for email address) or to request tabs for songs. If you have a favourite JWH song you'd like me to have a go at, let me know. I now have the four full albums, "The Name Above The Title", "It Happened One Night", "Why We Fight" and "Here Comes The Groom". If I haven't got the songs, I could only do them if you send me an audio tape with them on. If you could work out the lyrics, that would be a great help. The songs I've tabbed/chorded so far are: From "The Name Above The Title": I Can Tell (When You're Telling Lies) Save A Little Room For Me The People's Drug The Person You Are Long Dead Gone } lyrics supplied by Backing Out } Alan Pulliam - thanks from "It Happened One Night": Roy Orbison Knows (The Best Man's Song) - thanks to Will Vaughan & "Sen" Kiss/Lovers' Society {coming shortly} and from "Here Comes The Groom" and coming soon, the version not from "Here Comes The Groom" of When The Sun Comes Out } thanks to Patrick again These are archived on the guitar tab archives, * and its mirror sites such as * - you can find local mirror sites by using a program such as "archie". Cal Woods & Jim Carson, the new maintainers of the Nevada archive have kindly placed in it a file to aid archie searches. It is called "*". You can find the guitar directory of any nearby mirror sites using: unix% archie -m5 -N * Host * Location: /pub/uunet/doc/music/guitar FILE -r--r--r-- 80 Jun 16 09:21 * Wes's tabs are archived under ???/guitar/h/john_wesley_harding 4. The FTP archive at Trinity College Dublin (*) has also uploaded a lot of Wes songs in the directory: /pub/music/guitar/h/john_wesley_harding In addition to the songs I've worked out, there is a copy of Crystal Blue Persuasion, originally by Tommy James and the Chandelles (sp?) which appears on "The Name Above The Title". There doesn't appear to be a mirror site to Trinity College Dublin. 5. Enjoy! Regards, Ryan Kingsley Harding (no relation at all to Wes, aka. Wesley Harding Stace) ^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^---------------------------------- -|---------------------------------- -|-------- Ryan Harding Applied Optics Gr ---------------------------------- -|---------------------------------- -|-------- "Now no-one's sitting on the fence, whose garden will we end up sitting in?" ---------------------------------- -|---------------------------------- -|--------