Edmund Fitzgerald for solo guitar?

Does anyone have a good transcription of this tune, complete with a good way to play the guitar line in between the verses? The best I've come up with is capo 2, playing Asus2 - Em - G - D - Asus2 for the verses, and Asus2 - A11 - Dsus4 - D - Asus2 to approximate the guitar line. I've also been able to play nearly the entire line on the B string, with the high E string ringing along to give it some chordal depth. However, this sounds awkward, and I wonder if GL played the song in an altered tuning.

Anyone?

That's a real tough tune. It's extremely difficult to get all the way through that song without having a snooze-fest on your hands. It's long, it doesn't change, and the popular version is very heavily reliant on production for it to work at all.

I know this is a little off topic, but to address your question, I might be tempted to find a way to play it where you can modulate a couple times during the tune to keep it interesting for the audience. Of course, the dynamics will play a huge roll in it as well. Personally, I would approach it in this fashion and then let the modulation determine the best place to play it on the neck.

One of my favorites RJ, and a hard one to pull off. Needs to be other things in there, like TB says to keep it interesting. The story line is great IMHO, but it's an easy one to create a snorefest to. Really, it takes two baby!

Try it ska! ;)

This is a good tune to start sparse and quiet then build it up and add more instruments; modulate (as said) and pick up the tempo a tad each verse, then kick into double time. I like putting weaving fiddle/guitar lines behind the last couple verses, with a soaring, haunting overdriven electric lead. Irish drums or tom toms with a military snare. While the kick drum keeps a heartbeat boofing.

Try going to http://www.rockintabs.com/songplain/1305 for basic chord structure.

This is a tough tune to keep interesting. I'm doing it as a special request from some folks that are having me play at their year-end dinner party. The instrumentation will be me on vocals and guitar, and I have a friend sitting in who plays latin percussion and harmonica. I think I'll let him play some of the fills in between the verses. I do like the idea of modulating, I might try that out. Thanks for the ideas.

Modulating down could be an interesting technique, considering the subject material.

Damn, that's depressing dinner party music. It's a true story, you know!

http://www.corfid.com/gl/wreck.htm

Follow it up with El Paso and you only need two songs for the whole gig.

I'd follow it with North Country Blues and call it a night. They'll be so depressed they'll want to go home. ;)

:up