Anyone know Freddie King's "Christmas Tears"? (help with chords)

[Jesse S.]

I'm hoping to play Freddie King's "Christmas Tears" at a blues jam this weekend, but I'm having trouble working out all the chords. I could probably do it if I had my guitar with me, but I was trying to grab it by ear (hey, it's blues, how hard could it be?).

The first two verses are a standard 12-bar with a quick change to the IV in bar 2.

Then there's a bridge, which I *think* is IV-I-IV-II7-V7. Does that seem right to you? Even if you don't know the tune, this sounds like a cliche "end of bridge" chord progression to me.

Then the last verse is killing me. The bassline goes:
1-4-b5-1 ??? It couldn't be a bV chord, could it? Or maybe it's a #IVdim7?

And then the last line has a descending bassline that is really puzzling me. This ain't blues anymore!!! ;)

Any help? I'll tackle it again tonight with the guitar, but I wanted to try my ear out with just the CD and working out the intervals myself.

Thanks!

[doc540]

daauum, I'm ashamed to say I don't have a clue and I call myself a Freddie King fan.

[sliding-tom]

Jesse, here you go:
You are right about the first two verses (let's not talk about chord substitutions here). The last chord in the second verse is I7 instead of V7. Then you go to the bridge which you have right. Now here comes, the key is C, right?:
C C F7 C dim
C E7 A G (one beat each) F7 - and then the ending:
C F7 C F7 C
Hope that helps! Good luck!

[Jesse S.]

Sliding-tom, thank you so much! That's fantastic - I'm not at all sure I would have gotten the Idim chord by myself. Diminished chords always give me trouble when trying to hear the chord changes by ear.

Feel free to talk about chord substitutions in the first two verses! I love learning more about that kind of thing. Do you mean all the suspensions and I-IV shifts the piano is doing in the verse?

Are you sure the A shouldn't be an Am? It sounded better that way when I played it by myself on guitar, but I'll listen closely to the CD and play along both ways.

I definitely think I will omit the last verse at the blues jam! I think I can lead the other guys through the bridge ok, but that verse is a trainwreck waiting to happen in a jam. (Although I really dig those changes - I think I need to learn more about those kinds of diminished chord progressions.)

Thanks again!

[sliding-tom]

Glad to help, Jesse! Yes, might be an Am there - as it is more of a passing chord I just played the bottom two strings there. As for substitutions, I don't have the time right now to write out a 12-bar chord chart as an example, but try this: whenever you go from the IV back to the I, play a Idim on the last beat of the IV bar. I'll give you an example (every Chord name here is meant to be one beat): C C C C / F7 F7 F7 Cdim/C C C C/ - that'll be the first three bars in a blues progression, repeat this quick change, when you come down from the IV in bar 6 back to the I in bar 7, you'll notice how nice the Idim resolves into the tonic chord.

Edit: compare that I - III7 - VI7 change in the last part of "Christmas Tears" with the first bars of "Nobody knows you when You're down and out"

[Jesse S.]

Thanks again, sliding-tom. I'll play around with that substitution some more - I think I've seen it in the lesson book I've been working from (Blues You Can Use).

I tried this tune out at the blues jam. That II7 in the bridge threw 'em. I hate when you start singing the bridge, the rest of the band keeps churning out the 12-bar verse, and everyone glares at you.

Even when you try to explain it before the tune, and the guys go "No problem, I'll follow you," they seem to go heads-down during the song itself. :toobad

It's probably just me, though, cause some of these guys are in bands and are much better guitarists than me. Oh well.

[sliding-tom]

"But don't ask what I think of you, I might not give the answer that you want me to - OoooH well............" ;)
Yeah, always the same - if 4 out of 5 f..k up, the one that's right always gets blamed!

[andreja]

on what record is that song?

[Jesse S.]

andreja, I have it on a CD called "Freddy King - Blues Guitar Hero". It's a collection of his early King Records singles.

I found it on Amazon.com here.

It's a good CD w/ all his early hits including instrumentals like "Hide Away" and "The Stumble".