| G | |
| See ... |
| D | |
| ... | stand |
| G | C | |
| Just | twenty ...... |
| G | D | G | |
| You | die ....... |
| Verse 2:as verse 1, then |
| C | G | |
| Yes, they're | hanging ....... |
| G | D | G | |
| That | Joe Bean | ...... |
| Verse 3: |
| Verse 4: |
| End: |
| (tacet) |
| "Happy birthday, Joe Bean" |
| =========================================================== |
| This song is all strumming. Over the spoken introduction |
| he strums a G chord once before speaking, and then once for |
| every other beat in a verse. The second-to-last strum (on |
| "today") is arpeggiated, and the last (after "twentieth |
| birthday") is done one string at a time. He's not keeping |
| time, but I guess if the last two chords were tabbed it |
| would look like this: |
e|-------------------| B|-----3-----------3-| G|----0----------0---| D|---0---------0-----| A|--2--------2-------| E|-3-------3---------|
| The main body of the song is standard Johnny Cash |
| strumming. He plays some bass notes independent of the |
| chords sometimes, but there's no real picking pattern. |
| The first verse only consists of four lines. The rest are |
| all six lines long. |
| In the fourth verse, on "It's not up to me, but this much, |
| Joe Bean, I'll do," he interrupts the rhythm of his |
| strumming. He strums G on "not" and mutes the strings. |
| He plays arpeggiated chords on "me" (C chord), "much" |
| (G chord), "Bean" (D chord), and "do" (G chord). |
| The last line, "Happy birthday, Joe Bean" is sung without |
| the guitar, to the tune of the first line of the happy |
| birthday song. |
| Chord formations: |
| There is a capo on the third fret, and he mutes the high E |
| string through the whole song. |
| G | C | D |
e|-------|
| B|-3-1-3-| |
| G|-0-0-2-| |
| D|-0-2-0-| |
| A|-2-3-0-| |
E|-3-----|
| Tabbed by Chris Howell |
| Comments and corrections can be mailed to |
| cwhowell@student.umass.edu |
| Posted December, 1999 |