James Gang - Walk Away

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My take on the bridge is a little different. The first Ab starts when he sings away. Ab-Ab------(Ab-Ab)-Bb------(Bb-Bb)-B-B------(B-B)-Bb. The ones in parenthesis can be played as full chords, partial chords on the low strings, or just "click" sounds by left hand dampening. The spacing of dashes is inaccurate.

Well, this song is much easier in the key of A.

If you wanna play it in this key, cool.

The F in your 'seems to me' part should be an Fm though.
And there's a 'passing chord' between the Fm and C# that would be an Open G# chord (Open A moved to the first fret)???
At any rate, on the last strum of the Fm, keep your index finger Barred across the first fret and lift the other two fingers off of the third fret.

And play the solo in G# major.

Ken

Thanks for the song!

Joe played this song in A. If you look up tabs it shows it in Ab which simply means Joe tuned his guitar down half a step like Hendrix and SRV.

Here is an old video of Joe playing this song, you can see he plays it in A.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24SOBX4PIx8

So it is an A chord with a quick switch to D and back to A during the verse.

There is a minor chord in there too.

Seems to (F#m)me, you don't (D)want to talk about it, seems to (F#m)me, you just (D)turn your pretty (E)head and walk a(A)way.... (back to main riff)

The other chords are B at the 2nd fret,C at the 3rd, and D at the 5th, then back to the main riff.

Amazing how different that sounds compared to the studio version. Was he singing on key? I know he played that in A. Man, he's really into the song. :shock:

Dennis

Yeah, that's better than the original recording by far. Many songs evolve over time, I read an article by Keith Richards once, he said they often recorded a song after just learning it a few hours before. Later when they would play the song on tour they would embellish it over time, he said the song would be very different and much better after playing live.

So that is probably the case with this song too. Joe plays more solos in this version, looks to be using the A Major Pentatonic scale.

Joe has always been a favorite of mine, really cool guy. 8)

Wes, do you think that live version was before they made the studio version?

I think the song was recorded first. This song originally came out on the album "Thirds" in 1971, same date as that video. Most groups will release an album and then go out and play the songs on tour to promote sales of the album. But I am guessing here, Led Zeppelin played Stairway to Heaven two years before the song came out on their fourth album.

One of the first songs I learned on guitar was Funk 49 by The James Gang. :D

The other chords are B at the 2nd fret,C at the 3rd, and D at the 5th, then back to the main riff.

Hey Wes.

I learned how to play this song off this video about 18 years ago.
Yeah, seems to be played in A in standard tuning. (I always thought)

Which would make that passing chord I was talking about an Open A. (Between the F#m and the D)

Also - after the 'tryin' to decide what ta do' line, he goes quickly to a G chord then to the D chord, back to the A.
(This live version only. Not in the studio version)

As for your quoted part here....
If it's the part I'm thinking of;
I always played that B (7th fret), C7 (8th fret), back to the B at the 7th fret... Then back into the main riff.
Of course there's a bit more to it than that.
I don't know how to write it out....?
for me it's actually
B/E/C7/C/B back to the main riff.
It's something more along the lines of the studio version (I think).

As far as this video goes....
Jimmy Fox's drumming was AWSOME in this.
Way better than the studio version.

Only thing is, I could SWEAR Joe was playing through an Orange amp.... :?:

And does anyone remember seeing Joe finish the song by sliding his neck on the mic stand????

Maybe I'm just losing my mind in my old age :shock:

Ken :wink:

If I remember right (I was not old enough then, but read) Joe was into some pretty serious drinking/drugs. Maybe that's how he got such crazy, cool music. Half the stuff he does I just shake my head and say, "Man!"

Are we in agreement that the song is in Ab (studio version)?

Dennis

Yes, the recorded studio version is in Ab, but that is because Joe tuned his guitar down 1/2 step just like Hendrix. He was playing the song in A on his guitar, but you hear Ab.

Good reason to have a second guitar tuned down. Amazing, I actually bought another SG almost 2 months ago and tuned it down. IT's the worst guitar I've ever played. I'll pick it up to play that song and Benatar's Heartbreaker and I get so disgusted at what I'm hearin' through my HRD. That's another story...

Dennis

What model SG was that? I am surprised it sounded bad.

Lots of players simply like tuning down 1/2 step. Hendrix almost always played in this tuning, not because it was easier to bend strings, but it was easier for him to sing in common keys like E, A, and D with this tuning. Stevie Ray Vaughan almost always used this tuning too, not sure why.

And most of your 90's Rock bands tuned down a half step as well, and then for downtunings tuned the E string down another whole step.

I call this tuning E flat tuning, it is very common really.