Journeyman - Iron Maiden

Ok, this is my first try, so be gentle with me! The song is an acoustic ballad taken from “Dance of death”, the last studio album from Iron Maiden and by the way is one the few songs that I can play decently :D . I think it is an useful song to play for people who have been playing guitar from a few months, because there are quite alot chords but the strummin pattern, even if a bit tricky, remains the same for all the song. Premise: I've not included intro and the long instrumental part among verse 2 and 3, so this is like a song book version with the chords for the sang parts only.

So here is the song with lyrics:

Verse 1:

F F A A
From the red sky of the east to the sunset in the west
F F A A
We have cheated death and he has cheated us
F F A A
But that was just a dream and this is what it means
F F A A
We are sleeping and we'll dream for evermore

Bridge:

C D A A
And the fragment remains of our memories
C D G G
And the shadows remain with our hands
C D F G
Deep grey, came to mourn, all the colours of the dawn
C D A A
Will this Journeymans day be his last?

chorus: <3x>
Dm F
I know what I want and I say what I want
C Bb C
And no one can take it awa-ay

<1x>
d F
I know what I want and I say what I want
C Bb Bb d d
And no one can take it away - Aaah

Verse 2 and 3 (same chords as verse 1)

But the memory still remains all the past years not so strange
Our winter times are like a silent shroud
And the heartbeat of the day drives the mist away
And winter's not the only dream around

In your life you may choose desolation
And the shadows you build with your hands
If you turn to the light that is burning in the night
Then the Journeyman's day has begun

(chorus, repeated in the end of the song, same chords as the first chorus).

I know what I want and I say what I want
And no one can take it away

Now a few words about the chords:

-instead of the F with barre you could also play F7 (well I'm not sure about the name it is like a C played one string lower, just check David Hodge's Lessons “House of the rising sun” for the voicing of the chord)

the Bb is quite tricky: I played with a small barre on the third fret but you could also translate an A one fret ahead, of course playing a barre on the first fret). I still have some trouble in playing it correctly but things are slowly goin better

the other chord are traditional, first position ones

Strummin:

the main concept of the song structure is that you have to play each chord for two measures in the verse, and one measure in the bridge except where indicated. On the chorus play each chord for a measure excpet the last Bb and C which are both just strummed once

There are several ways to play it, but the most important thing is to choose a straightfoward pattern because a syncopated one, even if it sounds good is not close to the song:

the easiest could be

D Du D Du for each chord (1, 2&, 3, 4&)

while a pattern more similar to the song could be

D ddu D ddu for each chord where ddu is an eight note followed by two sixtheen notes

or also

D udu D udu where udu is an eight followed by ywo sixtheen notes

I prefer the last one but of course that's a matter of tastes.

If someone knows the song and would like to let me know his/her suggestions I would really appreciate it.

Cheers to anyone

Matteo

p.s. I forgot to say that yesterday I tried it alongside the cd and I realized that it is a lot faster than what I tought! I've always played determining the speed on the vocals but this was too slow, if played alongside the cd! At the beginning I tought that they played just one measure in the verses instead of one, but there was also something wrong, then I realized with a better listening that they did play two measures for each chord, just a lot faster than what I tought!

Regarding the strummin', I'm quite sure it is D udu D udu for each measure (instead of D ddu D ddu) since not only it sounds better but I also I saw a couple of guys playing this way.

Let me know any mistakes