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Tim McGraw - Red Ragtop

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(@noteboat)
Illustrious Member
Joined: 21 years ago
Posts: 4921
Topic starter  

Got a country music student coming in an hour to learn the song, so I needed to learn it first. I'm as lazy as the next guy, so I looked on the net... the chord charts are ok, but not a single site had the banjo sounding intro right (including a pay site, which had a tab that was not even close, and in the wrong key!)

Where did these folks ever learn to use their ears? At any rate, it took me all of 9 minutes to learn... and having gone this far, I figured I'd share. Good tune for beginners, all open chords except the Bm in the bridge.

Intro

--------------------------------------------------------------
-----3-3-----5-------3-3-----0---0-1p0---3----0-1p0---3---1p0-
---0-------0-------0-------0-----------0------------0---------
-5-------5-------5-------5------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------

And the tune... the guitar continues the intro pattern until the line beginning 'on a summer night', at which point it's joined by chord strumming:

G
I was twenty and she was eighteen
Am
We were just about as wild as we were green
G Am
In the ways of the world
G
She picked me up in that red ragtop
Am
We were free of the folks, hiding from the cops
G Am
On a summer night, runnin' all the red lights
G
And we parked way out at a clearing in a grove
Am
And the night was as hot as a coal burning stove
G Am
We were cookin' with gas, oh it had to last
C G Am
In the back of that red ragtop
C G Am
She said please don't stop
G
Well the very first time her mother met me
Am
Her green eyed girl had been a mother to be
G Am
For two weeks
G
I was out of a job and she was in school
Am
But life was fast and the world was cruel
G Am
We were young and wild, we decided not to have a child
G
So we did what we did and we tried to forget
Am
And we swore up and down there would be no regrets
G Am
In the morning light, but on the way home that night
C G Am
On the back of that red ragtop
C G Am
She said please don't stop
G Am
Lovin' me
C G Am G
We took one more trip around the sun
C G Am
But it was all make believe in the end
C G Am Em
No I can't say where she is today
Am7 Bm C Am
I can't remember who I was back then
(repeat intro)
G
Well you do what you do and you pay for your sins
Am
And there's no such thing as what might have been
G Am
That's a waste of time, drive you outta your mind
G
I was stopped at a red light just yesterday
Am G
Beside a young girl in a Cabriolet and her eyes were green
Am
And I was in an old scene
C G Am
I was back in that red ragtop
C G Am
On the day she stopped
G Am
Lovin' me
C G Am
I was back in that red ragtop
C G Am
On the day she stopped
G Am
Lovin' me

Guitar teacher offering lessons in Plainfield IL


   
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(@morpheus)
Trusted Member
Joined: 20 years ago
Posts: 68
 

Thank you. That was great timing, my oldest was just asking when I was going to learn something other than a classic rock song.


   
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 Bull
(@bull)
Trusted Member
Joined: 22 years ago
Posts: 72
 

Do you have the strumming pattern?
And is that 4/4 timing?

Thanks for the song- Bull


   
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(@noteboat)
Illustrious Member
Joined: 21 years ago
Posts: 4921
Topic starter  

Yes, it's in 4/4. I'd leave the strumming pattern to you... on the album, the banjo part (I suspect it's actually played on a guitar and tweaked a bit to get a tinnier sound) continues through the first few lines as the only guitar accompaniment. When the second guitar comes in - an electric, it's hitting and holding the chords on the changes, without a pattern to speak of. It's almost immediately joined by a third guitar, also electric, that plays a few lead fills.

The student who's learning it has only been playing three weeks, so I have him strumming just at the changes right now, although we've started to work with a strum every downbeat. The tempo is pretty quick... but other than the Bm, it's great for him, and he loves the tune.

Guitar teacher offering lessons in Plainfield IL


   
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