From: appleyar@bnr.ca (Doug Appleyard)
Subject: Re: B-52's Guitar

In article <1531@grivel.une.edu.au>, rbennet1@neumann.une.edu.au (Robert Bennett
|> 
|>      Hi all...
|> 
|>      I was wathcing a B-52's special last night, and saw something odd, it ap
|> 

Ah yes the immortal Rock Lobster...
Let me see if I can remember this.  Take your least-used guitar.
Remove the middle two strings.  Tune the low E down to a C.  Tune
the A down to a G.  Tune the B string DOWN to an F, and the high E 
DOWN to a G#. 

Now tell the bass player to go on break (unless he or she can make
decent animal noises).  The early B's setup was drums, 1 weird guitar,
cheesy keyboards, and vocals.  Oh yeah the male singer Fred played a mean 
cowbell which you can hear in the second half of the intro and similar parts 
of the song.  (I love his visible concentration when he whacks that 
cowbell in the video).

The intro/main riff proceeds thusly (where each dash is a 16th note):

|----------------|----------------|
|----------------|----------------|
|                |                |
|                |                |
|----------------|1-0-1-0-------0-|   <-- last note is an occasional pickup
|0---2---3---2-0-|----------------|

The main verse is sung over that part.  Then you get to the first
"rock lobster!" part and do the following (the notes are on the 
low two strings):

|----------------|----------------|----------------|----------------|
|----------------|----------------|----------------|----------------| 
|                |                |                |                |
|                |                |                |                | 2 times
|----------------|----------------|1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-|0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-|
|0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-|3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-|----------------|----------------|  

then...

|----------------|----------------|----------------|------------0---|
|----------------|----------------|----------------|--------0-------| let ring
|                |                |                |                |
|                |                |                |                |
|----------------|----------------|1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-|0-0-0-0---------|
|0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-|3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-|----------------|----------------|  

then you can figure the rest of that part out, I just wanted to show the
high strings being played...

next comes the "Down Down" part where you start on fret 12 of the 
second highest string and play eighth notes, moving 
chromatically down the fret board.  the last bit of this run (before 
the drums come back in) is...

i'm showing only the second highest string (B tuned to F)

|2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-|1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-|0-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-|0-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-|

|0-1-1-1-0-1-1-1-|0-1-0-1-0-1-0-1-|  (drums come back in, go to first figure)

Okay that should get you through the first half of the song.  The second
half is mostly vocals because the cheesy keyboards drop out.  It starts
out like this (not sure of rhythm): 

|----------------|----------------|----------------|----------------|
|----------------|----------------|----------------|----------------|
|                |                |                |                |
|                |                |                |                |
|5---8---5-----5-|--------3---3---|5---8---5-----3-|--3-----5-------|
|5---8---5-----5-|--------3---3---|5---8---5-----3-|--3-----5-------|

then comes the "buzzer solo" where you alternate (fifth fret, two low
strings, eighth notes) with (third fret, two low strings, eighth notes)

then "let's rock!" is followed by the "guitar solo" where you whang 
away on the two high strings 

then comes the "boys in bikinis" and finally the call-reply animal
noises part of the song, over which the following figure should be played
repeatedly:

|----0-------0---|----------------|
|----0-------0---|----------------|
|                |                |
|                |                |
|5-----5---5-----|3-3-3-3-8-8-7-7-|
|5-----5---5-----|3-3-3-3-8-8-7-7-|

it's a seven minute long song and it's hard to keep all the parts
straight but the crowd really eats it up.  At an outside pool 
party it's appropriate for the band to jump in the pool following
completion of the song.

Have fun, and pass the tanning butter.

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