Chords with lyrics
Music by Frank Vincent Zappa (1941-1993)
Transcribed by Jeff Langille
- ([email protected])
These are the chord progressions to a bunch of FZ songs that I learned so
I could practice singing them. Get the album and LISTEN for the tempo,
feel, words/melody, etc. All the tunes in this series are _cool_ (I
wouldn't bother doing this if they weren't) so go find'em and play'em!
==============================================================================
Song : Heavenly Bank Account
Album: You Are What You Is (#34, 9/81)
3/4, Key of 
A augmentedA
An excellent commentary on religion and politics (this album has some of
the best ever on this subject, IMHO). Its fun to sing too.
The song is fairly straight-forward with only one main progression. But the
bridge fixes anyone who thought they found and easy one. It has a steady
pulse throughout (the lower staff) at the same tempo as the rest of the
song, but Frank decided to sing everything a bit faster, just for fun I
guess ;). I have tried to notate it as clearly as possible but it simply
boils down to singing, in the first phrase, 20 eighth notes in the space
of 14 at the original tempo. The second has 15 over 10, third has 17 over
14 and the last again has 15 over 10. You MUST listen to the song itself
to get the feel of this. My explanation makes it sound harder than it is
but I thought I'd give you my interpretation of what he's doing, for
anyone else who likes to know this kind of thing..:)
*The 7th bar of the VERSE (
E MajorE) is in 2/4.
The D#mi7b5 chord is played as follows:
6 5 4 3 2 1 <-string (1=high/thin)
x 6 7 6 7 x <-fret
Play this pattern on the 8th fret (x8989x) for the Fmi7b5 in the intro.
INTRO
|A augmentedA | |C#mi | |
D MajorD | |D#mi7b5| |
|A augmentedA | |Fmi7b5 |F#mi |
BB | |D MajorD |E MajorE ||...
VERSE
|A augmentedA | |C#mi | |D MajorD |
D#m7b5D#m7b5 |E* |F#mi |
|BB |E MajorE |A augmentedA |E MajorE | ||
BRIDGE
|2 |3 |10 |
|4 DDAA |4 DDAAAA| 8 DAAAAGADAG |
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|7 |3 | |
|4 |4 A augmentedA 
D/F#D/F# |A augmentedA |
|4 |7 |
|4 DDAADDAA |8 DDAADAG |
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|5 |3 | |
|4 |4 | |
|2 |3 |7 |
|4 DDAA |4 DDAAAA|8 DDAADAG |
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|6 |3 | |
|4 |4 | |
|4 |7 |
|4 DDAADDAA |8 DDAADAG |
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|5 |3 | |
|4 |4 | |
Hope you enjoy this. It is the first of a bunch I have transcribed and
will probably post. These include both CRD and TAB formats depending on
the song. E-mail me if there is a particular ZAPPA tune you would like
to see. Any comment on the transcription/analysis is _encouraged_.
Jeff
^^^^ (or is it Boyd)
--
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jeff Langille |"...if I were standing next to you with a metronome and !
[email protected] !a baton (frowning and smoking a lot of cigarettes), I |
Halifax, N.S. |would insist that the rhythms be accurate , and that only !
!the pitches which reside outside the basic tonality |
ugrita fusft |(the original "wrong notes") could be altered." - FZappa !
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
