Hi guys, i am gonna do this great song at my next jam night and i am practicing to the ZZ Top version on Tres Hombres i think the track is in G so a C harp in 2nd Pos should be right but i don't trust my ears so can anyone either confirm or correct my assumption. Cheers Geordie
I don't hear any harp on "Jesus Just Left Chicago." You're probably thinking of "Waitin' for the Bus"-the song that precedes it on the album and that video. Since Billy doesn't play any harmonica on the video it's a good video to jam along with. I think the song sounds better with the harp solo myself. Is "Bus" and "Jesus" in the same key? I know the timing to each song is different. It sounds like "Bus" is in G but when the song seques into "Jesus", the key changes to E but I may be wrong.
Last Edited by on Jun 24, 2011 10:41 AM
Another sweet ZedZed Top song to play harp on(the recording has none)is Blue Jean Blues-a real slow blues with lots of space. I used to do it in a Southern Rock band I fronted many moons ago. ---------- Todd L. Greene
Try jamming along with La Grange sometime and see if you can do the key change without switching harps.
Tush is a fun fast song to jam on as well.
My older ZZ Top albums has Billy playing some decent harp stuff. I guess he gave it up. I have seen them 4 times since the late 80s and never saw him pull one out.
Billy plays guitar licks that sound great without being fancy or fast. Fun stuff to try and duplicate on harp. Some of their grooves work well on harp too.
This band has held it together for over 40 years. They are in my top 5 music acts of all time.
It's kind of ironic that the one without the beard is named Beard. I've been trying to think of another band that has been together 40 years and still has the same lineup but I can't think of one.
Not Deep Purple. They have had several personnel changes over the years. I don't believe there is another band that has had the same lineup for 40 years straight. Not another famous rock band anyway.
Later replaced with Roger Gloverdale..er Coverdale..Clover Rogerdale....er somebody.
I had the Made in Japan live album back in the 70's (shit i'm old) nearly wore the grooves off the vinyl. first rock and roll show I ever saw, DP outdoors on the boston common, free show with Johnny Kay, former front man for Steppenwolf was the opening act, and the smell of grass in the air was unbelievable.
aaaahhh...the good old days.
Last Edited by on Jun 24, 2011 1:19 PM
For thsoe who are interested... It's a C Blues. Opening chords swap from the 5th to the 1st G/C and the leads play in the 5th but the give away is the move to the F during 5th and 6th bar.
Again, Billy leaves us reeling with his outstanding playing and off standard arrangment; and Remember, he was the guitar player that Jimmy Hendrix noted as the best kept secret.
ZZ Top, all time great Texas band, but then we can thank Texas for great blues guitar players and harp players.
---------- "Keep it in your mouth" - XHarp
Last Edited by on Jun 24, 2011 4:49 PM
@ XHarp So what harp would be used? Since C is the cross key for F and F is the IV chord which always comes on the 5th and 6th bars during a 12 bar blues progression it must be an F harp that is used. Or are you saying that during the first 4 bars the I chord swaps between C and G ? That would be using both the I chord and the V chord during the first 4 bars. Please help me out. I'm confused.
Last Edited by on Jun 24, 2011 7:08 PM
I remember when Jimmy Carl Black was playing drums with me down in austin and Billy Gibbons came to one of our gigs. ZZ Top use to open for Jimmy's band, frank zappa and the mothers of invention. Jimmy and Billy spent a good amount of time talking over the old days. I just sat there and listened. That kind of stuff happened pretty regularly with jimmy on drums. Billy said he dug my sound and that I will always cherish! Man have times changed. If this stuff was happening today it would be photographed, and or somebody would have recorded it on video. Back then a camera required real film and video cameras were expensive as heck, big, and nobody except the rich and pro film guys owned them....... Luckily my memory is good. Walter ---------- walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing. I record about 300 full length cds a year. " life is a daring adventure or nothing at all" - helen keller
Love hearing the old stories walter. It's funny you listen to a guy interviewed and you get a feeling about him. I suppose one could be dead wrong in trying to form an opinion about someone based on an interview. But i remember feeling that way about hubert sumlin after listening to a lenghty interview, and you came in here and confirmed it on a first hand basis regarding him as well.
Pretty cool stuff...it's great to have you here walter.
Last Edited by on Jun 25, 2011 8:54 AM
Honkin On Bobo: You are welcome. I feel compelled to share these kind of stories because most of the guys are dead, dying, or in zz tops case, inacessable to the average person. I also hope that such stories might inspire the younger generation to seek out the elders. Sadly this long standing tradition of learning roots music is fading as quickly as the setting sun........ Walter ---------- walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing. I record about 300 full length cds a year. " life is a daring adventure or nothing at all" - helen keller
@walter I would like to think what you are doing is working I was playing sonny boy 2 on my car cd and pontiac blues was playing I had the windows down and a young man in his early 20s in a pickup truck asked me to turn it up and was singing along like he knew the words-its all about exposure like billy branch is doing going in the schools and making young people aware of this great american music
Well there in lies the dilema, is it a C blues or a G blues. If it sounds good in G play it in G but,as someone else used to always say, 2nd position is not everything. Its likely that the F played in the typical position that the 4th would be played is played as the flat 7th, in which case its indeed a G Blues. In my case I used the C Harp and played in first position. It just covers all bases and satisfies the C Blues basics. Same harp, different take, same notes, all is good. Play the way you hear it, that's the best way. No rules. ---------- "Keep it in your mouth" - XHarp
my band plays this jesus song, and the only problem i see with it is that it lends itself to lots of long-winded wanking solos, and if you do that at the tempo zz top plays it at, an audience is not going to be very happy unless they are pretty drunk or you are as good at solos as Gibbons, and even they did not run that song on too much
Thanks for the feedback folks,as always the answere is never as straight foward as i would hope!, i'm gonna keep it simple and ask the band to play it in G so i can play 2nd in C. I know there is no harp on this track as ZZ do it but i love the song and i reacon i can fit in a couple of modest solos without messing with it's mojo to much
guess the only other obvious thing would be to get that hook that resolves the 12 bars down, if you can get it as a harmony, it breaks up the band playing that one line repeatedly
@harpdude its quite simple to hear these chord changes with only a bass player and a drummer but as far as somebody asking where are you in the chord progression not so easy
Harpdude, thanks for posting that i appreciate the effort, i had infact already found this one but what i really want is the song with all the guitar on and just the vocal off so i can sing the lead and add a bit of harp. I think i might have to get someone clever to strip the vocal off the song on my I Tunes library, unless someone out there has already done that and can email it to me?
As a beginner, the hardest thing is figuring out song keys and the key of the harp to use. I am a rock vocalist and enjoy trying to add some basic harp and was asking about ZZ Top "Waitin' for the Bus", I don't know what key the song is played, but as of today, I just found that my G harp appears as the key used in the original song, I tried A, E, C and couldn't find the lick, but today my G harp proved to be the ticket. I don't know positions, I find the note and go from there & G is working!
If there was a Grammy category for coooolest segue between tunes, it would have to go to the one between "Waitin' for the Bus" and "Jesus Just Left Chicago."
And that last tune is a monument to what I feel as playin behind the beat. Really sets up a sort of tension.
My band plays a more mellowed-out version of Jesus Just Left Chicago on occaision. I usually use my Blue Midnight in C for it. I really love the tune. Also, here in Central IL, we have a ZZ Top tribute band called ZZ Tripp. They're good buddies of mine, and I grew up just down the road from them. They've had me join them for a tune or two on more than one occaision. As you can see...they go all out. :-)
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Hawkeye Kane
Last Edited by on Dec 07, 2012 8:03 AM
