Chords for How To Play BAD MOON RISING by CCR

Today we're gonna do a song by the Crittens Clearwater Revival, Bad Moon Rising.
A song that only has three chords, but it's a hell of a lot of fun. _ _ _
_ [D] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [G] _ _ _
_ [D] _ _ _ _ _ [G] _ _
_ [D] _ _ As you can tell there are two guitar players in the band.
There's John Fogerty playing the Black [Em] Gibson and his brother Tom playing the [D] Rickenbacker.
And those two guitars together create a [A] warm sound.
Now most [E] people play what Tom [D] is playing and he's playing_ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ That's how most people play the song.
But John however, he's playing different chords.
He's not playing the D chord at all, but rather it looks like an E chord.
And that's because his guitar is tuned one whole step down. _
_ _ _ _ _ _ That's the way the song [G#] is meant to be played.
That broad deep warm sound comes with the guitar being tuned one whole step down.
Now if you don't know how to do that, this is how I do it.
I'll show you on the Fender guitar.
What you do is, [D] first you just play the D string.
_ And then you tune down the bottom string so that it sounds the same.
_ _ _ _ _ And from here on out it's [Cm] just a matter of tuning your guitar.
_ _ _ [D] _ _
_ There you go.
Easy peasy.
Now assuming your guitar is all set to go, let's first have a listen at the intro.
_ _ [G] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ Instantly recognizable intro.
And basically it's just only a few chords. Chords.
_ _ _ [A] _ _
[G] _ [D] _ And when you get to this E chord, here's where he starts to play a basic strumming pattern.
Here it is. _ _ _ _ _
_ [C] Very much doable.
But the fun begins where he starts to add the pinky finger.
This is what you want to do.
On the second fret on [E] the B string.
He does that only three times in the pattern.
[D] _ _ _ _ _ So all together that makes_
_ _ [A] _ _ [D] _
_ _ _ _ I see a dead fool arriving.
_ _ I see a fellow on the way.
_ So in the verse we only have three chords.
Hell, the entire song only has three chords.
I wish every [A] song was this easy.
And there are very easy chords as well.
E, B7 [G] and A.
But although these are very simple chords, make [E] sure to use proper technique.
Meaning [D] from the E onto the B7.
Hold your middle finger.
_ [A] On the B7 make sure the middle finger is muting the bottom string.
Otherwise it doesn't sound very well.
_ And once you got that and all the chords sound as perfect as they can be.
Then you add the strumming.
Which is_
_ _ _ [G] _ _ [D] _ _ _
_ And that's the entire verse.
How easy can it be?
Now there is however a variation that he's playing later on in later verses.
And that's where he steals or copies a lick from Scottie Moore.
_ _ _ [D] _ _
_ In fact the whole song is very much Elvis Presley song records influenced.
The lick that he's playing is this one. _ _ _ _ _
And the song that becomes_ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ So what on the surface looks like a very simple song.
In actual fact is a little bit more sophisticated.
On to the chorus.
[G] Don't go around tonight.
We just wanna take your life.
[A] Yeah, [G] I'm glad, move [D] on right. _
_ [G] Don't go around tonight.
We'll [D] just wanna take your life.
[A] There's a [G] bad move on [D] the rise.
Who needs fancy chords when you can do that?
That there is enough, right?
And this song when it comes to the strumming.
Is also very much influenced again by Elvis Presley.
Especially his early song records period.
There we have Elvis Presley [G] playing. _
Well that's alright mama.
And that strumming pattern is _ [D] _ _ the same that [A] John is using.
_ [G] _
_ [D] And that might look very easy to do.
But actually it's quite difficult for many people.
So the basic pattern is this. _ _ _ _
If you're just gonna play all the strings like that.
It's gonna sound a bit boring and plain.
_ _ _ _ That doesn't really work.
So what you need to do is make a distinction.
Between the bottom strings and the top strings.
On the first and the third strum.
It's bottom strings.
And the other strums are for the top strings.
Then it's gonna sound like this. _ _ _ _ _ _
[G] Up tempo.
_ _ _ [D] _ _ _
_ [A] _ _ [G] _ _ [D] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [G] _ [D] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [G] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [A] _ _ [G] _ _ [D] _ _
Solo he starts off by playing the same thing as the intro. _ _
[A] _ _ [D] _ _ _ _ With the second time a slight variation.
_ _ [A] _ _ [D] It's a little bit different.
_ _ And then he just loves to play that sixth chord [G] on the A.
_ [Em] _ _ [D] Which is the same as the intro but on the fifth fret back.
_ _ _ _ Even on the [A] seventh.
_ [G] _ Keeps adding that pinky [D] finger. _
_ _ _ [C#] Simple and effective guitar solo.
And heavily influenced by Scotty Moore.
Let's play the guitar solo in a slow tempo.
[D] _ _ _ [G] _ _ [D] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [A] _ _ [D] _ _
_ _ _ [G] _ _ [Em] _ _ [D] _
_ _ _ _ [A] _ _ [G] _ _
[D] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _