Chords for Johnny Marr plays tribute to guitar hero Bert Jansch - 2015

I'll give that to you, but_
Bert Jansch is considered to be one of the great pioneers of British folk [D] music.
And yet he [C] remains little known outside the world [N] of serious musos.
But his eccentric guitar sound has influenced some of our most popular [B] bands,
including one [G] group who [Bb] defined the 1980s.
[Fm] _ _ [B] And I should know, I introduced them once on the Old Grey Whistle Test.
The Smiths.
[Db] _
_ _ [B] _ [E] _ [Db] Johnny Marr created the dynamic [E] sound of the Smiths.
_ [B] I've come to Manchester [E] to find out why he thinks Bert Jansch
is one of [Abm] our greatest ever [Dbm]
guitarists.
_ [E] Johnny, when and how [Eb] did you first come to hear Bert Jansch?
_ The when was _ about 1976.
All the guys I used to hang out with in the housing estates in South Manchester
were all guitar freaks.
A friend of mine played me this train song by Pen Sangal,
and it wasn't what I was expecting.
_ Cos it was _ jazzy and it was kind of [E] bluesy,
and it was really coming from a different [Db] place,
and I just sought him out there and tried to find [Eb] all his [A] records.
Bert's distinctive finger-picking style was a world away from the plectrums drumming
that was the staple of most guitarists at the time.
And yet it was all done [Eb] on a simple and [E] somewhat beaten-up acoustic guitar. _
Johnny.
[A] Oh, dear, wow.
That is one of Bert's own Yamaha _ guitars.
Oh, thank you, yeah.
It's a [Fm] really great-sounding guitar.
_ [Bb] Very bright, isn't it?
Yeah.
_ [F] _ _ _ _
_ [Bb] _ _ [Fm] _ You [Eb] know, it's got Bert's sound in it, really.
[G] _ [F] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [E] Yeah, I could play it all day.
I might play it all day.
Give us an example of something very Bert Jansch,
which is [Eb] atypical of how other people played.
[Em] OK. _
_ [A] _ [E] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [A] _ So what's going on there is a very [Em] banging kind of big sound.
[E] _ [A] _ _ _ [Em] _ [E] _
_ [G] _ [A] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [C] I put [F] a Bert chord in [E] it, which is very Bert.
_ _ He broke the rules musically, really, didn't he?
People think of _ when you've got technique,
particularly on an acoustic, as being quite pretty.
But he would just [Bm] _ be [E] quite maverick and [D] loose.
[F] _ _ _ [Bm] _ [Eb] _ _
[Bm] _ _ _ [Cm] _ And [Gm] Bert's maverick style [Gb] influenced everyone,
from John Lennon and Paul [Dbm] Simon to [Gb] Neil Young and [Db] Led Zeppelin's Jimmy [Gb] Page. _
Not to [Bbm] mention Johnny's own [B] band, The Smiths.
[Ebm] So what's the [B] most Bert-like song Johnny's ever [C] written?
[Db] On the last Smiths album, we had the song Unhappy Birthday.
I thought we needed something to get us into it,
and Bert had a song off the first album I got of his,
a song [Gb] called Lady_
Nothing.
[D] _ _ _
[C] _ _ _ _ [D] _ _ _ _
_ _ [G] _ _ _ _ _ [D] _
_ _ [N] It was that.
So how did you apply that to Unhappy Birthday?
Well, the start of Unhappy [D] Birthday just _ _ [B] [C] goes_ _
_ _ [D] I've come to wish [F] you an unhappy _ [Bb] _ birthday
_ [Cm] _
Johnny [Eb] [Ab] got to join [G] Bert on [Cm] stage before he died [Ab] in [G] 2011,
[C] and he's never tired [Cm] of playing his hero's [Fm] music.
_ [C] _ _ _ _
[Fm] _ _ [Cm] _ _ _ [Bb] _ _ _
[Ab] _ [Bb] _ _ [Cm] _ [Bb] [Ab] Apart from all the amazing [Gm] music he made,
and that he was so great on the guitar,
he _ was cool and he made being cool mean something. _
[Cm] _ _ _ [D] _ _ _ _ _
_ [Cm] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [N] _ Notice I can play Bert songs better than I can play my own.
_ _ I play them more often than I play my own.
The Smiths, they'll never catch on, John.
I've forgotten all I've said.