Chords for Mike Campbell | Desert Island Guitars & The Dirty Knobs

[A] _ _ _ [D] I'm really fascinated [A] with the mystery of songwriting.
_ I am a writer and I write all the time.
A lot of times [E] I pick up a different guitar from day to day [D] just to see where that takes me.
A guitar [A] will sometimes direct which way the [D] song might go.
_ You know there's the [E] joke about how many guitars does a guitar player [N] really need?
You know, only one.
More.
You know, you've probably heard that one.
Well that's me.
Almost every time I've gotten a new guitar and I get it home and I'm so excited to play
it, it inspires a song.
Because they do speak.
You know, in certain guitars, [E] songs just come out of [G] them.
It sounds kind of mysterious, but songwriting is [Bm] mysterious.
[Em] _ _
[A] This is a Fender Broadcaster.
[D] [A] It's from the early [E] 50s. _
_ _ This [Em] guitar is irreplaceable [Am] to me.
_ It's the Heartbreakers original sound.
It's my first really nice electric guitar.
It's priceless.
I mean, I will [E] never sell it.
_ [D] I got it [C] for $600 at Nadine's [D] Music Store in Hollywood, California [E] when we were doing
our first [D] record because I only had a [C] Stratocaster at the time and Tom was using that.
[G] So I needed something [D] good.
_ _ _ _ [E] _
And I found this on the wall and it's [A] natural wood [E] and it's just beautiful.
It plays wonderful.
_ And we use it all through the Heartbreakers records.
In fact, on Mary Jane's Last Dance, Tom played this.
It kind of helped establish what the Heartbreakers sound like, [G] the overtones of this guitar.
[E] _
_ Telecasters [E] are very popular [E] with a lot of players.
[A#] They tend to be [Em] bright.
This guitar, for some reason, is bright, but it's not brittle.
It's got a nice brightness, an even [E] kind of high end to it.
It cuts through, but it's also kind of mellow at the same time.
This is number one to me.
This is the first one I got that I connected with.
I mean, I'm lucky to have it here.
I don't even take it out of the house anymore because I'm afraid something might happen to it.
This is it.
You know, Desert Island, this is the one I want.
_ [G] It's part [A] of me [E] and I know how to make it work.
_ [D] _ _ [G] _ _
[A] This is a 1959 Les [G] Paul.
It's considered [D] the holy [G] grail [A] of many guitar [G] players and [D] guitar collectors.
_ [A]
This is a particularly [C] good one.
[D] It's [Em] in great condition.
[A] _ _
And I don't take it out of [D] the house and it's a totally different sound than the [A] broadcaster.
[Em] _ _ _ [D] [A] It's a piece of [Em] art.
It's thicker and has some really [C] darker tones.
[D] And [A] this guitar [G] [A] represents a lot of records I grew up on, [Dm] like Jimmy Page, [Am] Led Zeppelin,
Eric Clapton, Jeff [C] Beck.
A lot of those [E] great players from the 60s [G#] that inspired me used [Am] this same model guitar.
_ [Em] _ I got this and [A] we were starting an album called Mojo with the Heartbreakers.
And I brought it into the rehearsal, started playing it, and Tom [D] lost his mind.
[A] He said, that's a great sounding guitar.
[G] I want you to [E] play it on every song on this album.
We're going to make this album around the sound [D] of that guitar.
[A] And [D] we did.
The whole Mojo [A] album is mostly [C] me playing this.
[G] And the new Dirty [D] Knobs record called Reckless [E] Abandon, 90% of it is this guitar too.
It's big and it fills out the sound for a four [C#m]-piece band.
But it [E] has inspired a lot of songs.
[N] And so I figure a guitar inspires one great song, it's paid itself off, you know.
It's ironic that all those guys back in the 60s that I mentioned,
all gravitated to this guitar individually.
They just instinctively knew that was their heart and their sound.
This would probably be my second choice if I was on a desert island.
I would have the Broadcaster in this one.
It's kind of irreplaceable really.
And there were only, I think, what, 600 of these made in 1959?
So there's not that many in the [G] world.
_ [D] This is a Firebird, [E] which has quite a little story behind [C] it.
Supposedly this is Johnny Winter's [E] signature.
I can't verify [Em] that, but I've seen his signature [F#] and it does look [E] like this.
This guitar I bought in Philadelphia.
I was on tour with Fleetwood Mac.
And on a day off, my wife and I went walking and we passed a pawn shop.
But up on the wall was hanging this thing.
And I have Firebirds, [Dm] but I don't have a [G] white one. _ _
[C] I _ [G] put it in the show [D] that night at the Fleetwood Mac concert.
[A] And it was my main guitar the rest of the [E] tour.
It just sounded perfect.
And it's [A] also [Em] become my [E] main guitar in my Dirty Knobs live stuff
because I just fell [Em] in love with it.
_ [N] My first guitar back in Florida with Mudcrutch and Tom was a Firebird.
But it was red.
Of course, one day I was in the studio, I put it on a chair and went to the bathroom.
I came back and Tom had sat on it and broke the neck off of it.
So in a way, this is replacing that one.
_ Well, this is a testament to all you players out there.
If you love playing, you don't have to spend all that money to have a good instrument
[A] and to express yourself. _ _ _
The Dirty Knobs is a band of mine that started out as a side project
between Heartbreakers tours for me [E] to just keep my chops up and have fun.
[D] And it grew into a little band of its own.
We started playing [A] around LA in little places
and playing concerts that did not have hits [E] in the set.
It's the songs [D] we're playing you've never heard before,
but we're going to make this happen, make it work [A] and pull you in.
And I love that challenge.
This is our new record.
It's something [D] I'm really, really proud of.
I'm really proud of this [E] cover.
And this cover was [A] done by a fellow named Klaus Vorman,
who had a connection with the Beatles back in the day.
He did the [D] Revolver album for them.
So we sent him the record [E] and he loved it.
I'm really proud of [A] what he did.
And I hope everybody gets to hear it.
It's called Reckless Abandon.
[Dm] _ [A] _ And we made a conscious effort to play live in the studio
[E] without overdubbing hardly at all.
All the [D] guitar solos are live during the song.
Most of the vocals are [A] live.
And it's all just four guys playing together,
not four guys cutting a track and then adding a bunch of stuff on top of it.
Keep it a little bit [E] raw, but still make it sound good.
_ [D] _
Most of the Reckless Abandon album is [A] loud rocking.
There's a couple of songs that are a little quieter and tender.
The song [E] Irish Girl is one of those.
How far a [D] young girl will go
For the [A] love of a London man
I was driving home one day and I had the radio on.
And there was a [E] song by Van Morrison and them.
[D] And I thought, that has got a great groove.
When I got home, I [A] took the guitar out and I tried to find that feel on the guitar.
And just real simple chords, just [E] three chords.
And I [D] was thinking, probably because of Van Morrison,
there's this [A] girl and she's following this guy who went to London.
She's from Ireland.
She's an [D] Irish girl.
Hey, _ [E] little Irish girl, nothing can [A] stop you now. _
I like the lyrics on this song.
They're more [E] poetic than most of the records.
Can you feel the [D] night _ blowing through [A] your bones? _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
The Heartbreakers, and I mean, most of the music I've done,
the [B] songs that we write,
even though they may have dark, [A] mysterious, shadowy themes here and there,
there's [B] always redemption and hope that life can be [A] better.
_ I can't imagine a world [F#] without music.
I mean, [E] music makes people [D] happy, makes people mentally [E] healthy.
[F#] Yeah, you, [Em] [E] make it through [Em]
[D] somehow.
It helps you [F#] feel love.
It [D] makes life [E] brighter.
And it [D] also, music also has this magical, timeless [E] thing
where something can happen when you're 20.
You're in a situation where you meet somebody,
or something magical happens, there's a song played in the background when that happens.
Forty years later, you're somewhere.
If that song comes on, [A] your mind will go right back to that feeling [D] you had.
Hey, _ _ [E] little Irish girl, nothing can stop [A] you now.
I make music because it [D] makes me happy.
Hey, _ [E] little Irish girl, _ _